The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 84, No. 4, Ed. 1 Friday, September 20, 1996 Page: 1 of 24
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Usman Baber
Sniff Writer
On Tuesday and Wednesday,
Rice hosted a distinguished group
of State Department guests through
the United States Information
Agency's Young Leaders and
America Program. The purpose of
the program is to bring together
potential future leaders from across
the world to get a firsthand look at
American society and culture.
Rice has hosted visitors through
the USIA in the past, but this is the
first time that the group consisted
mostly of undergraduate and recent-
graduate-aged visitors. The del-
egates and their native countries
were Mouni Alili, Algeria; Omar
Yousef Ababneh, Jordan; Maliha El-
Sadr, Lebanon; Said Naoui, Mo-
rocco; Faisal Bin Fahad Jassim Al-
Thani, Qatar; Abou El Ala Ghaouar,
Tunisia; Boubaker Tahri, Tunisia;
and Obaid Omran Ali Al-Shamsi,
United Arab Emirates. Rice, through
University Relations personnel (ireg
Marshall and Sue Hutchinson, was
the last of four universities hosting
this group.
During their two-day visit here
the delegates learned about Rice
through discussions with leaders of
various student organizations and
by meetings with other faculty, stu-
dents and staff. The role of the uni-
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Natural Sciences 101 gets a makeover, helped in part by the new Gardiner Symonds Teaching Laboratory
Located on Fondren Library's second floor, the fully multimedia facility enables students to follow along with
Professor John Freeman as he navigates the World Wide Web. The ceiling-mounted video camera projects
class notes onto the room's large center screen. The amoeboid desk arrangement was designed to foster
discussion and cooperation among students — a far cry from the sturdy wooden rows of the Physics
Laboratory lecture hall. The room will soon be fully functional, complete with cutting-edge video conferencing
technology. There is one thing it lacks, though: a chalkboard.
Angelique Siy
News Editor
Rice's complex system of card
and key access should become much
simpler by next April. Right now,
students, faculty and staff must keep
track of their Rice identification
cards, a temporary card-key (used
in the newest card readers) and vari-
ous regular keys for access to rooms,
college facilities, elevators, stair-
wells, offices and other campus
buildings.
"We're switching over to access
cards for the colleges, mainly to
eliminate the exterior keys," Man-
ager of Residential Colleges Bob
Truscott said. In past years, main-
taining and reeoring locks for exter-
nal keys alone cost $ 11,000 per year;
Food and Housing spent about
$9,000 on upkeep for Other locks,
The new card readers, manufac-
tured byj^
installed at most college stairwells,
community bathrooms and com
puter facilities; more will be set up
for the rest of campus.
"We're upgrading to keep up with
the change in technology which will
allow faster access service," Cam-
pus Police Chief Mary Voswinkel
said. "But that won't be ready for
some time," For now, new students
or those who have lost their cards
are being issued the same kind qf ID
that has been used since 1986. For
more than 10 years, Rice has been
using card access systems made by
the Die Bold Co.
The difference between the new
ancUold ID cards will be in the mag-
netic strip on the back. Current IDs
use two tracks within the strip, one
for meal plans, one for card access.
The new cards will add a third track
for the Best Lock card readers.
The card access system upgrade
comes at a convenient time since
Rice has several new buildings to
incorporate into the network, and
the demands of a growing student
body call for a more flexible .^conve-
nient system. Truscott said that
Fondren Library will be converting
from a bar code system to using one
Marty Beard
Editor in Chief
For students with no cash but
an ample meal plan, there's now
an alternative to Sammy's and
Central Kitchen. The Coffee-
House's new card reader gives
students the option of paying
for all refreshments from the
CoffeeHouse u&ing their meal
plan.
The CoffeeHouse card reader
was originally requested by the
Student Association Senate. It
was approved for use by the Food
and Housing Oversight Commit-
tee fojr this semester and has been
fully operational since the Cof-
feeHouse reopened this fall.
"It's agood service to offer.the
students," Food and Housing Di-
rector Marion Hicks said, adding
that F&H in no way controls the
CoffeeHouse as a result of the
card reader. Students do not need
to add money to their room and
board plans for this service.
-- XoffeeHouse profits pay the
costs of keeping and maintaining
the card reader. There is a main-
tenance fee that equals 10 per-
cent of the machine's value. Cur
rently, for every dollar charged
on the card reader, $0,025 goes
to F&H.
All CoffeeHouse goods cost
the same regardless of payment
option chosen; the last set of price
increases was made during the
spring semester of 1996 and had
nothing to do with the card
reader's installation,
CoffeeHouse workers believe
that the new card reader is a posi-
tive option. CoffeeHouse Public-
ity Manager Frank Thome said,
"Many students are frequently
cash-poor or cash-broke, or con-
sider meal points 'cheaper' than
cash. The presence of a card
reader should make the Coffee-
House more accessible to stu-
dents, and this is our biggest
goal,"
CoffeeHouse General Man-
agerRustyHolleman agrees with
Thbrae/
"Now that we have this addi-
tional payment option, we hope
students come by and use it."
"While there are still more
people paying with cash, I
wouldn't be surprised at all if this
changes as more people find out
that they can pay with their plan,"
Holleman said.
SA retreat sets new
Fellsa Yang
A'cm v Ed not
of the tracks on ID cards.
It) addition, Truscott said that
Rice has purchased software from
Die Bold to allow cardholders to
have credit and debit accounts. "I
don't know for sure, but the univer-
sity will probably say that you must
have a cash balance," Truscott said.
He agreed that Rice is probably re-
luctant to offer credit lines because
it would not want to become a collec-
tion agency.
"But our first priority is access
, control," Truscott said. "Our sec-
ond is ... with purchasing and I em-
ployee) time attendance, but it's
mainly a staff deal." A new staff ID
card might act as a punch card, auto-
matically recording time-in/out data.
The new system's installation and
equipment will cost $50,000, and
Truscott expects the system to pay
for itself after 2 1/2 years. So far,
"working out conversion issues" has
been the main delay, Truscott said.
"W®have over 10.000 cardholders.
We have to think "about iTic com
puter side of things. ...We want {the
new cards] to function normally ."
The Student Association Senate
met^with faculty and administration
last week at the annual fall SA retreat
in order to discuss numerous issues
that they felt were necessary to ad-
dress.
The retreat, traditionally held out
of town, took place in the Shepherd
School of Music.
This is the first time that the stu-
dents have met with the faculty to
jointly discuss issues at the retreat.
SA Internal Vice President Mike
Munson was impressed by the
faculty's participation.
"The most impressive thing was
that we got two deans and a pro-
vost," Munson said. "It's a sign of
increased communication between.
the administration and students."
SA President Mary an a lskander
said, "It's att important credit to the
university to recognize the fact that
few other university administrations
would come in on a weekend.
'The faculty must be commended
forsharingtheir honest assessments
of students," lskander said. "I haven't
seen that kind ,of interaction since
I've been at Rice."
The group broke into several ses-
sions which addressed a wide range
of issues including the future of
Fondren Library, the revamping of
the introductory physics courses,
athlete/non-athlete relations, teach-
ing and the tenure system.
Several SA senators felt that the
highlight of the weekend was the
and the rewards system. According
to Munson. the session was "really
explosive," and involved a heated
discussion between Provost David
Auston and English Professor Den-
nis Huston. The discussion was
based on the argument over whether
teaching, in addition to research, is
properly considered when granting
.tenure.
According to Jones College jun-
ior Nate Blair, the panel conducted
"the most emotional discussion [he
had| ever seen happen at Rice.
"I think it shocked Auston to see
how students felt," Blair said. 'That's
agood thing because the direct con-
tact between students and adminis-
tration needs to happen more of-
ten."
lskander felt optimistic that sot'
of the recommendations and si
gestions made during the retreat
could be implemented within two
months. Blair expressed more cau-
tion in this regard .
"If things go like last year. 1 would
tend to say that not everything on
the list is going to get done," Blair
said. "But by giving more guidance
like they did this year, instead of
leaving it wide open, more will get
done."
Munson felt that this year's re-
treat differed from those of previous
years because it took a more active
stance on the issues.
"l-ast year, we did more of a gen*
eral brainstorming of a laundry list
of issues* and less development of
individual issues," Munson said. "At
this year's retreat, though, we cre-
ated a blueprint for changes to be
made."
Teddy Kapur, the Hans/en Col-
tivr weekend, but I only hope that
our many plans get carried out."
' 1
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Beard, Marty & Rao, Vivek. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 84, No. 4, Ed. 1 Friday, September 20, 1996, newspaper, September 20, 1996; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth246546/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.