The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 85, No. 2, Ed. 1 Friday, September 5, 1997 Page: 1 of 16
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STILL HATE UZY LABOR DAY OFF
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Arborist Jack Spann talks to an unidentified rtian while arborist Juan Alejandro begins to saw branches away to clear the
road after a delivery truck collided with a tree on-the Inner Loop in front of Herring Hall at noon on Thursday.
tree
Driver misjudges clearance; $10,000-15,000 in estimated damage
Rom Wilde
Copy EdHiir _
One of Rice's live oak trees lost a
limb Thursday when it was hit by a
delivery truck .traveling along the
Inner Loop.
At 11:45 a.m., an OvernightTrans-
portation Company truck tore a large
limb off of an 80-year-old tree which
shades the north side of the Inner
Loop between Herring Hall and
Wieas College. The driver mis-
judged ibm height of the low-hang-
ing Kmb and of his truck, Campus
Police Officer Robert Redman said.
The truck's upper frame was also
damaged.
Arborist Juan Alejandro wit-
nessed the accident from his
groundskeepiag truck while he was
driving behind the delivery vehicle.
Alejandro said the truck hit the limb
while trying to pass a car blocking
the Wiess side of the street.
Troy Genzer, Jesse H. Jones
Ciiraduate School of Business '97,
wail the owner of the black Honda
whkJh blocked the right side of the
road. He had temporarily stopped
his car, leaving,the hazard lights on.
and was inside Herring Hall when
the accident occurred. His car had
no visible damage. "A couple more
feet and I would have had a nice tree
ornament on my hood," Genzer said.
Genzer left the scene after the
road was cleared enough to allow
safe passage. His was the only ve-
hicle allowed to pass through the
scene of the accident; the Campus
Police detoured traffic approaching
the accident onto Alumni Drive.
The delivery truck driver de-
clined to comment on the accident.
Several Facilities and Engineer-
ing staff members came to the scene
to estimate the extent of the damage
and to clear the wreckage of the
limb safely from the road. Alejandro
and Arborist Jack Spann immedi-
ately started clearing the tree limb
from the road and the delivery truck,
using ropes and chain saws. They
could not estimate thg damage on
the scene but said that the tree con-
sultant would determine the cost by
the number of damaged linear feet
of the tree. "I can tell you (thatJ it's
not going to be cheap," Spann said.
The full cost of the damage, the
clean-up and tree replacement, if
needed, will be billed to the delivery
truck's insurance company, accord-
ing to Facilities Manager Eusebio
Franco. Franco, Groundskeeping
staff and an outside tree consultant
will'estimate tffe total bill by Mon-
day.
. Franco said that the university
pays special attention to the protec-
tion and maintenance of its trees.
"(Rice University] employs two full
time arborists to care for the cam-
pus' tree population exclusively,"
Franco said. "It takes a long time to
grow a tree this size."
"It is a very higb. [university) pri-
ority to keep the old trees healthy
and to plant new ones as well."
Grounds Superintendent Ron Smith
said.
Should the damage to the tree
prove fatal, the replacement cost
could be as high as $10,000 or
$15,000, according to Smith. "(The
tree| is really irreplaceable because
you can't bring in a tree of that size,
[The tree consultants] have to put a
dollar amount on it... and they try to
replace it with whatever size of t ree
you can get in there," he said.
Rice has approximately 4,000
trees on campus, half of which are
live oaks.
Refusal of on-campus housing leads to
0-Week shutdown of ethernet services
Maya Batakrishnan
News Editor
Information Technology had no
choice but to shut down campus
network connections in college
rooms during Orientation Week af-
ter the O-Week Steering Committee
refused college computing associ-
ates permission to stay on campus.
The Thresher reported Jast week
that connections had to be turned
off so that the dynamic host configu-
ration protocol could be reset. But
IT did not reset the DHCP until last
Friday, after having shut off ethernet
connections for thewhole week.
Lastjune'sdecisiontodeny com-
puting associates (student computer
advisors) on-campus housing ulti-
mately made it impossible for the
necessary computer maintenance to
be completed before or during O-
Week. According to Sid Richardson
College Master Penny Bennett, a
subcommittee of the O-Week steer-,
ing committee was responsible for
all initial decisions regarding on-
campus housing during O-Week.
"They looked at applications based
on criteria, and the decisioli was
made based on [that criteria 1," she
said. The computing associates did
not show enough need to stay on
campus for all of O-Week, she said.
In June; t he Steering Committee
informed IT that alt requests had
been denied. One source said that
Consulting Specialist Robert
Fullmer, who was responsible for
the on-campus housing request for
computing associates, told them to
appeal to their masters and college
O-Week coordinators for permission
to stay on campus. Brown comput
ing associate and junior Michael
Wakin was one of eight computing
associates who successfully gained
permission to move oh-campus
early.
Originally, IThad hired students
as college computing associates to
help with networking, and they
planned to house computer associ-
ates for two weeks before classes
began: the first week to learn the
ropes of their job, and the second
week, O-Week, to help freshmen
SEE COMPUTING PAGE 4
Vonnegut to speak at
1998 commencement^
Byron Chen
( >mtnbuh*r
Writer Kurt Vonnegut will de
liver the commencement address at
next spring's 86th Commencement
after he accepted President Malcolm
Gillis' invitation in August.
Two years ago, Gillis formed a
student selection committe to rec-
ommend speakers for 1998 com-
mencement, which will be held
May 9.
The committee distributed sur-
veys in the colleges asking the Class
of 1998 whom they wanted to deliver
the commencement address, com-
mittee member and Baker College
senior Yolanda Beltran said.
Vonnegut was on the short list of
names they sent to Gillis, who then
picked Vonnegut.
Coincidentally, Rice selected
Vonnegut on the heels of an Internet
hoax that credited him with deliver-.
rng a commencement address to
Massachusetts Institute ofTechnol-
ogy students which began wit h: "la-
dies and gentlemen of the class of
'97: Wear sunscreen."
The speech was actually pub-
lished June 1 by Chicago Tribune
columnist Mary Schmich. Thou-
sands of online users were fooled by
the column because its style closely
mirrored that of Vonnegut,
Considered by many critics to he
among the best of American con-
temporary'writers, Vonnegut prima-
rily writes science fiction and satire.
His books include the highly-praised
Cat's Cradle and Breakfast of Cham-
pions. He is best known for Slaugh-
terhouse Five, a historical novel de-
scribing a soldier's experience# in
World War II. The author lias earned
honors including the Guggenh
Fellowship in 1907, a National I
tuteof Arts and Letters grant in 1
and the Ljterary Lion Award in 1981
"I think it's really cool to have
someone like Vonnegut speak at
graduation," Beltran said, "He is
pretty well-known name.''
i'm pleased as punch,!|
and I am looking
forward to hearing his |
speech. 1 expec t great
things from it.'
— SA President Daryl Shorter
'
SA President Daryl Shorter, who
served on the student committee,
was enthusiastic about Vonnegut's
selection. "I'm pleased as punch, and
1 am looking forward to hearing his
speech. I expect great things from
it."
Shorter added that the author f§
was one of the biggest names to
speak at Rice's commencement in
years. While there are plenty of stu-
dents who have never read any
works by Vonnegut, Shorter said
that students were not disappointed
by the selection.
Jones College senior Gregg *
Miller was equally pleased with
Vonnegut's selection. He is a "great 11'
author with a quirky style," Miller
said.
Campus Police now able
to issue Houston tickets
Campus speed limit raised to 20 mph
1
Esther Sung
(\ Hlf ihlllift
Rice police officers now have ju-
risdiction over people who are not
members of the Rice community and
commit moving violat ions (i.e., drive
faster than the speed limit or fail to
stop at a stop sign) on the Rice cam-
pus.
The added police power is
granted by a new law amending the
Transportation Code of the City of
Houston and Sept. 1 changes to the
Campus Police traffic policy.
"Rice has always had trouble with
people speeding and cutting through
campus from Shepherd Street to
University Boulevard to get to the
Medical Center," Parking Commit-
tee member and Sid Richardson
College senior Thomas Hutchinson
said. In addition to the problems of
reckless driving and endangering
pedestrians, Campus Police have
also had difficulty enforcing tickets
they issue to people who are not
Rice students or employees. Up till,
now, they have been handicapped'
by a jurisdiction restricted to the
Rice campus and the people.associ-
ated with it.
Underrhe provisions of thenew
law, the Cajppus Police now "have
the authority to issue and use traffic
tickets and summons in a form pre-
scribed by the Texas Department of
Public Safety." The tickets will fall
under the jurisdiction of the HPD.
The city and county courts will
handle the tickets just like any other
ticket issued on regular Houston
streets. j >
"Folks come onto campus to cut
through our property and that
makes it hard for us to protect our
communitf." Assistant Police Chief
Tom Bickers said. "The [city] legis-
lature understands this problem and
is giving us help [to keep it under
control]." /
The Campus Police emphasize
that the new policy was instituted
only with the best interests of the
students and employees of Rice in
mind. Since revenues collected from
moving violation fines are paid di-
rectly to the City of Houston, nei-
ther Rice University nor its police
department stand to benefit finan
cially from issuing HPD tickets.
According to the Campus Police,
this law benefits the Rice commu
nity. "The point of the new law is not
to raise money, but to change or
modify [potentially dangerous traf-
fic! behavior so students and fotherj
people can feel comfortable about
waking' afountToncampiis," Biek-
ers said.
The law targets only those traffic
SEE TICKETS PAGE 4
111!
s *
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Hardi, Joel & Siy, Angelique. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 85, No. 2, Ed. 1 Friday, September 5, 1997, newspaper, September 5, 1997; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth246578/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.