The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 84, No. 21, Ed. 1 Friday, March 14, 1997 Page: 1 of 24
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VOLUME 84, NUMBER 21
TEQUttA ME MIKE
MARCH 14,1997
Senior portraits, posed all-college photos to be established
Angelique Siy
iVflM l illldf
The editors of the Campanile
have released the results of the sur-
vey distributed last semester, and
are taking the suggestions very seri-
ously in their planning for the com-
ing year. ,
" The main reason for doing the
survey was to let the student body
know that we were still here," Di-
recting Editor and Sid Richardson
College-senior Dan Newman said.
According to Newman, another
reason was to definitively answer
the questions: "Do you think Rice
should have a yearbook?", "Would
you be interested in a CD-ROM
supplement to the 1997 Campanile?"
and "Which option | hardcover or
paperback} would you prefer tor the
1997 Campanile?."
The final purpose of the survey
was to get a feeling for what student
preferences were, Newman said.
J ones C ol lege ju n ior Sarah C lark,
this year's photo editor and next
year's editor in chief, said that the
second part of the survey, whi^h
had students rank the sections of
the yearbook, was helpful in rework-
ing the yearbook's focus.
"Whenever we got the su rvey re-
sults back, people were fairly inter-
ested in having individual ^portraits
made," Clark said. "It would take
way too many days to do the whole
student body, and to do the entire
student body, we'd have to cut out
Picture Yourself—so we decided to
just do senior portraits."
Picture Yourself, a Rice tradition,
allows students to pose in any way
they choose, with any caption they
want. It was ranked higher overall
than individual portraits.
SRC senior and Co-Art Director
Chris Sanders explained that the
rating of 14 sections, such as "Stu-
dent Life," "College Activities,"
"Graduation," "Music & Theater,"
"Club Group Photos" and "Faculty
and Administration," was not scien-
tifically done.
Each section was ranked on a
completely separate scale of one to
five, with five being the most liked
and one being least liked, so stu
, dents were not asked to evaluate
sections in relation to each other.
"We weren't asking people if they
wanted club activities instead of col-
lege, group photos," Sanders said.
"We wanted to know what they liked
and didn't like. What we were able to
glean was that inclusion is good —
individuality is good. Stuff thai
makes the Campanile different from
a high school yearbook is good."
One of the new additions, senior
portraits, has already been sched-
uled for April 9-10.
"Although we haven't decided, it
probably won't be suit-and-tie, but
we're not going to be fascists about
SE£ 'CAMPANILE.' PAGE 4
RFC alcohol violation case dropped
Joel Hardi
Staff Writer
Will Rice College senior and Rice
I Yogram Council Internal Vice Presi-
dent. Mike Shannon can breathe
easier now that the case against him
on the charge of underage posses-
sion of alcohol was dismissed Feb.
26, when the Houston Police De-
partment officer responsible for the
case failed to appear at Houston Mu-
nicipal Court.
Shannon and WRC aIumnus Arpit
Shah, a senior at the time of the
incident, were caught in a Texas
Alcoholic Beverage Commission
undercover operation when they
went to Spec's Liquor Store on
Holcombe Boulevard to purchase
liquor for the RPC's Rodeo Party
Feb. 17, 1996, when Shannon was
RPC socials chair.
Shannon was then age 20 and
was thus cited for underage posses-
sion, while Shall, who was 21, was
cited for making alcohol available to
a minor. Shah's trial is scheduled to
be held on April 2.
Shannon strikes a victorious pose.
Shannon and Shah were cited
despite the fact that Shannfih was
carrying the Campus Police form
authorizing alcohol at the Rodeo
Party and offered to call the Campus
Police so that they could explain.
"TheTABC agent told me she didn't
care 'what these Rice policemen had
Spring elections begin at noon on Friday and run until noon on
Wednesday, March 19.
Vote for S&mmy the Owl, RPC secretary, Honor Council at-iarge
representatives, University Court at-large representatives and a U.
.Court constitutional revision.
Students can vote from any networked computer on campus including
UNIX machines or Macintosh computers in college computer labs.
Go to the Rlceinfo homepage (http://www.ric0.edu) and follow the
link to the spring elections page.
Beer-Bike is Saturday. The following events are i
Parade 11:46 a.m.
Alumni hace A p.m.
Women's Race 2 p.m.
Men"* Race • 3 p«m
The inner Loop will be closed from 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday
for the Beer-Bike Parade/Cars parked on the Innef.Loop during this
time will be'towed. \
Mil I .111.1... Ill I I .. I.IM.to I.. I ..M.l 1 III I.
signed,"' Shannon said, adding that
the TABC agents refused to give
their names or even the address of
the TABC office, 'i don't think they
wanted to deal with any of our big
words," he said.
^ Associate Director of the Student
Center Lisa Jones, also an adviser to
the RPC, drew a distinction between
Rice's' "inside the hedges" policy
authorizing the presence of alcohol
at the party and any authorization of
Shannon to purchase the alcohol.
Referring lo Shannon's Campus
Police form, Jones said "that piece
of paper means nothing outside the
hedges."
"I felt immune with my paper-
work and knowing 1 was doing the
right thing for the university," Shan-
non explained.
Once charged, Shannon and
Shah expected help -from the
university's general counsel but
were disappointed
Jones characterized the
university's reaction as offering sup-
port "from tbe standpoint that 'we're
sorry that it happened' but Rice never
set SHANNON. PAGE: 4
Arafat greets the crowd before speaking on peace in the Middle East
Rice hosts Arafat
Fellsa Yang
A \ \ fh iV/'vv.v tiitilur
Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat
spoke of his commitment to the
peace process in the Middle East
in front of a large gathering of
students, faculty and Houston
community members on March
5. Despite a two-hour delay in
Arafat's arrival, approximately
1,000 people packed into the
Grand Hall and Surrounding over-
flow rooms.
In his brief speech, Arafat em-
phasized the importance of the
peace process for thi1 future of
both the Israeli and Palestinian
people.
"We are completely commit-
ted to the peace process," Arafat
said. "And in spite of all the diffi-
culties we are facing, it is a noble
target. not for us, not for Israelis,
T>ut for our children. Avery noble
target."
In the same speech, however,
Arafat also condemned Israeli
plans for a housing project in Lasi
Jerusalem, citing it as dangerous
and illegal.
Shon Agarwal, a sophomore
a I Will Rice College, felt that
Arafat was difficult to understand
because of his poor English. Sin-
also felt that the speech itself w as
insubstantial, although the event
was an important one for Rice
" [ Arafat 1 was-really emphatic
about everything he said."
Agarwal said. "I could tell that In
was really excited about it. But 1
had trouble finding substance in
his speech.
"It's really cool that he came
and talked to us, though." she
said.
"Just the fact that we're get-
ting more high-profile speakers
is helping our image nationwide.
It's a good experience for stu
.dents because they get to hear
other views," she said.
Chandran Seshagiri, a WRC
senior, also fell, that Arafat's
speech brought nothing new to
$££ ARAFAT PAGE. 6
F&E cleans acid spills, sewage floods
■ ^
Michael Castillo
A.\st. News Editor
Facilities and Engineering has
responded to two serious problems
in the last two weeks, one during
midterm recess and another on
Tuesday.
A spill of hydrochloric acid on
the evening of March 4 resulted in
the temporary loss of power for over
half of the university.
According to Jim Riley, opera
lions manager of Central Plant, about
200 gallons of HCI was spilled onto
the plant floor, as a result of a leaky
gasket, during a routine cleaning of
one of the boilers.
lire resulting spill did not cause
any immediate damage n> equip-
ment, but a portion of theHCl did
flow underneath the electrical gear
of the control center. Hie poster
outage was necessary so that a crew
could, without the danger of electro-
cution, pull out breakers of the elec-
trical equipment, clean up the spill
and repaint some equipment to pre-
sent further corrosion.
The outage, which occurred on
the night of March 7, lasted for ap-
proximately five hours and affected
all of Will Rice, Sid Richardson.
Hanszen, Wiess, Baker and l.ovett
colleges.
According to Riley, the 11 oust on,
Fire Department was called at one
point during th«K^>aning of the spill
when a brief flare-up occurred after
some HCI came in contact with an
extension cord.
"It's been a major inconvenience,
but there was no one injured or hurt."
Riley said.
Despite this inconvenience. Cen
tral Plant never shut down; monitor-
ing and control equipment weft sim-
ply relocated to another area during
the cleanup. Riley said.
In an unrelated incident, lues-
day morning the Cohen House base
^ ment Hooded whett onleldi
sewage lines that serves the Inner
lx>op areas of campus backej up.
The sewage line, which runs un* f,
derground from Baker College and
around the Inner Loop to Anderson
Hall, has an outlet underneath the " I
basement of Cohen House which is
where the flooding began.
"There was a blockage in the
sewer that runs under College Way.
which Cohen House|'s line] flows
into," Russel Price, Facilities and
Engineering maintenance manager,
said. Tfiey had to pay a hi^li-pres-
sure vacuum sewer truck to clear
out the pocket of grease that was
causing the blockage. According to
Price, the blockage was cleared by
Tuesday afternoon.
Student waiters noticed the flood-
ing around 10:30 a.m. when they
attemper! to enter the dressing
rooms before their lunch shifts
Brown College freshman
Amanda Mortl, one of the student
waiters, said. "It didn't inconve-
e*
tremelv foul."
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Beard, Marty & Rao, Vivek. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 84, No. 21, Ed. 1 Friday, March 14, 1997, newspaper, March 14, 1997; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth246563/m1/1/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.