The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 75, No. 16, Ed. 1 Friday, January 22, 1988 Page: 1 of 20
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HP
WRESHER
Volume 75, Number 16
Fast. Hot. Fresh.
Friday, January 22,1988
Food and Housing's relocation upsets Baker
by Anu Bajaj
Food and Housing moved into its
new facilities in the Baker Training
Table area earlier this week. This
move follows a long and controver-
sial conflict between Baker College
members and the administration.
The Baker College Cabinet sub-
mitted a proposal to Vice President
for Administration William Akers
New Beer-Bike rules
drop grad students
by Sue Yom
The Beer-Bike Committee re-
turned a unanimous vote January 12
in favor of altering current rules gov-
erning graduate student participation
in the annual Beer-Bike Race. The
final decision was that graduate stu-
dents would not be permitted to ride
on the residential colleges' teams af-
ter this year. A similar amendment to
Beer-Bike regulations was proposed
last year by the committee but did not
gain sufficient momentum to be put
into effect.
Wide-spread concern over gradu-
ate student participation prompted the
committee's response. Though en-
couraged to bike for the Graduate
Student Association, graduate stu-
dents could opt to ride under a college
banner if affiliated closely with a
certain residential college. A few
particularly talented bikers in the past
few years have elicited complaints on
the grounds that graduate students
have significantly affected final
standings.
According to Beer-Bike Commit-
tee Chairman John Crouch, "No col-
lege voted for the rules as they are
now. Basically, what we're trying to
get away from is the same teams
winning year after year. I think that
current regulations have detrimen-
tally affected the competitive bal-
ance."
Lovett College and Will Rice Col-
lege have performed successfully in
recent competitions. Several mem-
bers of the Beer-Bike Committee
noted these as examples in which
graduate student participation had
given teams a competitive advantage.
The Graduate Student Association
has traditionally fielded weak teams.
The Beer-Bike Commitee concurred
that the lack of competition from the
GS A was an important consideration
at the meeting.
"There isn't a women's team due to
lack of interest. The [graduate] men's
team prides itself on coming in last.
Last year, there was a race between
Sid [Richardson College] and the
GS A to see who could come in last. I
believe that the GSA pushed the Sid
team over the finish line," recalled
Croucher.
Seth Brubaker, Will Rice graduate
student and Beer-Bike representa-
tive, admitted that the GSA would
improve under the new regulations,
though he opposed the changes. "The
GSA will definitely improve. There
will obviously be more parity. The
see Beer-Bike, page 4
last semester. The proposal requested
that the room be given to Baker Col-
lege to help preserve Baker Library
from abuse and overuse. The cabinet
had proposed that the room be con-
verted into a computer room or a
public dining room. Baker also
wished to preserve the Baker Library
because the State of Texas had been
considering naming it a historic
building.
Many Baker College members
became angry when Akers turned
down the proposal and Food and
Housing began construction to move
into Baker from its offices in the Rice
Memorial Center Cloisters. During
the construction, five of Baker's thir-
teen parking spaces were taken from
the Baker students for Food and
Housing. Many other spaces were
also blocked as a result of the con-
struction.
"The College hated it. They took
our spots away. We had to wait for
spots in the Allen Center lot., and the
construction workers blocked the
spots we had," said one Baker College
member.
Akers defended his decision to
move Food and Housing into Baker,
saying the move will bring Food and
Housing closer to the colleges and
make it better able to serve the needs
of the students. The room also was
never Baker's property, according to
Akers.
"It was never Baker's room. The
decision had already been made, be-
fore we received the cabinet's pro-
posal, to hold the room for Food and
Housing several years ago. The
people in Baker had been told at the
time, but unfortunately they aren't the
same people now. The previous mas-
ter and, I thought, the current master
were aware of this decision," said
Akers.
Baker College was disappointed
with this decision since it desperately
needed the extra space.
"We were disappointed with that
decision. We felt that since this area is
underneath Baker rooms, adjacent to
Baker lot, and connected to Baker
commons, it should be for Baker use,"
Baker College president Andy Kop-
plin said.
Construction was not scheduled to
begin until the summer, but Food and
Housing was then informed that it
would have to move out of the Clois-
ters this semester. As a result, con-
struction was begun immediately.
Says Akers, "When we discovered
that we had to move out of the Clois-
ters, we had to prepare now. We
couldn't wait until the summer."
The construction disturbed many
Baker College members because of
the noise, the inconvenience, and the
lost study time. Several students
complained to Akers, who referred
them to Director of Food and Housing
Marion Hicks. Hicks had construc-
tion stopped until the semester was
over.
Then several of Baker's scarce
parking spaces were taken for Food
and Housing. Kopplin then took sev-
eral measures to get some spaces in
the Allen Center lot allotted to Baker.
The students believe that Hicks
was not the one responsible for all of
the problems which they have been
having with Food and Housing.
see Baker, page 7
Senate to add new positions
by Elise Perachio
The Student Association Senate
discussed changing its constitution,
splitting the Vice President's office of
the Rice Program Council and the
progression of this year's Campanile
in their January 18 meeting.
SA President Kevin Gass proposed
two constitutional changes, claiming
that the S A was "one large legislative
body" with no executive branch. To
strengthen this branch, Gass pro-
Read the sign
• 3?
f
The library is devoid of life.
—Dingbat
posed that the position of secretary be
changed from an elected to an ap-
pointed position. This would allow
the president to remove the secretary
at his discretion if this person was not
"working up to par." The current
means of removal from office is
impeachment. He also suggested the
creation of an Executive Vice Presi-
dent as an assistant to the president
and editor of the SA newsletter. This
position would be appointed.
RPC President Rachael Giesber
announced their decision to split the
position of RPC Vice President into
two. One postion would be as Internal
Vice President to handle such items as
Beer-Bike and the calendar, while the
other would be as External Vice
President who would be in charge of
Esperanza, Rondelet and the speaker
series.
Giesber also said that the RPC will
hold a referendum for a blanket tax
increase for Beer-Bike. She said it
would increase the tax from $1 per
person to $2.50 per person since the
RPC pays out $3 per person "just for
the stands." She said the price for
stands has been going up over the past
two years but does not see it going up
in the near future. Plans are in the
works to obtain Anheuser-Busch as
this year's sponsor. Beer-Bike has
been unsponsored in the past.
Campanile editor Lawrence
Cowsar reported that the Campanile
has changed publishers this year. The
new publisher is Taylor Publishing.
Cowsar said that the yearbook is
"running very much on schedule."
However, advertisement revenues
were "questionable" at this point in
time. He said, since the $14 they now
receive from each student under the
blanket tax does not cover the costs of
production, the yearbook staff is
"considering internally the possibil-
ity for a blanket tax increase,"
Bill Davis, Wiess President and
member of the Alcoholic Beverage
Advisory Committe, told the SA that
masters and presidents from each
college will select five members of
their college who are "well versed in
the alcohol policy and are respon-
sible" to give reports about parties
which they will be assigned to attend.
These reports will state how well the
party sponsor complied with the alco-
hol policy but will not give specific
names.
In other business, the SA voted to
not lobby for changes in the current
system of registering and turning in
pass/fail and add/drop slips in person.
Gass, however, said he felt the wait
was unnecessary, especially in the
case of pass/fail slips.
Students will vote January 31 on
recommendations concerning the
SA's proposed calendar for the 1988-
89 school year.
SA Senators will be looking for
people who want to fill the new posi-
tion of disciplinary ombudsman.
These students will be trained by
University Court members to help
enforce the Rice Judicial Code.
Gass said that the new intramural
field should be ready by next fall. It
will be located across the street from
where the new Shepherd School
building will be built. He said that
lights for the Brown tennis courts and
for intramural fields are being re-
paired. Also, the S A newsletter is due
out February 1. The S A approved the
admission of the Rice Ballet Club
with one dissenting vote from Bill
Davis.
INSIDE:
Opinion: West Bank conflict,
page 2.
News: Refusnik gets visa,
page 5.
Feature: Annual pizza testing,
page 10.
Fine Arts: Jazz artist Billy Taylor,
page 9,
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Wucker, Michele. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 75, No. 16, Ed. 1 Friday, January 22, 1988, newspaper, January 22, 1988; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth245682/m1/1/?q=%22%22~1: accessed June 22, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.