The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 82, No. 26, Ed. 1 Friday, April 21, 1995 Page: 8 of 20
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8 FRIDAY, APRIL 21, 1995 THE RICE THRESHER
NEWS
Brown residents protest fines
by Patricia Lin
Cigarette burns in Brown
College's fifth floor carpet and a
$1,200 bill from Food and Housing
are cause for question about who is
responsible for damages incurred
during official college parties.
While the college has not yet re-
ceived the bill and list of damages
from Food and Housing, Brown cabi-
net members and residents of the
fifth floor have already met several
times to discuss the charges.
Food and Housing had replaced
all the carpeting on the fifth floor
over the summer because it had sus-
tained extensive damage from ciga-
rette burns over the previous years.
New burns appeared in the carpet
during the fall semester, however,
and F&H replaced the carpet in the
study lobby again over winter break.
"All the carpet was new at the
beginning of the year, and since we
wanted to protect the carpet, we de-
cided to replace the burnt section in
the study lobby," said BobTruscott,
project manager of the residential
colleges.
But the new section has been
burnt again. Damage extending half-
way down the west hall of the floor
will necessitate replacement of the
carpeting for the entire hallway. The
carpet in the study lobby and the
hallway will be replaced over the
summer.
"I have purchased enough car-
peting to redo the lobby and two
hallways even though we only need
carpet Tor one hallway. We're going
to keep that extra material in re-
serve, but of course, we're not going
to charge the college for that mate-
rial," Truscott said.
Smoking is prohibited in all aca-
demic buildings and offices, but the
colleges set their own smoking poli-
cies. Truscott said he hoped all the
Cigarette stains and burns in the carpets of Brown College's 5th floor have
become the source of much controversy.
colleges would prohibit smoking in
the rooms because of the potential
damage smoking can cause.
"It really smells up the rooms,
and in 1992, there was a fire at Jones.
Someone threw a lit butt in a trash
can and it caught fire.
The smoke did set off our seem-
ingly overactive fire alarms, though,
so we were able to contain it and
prevent too much damage,"Truscott
said.
Currently, the Brown court in-
tends to distribute the cost of the bill
evenly among the residents of the
fifth floor. Senior and fifth floor rep-
resentative Noah Dowd has con-
tested such a resolution, though,
because he believes the burns were
not caused by residents of the floor.
Fifth floor residents have proposed
that the charge be distributed evenly
to each member of the college.
Freshman Laura Duke, a fifth
floor resident, said, "There are two
groups of us involved in this: agroup
who don't go to the parties, don't
smoke, don't drink and maybe
haven't even seen the damage and
who shouldn't have to bear any
blame for this and a group who do go
to the parties but who didn't cause
the damage.
"Most of the damage happened
during official parties like Baccha-
nalia and College Night when non-
Brown and even non-Rice people
come here, so we want every mem-
ber of Brown to pay like a couple
dollars apiece instead of just each of
us on the floor paying like 80 bucks
apiece," she said.
Since the college has not yet re-
ceived an official bill, the cabinet has
been trying to resolve the situation
using the full amount of the carpet-
ing costs, $2,300.
"As I understand it, there isn't
even enough in [the Brown dam-
ages budget] to cover the cost of the
carpet, but they might help us out
with it," Duke said.
Brown Co-Master Jamie Haymes
said the college was still trying to
make a final decision although the
cabinet and court remain in consen-
sus that the fifth floor residents
should pay the bill.
"I just wish the people who did it
would come forward," Haymes said.
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HOUSTON ♦ LOS ANGELES ♦ CORK, IRELAND
Crime on Campus
Academic Buildings
Library Loading Dock
April 12
Car parked at loading dock
damaged
• Colleges
Wiess College
Will Rice College
April 10
March 30
Bicycle taken from bike rack
Sewing machine taken from
commons
cj •
Parking
FROM PAGE 1
is not worth it. Rice is a fairly small
campus, and the shuttle bus service
is too inefficient and irregular."
On Wednesday, Binford and
Radulescu met with SA and GSA
representatives.
The administrators pointed out
a number of problems with the
Senate's proposals.
One main problem is with the
universal fee recommendation.
Texas law prohibits employers from
garnishing their workers' salaries,
so a shuttle bus fee could not be
taken out of staff and faculty salaries
without their consent.
Without the fee applied to faculty
and staff as well as undergraduates
and graduate students, the result
would be that students would be
subsidizing the shuttle bus service.
This is similar to the problem that
the Senate was trying to correct by
passing the resolution.
Radulescu presented numbers
showing that even with the $10 fee,
parking fees for close-in lots set at
$90 and no stadium parking fees, the
shuttle bus system would still run a
$8,541 operating deficit for the next
fiscal year.
Binford agreed with the portions
of the resolution that asked for an
experienced transportation man-
ager, likely to be Radulescu, to take
over the job of running the buses.
He also said that he would favor
moving more of the parking func-
tion which currently falls under his
office to a parking committee. The
resolution called for the creation of a
standing committee on parking.
Munson said, "The reality of the
situation is that it is too late to make
a major overhaul this year. We have
not collected enough data from all of
the groups involved. Most likely,
students will end up paying $96 for
close-in parking and $12 for stadium
parking next year.
However, we are only accepting
this as a temporary measure. Hope-
fully, in the future, we will create a
more permanent plan that incorpo-
rates some of the fundamental ideas
of our proposal this year."
Binford said that he would prefer
not to be "judge, jury and execu-
tioner," on parking issues. He cited
other universities, like Southern
Methodist University in Dallas,
which have parking appeals handled
through an appeals board contain-
ing students.
Binford said that changes to the
parking fee structure and shuttle
bus service will take some time to
implement.
Lawsuit
FROM PAGE 1
on his visit to Rice.
• The police had been summoned
to his residence on several occa-
sions.
Phillips is only 5*10" tall, and he
states that the police visited him
frequently only because he "kept
the police informed of events occur-
ring in his neighborhood."
Phillips' suit is based on what his
petition describes as Rice's "com-
mon law duty to use ordinary carie...
to ensure that the police department
carried out its duties in a safe, thor-
ough, professional manner consis-
tent with the rights of each member
of this society."
Rice General Counsel Shirley
Redwine declined to discuss the
details of the case but did say that
Rice believes Phillips' suit is un-
founded and that the university,
which has filed a general denial with
the Harris County Court, will re-
spond by "defending the matter vig-
orously."
SRC's balconies
opened again
, by George E. FJatoun
The balconies at Sid Richardson
College were scheduled to be re-
opened yesterday after being shut
for two weeks. They had been closed
because a large papier-mache
elephant's head was thrown off SRC's
fourth floor balcony.
The balconies were closed by
Food and Housing at the request of
SRC's Council, which had previously
announced that if another object was
thrown off of one of the balconies,
they would be shut f^ r the two-week
period.
The balconies were shut in De-
cember of last year after a block of
dry ice crashed through one of the
sliding glass doors of the Will Rice
College Master's House.
Other objects have been thrown'
off the college's balconies this year,
including beer bottles and a small
refrigerator according to SRC mem-
'bees present at a Council meeting
March 11.
No one has been publicly accused
of any of the crimes.
Houston city ordinances prohibit
the throwing of objects from high-
rises, including the SRC tower. Rice
policy also prohibits such acts, which
are punishable by the rustication of
the offender.
When a person is rusticated, he
or she is not allowed to live on cam-
pus or to spend time on campus,
except to attend classes.
The elephant's head was thrown
off of the balcony and landed in the
shrubbery below. The head, along
with the rest of the stuffed animal,
was reportedly taken by a SRC mem-
ber, acting alone, from the Lovett
College commons.
A Lovett member had apparently _
stolen the figure from the Shriner%
Circus, which according.to Lovett
freshman Cfiris Gouge, helps physi-
cally and mentally disadvantaged
children.
SRC President Joel Grus said in
the "rice.sid.general" that the
elephant's theft was not a sanctioned
college activity.
"In regards to the elephant, don't
look at it as Sid stole the elephant.
Look at it as 'some idiots stole the
elephant,'" he said.
Believe me, I'm as pissed about
the whole elephant situation as you
are," he said.
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Klein, Charles & Rao, Vivek. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 82, No. 26, Ed. 1 Friday, April 21, 1995, newspaper, April 21, 1995; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth246511/m1/8/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.