The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 85, No. 18, Ed. 1 Friday, February 13, 1998 Page: 1 of 24
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I'riday, February 13, 1998
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Council reforms trial procedures to
prevent repeat of last year's backlog
by Byron Chen
IHKFSHtKSTAFF
Assistant Dean of J udicial Affairs
Patricia Bass ordered the Honor
Council to dismiss six cases of al-
leged Honor Code violations last
December because it failed to try
the cases in a timely manner.
Because of a backlog of cases
from spring semester 1997, the coun-
cil had delayed some cases by as
many as five months.
Bass said, "Basically, I dismissed
the six cases for procedural reasons,
in the (interest Vof fairness. I did not
feel that the accused could receive a
fair trial," she said.
Honor Council chair and Ixjvett
College senior John Doll said that a
five-month delay was extreme, but
that it had been Caused by an un-
usual number of accusations late
last spring. "During finals period in
the spring of 1997, the council re
chived word of nine violations, a
number of them involving graduat-
ing seniors. These cases took prior-
ity over the others, and we ended up
postponing some of them until this
year," he said. Doll admitted that
such backlogs were unfair and said
that the council was already moving
to improve the trial procedure.
"In the past, as chair, 1 have had
to sit in on every case where 1 did not
know the accused, and that took a
lot of time. Now, both the internal
and external vice chairs will be able
to head some of the cases to relieve
some of the pressure on the chair,"
he said.
The dismissal of the cases high-
lighted some of the problems that
plagued the Honor Council la<jt se-
mester, including failure to reorient
upperclassmen to the code each year
and failure to educate faculty mem-
bers about the code.
Despite these problems, Bass
said, "1 am very.pleased with the
Honor Council right now. They are
accepting responsibilities and look-
ing very hard at themselves. This is
definitely not easy to do."
The council held forums at each
college to ask for feedback and in-
sight from individual students.
Council member and Jones Col-
lege junior Courtney Kelso said, "We
brought forums to the colleges so
that we, the council, could hear first
hand what people really felt about
the council, the code and its proce-
dures. The council hopes that these
forums will spark some debate on
campus about the philosophy be-
hind our code and ways in which we
can strengthen its validity in the
eyes of the students."
The council came under fire Jan.
29 at a Jones College forum when
students accused it of multiple pro-
cedural violations over the past year.
Jones senior Jon Gillum submit-
ted a report listing 13 problems he
found with the council.
Gillum served as a council mem-
ber in his freshmen and sophomore
years.
The list that he presented was
based on his observations as a coun-
cil member and on additional con-
cerns expressed by other students.
In addition to the six cases that
were thrown out, the list focused on
a professor who had been teaching
at the university for three years but
was still unfamiliar with the code.
See COUNCIL Pa«e 9
couHif'Sv mi uiACKWfiofn w
Plans for the Baker Building Included a fountain and plaza In front of the main entrance, but money for them
was not Included In funding for the building. Now, a gift has been secured and work should be underway on the
"Jamail Plaza" within two months, with completion scheduled for six months later. The plaza will include a
central paved area with a fountain as well as grassy squares with trees. The project will cost $1.5 million.
by Christof Spieler
THBFSHKR ht'ilTuklAI. STAF1
The Strategic Plan approved by
the Board of Governors in Decem-
ber calls for extensive spending on
new buildings and renovations ol'
old buildings. The result could be a
wave of construction on par with
the busiest building periods in the
university's history,
Simply being in the strategic
plan, of course, doesn't mean a build-
ing will be built. Each project must
be approved by the Board of Gover-
nors before an architect can be cho-
sen and fundraising can begin. The
board must also approve each
building's final design.
Campus construction is guided
by the university general plan.
Ralph Adams Craintn, the original
campus architect, created the first
such plan in 1910. it was never
closely followed after Rice's origi-
nal buildings were «;rvcA*id. 'VVu-
eonstruction of Fondrcn Library in
1949 completely disregarded the
plan.
Cesar Pelli created the most
recent university general plan in
1983. Herring Hall and the Ix>y
Student Center, both designed by
Pelli, conformed closely to his plan;
the Cox Mechanical Engineering-
Building deviated slightly, and the
Shepherd School was moved when
George R. Brown Hall took the site
Pelli intended for it.
The plan is a work in progress,
viewed as a guideline but. often
disregarded for a variety oi rea
sons. "The board does not see
the master plan as a bible but as
a mVuW.. 'V\>vy oVin'mmi-Ay vi&SyWCV
Cesar's opinion, but they make
the ultimate decision," Facilities
and Engineering Manager o!
Technical Services Jill Black-
welder said,
Pelli revisited the campus in
January at the request of tin-
Board to reconsider the plan in
light of new building require-
ments, particularly the new col-
leges. He will report back shortly.
Feature, Page 8
IK
JESSICA VU,'THRESHER
Footloose and fancy-free
Revelers at Archl-Arts dance to the music of Huru Khan. The annual gala was held at the Hangar last weekend.
awareness
Club founded in 1970s began campus
recycling,started envionrnental conference
Rice hosts
Conference tomorrow „
Author Daniel Quinn and Texas gubernato-
rial candidate Garry Mauro will deliver the key-
note addresses in lite Student Center, this week-,
end.
KLSefiON BLURBS Pag* 10
Vote in the first contested Campanile election
in many, many years
STYLK Pig* 23
A barber, a camera and Rudy Fink's nappy
head of hair
by Julie Bachir
IHWMII.K VI AH
The story of enviroiimenjalism
at Rice begins in the mid-1970s when
the environment was becoming an
increasingly important issue across
the country.
Involvement then in the newly-
formed Environmental Club was
minimal. The club's most important
project was the Rice Recycling pro-
gram, which members of the Envi
Club organized and ran. The pro-
gram, however, came to a sudden
end in 1994 when the lone recycling
cart broke. In 1995, Food and Hous-
ing took over responsibility for all
recycling.
In 1991. the idea of an annual
Environmental Conference was
born. It all started in 1993 when
Daniei Greene (Will Rice '93) and
Jim Blackburn, an environmental
lawyer and professor at Rice Univer-
sity decided to establish the Com-
munity Action Grant. After spend-
ing a summer in California, where
environmental awareness was high,
and taking a course taught by
Blackburn, Greene envisioned a con
ference that would expose high
school students to environmental
issues, this year's Environmental
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Conference Director John Ashton
said. Inspired bv "caffeine,
Blackburn and California," he jotted
down all his ideas for the confer
enc.e one late night at the Coffee-
house.
"I look back at it with great fond-
ness," (ireene said of organizing the
first conference. He wanted to give
students a chance to look beyond
the hedges and to present their re-
search papers in order to educate
the community at large.
The first conference featured
Rice students, who presented their
environmental research papers to
high school students from area
schools.
"We were behind the times, but
no more than the rest of the coun-
try," Greene said, referring to the
students' attitudes toward the envi-
ronment when he attended Rice.
"There really weren't too many ac-
tivities back then." Greene recalled
the 1990 Rio Conference, held at
Herring Hall to discuss voluntary 1
measures to limit the output of green-,
house gases, which he said very few
from Rice attended.
Greene's blueprint for the Envi-
ronmental Conference has seen sev-
eral changes since 19%. Conference
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Hardi, Joel. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 85, No. 18, Ed. 1 Friday, February 13, 1998, newspaper, February 13, 1998; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth246614/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.