Special Projects

Freshmen invited to new colleges

If you have somehow missed the multiple invitations and guest passes but are still interested in transferring to Duncan College or McMurtry College, you are in luck: Applications to transfer to either of the new colleges are still being accepted, and invitations have been extended to the freshmen at Baker College, Brown College, Hanszen College and Wiess College. The Office of the Dean of the Undergraduates elected to extend applications to freshmen at these four colleges because they had the fewest number of transfers overall. Two rounds of invitations were sent out, one last week and one last Monday, inviting first-year students from those colleges to transfer, Associate Dean of Undergraduates Matthew Taylor said.

Across the conference

As long as the Owls have been members of Conference USA - since 2006, to be exact - the baseball title has belonged to Rice. Conference domination is nothing new to the baseball team, as the Owls won the title of whichever conference to which they have belonged since 1996. In 2010, eight teams aim to change that. Two other C-USA teams earned a top-25 ranking from Baseball America: No. 18 East Carolina University and No. 21 University of Southern Mississippi. Those two squads are the most likely to give Rice trouble in '10.

Hard times continue for men's basketball

Times continue to be tough for the men's basketball team, which suffered through a loss to the University of Southern Mississippi last Saturday. The middle of the season has been a surprising disappointment and the team has woefully sunk to repeating the same mistakes week after week."It was a familiar theme," Head Coach Ben Braun said about the 66-50 loss against Southern Miss (15-9, 5-5 Conference USA). "I was disappointed again that we had some opportunities to score on the inside, and we didn't score.

Video: Sheikh, Wu face off in SA presidential debates

Student Association presidential candidates Selim Sheikh and Tiffany Wu debated Monday night after the SA senate convened. Thresher Design Director Eric Doctor moderated the debate, which included questions from himself and the audience. Sheikh, currently the SA internal vice president, and Wu, the SA treasurer, were allowed one minute each for opening statements and question responses, two minutes each for closing statements and 30 seconds each for rebuttals. Certain answers are paraphrased for conciseness, and quotation marks signify direct quotes.

Eater's Digest: The American Food Fight

Why has food become such a concern for the modern American? How did this basic human requirement transform into something so much greater? Today, the question of what to eat fails to suggest a simple solution, and purported experts in the subject provide no reassurance. Dietitians, nutritionists, food salesmen, those in agribusiness, the government and the media offer us different, often contradictory advice about what we should and should not eat.

RESET ignores student awareness

Over the past few years, Rice appears to have made a serious attempt to clean up its environmental impact. Mindful of its sustainability grade on the Green Report Card, which, according to the Sustainable Endowments Institute, tanked at a C- back in 2007, the university has seen its performance rise steadily above average to a B in 2010. Since Rice has come such a long way in such a short period of time, one may be tempted to assume the university is excelling in its environmental endeavors. The new college buildings, designed and constructed to meet higher standards of sustainability and environmental friendliness, embody these "green" ambitions. However, Rice's total energy costs continue to rise, with no apparent end in sight.

Envision Grants foster cultures of creativity

Drawn together by Dr. Seuss, color consciousness, water purification and music, six students were awarded the Leadership Rice Envision Grant last fall. Leadership Rice awards Envision Grants of up to $2,500 to students who have an idea for a project that can help enrich a community in some way. Last semester 13 students applied, up from the usual four to six applicants, and only six were chosen.

Letters to the Editor

Online Comment of the Week

The Thresher's voting recommendations

After weeks of preparation by candidates and referendum representatives, Student Association General Elections began at 11:59 p.m. last night, and will be open until Wednesday, Feb. 24, at 2 p.m. Voting is open at sa.rice.edu and all candidates can be found in this year's Student Elections pull-out, beginning on page 11. For the three blanket tax proposals, the Thresher makes the following recommendations:-By-Law Amendment #2009.01 - KTRU Blanket Tax increase

New Beer Bike initiative announced

While Beer Bike is already a student-run initiative, the future of the event may include even more student voices. At a Student Association meeting Feb. 8, Baker College junior Diana Cahill presented a student initiative that would restrain the power of the campus-wide Beer Bike coordinators. The referendum stems from recent discussion about moving the parade - including the water balloon fight - to the football practice field. Cahill, a former Beer Bike college coordinator, said she was bothered by the absence of an established method for making changes to Beer Bike.

RESET to promote green initiatives

A few years ago, a group of fellow students and I learned about an exciting new initiative occurring on college campuses across the country. In an effort to combat rising energy costs and contribute to the fight against climate change, students at schools such as the University of North Carolina and the University of Illinois voted to establish sustainable energy funds to implement energy conservation and renewable energy projects on their campuses. The idea has since taken off, with more than 30 schools nationwide establishing similar programs amid high levels of student support.We were curious about this idea and set about conducting research to see if we could institute a similar program here at Rice. We discovered that over the last eight years, energy costs for Rice have quadrupled. Furthermore, over the last three years, on-campus housing fees have risen 20 percent, with a portion of these fees being those same energy costs passed on to students. We also learned about the efforts the university is taking to defray energy costs, such as Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design accreditation for new buildings, construction of the South power plant and installation of a new central energy dashboard system that monitors energy usage across campus.

Rice alumna found dead in Haiti

Diane (Berry) Caves (Baker '00), a Rice alumna who went missing shortly after the Jan. 12 earthquake in Haiti, was found dead earlier this month, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.The 31-year-old Caves, a program analyst for the CDC's Atlanta headquarters, arrived Jan. 6 at Port-au-Prince, Haiti, six days before the magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck the country.

Golf team graciously hosts, wins Rice Intercollegiate

After concluding the fall with a heartbreaking loss that saw it lose its lead after two rounds, the golf team was placed in a similar situation at the Rice Intercollegiate Monday. This time, though, the Owls refused to let history repeat itself. The Owls, led by senior Christopher Brown's final round 69 - a score that gave him the individual title - dominated Tuesday's final round to win their second tournament title of the 2009-'10 season. Windy, cold conditions controlled Monday's 36-hole day, and senior Christopher Brown jumped out to an eight-stroke lead over the 15-team, 81-golfer field at the Westwood Golf Club. Brown eventually won the individual title, helped largely by his final round 69. Back-to-back rounds of 297 (+9) were enough to put the Owls on top of the leaderboard, as the 14 visiting schools had difficulty navigating Westwood.

Online only: Pop culture too uptight, serious

A few weeks ago, I walked into a 1950s-style diner named Cheesy Jane's and ordered a burger, onion rings and chocolate shake. Above my table, a model train coasted along a track suspended from the ceiling. A different song began to play on the oldies radio station, and the singer asked a series of questions I hadn't heard in years: "Who put the bomp in the bomp ba bomp? Who put the ram in the rama lama ding dong? Who put the bop in the bop she bop? Who put the dip in the dip da dip da dip?"

Women prepare for conference

The indoor track season has a lot in common with its own fastest event, the 60-meter dash. Blink, and you'll miss it. The 2010 indoor track season spans just under two months, from the first meet to the end of the NCAA Championships. Last weekend marked the midpoint of the short season, as the team competed in the Texas A&M Challenge, its final meet before the postseason at the Conference USA Championship.

Slideshow: Welcome to the tunnels

Baker College President Kathy Kellert and Martel College President Sean McBeath lead the way through the steam tunnels last week. To learn about the history of the tunnels, check out the audio slideshow below.Tours of the university steam tunnel network are open to students, faculty and staff once a month in groups of 15. More information about the tours can be found at http://facilities.rice.edu/Department.aspx?id=1916.

Online only: Crowning Mr. Rice Asia

It might not warrant a television contract, and the winner might not receive nationwide recognition, but this weekend, a new Mr. Rice Asia will be crowned.Rice Microfinance, the Vietnamese Student Association and the South Asian Society are teaming up to host the Mr. Rice Asia pageant tomorrow night at 6 p.m. in the Brown College Commons. Admission to the show is $7 and comes with an Asian-themed dinner. The first 100 guests will receive free boba drinks. Proceeds from the dinner will benefit four microfinance institutions determined by RMF, SAS co-President and RMF Vice President Karthik Soora said.

News in brief: Rice musicians to set sail with song

Next year, a trio of Shepherd School faculty members will be hitting the high C's in more ways than one. Professor of Orchestral Conducting Larry Rachleff, Lecturer of Voice and soprano vocalist Susan Lorette Dunn and Professor of Violin Cho-Liang Lin will perform classical music on board the Celebrity Mercury, a luxury Caribbean cruise from Celebrity Cruise Lines, next January.The group will be featured as guest artists on the inaugural debut of the Symphonic Voyages, a Caribbean cruise designed with fans of classical music in mind. Rachleff will conduct the 60-piece Symphonic Voyages orchestra, whose members are professional musicians from the East Coast. Symphonic Voyages, which invited Lin, Rachleff and his wife Lorette Dunn to perform, will hold auditions to determine the members of the orchestra.

Valentine's Day delivers

Like the previews suggest, Valentine's Day aims to be the American version of 2003's Love Actually. And like the British romantic comedy, Valentine's Day focuses on multiple, if maudlin, storylines and amasses a sizable all-star cast. While its British counterpart used Christmas as a romantic backdrop, however, Valentine's Day focuses on the magic of Feb. 14, and the result is a wonderfully charming film.The movie centers around the chaos at a Los Angeles flower shop on Valentine's Day, its busiest day of the year. Assisted by his funny sidekick Alphonso (Beverly Hills Chihuahua's George Lopez), flower shop owner Reed Bennet (Personal Effects' Ashton Kutcher) is smitten with the holiday, having just asked his girlfriend Morley (The Love Guru's Jessica Alba) to marry him. While love-drunk Reed flits around the shop, basking in thoughts of wedding bells, he fills Valentine's Day flower orders for others attempting to capitalize on the holiday.

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