Much like last summer, students returning this fall may be surprised to see new green fences on campus. Facilities, Engineering & Planning Communications Director Susann Glenn, however, hopes students will be more impressed by the progress FE&P has made with its construction projects.
The Princeton Review ranked Rice number two in the categories of best quality of life and best race/class interaction and number 15 in the category of happiest students out of 368 best U.S. colleges profiled. The results of the annual survey were compiled online from a mixture of freshmen, sophomores, juniors and seniors in the past three years from 2005 to 2007.In the past, Rice has typically ranked high - number 1 and number 6 - in the categories of best quality of life and best race/class interaction, President David Leebron said. He said he is pleased that Rice placed 15th on the list of happiest students since Rice has not placed in the category in the past.
While the Princeton Review recently ranked Rice number two in the best race/class interaction at a university (See story, page 1), the interaction amongst diverse groups does not always extend to athletes. Athletes have always been a somewhat isolated group from the rest of the student body. Because the practice times for many athletes, especially football players, typically coincides with many O-Week activities, there have been several O-Weeks in the past in which athletes were quarantined in gyms while their classmates were learning profane cheers or meeting people around campus. Perhaps as a result of this segregation during O-Week, some athletes never truly became integrated into the Rice culture. But Rice is taking a step forward with the appointment of Assistant Athletic Director for Student-Athlete Development Suzanne Boué (See story, page 8).According to Boué, the athletic department has always had people working to help athletes become integrated with the university. But it's the creation of Boué's position that really shows that the athletic department is making a focused effort to help athletes become more involved at the university.
Rice entered the 21st century this summer with security doors and locks boasting a new magnetic card swipe to gain entry into doorways. Though using a student identification card instead of a hard key to enter doors is not a new concept, Martel College is the first to test out a new system that allows Housing and Dining to activate and deactivate room access via a wireless network instead of manual configuration. "The Basis G system by Stanley Bess is a brand new system and allows us to wirelessly configure rooms from our office instead of sending someone out there every time a student loses his key," Housing Operations Manager Mark Chaszar said.
Statistics Professor David Scott received the American Statistical Association Founders Award Aug. 5. Scott is one of the founding members of the Rice statistics department and earned the award to honor his lifetime of service to the ASA. His service to the organization includes organizing meetings and editing statistical journals.Scott said he was pleased to receive such a rare honor.
The Virginia and L.E. Simmons Family Foundation donated $3 million in May to enable researchers from Rice, Texas Children's Hospital and Methodist Hospital to work together to conduct biomedical research.Simmons said there were two factors behind the birth of the grant: One has to do with cross-disciplinary research involving genetics, mental sciences, imaging, physics, biochemistry and mathematics; another has to do with the increasing difficulty of securing funding from the National Institute of Health, which he said is a key source of medical-oriented financing.
Audience reaction to the big screen is usually a good prediction of the success of a movie because the audience - not the critic - is the ultimate judge. If the audience screams with laughter, instead of fright, at a poorly choreographed war scene, the film is probably a flop. If the audience collectively laughs in the right places, sighs in understanding of a character's disappointment or cries at a touching scene, the movie is probably a winner that will rightfully hold its place in the box office and in the hearts of moviegoers.The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 is no exception to this rule. Its audience - consisting of an overwhelming majority of girls - did just that: They laughed, cried and sighed in all of the right places, awarding the film a thumbs-up as a touching, sentimental movie that is worth noting during this summer's film season.
Students looking to pay less for their daily commute to campus will have access to two alternatives this year: Zipcar and NuRide. Zipcar, which is targeted at students, is a car rental service. NuRide, intended primarily for faculty and staff, is a carpooling service. Both programs are available through the transportation office.Zipcar will allow students to rent a car at the rate of $7 per hour with an annual subscription fee of $35. The hourly rental fee includes insurance, gas and other expenses related to car maintenance such as car washes, Assistant Transportation Manager Elizabeth Gbordzoe said. Students can sign up for the Zipcar program at the launching event Aug. 26 in the Housing and Dining parking lot in front of Baker College. Students will also be able to see the two cars available for rental, a Toyota Prius and a Volvo S40, Director for Administrative Services Eugen Radulescu said.
Between hairy, shirtless men, glowstick raving in the Sallyport and the university president decked out in bling, this year's Orientation Week has been chock full of 'interesting' moments. O-Week is that special time of year when the campus can quench its creatiev thirst without worry of academia, all while showing our newly matriculated students the ropes and horrors of Rice life. Here are some of the highlights that our Thresher staff caught on film. //
How will this affect my grade point average? Will this help my application? Does it improve my chances of getting into medical school? These questions likely cross the mind of the Rice premedi-cal student in evaluating time us-age. The momentous enthusiasm, which often drives pre-meds to be-come doctors, combined with the inescapable fear that they might not achieve the dream of holding a prestigious medical position makes for a dire sense of anxiety. I know. I have been there. I spent four years as a Rice pre-med going through the whole gamut. Now, nearly four months after graduation and hav-ing experienced life free of pre-med responsibilities, the emotional toll of those four years has become much clearer. The struggle to grow both aca-demically and personally in the pre-med environment can be intense. True, this is not a unique conflict for Rice students, and it can affect any motivated student undertak-ing a heavy course load. But for the pre-med, the stress seems height-ened. First, there are prerequisites and the Medical College Admission Test, and if those are not enough, there are the upper-level science courses to prove competence, non-science courses to show depth and well-roundedness, volunteering in hospitals and clinics to show sin-cerity, building relationships with professors for good recommenda-tions and then the application pro-cess. All the while, pre-meds must grapple with the worry that they might not get into medical school and eventually don the white coat.
It's that time of year again - Orientation Week is upon us - and as more freshmen swim into Rice with the tides, I can't help but reflect on my own O-Week three years ago.Unlike most new students, I didn't enjoy it all that much. I hadn't heeded the "get sleep" warning and had trouble letting loose. O-Week improved substan-tially, though, when my group left the hedges and took a trip to The Chocolate Bar, where a bluegrass band known as the Medicine Show lit up my life and made me optimis-tic about Houston.
Not to be overshadowed by the well-established programs in other Rice departments, the social sciences department is increasing its visibility with a new Ph.D. program in sociology. A $6.4 million grant from the Houston Endowment will establish the first sociology Ph.D. program in Houston, which begins with the 2011 incoming class.The sociology department's Center on Race, Religion and Urban Life, as well as the work of sociology professor Stephen Klineberg and his annual Houston Area Survey caught the atten-tion of the Houston Endowment.
In an effort to make technological woes easier on the Rice community, a new Information Technology self-service Web site was created in June to address basic concerns for students and faculty.The Web site allows users to easily modify basic settings such as changing one's Net Identification and password, creating a vanity e-mail address apart from the standard NetID and full name addresses, viewing the amount of storage space left in the Rice e-mail account, increasing mailbox quota, viewing on-campus printing charges and adjusting spam filter settings.
Hoping to overcome a disappointing 3-9 season, the football team is committed to victory and unity in the 2008 campaign. This year marks the final campaign for a group of some of the most decorated Owl players in history and has potential to be a memorable one for numerous reasons.Some would argue that the most memorable part of the year has already begun. 2008 is the year of Mustache Madness. Per the request of senior quarterback Chase Clement, many of the Owls have grown mustaches with varying thicknesses and styles as a sign of team unity and to keep things light and humorous.
Tani Barlow, a professor of history and women's studies from the University of Washington, was appointed in May to be the director of the Chao Center for Asian Studies and the Ting Tsung and Wei Fong Chao Professor of Asian Studies. Due to a previous commitment, Barlow will spend the fall semester at the National University of Singapore and begin her official duties as director Jan. 1. Barlow's scholarly journal, Positions, which addresses East Asian culture, was transferred to Rice in early June.In addition to providing intellectual leadership, Barlow will report directly to the office of Provost Eugene Levy and oversee 26 full-time faculty members and the department's administrative structure. Richard Smith, the interim director of the Chao Center, said Barlow was chosen for her interest and background in transnational circulations and cross-cultural comparative studies.
Students who sought a kinesiology major with an emphasis on sport management can officially change their majors to sport management beginning this fall.The change, which has been in the works for two years, was approved May 5 by the Faculty Senate. Clark Haptonstall, director of the sport management program, said this major will better reflect the work required of the students.
The American Society of Photobiology awarded Associate Bioengineering Professor Rebekah Drezek the New Investigator Award in March. Drezek, also an electrical engineering associate professor, was awarded $1,000 and will speak about her research in June at the society's annual meeting in San Francisco. Drezek is the first bioengineer to receive this award.According to its Web site, the American Society of Photobiology gives the New Investigator Award to a young researcher under the age of 36 who has conducted a notable amount of research in photobiology and photomedicine, a discipline of biology that studies applications of light and optics in biology and medicine. The award is also open to researchers who are new to the field. Honorees are nominated anonymously and selected by a committee.
The rising costs of fuel on the international market may seem more than a slight annoyance when shelling out $3.50 per gallon of gasoline, but a group of Rice students experienced the global effects firsthand when they had to cancel a trip to Central America. The team, comprised of seven students from Rice's chapter of Engineers Without Borders, had to cancel their Nicaragua trip which was scheduled to start last Monday, because of transportation strikes in the country that have recently escalated in violence.EWB Project Leaders Matt Wesley and Amy Liu directed the team, which had chosen Nicaragua for its service project last December. Wesley, a Baker College sophomore, said the team planned to construct a system to deliver fresh water to inhabitants of the area, which is two kilometers from the Costa Rican border. EWB projects involve several stages: Background research of the area; gathering data; implementation, when members construct and complete the project and a post assessment, when members will evaluate their project. Wesley said these projects take four different trips to the area to complete, and implementation alone often demands multiple trips.
Updated Monday, July 14 10:52 a.m. CT
When he left the game with two outs in the fifth inning, starting pitcher Chris Kelley took a sigh of relief. He had done his job, holding Louisiana State University scoreless through more than half of Tuesday's elimination game at the College World Series. It was one of the baseball team's best performances by a starter in the postseason, and as senior reliever Cole St.Clair recorded a convincing strikeout to end the inning, Rice fans were feeling comfortable with their team's 5-0 lead.Three innings later, however, after the Tigers marched off the field with an improbable 6-5 comeback victory, that feeling of comfort had turned into disbelief.
