Special Projects

Owls will play bowl game in Houston

At a Wednesday press conference, athletics director Chris Del Conte officially announced that Rice had accepted an invitation to play in the 2008 Texas Bowl Reliant Stadium on Dec. 30 at 7 p.m. The game will be the final chapter in the saga of a senior class that has made an imprint on nearly every column of the football team's history books. "To be able to come and have our student athletes, our fans, our faculty, and students to participate in a bowl game right here in the city of Houston, we couldn't ask for anything better," Del Conte said. "Rice belongs in a bowl and not on a plate."

SA poll shows Health Services has limited reach

When they are feeling under the weather, 42 percent of Rice students said they would contact their parents prior to seeking treatment from health services or using online resources like WebMD, according to the Student Health Services survey conducted by the Student Association last month. SA Senators Ryan Fleming and Leticia Camara collaborated on the poll in order to address concerns about student awareness and utilization of Rice's Student Health Services, and to identify areas of possible improvement.

Women's cross country finishes 22nd at national meet

To complete one of the best seasons the women's cross country team has ever had, the team placed 22nd overall out of 31 squads at the NCAA National Championships in Terre Haute, Ind., on Monday, Nov. 24. Considering the temperature at race time was 42 degrees, well below the Houston average, the Owls ran an impressive race. The Owls' invitation to the meet marked the first time a Rice team has ever made it to nationals two years consecutively. And in conjunction with second-place spots at both the Conference USA championship and South Central Regional, the showing revealed Rice's ability to compete at the top levels of collegiate running.

Emergency alert system only works if used

Probably everyone would agree that Rice's comprehensive alert system would be good for notifying students of impending natural disasters, campus closings and crimes in the surrounding neighborhoods. But what about the on-campus presence of a gun-wielding man fleeing the Rice University Police Department?We feel that when a man accused of physically assaulting his undergraduate girlfriend evades police custody by vaulting from the roof of Brown College (see story, page 7), students should be notified of his whereabouts, and we don't mean in an e-mail an hour later. Nevertheless, we are very appreciative that at least some college masters provided the electronic communication, considering others did not even bother with that limited notice.

Women's basketball falls to Arkansas, downs Furman over break

Two hard-fought games in different venues resulted in two separate outcomes for the women's basketball team in the past several weeks. A second-half surge was enough to give the home team a win against Furman University at Tudor Fieldhouse on Nov. 25, but the Owls could not prevent the University of Arkansas - Little Rock from taking a home victory of its own the Saturday afterwards. Freshman point guard D'Frantz Smart stood out as the scoring leader for Rice in both games. She also registered six assists in each game, along with five rebounds against Furman and six against UALR, despite being the shortest player on the court.

Football defeats archrival Houston to capture coveted Bayou Bucket

The football team's senior class was honored before the Owls' final regular season matchup against The University of Houston on Saturday. As they stood before a record crowd of over 35,000 fans, the players were faced with one final chance to capture the Bayou Bucket, one of the few previous historic imprints the squad had been unable to make. After one of the most meaningful Bayou Buckets in recent history, the bowl-bound Owls crossed that accomplishment off the to-do list. For the first time in four years, Rice brought home the trophy with a convincing 56-42 win over their cross-town rivals.

Dean Burrus wins award for electrical engineering work

Most households take electronic devices such as their Xbox and MP3 player for granted. But here at Rice, students and faculty alike have someone to thank personally. In recognition of 40 years of outstanding instruction and groundbreaking research in the field of digital signal processing, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers will award Dean of the George R. Brown School of Engineering C. Sidney Burrus (Hanszen '57) the Jack Kilby Signal Processing Medal this June. The IEEE is the international professional society for electrical engineers and the largest professional society in the world,

Students concerned over Tudor seating

In a dramatic redistricting of Autry Court, the new student section at Tudor Fieldhouse has moved from the right courtside location to one behind the south baseline. This location, which was converted from a back gym, is out of sight of the main scoreboard, a frustration for many students who attended the first games at the fieldhouse on Saturday. Since the student section is located behind the main scoreboard, students can only see the auxiliary scoreboard, which does not display information like player statistics, Assistant Director of Athletics Chuck Pool said.

Students participate in city-wide rally against Proposition 8

Several hundred Houstonians, including a number of Rice students, gathered in front of City Hall last Saturday in solidarity with a nation-wide protest against Proposition 8, the California state amendment banning same-sex marriage that was barely approved by California voters on Nov. 4. Same-sex couples, straight allies and other activists held signs declaring their opposition to the ban and expressing their desire for gay rights.Co-President of Rice's American Civil Liberties Union club Ben Carson attended the rally along with about ten other club members.

Men's cross country season ends with fifth place finish at regionals

It's true that all good things do come to an end, including the 2008 men's cross country season. That was the case this past Saturday as the Owls finished fifth at the NCAA South Central Regional meet, meaning they will not be running in the NCAA National Championship. The team needed to finish third or fourth to have a chance at securing an at-large berth to the national meet.Senior Aaron Robson led Rice with a 14th-place finish overall, and he was followed by junior Brad Morris, junior Simon Bucknell, senior Justin Maxwell, redshirt freshman Michael Trejo and junior Brett Olson to round out the scoring runners. Texas A&M University took first place with 39 points, and Texas A&M senior Shadrack Songok won the overall title with a scorching time of 29:52.

College nights face changes

College nights at Rice have become synonymous with drunken antics, crazy costumes and class disruptions. But in the past few weeks as professors have become more and more frustrated with inebriated lecture interruptions, colleges have encouraged their students to curb the raucous trouble in a desperate effort to save college night. At a recent meeting of college masters and presidents, those in attendance agreed to temper their troublemaking on those days for fear that college nights will be more disruptive than fun, Martel College Master Jerry Dickens said.

Condoleezza Rice speaks to Rice

From a non-partisan standpoint, the election of Barack Obama as U.S. president showed the world an example of true democracy, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in a speech last week. Rice spoke at a gala last Thursday commemorating the 15th anniversary of the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy, a nonpartisan scholarly think tank focusing on research on domestic and foreign policy issues. The institute was ranked among the top 30 think tanks in the United States by the Think Tanks and Civil Societies Program at the Foreign Policy Research Institute in January.

Students take on month-long novel writing challenge

Katz's Deli on Montrose Boulevard buzzed with even more than the usual late-night food frenzy Oct. 31, as costumed patrons celebrated Halloween. In one corner, however, a strange hush fell at the stroke of midnight. It was a table for four crammed with nine people, all wielding laptops. As October became November, these members of Martel College sophomore Ian Jones' class, Martel 142: Write a Novel in a Month, began to type furiously.

Women's basketball christens new fieldhouse, wins season opener

For the first time in school history, the Owls answered the all-too-important question: Whose house is this? Tudor Fieldhouse was filled with students and fans to watch the first home game in the new facility last Friday.IN PHOTOS: OPENING WEEKEND AT TUDOR FIELDHOUSE

Dear flag stealer: 'fess up!

Last Thursday, Nov. 13, the Baker Institute staff arrived in the morning to find that 22 international flags had been stolenfrom the Centennial Campaign tent (see story, page 10). The flags, which were meant to be decorations for Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice's speech later that afternoon, have still not been recovered.

Yakobson receives Nano 50 award for work with nanotubes

Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science Professor Boris Yakobson received a Nano 50 award Nov. 13 from science publication Nanotech Briefs for his advances in nanotechnology. The Nano 50 awards, now in their fourth year, recognize the top 50 technologies, products and innovators who have considerably influenced the latest advancement in nanotechnology. Yakobson received the Nano 50 award in the Innovators category for his work with nanotubes.

School of Jones rocks

Recently, publications like The Financial Times, The Economist and U.S. News and World Report have ranked the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Management as among the top 25 in the nation (see story, page 1).Compared to the lackluster numbers from previous years, these new rankings, which are measured based on the salaries of Rice MBA graduates, are considerably better and indicate that the Jones School must be doing something right.

Thief steals 22 international flags before Condoleezza Rice speech

Last Thursday, the night before the 15th anniversary celebration of the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy, 22 international flags were stolen, leaving Baker Institute staff void of props for Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's speech just hours before it began. The flags, which have a collective value of $1,342, were stored in the Centennial Campaign tent between the Baker Institute and the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Management before the event. The flags have not been found, Rice University Police Captain Dianna Marshall said, although replacements were found before the event started.

Men's basketball falls to Portland State in final-second loss

From the opening tip to the waning seconds, the basketball team battled back and forth but ultimately lost to unanimous Big Sky conference preseason favorite Portland State University. The match-up was the first ever men's game played in the renovated Tudor Fieldhouse on Saturday.IN PHOTOS: OPENING WEEKEND AT TUDOR FIELDHOUSE

Comic: Cingle Cellularity