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NEWS 2/11/10 6:00pm

Despite economy, donations to Rice remain consistent

By Seth Brown

While the university may be following the nationwide pattern of fiscal restraint, Rice's funds have avoided the negative national trend in philanthropic giving. Vice President for Resource Development Darrow Zeidenstein said that participation in alumni giving at Rice has gone up 1 percent over the past year, reaching 35 percent and an all-time high in cash donations.

NEWS 2/11/10 6:00pm

Duncan begins search for RAs, HRF

By Diane Ramirez

After passing the milestone of choosing its first masters, Duncan College is now on the search for resident associates and a head resident fellow. Duncan's RA and HRF search committees are composed of both Duncan freshmen and transfers and are facilitated by Duncan's current HRFs and future masters, Luis Duno-Gottberg and Marnie Hylton. Students who were interested in being part of the search committee turned in applications, from which Duno-Gottberg selected the final committee members. While there is one committee for both the RA and the HRF search, each part is headed by a different student.

NEWS 2/11/10 6:00pm

Photo: Taking it back

 

Lovett College senior Chelsea Smith listens as Baker College senior Julia Lukomnik performs "My Vag was my Village" from The Vagina Monologues during the Women's Resource Center's Take Back the Night candelight vigil last Thursday.

NEWS 2/11/10 6:00pm

Online only: Student Association minutes

 

The following were noted at the most recent meeting of the Student Association Feb. 8.SA President Patrick McAnaney reported that President David Leebron has formed a Committee on Investor Responsibility. This committee will advise the Rice Management Team to promote responsible and ethical actions.

NEWS 2/11/10 6:00pm

Saints' victory resurrects New Orleans

By Ryan Gupta

New Orleans is a special place. It's hard for a city to maintain a unique culture when technology makes it effortless for Americans across the country to conform to a single identity. But New Orleans always had its own spirit, and those of us who call it home have always had pride in this fact. As you may remember, a small storm by the name of Katrina threatened to wash all that away four years ago - and as you may know, we did not take kindly to it.

NEWS 2/11/10 6:00pm

Online only: ASB groups find fundraising surge

By Jennifer Livingstone

With spring break only two weeks away, students involved with the Alternative Spring Break program are pushing their last fundraising projects forward in a final effort to balance their budgets. This year, volunteers are spread out between 11 different trips that address issues such as education, healthcare and the environment. The Community Involvement Center assists in guiding and supporting the students, but the students themselves are primarily responsible for planning and fundraising.

NEWS 2/11/10 6:00pm

Consistency remains fickle for women

By Teddy Grodek

Consistency is one of the main goals of any athletic team. For the women's basketball team, it has been one of the toughest to reach. The Owls (11-11, 5-4 C-USA) have suffered humiliating losses against teams that should have been easy victories, but have simultaneously managed to rally to defeat some of the elite teams of Conference USA.

NEWS 2/11/10 6:00pm

Colwick soars to 10th-highest vault of 2010

By Jonathan Myers

After taking a week's hiatus from the annals of pole vault lore, senior Jason Colwick reminded everyone at last weekend's Frank Sevigne Husker Invitational just why he is considered one of the preeminent pole vaulters in the world. Colwick won the event with a mark of 5.67 meters (18' 7.25"), good enough to break his own Rice record. Colwick's vault is also the 10th-highest vault in the world this year.

NEWS 2/11/10 6:00pm

Taco Trek: Yan and Ben remember the Alamo

By Yan Digilov and Ben Lopez

This week's installment of Taco Trek, the last of our four-part series, is all about simplicity. So often, in the heat of competition, restaurants attempt to one-up each other, seeking any tool to gain an advantage. Whether it be in the form of a bigger dining area, fancier menus, a waitstaff dressed to the nines or HDTVs on the wall, numerous strategies are employed to bring back customers, often at the cost of quality.

NEWS 2/11/10 6:00pm

McMurtry College develops unique traditions

By Kevin Lin

The five-story 'Mongol college,' sitting near Duncan Hall and the Inner Loop, is the 10th residential college established as part of Rice's residential college system. After a few early growing pains, it is clear that the college, named after Rice alumni Burt ('56) and Deedee ('56) McMurtry, is on its way to developing its own identity.Currently comprised of 74 freshmen, McMurtry College represented Rice's first foray into the growth of the college system in nearly a decade. But instead of being forced to grow on its own, McMurtry has had the experience of sharing close quarters with Will Rice College. With such close presence between the two colleges, it was unavoidable that the older college would have a heady influence on the new college's formation.

NEWS 2/4/10 6:00pm

Rice set to refocus after merger falls through

By Josh Rutenberg

Reasons have begun to trickle out why Rice University and BCM failed to reach common ground under their Memorandum of Understanding last month.The two institutions ceased considerations of a merger Jan. 11, in advance of the Jan. 31 deadline set by the MOU. An e-mail notified the Rice community of the developments Jan. 12, while announcing the two schools would maintain a mutual commitment to collaborative efforts.

NEWS 2/4/10 6:00pm

Owls continue conference climb

By Teddy Grodek

Had you told women's basketball Head Coach Greg Williams in July that his team would get off to the worst start in the program's history, he probably would have been shocked. Had you told him that over the next 14 games, his team would find 10 wins to get back to the .500 mark, he might have called you a liar. Williams' disbelief may be hypothetical, but these situations are all too real for the team this season. The Owls (10-10, 4-3 Conference USA) captured two key C-USA games this weekend - one against Southern Methodist University, the other against the University of Tulsa - to earn not just a .500 record but, for the first time this season, more conference wins than conference defeats.

NEWS 2/4/10 6:00pm

Online only: Student Association minutes

 

The following were noted at the most recent meeting of the Student Association Monday.Campus-wide Beer Bike Coordinator Brian Henderson reviewed the Beer Bike poll results and announced that this year's Beer Bike will retain the same format as last year's event.

NEWS 2/4/10 6:00pm

RecycleMania energizes students

By Scott Norgaard

Prepare your plastic bottles and last semester's notes, because Rice is participating in the national contest of RecycleMania. This competition, which started Jan. 17 and runs until March 27, is intended to familiarize students with their campus environmental programs and instill in them a lifelong habit, according to the Recyclemania Web site, recyclemania.org. At Rice, the EcoReps at each residential college are responsible for publicizing the event, which is sponsored by Sustainability at Rice.

NEWS 2/4/10 6:00pm

Women whip weak Texas State, wounded Sam Houston

By Christopher Pettijohn

After a sound defeat at the hands of the University of Texas Jan. 23, a week's worth of practice and reflection was apparently just what the women's tennis team needed to resume its winning ways. Rice (3-1) began the road back to victory Saturday against Texas State University at the Galleria Tennis & Athletic Club, emerging with a 7-0 victory. Five of the six singles players defeated their opponents in straight sets, and every singles entry took their match.

NEWS 2/4/10 6:00pm

Proposed Beer Bike parade changes fail

By Seth Brown

Come March 20, students sober and inebriated alike will accompany a caravan of trucks around the Inner Loop toward the Beer Bike track, water balloons at the ready. Because recent changes proposed to the parade route were voted down, most of the participants will be familiar with the route, as this year's Beer Bike parade will hold the same format as last year's.The college Beer Bike coordinators voted Monday against the proposed changes, the majority electing to maintain the current parade format. The result of the vote matched the results from a recent poll conducted by the Student Association, which showed student support for maintaining the parade's current format.

NEWS 2/4/10 6:00pm

Swimming nabs two out of three

By Floyd Ray

Still looking for their first win of the year, the swim team went to the University of Houston last weekend to face conference rival Tulane University, No. 24 Louisiana State University and Houston in a two-day meet. Rice (3-4), which had lost to Houston in October, prevailed under pressure to pull off two victories against Tulane (236.5-96.5) and the Cougars (197-144).Though the wins were tempered by a loss to LSU (119-236), the two victories came at the right time for the team to carry over momentum into the conference championship later this month.

NEWS 2/4/10 6:00pm

Taco Trek: Doña Maria's strikes back

By Yan Digilov and Ben Lopez

Some weeks are for burritos, and some weeks are for fajitas. But last week, fellow taco enthusiasts, was a week for tacos. Which is why, along with unusually cold weather and the terrifying prospect of imminent exams, this week brings us another installment of Taco Trek.Last week, our taco trailblazers traveled to The Original Ninfa's, where they encountered a meal so far off the mark that it threatened their will to ever return to the famed Taco District.

NEWS 2/4/10 6:00pm

Men's tennis escapes near-freeze with weekend split

By Casey Michel

The Intercollegiate Tennis Association suggests that, should temperatures fall below 50 degrees during a match, play be moved indoors. Last Saturday, Rice met Oklahoma State University in College Station, Texas, while the temperatures dipped into the mid-30s. But moving indoors required bagging up all the gear, restarting the bus and beginning the warm-up routine all over again. So coaches from Rice and Oklahoma State huddled, conferred and decided that they would gut out the cold snap.

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