My legs are sore. All this climbing on, hopping off, struggling back up, it's wearing on me - making me stiff and disjointed, tired and upset. Yes, deciding my place on the bandwagon of Rice men's basketball is getting to be a chore.
Brown College Resident Associate Laura Villafranca (Sid '95) will be leaving at the end of this year. The Brown RA Search Committee hosted approximately 20 RA candidates at the Brown Master's house Friday. They will reach a decision before the beginning of March. RA Search Committee Chair Larissa Charnsangavej, a Brown senior, said they were looking for someone who is approachable.
One of Rice's Vision for the Second Century goals is to improve graduate student programs by providing "attractive campus amenities that will contribute to a stronger sense of community among our graduate students." My recent ordeal with the new graduate apartments, in which contracts between students and the university were ignored, suggests that the university may need to put more energy into meeting this goal. For months, graduate students have been signing pre-leasing contracts for rooms in the Rice Graduate Apartments, which opened last weekend. These pre-leasing contracts state: "This agreement is between you, ____, the Resident, and Rice University . You agree to rent apartment number ____ that is assigned to you . If [you] cancel [my] reservation after June 1, 2008, [you] will forfeit [my] deposit of $350.00"
After picking up their first win in Conference USA play in over a season last week against Southern Methodist University, the Owls took a step backward Saturday, losing 77-52 to The University of Central Florida. The loss drops the Owls to 6-11 overall, and 1-2 in conference play.
The changes to Rice's club financial structures, which have been a point of contention for many students, will finally be executed.Rice student organizations and colleges are about to face change as they usher in the new BANNER system to perform all of their future financial transactions. The first clubs and all colleges will make the official switch on Jan. 31.
The faux wooden wall was painted with an artistic array of owls, the windows were decorated with balloons and the fans were on their feet, cheering and waving signs. Maybe it was because it was the lone home swim meet of the season or maybe it was because it was the last swim meet at Rice pool. But without a doubt, the support and loud atmosphere was due in part to honor the team's graduating seniors who have contributed endless amounts of enthusiasm and talent over the past four years. After this season, Natalie Kirchhoff, Diane Gu, Skylar Craig, Jennifer Hill, Carlyann Miller and Caitlin Warner will trade their Speedos for business suits. With the help of head coach Seth Huston and assistant Jada Hallmark (Sid '01), the underclassmen successfully pulled off a fabulous ceremony for their seniors.
Try as he might, Pulitzer Prize winning author Larry McMurtry ('60), just can't quit the written word.The author, who also co-wrote the Brokeback Mountain screenplay, offered words on the business of books and the future of reading in 2009's Friends of Fondren Library Distinguished Guest Lecture series on Wednesday.
Lines for apple pie and coffee stood still in the Rice Memorial Center's Grand Hall on Tuesday morning as the 150 to 200 students attending the Inaugural Viewing Party paused to watch Barack Obama sworn in as the 44th president of the United States of America during a live television broadcast of the presidential inauguration ceremony in Washington, D.C. Time stood still for many who felt as if they were not just viewing a routine process of democracy but a historic moment in American history.The inauguration ceremony took place before a record-breaking audience of more than a million people who crowded the streets of Washington and on the same Mall where civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. delivered a speech during the 1963 March on Washington.
The residential college system is something so inseparable from the modern operation of Rice University, so ingrained into our personal habits and social traditions, that any change on the level of the addition of a new college becomes a matter of titanic significance that affects thousands of students. When two new colleges root themselves into this little patch of Houston - in the same year, even - the importance of their proper introduction into Rice life escalates exponentially. For this reason, groups of students, masters, administrators and faculty have worked eagerly for months to ensure that the opening of Duncan and McMurtry colleges next fall is as appropriate and effective a process as possible. Last year, a population committee headed by Dean of Undergraduates Robin Forman and comprised of college masters, resident associates, administrators and students drafted a series of proposals regarding possible ways to populate the two colleges. The committee sent these recommendations to President David Leebron, who ultimately chose a plan in which Baker and Will Rice colleges will move into Duncan and McMurtry, respectively, while their own facilities are renovated. Lovett College will remain in Lovett while its renovations occur. Forman appeared in front of the Student Association last semester to discuss the plan and promised to keep the student body abreast of its development.
Who knew even Rice graduates could become rock stars?Anyone acquainted with Rice alumnus Jordan Myska Allen (Sid '08) has been hearing that message for a while. Throughout his college career, the ebullient, long-haired religious studies major persistently proclaimed his desire to be a rock star, even listing "roquerismo" as a second major on Facebook. While most Rice students searched for internships and slaved in research labs, Allen formed the funk rock band Moxie with Evan Davies (Brown '08), Andy Whitten (Brown '07) and Aaron Taffett (Sid '08), acting as a lead vocalist and guitarist. The band went on to win KTRU's Battle of the Bands two years in a row and even tour throughout the United States in the summer of 2007, chugging slowly across the continent in "Funkwagen von Tatkraft," their less-than-dependable tour van.
Wiess College students gathered in droves at the Wiess Masters' house to watch Barack Obama's inauguration as the 44th President of the United States.Click here for inauguration coverage.
William "Dr. Bill" Wilson, electrical engineering professor and Wiess College resident associate for over thirty years, died Tuesday due to pancreatic cancer at the age of 65. Wilson is remembered as a mentor to generations of students, faculty and staff.
Hidden away in Lovett Hall, Entrance A, in a little alcove left of the drinking fountain and across from the floor-to-ceiling wooden doors of the office of the Dean of Undergraduates, new Director of First Year Programs, Shelah Crear, prepares to make history. With a record number of applicants for the class of 2013 ("10,818", Jan. 16) and the quickly-approaching opening of Duncan and McMurtry colleges, Orientation Week 2009 stands to be a larger and more complicated operation than any O-Week in recent memory.Her office is comfortable and well-lit, if a little bare, but Crear, a Dallas native and adopted Austinite and Longhorn by education, has an enthusiasm for her responsibilities that fills every corner of the room.
Associate chemistry professor Cecilia Clementi's research in protein folding could be the key to cures for medical conditions such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases. In recognition of this potential as well as her breakthrough research in protein folding, she has been awarded the prestigious Norman Hackerman Award in Chemical Research.The annual award recognizes a young researcher who has made profound contributions to the field of chemical research in Texas. Nominees are rigorously screened and then selected by a panel of Nobel Laureates and other experts in the field.
Despite their reputation for being politically apathetic, over 300 Rice students joined community members in Herring Hall auditorium last Thursday to learn more about the current Israeli-Palestinian crisis in the Gaza Strip, while another 150 were turned away due to fire codes. The conflict, which reached its peak over Rice's winter break, was the subject of a panel entitled "The Gaza Crisis," sponsored by the Rice Student Forum on Israeli-Arab Affairs, Hillel and the Muslim Student Association.
Every week at KTRU, eager DJs scribble out short reviews of music's cutting-edge albums. KTRU's Music Department uses these reviews to judge the quality of the albums it receives and to provide information for the DJs who play them. Each week, a DJ polishes one of these reviews so that KTRU's riches can shine for the larger Rice community.Where has singer-songwriter Antony Hegarty been since rocketing to indie stardom with 2005's I Am a Bird Now, an almost completely unknown record that beat out big names like Coldplay and Bloc Party to win the United Kingdom's prestigious Mercury Prize? One answer comes in a song title from his new release The Crying Light: "Another World." This album sounds as ghostly and distant as an alien transmission - but its emotional register feels entirely human.
Only a week into its season, the men's tennis team is racking up the accomplishments. Downing their first conference opponent? Check. Trouncing a ranked foe? Check. Dropping only three points in their first five matches of the season? Check. It is official: After their hottest start in years, the Owls have begun their 2009 campaign, one fraught with high expectations highly-ranked opponents, in the best way possible.
It's official: Everything needs to be made into 3-D! Just like the groundbreaking innovations of movies with sound and color in the early 20th century, 3-D technology is completely revolutionizing the American cinema experience, and My Bloody Valentine uses the technology admirably.Traditionally, 3-D has been reserved for adventure rides at Universal Studios or nature exhibits at the IMAX, but now it has the potential to rejuvenate the incredibly stale and unoriginal horror genre.
Even the best teams need to be lucky sometimes to keep winning. The opposite can be said of the women's basketball team. The Owls (5-12, 0-4 Conference USA) have been struggling throughout the season to string together solid, 40-minute performances, byt even when they succeed, adversity finds a way to catch up with them. The first of a series of setbacks occurred last week, when freshman point guard D'Frantz Smart sprained a foot ligament and was forced to sit out for the first time in her college career. Smart leads the team in scoring and assists, but also plays a leadership role and is currently out on a day-to-day basis.
