Special Projects

Quarantine gives a good dose of undead

Ahh, can you smell that faint whiff of crisp burning in the evening air? No, it's not that fat kid who sits next to you in organic chemistry. You know what that refreshing scent is? It's the fragrance of changing seasons, falling leaves and autumnal splendor . and it's the smell of Halloween. Yes, the greatest holiday of all time!The reason I love Halloween so much is because it ushers in a full month of horror movies. While the horror genre may not be my absolute favorite, it sure as hell is the most entertaining. The adrenaline rush, the goosebumps, the little hairs that rise on the back of your neck, the boobies (you can't make a good horror flick without a proper set of gratuitous boobies). These are the amazing offerings of the genre - not to mention the subtle acting, twisting plots and audacious exploration of the dark corridors of our macabre psyches.

Spectactular Cyrano

The Alley Theatre's latest production of Edmond Rostand's 1897 comedy, Cyrano de Bergerac, is nothing short of spectacular.For anyone who did not read the play in a high school English class, here's a summary: It follows the dashing exploits of French Army cadet Cyrano de Bergerac. He is an expert swordsman who has a penchant for poetry and a gift for words, but he also has an exceptionally large nose that kills his confidence with the ladies, especially with his distant cousin Roxane. When Roxane falls in love with an inarticulate cadet named Christian, who can't string together a coherent sentence to save his life, Cyrano decides to help Christian out by telling him what to say to Roxane, and the play takes off from there.

Architecture dean Lerup to step down after 15 years

After 15 years at Rice, Dean of Architecture Lars Lerup announced he will be leaving his position June 30. He said he plans to primarily focus on his research at the Rice Building Institute, though he will continue to lecture occasionally at the architecture school. Associate Dean of Architecture John Casbarian said Lerup's decision to leave his position was not a surprise to the faculty.

Soccer on pace for bid in C-USA tournament

The soccer team will look to extend a two game winning streak this weekend as they take on Colorado College today and the University of Texas-El Paso on Sunday. Their last two road wins against the University of Central Florida and the University of Southern Mississippi marked the first time in history that the Owls have managed a win-out on a weekend road trip. With a 5-3 record in Conference USA, they are comfortably on pace to make the conference tournament on Nov. 5-9.

The Backpage Interview Series

The sun was bright and the humidity high when Backpage coeditor Timothy Faust climbed to the top of 180 one recent bright Tuesday afternoon. A few minutes later, he was joined by Advisor to the Dean of Undergraduates Dr. Matthew Taylor. The birds chirped overhead and more than one professor walking past looked quizzically at the two figures atop the crown of the Engineering Quad. The Backpage Interview Series had officially started.Taylor maintains a reputation as an administrator who understands student needs - which makes sense, when you consider his past. After attending Southern Methodist University with a stint at Oxford, Taylor earned his Ph.D. and taught history here at Rice, where he was a Resident Associate at Brown College. But it was not a straight shot from graduate school to Forman's right-hand guy. Taylor was dean of student life at Pomona University - with a few national tours with a rock band peppered in between.

Honor Council renews penalty structure

After a three-hour debate, the Honor Council approved this year's Consensus Penalty Structure Sunday by a 17-3 vote, with three members abstaining. The penalty structure, which is identical to last year's, drew concerns this year at the Council's open meeting due to the secrecy surrounding its approval, as well as the renewed efforts to repeal a loophole known as Article XII, which allows students to withdraw for two semesters instead of facing punishment for violating the Honor Code. The penalty structure, which is reviewed by the Honor Council each fall, sets the standard for how the council should treat violations of the Honor Code. This year, the penalty structure retains the same punishment guidelines as last year, with the starting punishment being an F in the course and a two-semester suspension. Penalties can be lessened if the Honor Council feels that the student in violation has cooperated fully with the investigation or based on the degree of the violation, and can be increased to an F and three semesters if the student appears to have premeditated the action or purposefully deceived the Honor Council. The final decision of the Honor Council requires a unanimous vote.

Shorter add/drop time detrimental to students

As a current freshman, I may not yet fully understand the importance of choosing classes or majors. But as a devoted part of the Rice community, I do understand the importance of these choices in shaping our academic paths.The new add/drop deadlines that are being imposed upon us will be completely detrimental to our autonomy as students. Beginning next fall, the amount of time to add a class will be cut in half, and the time period to add a class without a fee will decrease from two weeks to one. Further adding to the pressure of decision making, students will only have five weeks to drop a class, as opposed to the current 10 weeks.

Personal choices factor into credit crisis

In the wake of the recent economic meltdown, Americans are eager to assign blame and hold the guilty parties accountable for, at best, their poor judgment and, at worst, malevolent greed. To be sure, there is more than enough culpability to go around, from reckless mortgage brokers to politically correct lending practices to inadequate oversight. While institutional glitches bear a great deal of responsibility, the tendency for individuals to allocate any and all misfortune, even that which is self-inflicted, on external scapegoats is a troubling trend in our society.Indeed, the majority of financial failures in America these days are the consequence of poor decision making on the part of the individuals themselves - not the lenders, not the banks and not the stores. Ours is a credit culture, and far too many people have grown accustomed to living outside their means. This is a mistake and one that lends itself to negligence and poor judgment. As the markets seem so erratic, and we struggle to maintain stability, a return to personal responsibility is imperative. And living within one's means is the number one requirement for such accountability.

New policy provides notivation for swim team

Head coach Seth Huston has a new policy for his swim team: If a swimmer wants to travel to away meets, she must earn her spot on the roster by showing up to practice and displaying commitment to the team. College swim meets allow each team only 18 entries. This year, Rice has 21 girls eligible to swim. Therefore, at each meet Huston must choose three girls who swim for exhibition only but cannot score points.In the past, Huston has taken the entire team to every meet because it made sense numerically. Now that he has choices available about who swims, Huston intends to use them.

Superhero-themed NOD to have contest, burritos

Get ready to show off those washboard abs you've been working on all semester. This year, Wiess College's annual Halloween party, Night of Decadence, will take place tomorrow at 10 p.m. in the Wiess Commons. The theme is KryptoNOD: Horny Heroes and Villainous Vixens. Tickets cost $8 dollars in advance and $10 dollars at the door, and T-shirts are also available for $10. Wiess Socials Brett Wakefield and Becky Leven said they are expecting 1,200 to 1,500 people to attend. Last year, 1,391 showed up to the party, almost half the total number of undergraduates. There will be nine Rice University police officers, approximately 120 student security personnel, Emergency Medical Service volunteers on hand and three carts to transport people back to their colleges at the end of the evening organized by the College Assistance Peer Program.

This Week in Photos

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RPC makes good choice with The National

Rice Program Council officially announced today that the band The National will perform Nov. 7 as part of Rice's homecoming weekend activities. With the live show on Friday, and the football game and Esperanza the next day, students should have more than enough activities in which to partake. In a staff editorial we wrote in September, we stated "the burden is now on RPC to go to students for ideas, to increase its visibility and prestige on campus . RPC has the chance to make itself one of the most active and most respected organizations at Rice" ("With great budget comes great responsibility" Sept. 19). The results to this point have been impressive, and we applaud RPC for its obvious efforts to break from the mold of previous years. It appears as though this year's homecoming and Esperanza will be more memorable than students are used to, and we cannot wait to see how they turn out.

Men's XC stumbles at Penn State

As head coach Vince Lombardi of the NFL's Green Bay Packers once said, "Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence." The excellence that the men's cross country team will be chasing this weekend will be in the form of the runners in orange from the University of Texas-El Paso and the runners in blue from the University of Tulsa. The Owls, Miners and Golden Hurricane will clash with the other members of Conference USA at the C-USA Championships held Saturday, Nov. 1 in Memphis, Tenn. The team continued their chase for the national championship meet last Saturday at the Penn State National in University Park, Penn. Oct. 10, a week earlier, the team competed at the Houston Baptist University Invitational in Houston.

Owls unable to recover from 7-point halftime deficit

Unfortunately for the Rice football team, it was the University of Tulsa's turn to beat an opponent by a truckload's worth of points. Just one week removed from trouncing the University of North Texas 77-20, the Owls fell hard to the Golden Hurricane's merciless offense and effective defense, losing by a 63-28 score. The two games shared a few characteristics - in both games the score was close at the beginning, and Jarett Dillard set a major wide receiver record. Despite Rice's defensive efforts, the score only stayed close for a half. The Owls and the Golden Hurricane exchanged scores for the first 28 minutes of the game to work a 14-14 tie, but Tulsa sneaked in one more touchdown with less than two minutes to play and headed into the break with a 21-14 lead.

Soccer earns second place with late game heroics

A record setting weekend for both the players on the field and the coach on the sideline has left the soccer team hanging on to second place in the Conference USA standings. With a difficult road trip ahead of them and only three points separating five teams from second place, late game heroics against Southern Methodist University and the University of Tulsa could not have been more timely. The Owls had only beaten SMU one time prior to their meeting on Friday and never at home. An early goal from sophomore midfielder Kate Edwards on a penalty kick given for a foul in the box gave the squad a 1-0 lead in the 16th minute.

Comic: Cingle Cellularity

PR campaign a move towards recognition

Times have changed for higher education. As competition for students, faculty and funding increases, so does the need to promote what sets an institution apart from others offering similar services. In interviews about Rice with hundreds of faculty, students, staff, alumni and community members last year, a common refrain was: "We need to make more people better aware of how good we are."The backpage agreed. On Nov. 30, 2007, the backpage asked: "Who knew it would take a university 95 years to start a severely needed PR campaign?" That piece complained that Rice has "spent our history dedicated to the idea of remaining some sort of cheap secret" but was glad it was starting to get in the game.

SA, presidents obliged to voice student opinion; Rice obligated to listen

Monday night, Dean of Undergraduates Robin Forman and Vice President for Finance Kathy Collins faced a Farnsworth Pavilion jam-packed with students and their representatives at the Student Association's weekly meeting (see story, page 1).Forman and Collins presented a rough description of and fielded questions about the future changes to Rice student organizations' finances.First of all, we would like to thank all of the students who attended the meeting. Any proposal with such wide-reaching ramifications as this one demands open and frequent communication between undergraduates and administrators, and those of you who voiced your opinions took important steps to facilitate that communication.

Letters to the Editor

Palin piece resorts to personal attacks

Former UN ambassador speaks on AIDS, rape crises in Africa

The world's problems never sit on the back-burner for too long before they hit home. Stephen Lewis, former Canadian ambassador to the United Nations and current UN secretary-general's envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa, spoke to a packed audience at the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy Thursday, Sept. 25, about the world's struggle to achieve the UN Millennium Development Goals. As part of the 2008 Global Health Technology Speaker Series, Lewis' speech entitled Race Against Time incorporated personal anecdotes, current statistics and raw emotion to capture the current situation in Africa."As long as Mr. Lewis continues his work, the world will know what AIDS will look like," Rebecca Richards-Kortum, director of Rice 360? and founder of Beyond Traditional Borders said in her introductory remarks.