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NEWS 4/10/08 7:00pm

Sport Management students host charity bowling event

By Ben Jedlovec

The Rice Sport Management program teamed up with the Athletic Department to host the first Rice Owl Bowl fundraiser on March 31 at Dave and Buster's on Katy Freeway. Over $11,600 in event proceeds will benefit the new Rice Tickets-for-Kids charity and the Sport Management Program.The inaugural event was produced by Sport Management students in Kinesiology 366: Event and Facility Management. At the beginning of this semester, the students were prompted to organize an event to raise money for charity and the department. Kinesiology Professor Tom Stallings provided support, but the students were responsible for the planning and execution of the event.

NEWS 4/10/08 7:00pm

Women's tennis prepares for conference tournament

By Rhodes Coffey

When the regular season ends, all records and streaks can be put aside for the glory of the postseason. After picking up another easy victory in their first-ever 7-0 sweep of Southern Methodist University, the No. 63 women's tennis team instantly became the favorite to win the Conference USA title.The University of Houston will host the conference tournament at the Hoff Courts from April 17-20. Currently, there are two other C-USA teams in the national rankings: No. 50 University of Tulsa and No. 62 Marshall University. Three other teams, East Carolina University, University of Alabama at Birmingham and SMU, dropped out in the past month.

NEWS 4/10/08 7:00pm

Baseball takes season series from Texas

By Jessica Cannon

Although they have witnessed stretches of poor pitching and lethargic offense, fans seem to be only a little worried about the baseball team's ups and downs this year. True, in the last two weeks Rice (24-10, 7-2 Conference USA) has dropped two games against the University of Southern Mississippi and one to Dallas Baptist University (20-9). But the Owls also swept Memphis University, thumped Lamar University (20-11) and walked away with more wins in the season series than the 13th-ranked University of Texas for the first time since 2003. But through all the streakiness, the Owls have still landed on soft ground, with the most wins in Conference USA and a No. 6 national ranking to their name.The Owls continue their current homestand this weekend against the University of Alabama-Birmingham, which is currently dead last in C-USA. But records do not always tell the whole story - the underdog Blazers (13-17, 1-5 C-USA) have beaten Tulane University and the University of Alabama this season, and are led offensively by Ryan Keedy's .429 batting average and 29 RBIs. UAB will also be counting on pitchers Mitch Kloskowski, who has 35 strikeouts in 42.1 innings, and Kyle Roberson, who has 25 strikeouts in 26.1 innings, to silence the prominent Rice bats. The three-game series begins tonight at 6:30 p.m. at Reckling Park.

NEWS 4/10/08 7:00pm

Welcome, Ben Braun

 

Roughly three weeks after announcing the release of head men's basketball coach Willis Wilson (Will Rice '82), Athletics Director Chris Del Conte announced at a press conference Monday that Ben Braun would be his successor (see story, page 1). Braun is welcome here as a new spark who we hope can rekindle a slow-burning program. We hope he keeps in mind, however, that he can certainly find winning players who also have academic abilities to match their athletic talents. Basketball honors at Rice are attainable, despite our academic standards, and we wish Braun the best of luck in winning them.

NEWS 4/10/08 7:00pm

Rice's national surveys should be expanded

 

Rice's department of public affairs recently conducted a small survey of Rice's reputation both locally and nationally, focusing specifically on the east and west coasts (see story, page 6). Although the small sample size of 800 means the survey's results are extremely rough at best, we feel the study's implementation was time well spent for Rice. First of all, it was a good preliminary investigation into Rice's national presence. With the university looking to expand enrollment and gain national recognition for campus research, those in charge of marketing have to know where and how to target their efforts. This introductory indicator provided some general information that could help with that mission.

NEWS 4/10/08 7:00pm

Kings of the Diamond

By Casey Michel

At Rice, it is not difficult to see what reigns as king between the hedges: baseball. With just a glimpse of the Reckling Park scoreboard,piercing the night's humidity with its smoky blue "R's," anyone can see the varsity baseball team's ownership of the campus. Not many college teams can boast a slogan sans proper grammar - "Rice Baseball, 'Nuff Said" - and get away with it, nor can many hoist a National Championship banner to the same level as the Texas State Flag.It is kind of an exclusive club, to say the least.

NEWS 4/10/08 7:00pm

Demands strain on-campus housing

By Catherine Bratic

An increased demand for on-campus housing led to panic for many students at room draw this year. At some colleges, room draw coordinators were forced to change their plans to deal with the increased demand for an ever-smaller number of spaces.At Jones College, students are normally bumped off-campus according to their seniority, with juniors and seniors at the highest risk of being bumped. Students get an exemption if they move off campus early.

NEWS 4/10/08 7:00pm

Grits and gesundheit: Government partly at fault for tuition hikes

By Caroline May

Americans tend to link a college education to financial success. Sometimes I wonder whether a college education is worth the price we pay, or, to put it in the language of economics majors, if what we pay in time and money is an economically efficient use of resources. While politicians, interest groups and certain segments of society accuse and condemn oil companies and pharmaceutical enterprises of price gouging, it always strikes me as odd that colleges and universities are able to escape such criticism.The net price of college tuition in the United States has consistently been rising at a rate far faster than inflation. In the last five years, the cost of four-year colleges rose 31 percent above the general inflation rate. A press release published by the House Democrats in 2006 pointed out that since the year 2001, tuition at public universities has increased by $2,000 (or 57 percent) and at private universities by $5,000 (32 percent).

NEWS 4/10/08 7:00pm

Two comedians spotlight interfaith differences

By Jane Lee

"Comedy's Odd Couple," a show featuring nationally known comedians Rabbi Bob Alper and Muslim Azhar Usman, came to the Baker Commons Tuesday as part of an interfaith event to promote tolerance on campus. The comedians' routines covered their family backgrounds, current lives, religious experiences and the elephant in the room, as Alper referred to it: Their separate faiths.Usman, a Chicago-born Indian Muslim has served as a lecturer and lawyer, community activist and co-founder of the Allah Made Me Funny Comedy Tour. He told the audience of his experiences with religious and racial intolerance.

NEWS 4/10/08 7:00pm

Offense edges defense 44-43 to round out spring season

By Nathan Bledsoe

Whether it is new positions or innovative techniques, spring football is a time for learning.Because of its didactic nature, it was no surprise that the offense's 44-43 win over the defense in the spring game was sloppy. The contest was the capstone to an entire semester of practice, which saw much improvement and change for many of Rice's players.

NEWS 4/10/08 7:00pm

Literary sex magazine debuts

By Sarah Rutledge

Harvard may have the H Bomb and Cornell may boast the SMUT, but next Friday, Rice will join their ranks with Open, its first sex magazine. Editor in chief Rachel Solnick plans to distribute the 68-page black-and-white magazine's 1,500 copies to Rice and the surrounding Houston community.The magazine is composed of seven sections: Perspectives, which features individuals speaking as part of a group; editorials; articles, which cover news and historical events; short stories; poetry; the post-secret section, from campus-distributed postcards which garnered student input; and the results of an online sex survey from earlier this semester, which received over 800 responses.

NEWS 4/10/08 7:00pm

The buzz with BotB winners the Social Insects

By Julie Armstrong

At KTRU's 17th Annual Outdoor Show on Sunday, Rice's population of music fans and lawn loungers might find themselves distracted from the buzz of mosquitoes by the sounds of some much larger insects. As the winners of this year's Battle of the Bands, also sponsored by KTRU, the eclectic trio of Will Rice College students known as the Social Insects ---- made up of senior Mary Jane "MJ" Kwan, senior Kellie Simon and junior Josh Levin - has embraced their newfound campus fame like a child dropped in a swimming pool: With surprise, flailing limbs and a grasp at what had seemed impossible. The Thresher invaded their practice session in Will Rice Room 204 to preview the Insects firsthand and is still scratching the itch.Thresher: How did you get together? Have you played together in the past?

NEWS 4/10/08 7:00pm

Men's tennis regroups, trashes Aggies

By Casey Michel

Just when it seemed that the wheels had fallen off of the men's tennis team's season, the repairman showed up in the guise of Texas A&M University. On a tense senior night at Jake Hess Tennis Stadium last Wednesday, No. 24 Rice defeated the 21st-ranked Aggies 4-3 to patch their wounds from back-to-back losses against Conference USA foes.While the losses to No. 9 University of Tulsa and No. 60 Southern Methodist University may have squashed Rice's hopes at hosting an NCAA Regional, the Owls, currently 13-7 on the year, will get a chance to redeem themselves in the upcoming C-USA Tournament. Rice will enter the tournament, scheduled for April 18-20 in Dallas, as the No. 2 seed for the second consecutive year.

NEWS 4/10/08 7:00pm

Walking with dinosaurs spares much expense

By Alfonso Zapata

Walking With Dinosaurs? More like Walking With Dino-SNORES! Walking With Dinosaurs: The Live Experience should have been amazing. With a $92.5 million budget, it should have been balls-to-the-wall dinosaur action. It should have provided lots of dinosaur carnage for the bloodthirsty first-grader inside of me. It should have shown dinosaurs that caused the Toyota Center to tremble with each step. It should have boggled the minds of young children everywhere and then blown them away with a mighty roar. But it didn't. What it did have was a couple of incredibly lifelike robot dinosaurs that didn't really do anything.The dinosaurs are very detailed. Their skin hangs off of them like a fat lady's cellulite, their tails sway back and forth with every step they take and one can even count the number of teeth inside their giant dinosaur mouths. Much time and effort has obviously been spent on making them look as realistic as possible, or like what one might imagine dinosaurs looked like back then.

NEWS 4/10/08 7:00pm

Construction projects updated

By Dale Swartz

As the academic year draws to a close, some familiar construction fences are coming down, with new ones soon to appear in other parts of campus. The Brochstein Pavilion will be completed on Thursday, April 24, south plant construction will end July 31 and construction on a new Recreation Center will begin in earnest next week. Meanwhile, the Collaborative Research Center celebrated the completion of its tenth story last month.

NEWS 4/10/08 7:00pm

ESTHER changes to prevent overscheduling

By Rachel Carlson

A series of registration changes began taking effect this week as ESTHER was modified to reduce schedule overlap. Alana Lemay-Gibson, associate registrar for technology, said when students add courses that are scheduled at the same time, ESTHER now notifies them of the conflict. Next fall, ESTHER will be further modified so that it not only warns students, but bars them from enrolling in overlapping courses. The former version of ESTHER was not equipped with this feature, Gibson said.The aim of the new ESTHER feature is to reduce the incidence of accidental schedule conflict, she said.

NEWS 4/10/08 7:00pm

Guest column: Housing and Dining staff deserve respect

By Anna Roberts

Looking back at my freshman year, I have two regrets: Not being very involved in Rice University or my college and not getting to know the staff that I interacted with each day. Today, some of the most rewarding daily interactions I have are with the housing and servery staff of Sid Richardson College.When I had a horrible case of the flu, Custodian Julia Hernandez, who works on the fifth floor, came in to check on me. Food Production Associates Gabriel Aguilar, Mary Tibbs and everyone else at the Sid Rich servery always ask about my day at every lunch and dinner and worry about me when I am not there for meals. Chef Gabe will make me a grilled peanut butter and jelly sandwich whenever I crave it. When I got my first job and finished my first gigantic paper, Mary celebrated with me. And those specific examples are not exceptions to the rule: The staff members of Rice - from my college coordinator to the Community Involvement Center staff to Housing and Dining - enrich my life as much anyone else here.

NEWS 4/10/08 7:00pm

Sans serif soliloquies:Untapped power of college system: shenanigans

By Sean McBeath

In the rigmarole that is a Rice education, it's easy to lose focus. We spend so much time occupying the floors of Fondren Library and pounding cappuccino at Coffeehouse that schoolwork overshadows the rest of our lives. And, with what little remains, we fail to appreciate the one thing that should save us from the mundane routine into which each semester eventually falls: The college system.While many universities have their own local rivalries, Rice finds itself in a rather unique position. With our proclaimed academic rivals residing thousands of miles to the northeast and our academic equals spread across the south, we find ourselves without any unifying force to pull us together as a student body.

NEWS 4/10/08 7:00pm

Students should solve own schedule problems

 

As students register for classes in the fall, they may notice a change in ESTHER. Beginning next semester, ESTHER will block students from registering for two or more courses that are scheduled for the same time (see story, page 1).The primary reason for this change is to get professors to realize that they need to schedule courses so that they do not overlap. However, we feel that this change will punish students instead of the professors. If Rice wants to notify professors to stop scheduling overlapping classes, it should do so by simply telling them instead of inconveniencing students. Monthly Faculty Senate meetings would be the perfect venue for the administration to bring up this issue.

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