The Rice Thresher, Vol. 96, No. 16, Ed. 1 Friday, January 16, 2009 Page: 2 of 20
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2 EDITORIAL
the Rice (Ihresher
Best value ranking sits a
little low for comfort
Rice has always been about getting a good education for the
best value. From the free-tuition policy that lasted more than 50
years after the university's opening day to the No. 1 "Best Value"
ranking in last year's Princeton Review, maintaining the ability
to educate students more effectively while charging less than
our competitors has been central in Rice's institutional goals
since day one. This is why we hope that Rice's placement of only
fourth-best on two separate best value lists is only temporary
(see story, page 1). It is true while we fell from the top spot in the
aforementioned Princeton Review, we did rise one slot from fifth
in Kiplinger's Personal Finance, but it might be worth asking:
why did we stop the ascent at number four?
Certain other universities took the spots ahead of us: Swarth-
more, Harvard and Princeton in the Princeton Review, and Cali-
fornia Institute of Technology, Yale and Princeton in Kiplinger's.
Most of these schools sport tens of billions of dollars in endow-
ment funds, and, consequently, no-loan thresholds higher than
the clouds — a factor to which both sets of rankings give great
weight. Rice has some reason to complain, though, since the
rankings came out before the administration announced a raise
in our own no-loan threshold from $60,000 to $80,000 ("Rice
modifies financial aid," Jan. 9).
Nevertheless, while Rice should by no means feel disgraced
for receiving a fourth-best ranking among a pool of several hun-
dred private institutes of higher learning, we feel that the more
lists we can top, the better. Any ranking in which we can best
schools like Harvard and Yale improves our national reputation,
and assists us in our struggle to the top of the collegiate heap.
Therefore, the administration should continue to prioritize mak-
ing Rice as good a value as possible, and hopefully when next
year's potential applicants flip through Kiplinger's or Princeton
Review, they will find Rice no farther down the page than the
very top.
International notability
a good sign
If it seemed like there were a lot more tour groups going
around than usual last semester, you probably were not imagin-
ing things. For the Fall 2009 incoming class, a record 10,818 pro-
spective students applied to matriculate at Rice, an 11.5% spike
from the 9,812 who sent in materials last year (see story, page 1).
But it is not just that more students were applying — approxi-
mately 28 percent oi those who applied early decision were of-
fered admission, a wide margin over last year's 24 percent who
were allowed in early. When this influx of new students arrive
on campus next year, there's also a higher probability that they
will be from somewhere other than the United States, as the
number of those applying from abroad was 28 percent higher
than last year.
Combined with the 63 percent spike in worldwide applicants
we saw last year, this glut of incoming internationals is a wel-
come change. But perhaps change isn't the correct word, as Rice
has long been viewed as having one of the best class-race in-
terrelations in the nation ("Princeton Review ranks Rice No. 2
for quality of life, race/class interaction," Aug. 22). Still, an in-
crease in diversity, regardless of whether or not we had already
attained a suitable level, is commendable.
Even more commendable, however, are the ambassado-
rial efforts of President David Leebron. Through his numerous
travels abroad, Leebron has fostered relationships with govern-
ments, universities, and prospective students alike, offering an
ever-more attractive vision of Rice to the slew of non-American
minds considering an education abroad. A huge influx of these
international students are coming from China, and while it is
possible that they may be choosing Houston just to get closer to
Yao Ming, we feel that Leebron's efforts might have more to do
with it. Increased visibility in the international arena will inevi-
tably lead to increased visibility at home, especially if those in-
ternational applicants become international scholars in today's
global, collaborative academic environment.
These international students are selecting Rice as their uni-
versity of choice, which seems to indicate that the effects of
Rice's recent drop in best value rankings are not too serious.
With the recent hike of the loan threshold, we can expect inter
national interest in Rice to continue to rise, and we are glad the
university has managed to keep foreign students interested even
with the worldwide financial troubles.
And although it may seem silly to a jaded student body, we
have to briefly admit the effect the marketing campaign has
clearly had in bringing newfound interest to Rice. Who knew?
the Ricv. Thresher
Friday, January 16,2009
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Rice overlooks out-of-state students
Over the last few years, we've seen
the introduction of a new campus-wide
marketing effort and new slogans and
taglines to broaden Rice's footprint
in the college market. The driving
motivation behind the implementa-
tion of all these changes was to break
Rice's regionalized reputation as the
"Harvard of the South" and to begin
to draw students more heavily from
schools outside of Texas. While some
say that the measures we have taken
as a university — making phrases like
"Unconventional Wisdom" and "Who
Knew?" the most prominent verbal as-
sociations with our name — are actu-
ally cheapening our reputation, that's
not the point of this article.
Sean McBeath
My point is that, for all the money
we're putting into advertising, we
should be experiencing tremendous
returns. But when I go home, most
people I talk to have never heard of
Rice, and half of those who have don't
know whether it's in Houston or Aus-
tin. Financing isn't the only support
that a project of this scale needs. If
we're really trying to draw out-of-state
students, the administration - with
the help of the Faculty Senate — needs
to make efforts to accommodate them.
There are a number of difficult
situations out-of-state students face
that the average Texan or Houstonian
doesn't really have to consider. The
slow shift of our summer break into
April, the newly-convoluted Metro Q-
card system and the late finalization
of the finals schedule are all examples
of minor things we see happening that
inconvenience out-of-state students
(and many in-state students as well).
Understandably, Houston is hot
during the summer, but the earlier
we end our spring semester, the ear-
lier we are forced to start again in Au-
gust. This year, I expect students who
want to advise during Orientation
Week will have to be back at Rice on
Aug. 11, which severely limits sum-
mer internship options.
In previous years, students have
received U-Passes and Q-Cards at their
colleges and never needed to renew
them (as we do, with the $10 cards
we get now). Since public transpor-
tation is crucial for students without
cars, we should be working to make
this system as simple and painless as
possible, instead of forcing students
to revisit the Cashier's Office to pick
up and renew their cards.
Finally, for anyone who doesn't live
within a day's drive of Rice, transpor-
tation around breaks is a big deal. Stu-
dents consistently lay down hundreds
of dollars for plane fares to get to and
from school on time while still spend-
ing as many days as possible with
their families. The cost is unavoidable,
but not knowing the finals schedule
until October makes it impossible for
students to book affordable round-
trip fares for the semester. Setting the
finals schedule before classes begin
would eliminate this concern.
There are certainly valid concerns in
the ruling bodies that deal with these
issues. Moving up the scheduling of fi-
nals. making our semester scheduling
match with more traditional calendars
and restoring the availability of public
transportation would certainly require
some logistical work, but it's time for
the administration to put its action
behind the move it says it's making. If
there is time to make registration on ES-
THER more complicated with each con-
secutive semester, there should be time
to tackle more pervasive problems.
The changes over the last few years
have not shown me that Rice is really
dedicated to addressing my concerns
as a current student. Everything from
this rash of construction (and the poor-
ly-handled student concerns surround-
ing it), the "inevitable" assimilation of
college and club funds into BANNER
and the usurpation of the "Student"
Admission Council tells me that Rice is
more interested in the Second Century
than the current century, as if the goal
of the Second Century was more impor-
tant than how we achieve that vision.
It would appear that President Da-
vid Leebron is banking on this genera-
tion of students passing quietly into
the night, after which he will recruit a
new class with no memory of the trou-
bles we've faced under this leadership.
But I think that our power as current
students is foolishly underestimated.
Coming from Washington, a state
that generally produces a small num-
ber of Rice students, I think it's fair
to say that I have done more for Rice
in terms of advertisement than how-
ever much money (if any) the univer-
sity has used to advertise there. The
word-of-mouth component is crucial
to Rice's marketing strategy, especial-
ly in places where few Rice students
live. It would really only take one
disgruntled student to turn an entire
high school away for years to come.
Instead of tackling the problems
most important to the administration,
we should make some of the changes
that will ease fransitions for out-of-state
students: align the summer breaks with
the June-August internship opportuni-
ties, bring back the Q-Cards, release the
finals schedule earlier and restore faith
that this is a school that anticipates stu-
dent concern and acts on it. And do it
now, so that when we open our doors
to increased number of students, we'll
boast not only a set of brand-new facili-
ties, but an administration that backs
up its promises to students with action
we will all appreciate.
So, we'll see what happens. Maybe
Rice will be true to its word and start
considering in its decision the out-of-
state students it so desperately claims
to want. My opinion? We'll see more
efforts to promote Rice on the basis of
"increasing the value of your degree"
instead of keeping this a place worth
living and studying.
Sean McBeath is a Martel College junior
and former Calendar editor.
Lily Chun & Dylan Farmer
Editors in Chief
NEWS
Catherine Bratic Editor
Margeux Clemmons Asst. Editor
Cindy Dinh Asst. Editor
Jocelyn Wright Asst. Editor
Zach Castle Designer
Kylie Klein Designer
Nick Morales Designer
OP-ED
Amanda Melchor Editor
Neel Shah Cartoonist
SPORTS
Natalie Clericuzio Editor
Yan Digilov Editor
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
Julie Armstrong Editor
Joe Dwyer Editor
COPY
Nick Schlossman Editor
Ryan Stic kney f ditor
Anna Wild*- Editor
CALENDAR
I imothy Faust Editor
PHOTOGRAPHY
David Rosales Editor
Ariel Shnitzer/lssf. Editor
Lauren Schoeffler >4ssf. Editor
WEB
John Michael Cuccia Editor
Stephen Wang Asst. Editor
BUSINESS
Sarah Mitchell Manager
Yvette Pan Payroll Manager
Jessie Huang Subscriptions Manager
Gustavo Herrera Distribution Manager
Sergio Jaramillo Distribution Manager
Charlie Ary Distribution Manager
ADVERTISING
Joseph Ramirez Ads Manager
Thomas Yeh Ads Manager
Cathleen Chang Classified Ads Manager
BACKPAGE
Timothy Faust Editor
Eric Doctor Editor
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Chun, Lily & Farmer, Dylan. The Rice Thresher, Vol. 96, No. 16, Ed. 1 Friday, January 16, 2009, newspaper, January 16, 2009; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth443051/m1/2/?q=Lamar+University: accessed June 6, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.