The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 86, No. 21, Ed. 1 Wednesday, March 31, 1999 Page: 1 of 4
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the Rice Thresher
Vol. LXXXVI, Issue No. 21 — EXTRA
SINCE 1916
Wednesday, March 31, 1999
Wiess College reconstruction
College building to become temporary office and storage space
by Brian Stoler
THRESHER EDITORIAL STAFF
Wiess students will not move into
a reconstructed Wiess College any
sooner than fall 2005, Wiess Presi-
dent Robert Lundin said at an all-
college meeting last night.
In the new plan, Wiess students
will still vacate Wiess College before
2001-2002 begins, but the building
will not be immediately destroyed.
Instead, the old Wiess building will
temporarily house books from Fon-
dren Library and offices for humani-
ties faculty from Rayzor and Sewall
Halls while those buildings are un-
der renovation.
Previously, the plan was to de-
molish Wiess College as soon as
South College was complete and
Wiess students had moved into
South College. South College is
scheduled to be complete before the
start of the 2001 -2002 academic year,
Vice President for Finance and Ad-
ministration Dean Currie said. The
rebuilding of Wiess College would
have begun immediately, and Wiess
students would have moved into
their new home to start academic
year 2003-2004.
"There are two problems with
buildinga new Wiess in 2001,"Currie
said. "One is just the need to have
swing space while we are doing a
massive renovation of the library and
major renovations of Rayzor, Sewall
and possibly Herring [Hall]. The
other is the sheer amount of con-
struction and traffic trying to squeeze
through that part of campus. We
don't see a way to do it all at once."
The Jesse H. Jones Graduate
School of Administration may move
out of its present location in Herring
Hall, Currie said. Herring Hall would
then be converted into more space
for humanities departments, he said.
The new timetable delays the re-
construction of Wiess College by at
most two years. "I'm sure the delay
won't be more than two years, and
hopefully it will be less," Currie said.
However, no firm date has been
set for the return of Wiess students to
Wiess College. "What we don't have
now is a date when that will happen," *
Wiess Master John Hutchinson said.
"They're not even committing to
the 2003 date," Wiess Master Paula
Hutchinson said.
Currie said he was not sure
whether renovations would be nec-
essary to make Wiess College suit-
able for temporary office and stor-
age space. "I hope not," he said.
Though some parts of Wiess Col-
lege are not suitable to be used as
temporary space, "There are other
parts, like the commons, that are in
great shape," Currie said.
delayed two years
Wiess students oppose change in plans
by Jen Frazer
THRESHKK EDITORIAL STAKE
OLD TIMELINE
South College
construction starts.
Wiess "in exile": 2 years
) South done; Wiess students move to
South; old Wiess demolished.
Wiess students move into
new W7ess; South opens.
S OR
South College
construction starts.
NEW TIMELINE
South done; Wiess students move;
old Mess gets books, faculty.
f - y: iff -P:v.IiIJKm Mm
~''ij V' I l&lJllllJ ■ .
old Wiess Wiess students move into
demolished. new Wiess; South opens.
Wiess "in exile": 4 years
The demolition of Wiess Col-
lege may not be in the near future
after all. Wiess President Robert
Lundin held a college meeting last
night to inform Wiess students
about the new fate of the much-
maligned structure.
Lundin told students that, ac-
cording to Vice President for
Finance and Administration Dean
Currie, Wiess will not be torn down
after its students move into South
College, but will instead house
humanities professors' offices and
serve as library storage for a pe-
riod of about two years.
At the earliest, Wiess' building
could be replaced four years after
its students move into South Col-
lege. But there is no guarantee
that the four-year .estimate will pan .
out, that the college will not be
renamed for a donor or that the
college will be rebuilt at all, since
the Board of Trustees has not yet
approved the construction, Wiess
Master John Hutchinson said.
The new timetable worried
Lundin. "Because that time has
been lengthened indefinitely, it cre-
ates the situation where at least a
generation of students here will
n ever h ave 1 ived i n Wiess C ollege,"
he said. "How do they identify with
their college when they've never
actually lived there?"
'/ hope the final
solution will he some
type of plan in which
the students who call
themselves Wiess
College will he in a
building called Wiess
College and will he
settled permanently as
soon as possible.'
— Roger Pine
Wiess College junior
Sophomore Darya Pollak sp< >k<
of preparations for the mow
South College under the old pla
"We have been talking for vea. -• r.
Wiess, even before I got here,"
said. "They've been talking aboi;-:
how to maintain Wiess and n.re-
tain Wiess traditions, always ... .
der the assumption that the trurv-
tionitselfwouldbeoneyear, rn,, ;
two.
"1 don't really believe the
going to rebuild Wiess," F T L
said. "I think they say that now ■
SeeWIKSS. I'ac!
Gray leaves A&M blue
as No. 4 Owls triumph
Senate: Rice 'neglects student health
Group also considers making significant changes to SA Constitutioi;
by Jett McAlister
THRESHER EDITORIAL STAFF
by Jose Luis Cubria
THRESHER EDITORIAL STAFF
It's hard to imagine that No. 4
Rice needed any extra motiva-
tion for last night's locally tele-
vised game against sixth-ranked
Texas A&M University. But
Aggie Head Coach Mark Johnson
gave the Owls some extra incen-
tive yesterday morning.
Johnson, apparently trying to
downplay the matchup, told the
Houston Chronicle, "I don't see it
as a'bragging-righfs deal at all. I
don't know who I would brag to if
we beat them."
The Owls took the comments
to heart — and then took the
game to A&M. Junior center
fielder Jason Gray hit a two-out
RBI double in the bottom of the
eighth to drive in junior left fielder
Charles Williams — who had
reached first base on an error —
as Rice gigged the Aggies 7-6.
Despite Johnson's comments,
the Cameron Field-record crowd
of 3.214 watched a contest that
was more than just another game
to the Owls.
"It's a great win, no matter
what Mark Johnson says," senior
catcher Zane Curry said. "I be-
lieve there's a rivalry there, and
when they bring this many fans
down, they know it's a rivalry."
Senior reliever Peter Terrana
said most of the team heard about
the quote in the locker room be-
fore the game. "All the guys were
just like 'No way, that's crap. How
does this game mean nothing?'"
he said. "Just look around. Every-
body knows it wasn't the end of
the world if we lost, but every-
body feels a hell of a lot better
coming out with a win against
those guys."
The Owls (29-7) realize that
this weekend's Western Athletic
Conference series against San
Jose State University means more
than yesterday's game in terms
of standings and postseason as-
pirations. But they also know
beating A&M is huge.
"In the long-term, it's just one
game," senior reliever Jesse
Kurtz-Nicholl said. "But in terms
of emotions and proving to our-
selves that we are a top five team,
this is big."
Gray's game-winning double
would have never taken place if
not for a Bill Buckner-esque break
in the eighth. With two outs and
A&M reliever Chris Russ in the
midst of dominating the Owls,
Williams hit a soft grounder to
shortstop Steve Scarborough.
But Scarborough, who had
made at least two great defensive
plays earlier in the game and was
2-4 with a solo home run, let the
ball squirt through his legs. Gray
and the Owls made sure not to
waste the opportunity.
"Charlie told me that he'd get
on and that I'd need to get him
in," Gray said. "I was just trying
to extend the inning and keep us
going, and I got lucky and
smacked it out there where the
center fielder couldn't get it."
"I don't call it luck, I feel it's ju st
something that happens in base
ball," Williams said. "You get some
plays like that to go for you and you
get some going against you. To-
night, that play went for us."
While Gray and Williams won
the game offensively,Terrana and
Kurtz-Nicholl deserve at least as
much credit for their pitching.
See A&M, Pane :t
On Monday, the Student Asso-
ciation Senate approved a resolution
and memorandum to President Mal-
colm Gillis pushing for the creation
of an ad hoc committee to examine
Health Services and recommend
improvements to the current sys-
tem.
The memo does not include any
specific requests for changes, but it
does contain strong accusations con-
cerning the inadequacies of the cur-
rent health care facilities.
Health Services has remained in
its location in seven converted rooms
on Hanszen Collegers first floor since
the 1950s, despite numerous stu-
dent efforts to see the clinic im-
proved. "It's ridiculous that we have
had to work this long and this hard
to get a 1950s facility updated for the
21st century," SA President Anne
Countiss said Monday night. The
clinic has 1,146 square feet of space,
despite a 1965 committee recom-
mendation that it be increased to at
least 9,000 square feet.
The memo, sent to Gillis yester-
day. also decries the limited hours
that the clinic is open to patients.
Since 1965, according to the memo,
the clinic has decreased its weekly-
operating hours by 15 hours.
At Monday's meeting, the senate
attached a resolution to the memo,
calling for the administration to im-
prove existing student health policy.
The senate also amended the memo,
insertinglanguage that recommends
that the suggested ad hoc commit-
tee address health care facilities.
Will Rice College President Curt
Petersen, who had suggested last
week that the memo indicate some
students' concern that Health Ser-
vices should remain on campus, said
he supported the memo in its final
form. "Before, there was nothing
that said, 'Please look at the location
Of Health Services, because that's
important to us,"' Petersen said.
"When [Countiss] included in the
memo that it's very important to stu-
dents that the ad hoc committee
look at location, I was supportive of
the memo." The amended memo
passed without objection.
The senate also discussed two
possible significant changes to the
SA Constitution. One amendment,
sponsored by SA Parliamentarian
Jace Frey, would require a student
referendum before most changes in
the blanket tax. The amendment
would allow the senate to remove
defunct blanket taxes without a ref-
erendum, but the addition of new
taxes or the removal of nondefunct
taxes would require approval by the
student body in a campus-wide vote.
The amendment also stipulates
that moneys collected under a de-
funct tax would require a student-
body vote to be reapportioned. If,
after a year, however, a referendum
or initiative has not disbursed the
moneys, they would automatically
be distributed to remaining blanket
tax funds in proportion to the size of
the respective funds. The senate is
scheduled to vote on the amend-
ment next Monday.
Countiss alluded to a possibility
of distributing the approximately
$32,000 left over from last week's
repeal of two defunct blanket'taxes
to fund improvements to Health Ser-
vices. No formal discussion of this
possibility has yet occurred in the
senate, however.
I>ast night, Thresher Senior Edi
HEALTH SERVICES
REFERENDUM
160 students signed a pc:,'.
circulated by Thresher Sen;n
Editor Brian Stoler to put the
following referendum on th<.-
Spring Elections ballot.
Should the remaining tunds •.
the Owl Care and Escort Can
accounts be allocated to
support increased hours for
Health Services? If yes. the
Student Association Senai.
shall work with members o:
the administration to use t: ■
money to staff the c11n,
weeknights and weekends fc
the 1999-2000 academic year.
tor Brian Stoler circulated a pe!i>>. -
to include on the Spring Election-
ballot a referendum that would m.i!
date the use of the money to "-up-
port increased hours for Health Ser-
vices." The process to add the hum
sure to the ballot is pending.
The second amendment, spon-
sored by SA Secretary Jamie Li sag*
would prohibit any stuclent from run
ning for major offices that he cannot
concurrently hold.
Offices affected by the amend
ment include the college presinc;
cies, Honor Council and University
Court chairs, and Thresher and Ca>>:
pan He editorships. Discussion on tin-
amendment was tabled until the next
meeting.
EXTRA
Yes, this is an actual issue of The Rice Thresher. We decided to
publish this extra edition of the Thresher so that several major new ■-
events could be brought to the attention ot the Rice community ;r
timely manner. Knjoy.
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McAlister, Jett & Tam, Mariel. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 86, No. 21, Ed. 1 Wednesday, March 31, 1999, newspaper, March 31, 1999; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth246645/m1/1/: accessed June 20, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.