Special Projects

Are you experienced An interview with the makers of The Connor O'Hoolihan Experience

The Rice Thresher spent a few quality moments in the RTV5 studio getting to know the faces in front of and behind the camera of the new Rice Sketch Comedy spin-off, The Connor O'Hoolihan Experience, before the satire-driven show takes on an independent life of its own.The mock news phenomenon stars Baker College sophomore Connor Hollowwa as the show's namesake and features writing by Jones College junior Barr Reed. Hanszen College senior and Thresher cartoonist Dan Derozier heads up filming and production. The show's third episode premiered online on Thursday.

Rice drops to fifth on Kiplinger's best values list

Rice University was ranked fifth on the list of "Best Values in Private Colleges" in the April 2008 Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine. Rice is preceded by California Institute Technology, Yale University, Princeton University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology in order of the rankings, followed by Harvard University, Dartmouth College, Duke University and Emory University. Kiplinger's publishes a ranking of the best value colleges and universities every two years, in which academic quality and affordability are measured, with the latter counting for a third of the ranking total. Its 2006 report ranked Rice fourth on the list of best value colleges.

Editorial Cartoon: RPC Calendar

Sid RA Kuster to leave in May

Last week, Sid Richardson College Resident Associate Katherine Kuster (Brown '99) announced that she will step down from her position in May. A search committee has been formed and is looking to appoint a new RA by late April.Kuster, an outreach coordinator at the Rice Gallery, is moving to Japan with her fiancé, who has been awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to pursue research on pollution in the upper atmosphere.

Unauthorized jack injures student

Willy Week jacks are typically harmless, humorous and a minor inconvenience. However, an unauthorized jack by Will Rice College --- in which members of the college strung up spiderwebs made of fishing wire across campus -- broke this tradition when two students got caught in them. At about 1 a.m. Thursday morning, Martel College sophomore Jen Pan was riding her bicycle and hit one of Will Rice's spiderwebs strung in the path from Lovett College to Lovett lot. She said the wire twisted around her neck and cut her.

Men's tennis continues slide against LSU

Most Rice students across campus were in pain last week because of collisions with not-so-stray water balloons. The men's tennis team, on the other hand, was hurting for an entirely different reason. For the second week in a row, No. 17 Rice lost to a lower-ranked opponent at home, falling 4-2 to No. 26 Louisiana State University and dropping to 9-5 on the year. The defeat came one week after the Owls, then ranked 11th in the country, fell 4-3 against then- No. 17 Florida State University.Rice, which has only played two matches in the last two weeks, will pick up its leisurely pace this weekend. As host of the Rice Invite, the Owls will have matches against three ranked opponents in as many days. The first will be today at noon at Jake Hess Tennis Stadium against No. 49 University of Iowa. Iowa recently played the cutting board for the Ohio State University buzzsaw - the nation's No.2 team promptly routed the host Hawkeyes 7-0.

Women's tennis piles on Abilene Christian

With a six-match winning streak under its belt, it would have been easy for the women's tennis team to become complacent. Add to that the distraction of Willy Week, and it would have been really easy for No. 64 Rice to let last week's match with Abilene Christian University slip through its fingers. But the Owls staved off complacency until after executing a perfect 7-0 victory over the Wildcats, choosing to take the rest of the weekend off to relax from their otherwise hectic schedule.Rice will continue welcoming local opponents to Jake Hess Tennis Stadium for the near future, as they take on Texas State University tomorrow at 3 p.m. and the University of Texas-Arlington Sunday at 1 p.m. Just as with recent opponents, the Owls should have little trouble with the Bobcats, who are 5-6 on the year, or the Roadrunners, who have lost their last three matches by a combined score of 16-5.

Commencement choice needs more consideration

After a long delay, and well after its usual fall semester timeline, Rice announced Tuesday that this year's commencement speaker will be former Rice president George Rupp (see story, page 1). While we know Rupp will provide an excellent speech and we appreciate the selection committee's decision to choose a familiar speaker, we feel that in the future the committee should focus on attracting people whose public notability has a wider reach. Certainly, former Rice presidents are active enough in the wider community to offer much poignant advice to graduates, but there is plenty to be said about choosing a speaker who is not necessarily "from the family," yet who can still deliver a Rice-relevant message.In addition, we hope next year's selection committee convenes earlier in the year. The most sought-after speakers receive invitations many months or even years in advance, and if Rice wants to give itself the best chance possible to land one of these people, it should not be one of the last schools to start looking.

Publication of Willis firing poorly handled

At 6 p.m. last Friday, the athletics department announced to the public that Willis Wilson (Will Rice '82), men's basketball coach for 16 years, would not be retained by the university. (see story, page 1) There were not many people around when the news broke; on campus, people were either gone for the weekend, at Reckling Park watching the baseball game or glued to television screens watching the Houston Rockets going for 21 straight wins. There was no ceremony, no real press conference, no farewell party for the longest tenured coach in Rice history. The news was broken, and then it was gone.We feel this hushed and hurried showing of the door is an insult to one of the most loyal men ever to walk on Rice campus. He was a stellar student athlete and alum, and although he took a great deal of flak for his coaching results, his devotion to his job and players was visible to the entire Rice community. Wilson deserves more than standard treatment for a college coach parting ways with a university. He deserves a chance to be thanked by the students currently attending his alma mater and the fans for whom he loved coaching so much. He deserves more than what he got.

Former Rice president Rupp chosen for commencement

On Tuesday, the Commencement Speaker Committee announced former Rice president George Rupp will be the speaker for commencement 2008. Committee chair Michael Gustin said Rupp, who serves as CEO and president of the International Relief Program, seemed a logical choice for speaker because of his ties to Rice and the larger global community.Gustin said since the committee was formed late last semester, this pushed the process off and led to the late announcement of the commencement speaker.

Model UN awarded at conference

With world affairs debated in the media daily, Rice students have the opportunity to engage in political current events by walking in the shoes of an international delegate. Last weekend, seven delegates from the Rice Model United Nations team competed in the University of California at Berkeley Model United Nations Conference held in San Francisco, Calif. and came home with awards such as Honorable Mention for Small Delegation.The collegiate chapter of Model UN emulates the United Nations in that student delegates are randomly assigned committees such as the Security Council or World Bank and represent the interests of their assigned country. Rice members represented Pakistan and Burkina Faso, and the delegates prepared by researching topics and writing position papers on how their assigned country would feel about certain issues. Some of the topics included Iran seeking nuclear weapons, non-state paramilitary organizations or women's human rights violations in Malaysia.

Leebron serves as panelist at Clinton Global Institute

Inspired by his experiences over spring break, President David Leebron is encouraging students to step up and use their education to find solutions to global problems.Last weekend, Leebron joined other presidents and students from universities across the country at the inaugural meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative University at Tulane University. The three-day event focused on how students can make a worldwide difference in the areas of energy and climate change, human rights and peace, global health and poverty alleviation.

Commentary:One fan's pilgrimage becomes fortunate musical discovery

I've been through a lot to see my favorite band, Two Gallants, play live. I've narrowly escaped police brutality (Google their October 13, 2006 show at Walter's on Washington if you're curious) and braved hordes of studded belt-wearing and self-consciously-smoking scenester teens when 2Gs opened for the emo-punk band Against Me. But I have never before driven six hours round-trip to see them, or any band, play. Zombie driving through the wee hours may not compare in shock value to witnessing a crazed cop with a Taser, but it was probably at least as dangerous.I had hatched this plan months ago after I found out 2Gs were playing in Austin, a location well within reasonable driving distance. The fact that they were playing during the annual South by Southwest music festival and conference was, at the onset, entirely secondary. I had always been interested in attending SXSW, as it is called, especially after my stellar first experience with Austin's other major music festival, Austin City Limits, but conference passes cost ungodly amounts of money and the confusing Web site provided little information on any other way to experience it. I gladly resigned myself to seeing only Two Gallants and didn't think much more about it.

Global scholars discuss Judas, scriptures at Codex Judas Congress

Though Rice may have been taken over by the excitement of Willy Week and Beer-Bike, the academic community was focused on another big event on campus last week. The Codex Judas Congress, which was put together by Religious Studies Professor April DeConick, took place Mar. 13-16 in Farnsworth Pavilion, and various buildings across campus. Thirty scholars from around the world came to discuss the recently rediscovered Tchacos Codex, a fourth century collection of Gnostic documents from the Judeo-Christian tradition. In addition to the scholars invited to participate, there were also five papers presented by graduate students, including religious studies graduate students Chad Day, Franklin Trammel and Claire Villarrael. Other graduate students attended as auditors, as did several members of the Houston community.

Editorial Cartoon: Thinking things through

To view this week's editorial cartoon, click the thumbnail.

Golf uses strong final round to continue recent success

With a solid first round and an exemplary third round at last week's Border Olympics, the golf team was reminded why golf is a game of endurance and mental toughness. Despite a near free-fall in the middle of tournament play, the Owls rebounded to finish ninth in the 54-hole tournament, which was held at the Laredo Country Club in Laredo, Texas. The team will be back in action on Monday and Tuesday, taking part in the Carter Plantation Intercollegiate in Springfield, La. The 15-team tournament will feature a mixture of colleges from all across the southern part of the country, most notably Southeastern Conference powerhouses University of Mississippi and Mississippi State University, who are ranked 29th and 37th in the country, respectively. The toughest competition, however, will come from No. 13 University of Tennessee-Chattanooga, which boasts No. 37 Jonathan Hodge.

Té provides variety and spice

Often neglected by college students for having less caffeine than coffee, tea is a delight well worth discovering. The taste of tea avoids the burnt and acrid tinge to which mediocre coffee falls victim, just as its culture contrasts with the routine-confining, addiction-inducing lifestyle that plagues coffee drinkers. A good cup of tea is steeped in hospitality, relaxation, and simple elegance. To be a connoisseur of tea is to be a connoisseur of life's more delicate, nuanced pleasures, which is a worldly pursuit worth cultivating. Luckily, that pursuit is only a 15-minute bike ride from Rice.

Grits and gesundheit:Listen to celebrities; support the war

Pop Quiz: Who recently wrote this in a Washington Times opinion piece? "What we cannot afford, in my view, is to squander the progress that has been made. In fact, we should step up our financial and material assistance ... I would like to call on each of the presidential candidates and congressional leaders to announce a comprehensive refugee plan with a specific timeline and budget as part of their Iraq strategy. As for the question of whether the surge is working, I can only state what I witnessed: United Nations staff and those of non-governmental organizations seem to feel they have the right set of circumstances to attempt to scale up their programs. And when I asked the troops if they wanted to go home as soon as possible, they said that they miss home but feel invested in Iraq." Your choices: A) Senator Joe Biden, B) General David Petraeus, C) President George W. Bush or D) Angelina Jolie. If you guessed A, B or C, you would be wrong. While some may attempt to brush aside the good reports, empirical evidence and success stories, the truth is becoming harder and harder to ignore. Even Jolie, the ever-difficult-to-label, yet prominent media figure has even weighed in on American progress in Iraq.

Offensive explosion propels Rice to sweep

As if five wins were not enough to make last week cause for celebration for the baseball team, head coach Wayne Graham also tacked on career victory No. 750 to his resumé. The wins - four of which came against Winthrop University and one against the University of Louisiana-Lafayette - may have coincided with the end of sophomore third baseman Diego Seastrunk's 19-game hitting streak, but freshman shortstop Rick Hague more than made up for it with a .588 batting average over the weekend, including in six RBIs on two homers in a single game.The ninth-ranked Owls (14-6) swept Winthrop (3-10) in a four-game series this past weekend before defeating La.-Lafayette (6-11) by a score of 17-6 on Wednesday evening at Reckling Park.

Letter to the editor

Campus coordinators show appreciationTo the editor: