Republican Representative for Texas Ron Paul spoke to Rice students last week to share his personal opinion on the state of the economy and discuss how to restore the United States back to a responsible fiscal system. "The system we have today has failed," he said.
After seven lead changes and eight ties, the University of Texas-El Paso's basketball team pulled away in the final minutes for the 67-58 victory over Riceª at Tudor Fieldhouse. The Miners used a stifling full-court press to slow down the improving Owls offense, which came into Wednesday night's game averaging over 75 points in their last four contests.
Peppered among the names of student-government hopefuls on the 2009 Student Association spring election ballot will be a number of blanket tax proposals. Rice Program Council is requesting to increase its per-student blanket tax by $23 in two separate measures, adding $8 to its general fund and adding a new concerts fund tax of $15. Additionally, KTRU is requesting a $3 increase in its blanket tax, Open magazine and The Rice Review are asking to add a $1 blanket tax each and SA Internal Vice President Akshay Dayal proposed to eliminate The University Blue's $1 blanket tax. In order to pass, the proposals - all of which have already been approved by the SA senate except Open's request, which will be proposed at the next SA meeting Monday - must be separately approved by two-thirds of the students voting in the general election Feb. 20-25, with at least 20 percent of the student body voting.
The women's basketball team came home for the first of a four-game home stretch tonight against the University of Texas-El Paso. The game turned out to be a near repeat of their last match-up. Both teams stuck close to one another for most of the game, but a late game collapse by the Owls gave the visiting team a sizable final margin of victory, 69-57.From the start of the game, though, Rice showed their determination to bring their 11-game losing streak to an end, pulling out to an early 9-4 lead seven minutes into the game. The Miners were struggling with a scoring slump, shooting only 23 percent from the field after the first ten minutes.
I was driving with some friends recently when we suddenly heard a high-pitched screech punctuated by harsh thuds. "Do you hear that?" someone asked. "I think there might be a problem with the car." My friend laughed and pointed to the stereo, dialed to 91.7. "No, it's just KTRU."We were listening to a track from Matt Weston's album Not To Be Taken Away, released this past July on his label 7272music and currently in rotation on KTRU's playlist. Weston is a percussionist and electronic musician who is also a member of the experimental bands Barn Owl and Thrillpillow. This is his second full-length solo release after 2000's Vacuums.
Someone should really consider following Alexander Zinchenko to men's track meets with a boom box. That way they could blare the spooky electronic music that announced Ivan Drago's triumphant entrance into the arena before his bout with Rocky Balboa in Rocky IV. A fog machine wouldn't hurt either. The Brown College freshman, who matriculated at the beginning of the spring semester and had spent all of four weeks in the United States, is quickly establishing himself as a member of the Fantastic Four who comprise Rice men's shot corps. Rounding out the Four are freshman Will Meyers, junior Philip Adam and sophomore Clay Baker, who took first place at the Feb. 16 Leonard Hilton Invitational. However, Zinchenko, a 6-5, 250-lb. behemoth, is the only one who originated from across the pond.
The women's tennis team continued their fantastic play by managing to win every single point in their last two matches against Louisiana-Lafayette and Prairie View. Because of rare showers in California this past weekend, the team postponed their trip to 60th ranked St. Mary's and 15th ranked Fresno State. Fortunately, first year head coach Elizabeth Schmidt was able to quickly schedule a match against Louisiana-Lafayette last Saturday.
Last year, nine Rice students got away with sidestepping the Honor Code. Even after being officially confronted with the accusation against them, these students faced no formal hearing and had no mention on their records, due to the allowances of the Honor Code's Article XII - known to many as the "loophole" clause. On the Spring Election ballot next week, Rice students will have the chance to make our Honor System significantly more fair: The amendment to Article XII must pass! What is Article XII? In a nutshell, it allows a student faced with an Honor Code accusation to voluntarily withdraw from Rice for two semesters and, by doing so, to bypass the Honor Council process and have all charges against them dropped when they return. The plain truth is that Article XII harms more Rice students than it helps and undermines the fairness of the Honor System we have all agreed to abide by.
I just about died last year when my boyfriend picked out Monty Python and the Holy Grail for our movie date on Valentine's Day. While Monty Python has its strangely funny moments, it is strangely disturbing on some levels, and I don't quite find it to be an appropriate viewing experience for couples hoping to share some quality, romantic alone time.Even for Valentine's Day, some guys of the shoot-'em-up persuasion may find a true chick flick a little bit hard to swallow. They shouldn't have to spend their lives in fear of February 14, however, since there are quite a few movies besides über-girly ones, including The Notebook or The Wedding Planner, that more action-adventure guys might be able to handle . or even enjoy.
Corinne Cammarata, who previously worked as a grant writer for the Houston Area Women's Center, has filled the vacancy for Sid Richardson College's college coordinator. She began work on Tuesday and will continue through the rest of the academic semester. The Sid College Coordinator Search Committee began fielding applications after the previous office coordinator, Kelly Penrod, announced her resignation in early December last year. She worked until the end of the fall semester before leaving for a position with a counseling center.
Director of Sponsored Research Nancy Nisbett said farewell to Rice Wednesday after nearly five years as a staff member. The Office of Sponsored Research is directly responsible for aiding faculty and researchers in submitting grant proposals to both federal agencies and corporate industries. All research projects must be submitted through the office, she said.
After completing half of the season's conference games, the women's basketball team has yet to register a win against a Conference USA opponent. Now, the team will be forced to put the past behind them and acquire a new attitude while playing against some familiar faces. The first of those attempts turned out to be a failure last week when the Owls (5-18, 0-10 C-USA) had consecutive games against cross town rival University of Houston. After losing a close game at Tudor Fieldhouse on Jan. 28, Rice delivered an unimpressive performance at Hofheinz Pavilion on Saturday.
To take a line from Aerosmith, the men's track and field team's performance this week was the same old song and dance. Although the team split up for two separate meets, the clear headliner was once again junior pole vaulter Jason Colwick, who vaulted an incredible 5.60 meters at the Frank Sevigne Husker Invitational in Lincoln, Neb. on Saturday to break not only the indoor record he set just last week, but also the outdoor record of 5.55 meters he set last spring at the Texas Relays.
Break out your can-can outfits; Rice University's spring formal, Rondelet, will be Moulin Rouge-themed and will take place in the Rice Memorial Center's Grand Hall on Feb. 21, marking the second semester in a row that the Rice Program Council has opted for an on-campus formal event. The decision to keep the dance nearby was a direct response to student input about last semester's formal, Esperanza, which took place in a large tent rented for Rice Annual Fund events during Homecoming, RPC Formals Committee Co-Chair Esra Gumuser said.
Junior Tara Watts led the Owls with 15 points this afternoon as the women's basketball team snagged its first victory in 11 games, gaining their first conference win and improving to 6-19 overall. Rice dominated the University of Tulane (14-12, 6-6 C-USA) in a complete role-reversal from the last time the two squads met. The Green Wave won that match up by 28 points on Jan. 11, whereas today the Owls led by as many as 18 points and finished the game with a 62-54 victory.
