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NEWS 3/12/09 7:00pm

Commentary: After absence, Griffey's return well worth wait

By Casey Michel

There are things in life that should not happen. We see them in children's books or on the Hallmark Channel, but never in our dirty world of grime and struggle. Life is incomplete, which means that it's imperfect, which means that these Kodak moments we see in cinema or find in literature do not come to fruition. But that is life. This is sport.

NEWS 3/12/09 7:00pm

Men's track places third overall at C-USA Championship

By Jonathan Myers

Going into spring break, the men's track and field team was primed to put the finishing touches on the masterpiece that was the 2009 indoor season, but a third-place finish at the Conference USA Indoor Championships had the Owls feeling like the last movement ended on a sour note. Despite several outstanding performances, Rice had several minor injuries and mishaps that ultimately led to their diminished performance at conference.

NEWS 3/12/09 7:00pm

Tuition swells yet again for undergraduates

By Margeux Clemmons

Rice University undergraduate tuition will increase by 4.9 percent, or $1,470, for the 2009-2010 academic year, reaching $31,430, and Housing and Dining fees will increase 4.5 percent, or $480, to total $11,230, President David Leebron announced at the Student Association's Rice Financial Forum Wednesday night. Rice's percentage increase of undergraduate tuition is the same as the increases at Washington University, Vanderbilt University and Cornell University, but one percentage point or more higher than the changes at Princeton University, Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, according to Vice President for Finance Kathy Collins' survey of undergraduate tuition changes at schools in the Association of American Universities. However, Collins highlighted Rice's financial aid packages as a difference between Rice and other universities.

NEWS 3/12/09 7:00pm

Rice hosts post-career workshop for Dynamo

By Jonathan Myers

As the Houston Dynamo professional soccer team prepares to start its fourth season against the Columbus Crew on March 21, many of its players are preparing for life after their playing days. Members of the team attended a sports business seminar held in Rice Stadium's "R Room" on Tuesday afternoon, discussing the topic. The seminar, hosted by Dr. Clark Haptonstall, Dr. Jimmy Disch, Dr. Jason Sosa and Tom Stallings of the Sport Management department, focused on providing the players with a crash course in handling interviews, as well as an introduction to the opportunities that exist in the sports industry for former athletes.

NEWS 3/12/09 7:00pm

Fond farewells

By Staff Editorial

We would like to bid a fond farewell to Dylan Farmer and Lily Chun, our outgoing Editors-in-Chief. Dylan, we'll always miss your constant wrist-cracking, your videos of kangaroos attacking their handlers and your penchant for rooting for those pitiable Spurs. Lily, your ability to get things done was unparalleled, much like your love of Coffeehouse cookies, which you rarely seemed to want to share. The Thresher's third-place finish could not have been possible without the two-headed efforts you put forward this year, and your previous efforts as Sports and News editors, respectively, paved the way for better content in print as well as online.Likewise, we wish the best for Amanda Melchor, our outgoing Opinions editor; Julie Armstrong, our outgoing-A&E-editor-turned-soon-to-be-A&E-blog-editor; Sarah Mitchell, our outgoing business manager; Tim Faust, the outgoing half of our Backpage team; Joseph Ramirez and Thomas Yeh, our outgoing Advertising managers; and Nick Schlossman, our outgoing Copy editor. The office will not be the same without you.

NEWS 3/12/09 7:00pm

Mayors discuss successes, lessons post-Ike

By Catherine Bratic

Six months after Hurricane Ike hit Houston and Galveston, the two cities are still struggling to recover from the damage, and elected officials are taking a chance to reevaluate preparations made before the storm. On Wednesday, the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy and Texas Monthly cosponsored the forum "Life After Ike: The Future of Houston and Galveston," where mayors from both cities considered what went right and wrong during Ike and what they learned.

NEWS 3/12/09 7:00pm

Bike track accident necessitates improvements

By Staff Editorial

We all care about Beer Bike. Of this, there is no doubt. But when it comes to the safety of our bikers, we must grip the brakes and call for an end to dangerous practices.This danger came in full force before spring break, when a Will Rice College freshman collided with a car stopped on the bike track on the west side of Rice Stadium (see story, page 1). While it was clearly an accident, this collision was also clearly preventable, and we hope to cajole those responsible into implementing a few safety measures.

NEWS 3/12/09 7:00pm

Sony's Killzone 2: Here come the Helghast

By Joe Dwyer

Sony's first killer app of 2009 is finally here, and while the gameplay takes some getting used to, fun and frantic multiplayer modes along with PlayStation 3's most beautiful graphics to date make Killzone 2 a solid entry in any gamer's library.Killzone 2 picks up where the PS2's Killzone and the PSP's Killzone: Liberation left off. Interplanetary Strategic Alliance forces are invading the planet Helghan in an attempt to capture Scolar Visari, leader of the Helghast forces, and put an end to the ongoing war. Obviously, things do not go as planned: Stuff explodes, people die all over the place and players find themselves trying to survive on the hostile surface of Helghan as Sergeant Tomas "Sev" Sevchenko, member of the elite Alpha Team.

NEWS 3/12/09 7:00pm

Seniors finish with exemplary performance

By Yan Digilov

The expectations were low for the women's basketball team as they entered the Conference USA tournament last Saturday. After losing to the University of Central Florida by 25 points earlier in the season, few could have expected the performance the Owls (7-23, 2-14 C-USA), stuck with the lowest seed, would put up. Fortunately, seniors Maudess Fulton and Emery Carter knew they had it in them all along.

NEWS 3/12/09 7:00pm

Endowment must be handled responsibly

By Gislaine Williams and Richard Treadwell

After the failings of Stanford Financial, Lehman Brothers and AIG, the current economic crisis has shown us the true importance of investing in companies that follow ethical and sustainable practices. Universities, as some of the largest shareholders in the country, have a vested interest and a huge amount of influence in making sure that companies commit to socially and environmentally responsible practices.Rice for Peace is calling on Rice University to join a growing movement of schools committed to responsible endowment management. We have created a proposal asking Rice to establish an Advisory Committee for a Responsible Endowment so we can use the university's power as a shareholder to promote social and environmental responsibility. Investments in companies that guarantee ethical practices and contribute to community development will, in both the short- and long-run, be the most beneficial to growing Rice's endowment as well as its standing in the academic and international communities.

NEWS 3/12/09 7:00pm

Under the hood with Watchmen

By Faheem Ahmed

Oscar for "Best Trailer," then director Zack Snyder would have a couple of gleaming trophies sitting on his mantle. Back in the 1960s and 1970s, trailers used to be four minutes long, voiced over by a dude who sounded like he had emphysema and summarized the entire plot of the film.Enter the recently deceased Don LaFontaine: Using his deep iconic voice, LaFontaine single-handedly revolutionized the trailer concept. Since then trailers have become much tighter, featuring quick, exciting montages and samples of some of the best scenes from the film in an effort to garner audience interest. Snyder has absolutely perfected this method.

NEWS 3/12/09 7:00pm

Hanszen snatches Senior Gift victory

By Josh Rutenberg

Taking the adage "what you give is what you get" literally, Hanszen College beat out the competition last week by claiming victory in the Senior Gift Giving challenge.Hanszen senior Ted Wieber said a number of different factors pushed Hanszen to lead the competition.

NEWS 3/12/09 7:00pm

Men's tennis triumphs during West Coast trip

By Casey Michel

The men's tennis team has not always had the best luck playing doubles. Despite owning a singles set that has clinched top 30 rankings throughout the decade, the doubles teams have consistently hung like a cloud over the beginning of each match, creating question marks that always mocked Rice's progress.But this year seems to be different. After one of the Owls' top players, 49th-ranked junior Bruno Rosa, faltered early on, and junior Chong Wang, the third-best Owl, departed due to off-court issues, Rice's singles play has been marked by relative struggles.

NEWS 3/12/09 7:00pm

Berry leads Owls in toppling top-ranked A&M

By Dylan Farmer

Junior pitcher Ryan Berry needed only a week of warming up to get the offseason rust out of his system. Bouncing back from a disappointing performance against California Polytechnic State University in the baseball team's season opener, Berry, Conference USA Pitcher Of the Week, pitched a complete-game shutout against formerly top-ranked Texas A&M University two weeks ago at the Minute Maid College Classic. Last Saturday, he followed up with an almost identical performance against Notre Dame University in Rice's own Academy Sports and Outdoors Rice Classic tournament.

NEWS 3/12/09 7:00pm

Willy week approaches

By Jocelyn Wright

Start planning jacks, filling water balloons and pumping air in your tires: Willy Week begins Monday and will culminate with Beer Bike on Saturday, March 21. The theme of this year's Willy Week, which is organized by the Rice Program Council, is WhataWilly Week, a spin off of the Whataburger fast-food chain. T-shirts will be on sale for $5 throughout the week.

NEWS 3/12/09 7:00pm

Track closed due to accident

By Jaclyn Youngblood

The Beer Bike track in the Greenbriar lot was temporarily closed after an accident occurred on Feb. 25, B.J. Almond, Director of the Office of News and Media Relations, said. The track closed officially on Feb. 27 for spring break and reopened March 9 for bikers. Almond said a student biking on the track collided with a car that was crossing the track but had stopped when the driver saw the cyclists.

NEWS 3/12/09 7:00pm

Tuesday's Sports Update: Baseball beats back No. 1 Longhorns at home

By Meghan Hall

Two freshman starting pitchers-Texas's Austin Dicharry of Klein Collins High School and Rice's Matthew Reckling of Kinkaid-went to high school less than 20 miles from one another in the Houston area but ended up facing each other last Tuesday night. Fourth-ranked Rice took on longtime rival University of Texas, which, according to Baseball America, is the best team in the nation.

NEWS 3/12/09 7:00pm

Tuition increase troubling

By Staff Editorial

The recent tuition hike, announced by President David Leebron on Wednesday, comes with a mixed welcome (see story, page 1). On the one hand, we are pleased to see the university implementing a tuition increase that, percentage-wise, is less than the increases of recent years, and is considerably less than the 14 percent increase instituted of a few years ago. In such an economic climate, we are happy that the administration is taking students' financial needs into consideration, namely with the increase of the loan threshold to $80,000 for the incoming class. Additionally, it is commendable to see that Rice's 2009 percentage increase is less than almost all comparable universities outside of the Ivy League.However, we are worried by the fact that, in the last decade, our tuition has nearly doubled. What was once a selling point - Rice offering a comparable education for pennies on the dollar - has become lore. Even though we can still compare ourselves to other schools who are also increasing their tuitions, the national trend of staggering tuition increases affects us, and is more than a bit troubling. It has to end somewhere, and we hope that end is in sight.

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