The Rice Thresher, Vol. 98, No. 6, Ed. 1 Friday, September 24, 2010 Page: 5 of 20
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Friday, September 24,2010
the Rice Thresher
NEWS
Master search begins
%
by Ruby Gee
Thresher Editorial Staff
Jones College has joined Wiess
College and Will Rice College in the
hunt for new college masters, as their
masters Rudy Guerra, a statistics
professor, and his wife, Nancy, will
be leaving at the end of this year. All
faculty members interested in becom-
ing masters will attend a reception at
President David Leebron's house on
Sept. 29. The reception will allow
members from all three of the respec-
tive college master search commit-
tees to meet and evaluate potentials,
Master Search Committee member
Chance Marshall said.
"Right now we're trying to get a
pool of faculty to search from, so then
we can narrow it down," Marshall, a
Jones sophomore, said. "It's a little
bit challenging because Will Rice and
Wiess are looking for masters ... the
pool is shared."
While the process of searching
for new masters will be fundamen-
tally the same for all of the colleges,
committee Chair Skyler Johnson said
that each search tends to cater to the
individual character of the college.
According to Johnson, a Jones se-
nior, Jones masters tend to be more
involved at college events and are uti-
lized frequently as a resource.
"I think there are two main things
we're looking for in the next Jones
masters," Johnson said. "One is will-
ingness to be available to help solve
problems by being a vocal participant
in the college, bt;t also allowing for
student inpi jnd decision making,
land] the jther is being personable
and able to start a conversation with
students and encourage the social
life at Jones."
The search committee consists
of two students from each year, in
addition to the committee chair and
college president. Faculty Associate
Ric Stoll and College Coordinator
Michelle Bennack will aid the com-
mittee in the search process, as will a
master from another college and the
two Jones resident associates.
"When we made the committee,
we tried to get a diverse cross-sec -
tion of Jones, both age-wise and cul-
turally," Jones President Eric Fried-
lander said.
Jones freshman Monica Barrera,
who is a member of the committee,
said that an advantage of being a
freshman during this process was
getting to meet the new masters and
make a closer connection with them.
"Masters play a big role in our col-
lege culture," Barrera said. "I'm ex-
cited because we get to have a big say
in the masters for the next five years."
The search committee held its first
meeting on Sept. 14, during which
the members decided on the gen-
eral timeline for the search process.
They also brainstormed ideas for
candidate recruitment and qualities.
Some of the qualities they came up
with included a good sense of humor,
energetic, being comfortable around
alcohol and capable of living a public
lifestyle.
The Guerras currently are on their
sixth year as masters. Multiple ad-
ministrative turnovers throughout
the campus last year made the post-
ponement of the Guerras' retirement
necessary for stability's sake. During
their term as masters, the Guerras
have developed strong bonds with
their students.
"The Jones students have become
so much a part of my heart. [...] I've
adopted them like my own kids,"
Nancy Guerra said. "I wasn't really
prepared for how much I would fall
in love with this job and our students
... [and I will] miss it terribly."
In particular, the masters men-
tioned that they will miss the dry hu-
mor frequently used by Jonesians and
all of the food centered-events held at
the master's house. Although he felt
working as the Jones master was one
of the toughest things he has ever
done, Guerra said that caring for the
students has been a very rewarding
part of his job.
"You have some idea of what the
job is like, in theory, but it takes two
to three years to become a fully func-
tional master who understands and
appreciates their role as master as
opposed to a professor who happens
to be a master," Guerra said. "The
students have taught me a lot."
Jones junior Kaleb Underwood is
a member of the search committee
who has had the opportunity to in-
teract extensively with the masters as
a student leader due to his position
as chief justice. He praised the couple
for their manner of handling situa-
tions in the past.
"They've done a great job [and]
have the best interests of Jones at
heart," Underwood said. "We'll be
challenged to find masters who can
live up to what they've done."
REMS director returns after 15 years
by Tina Ou
For the Thresher
More than a decade after leaving
Rice, Mark Escott (Jones '96) returned
to the campus as medical director of
the Rice Emergency Medical Services,
which he founded as an undergraduate
student in 1995. Escott, who previously
worked for two years as REMS director
after his graduation from Rice, started
his new position in July. As medical di-
rector, Escott will set and approve the
medical protocols followed by REMS.
Along with this responsibility, he has
taken up a position as a team doctor for
the Athletic Department at Rice.
Escott is proud of the growth REMS
has shown, but said there will be
changes and improvements to the or-
ganization. He said that an aspect of
REMS that has not expanded as much
as he would have liked is the participa-
tion of faculty and staff as responders.
This expansion would reinforce REMS
as more than a student organization.
"We want people to see us not as
students who are responding but as
responders who are also students," Es-
cott said.
Escott said REMS will be appear-
ing at more Rice events and will ad-
just REMS presence based on the
probability of emergency calls at
each event. Escott said REMS is likely
to receive a higher volume of emer-
gency calls on weekends.
REMS Captain Hashim Zaidi said
that REMS has begun to increase its
presence at Rice events already over the
past few two months. Zaidi, a Will Rice
College senior, said REMS Lieutenant
Faroukh Mehkri has been pushing for
more obvious REMS presence at Rice
events this year with the hope that it
will encourage students to place more
trust in REMS.
"You will see us around more,"
Zaidi said. "We are trying to make our-
selves more visible."
Another goal for REMS, Escott said,
is to acquire an ambulance, which
would ensure optimum service. Ac-
cording to Escott, emergency medical
technicians arrive at the scene where a
call has been made in an average of two
minutes, while the city of Houston takes
10 minutes to arrive on campus with a
vehicle, not necessarily an ambulance.
However, Escott said that patients have
expressed their frustration about the
waiting time for an ambulance ride to a
hospital, an issue that he said has per
sisted since the founding of REMS.
In the past, patients with chest
pains have had to wait half an hour for
transport to a hospital, a grave issue Es-
cott said must be addressed.
"The care they need is literally
across the street, and we can't get them
there," Escott said.
Concerning funding for REMS's
future plans and hopes for an ambu-
lance, Escott said that it may take sev-
eral years to raise enough money. An
ambulance, Escott said, would require
a capital expense of at least $100,000.
Escott also said REMS would probably
have to add another part-time staffer
because of the added responsibilities of
maintaining an ambulance, but he be-
lieves that an ambulance would add to
the high quality of services REMS offers
to its patients.
Zaidi shares Escott's opinion of
REMS's high quality of care. As an
example, he said, REMS has the only
first responder advanced life support
care in Harris County, meaning they
are certified to provide pre hospital
care for medical emergencies. Ad-
vanced life support care is obtained
through extensive training in ad-
vanced skills and intermediate certi-
fication, only one level below EMTs
trained as paramedics. According to
Zaidi, EMTs in REMS go through very
high-level training and understand
the seriousness of their responsibli-
ties. Despite their extensive training,
Zaidi said, the students' trust in EMTs
is REMS's most valuable commodity.
"We're helping our friends, neigh-
bors, and community members," Zaidi
said. "They are people we know. Be-
cause of that, we have more passion for
[our jobs]."
According to Zaidi, REMS is receiv-
ing more calls than ever, which gives
the organization more opportunities to
grow and encourages increased com
mitment from the EMTs.
Sid Richardson College junior Ste-
phen Janda recalled the quick response
of REMS during his freshman year
when he called for help after discover-
ing a rash caused by celebratory body
paint. Janda said classmates advised
him to call REMS.
"I felt really silly for calling for
something that may or may not have
been serious," he said.
Janda said REMS checked his vitals
and evaluated the situation, showing
concern for his health and reassuring
him when he apologized repeatedly for
calling for something that turned out to
not have serious consequences.
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"They were very supportive, helping
me through my paranoia," janda said.
REMS Director Lisa Basgall, who
handles administrative oversight for
REMS on campus, said Escott is a valu-
able contribution to the REMS team.
Basgall, who took up the position of
REMS director last year, said that the
return of Escott gives REMS an oppor-
tunity to learn more about the history
of the organization and, in doing so,
learn how to improve for the future. She
said REMS will focus on increasing care
capabilities, expanding the portion
of REMS members with imtermediate
certification, and increasing involve-
ment of not only undergraduates, but
also faculty, staff, alumni and graduate
students.
"He has a lot of history with the ser-
vice and he shares the same vision of
having our students run the service [as
much as possible] and provide EMS for
the campus," Basgall said.
Escott said that he conceived the
idea of REMS shortly after his matricu-
lation in 1992. Having been an EMT in
high school, Escott had already had
five years of EMS experience. He was
inspired by his volunteer work as part
of the Cypress Creek EMS to create a
similar organization at Rice. Escott and
Noah Reiter (Jones 'oo) revised his plans
for REMS together, and with Reiter han-
dling communications and the support
of Rice University Police Department in
providing data comparing the RUPD's
response times to emergency calls and
the city of Houston's response times,
Escott received permission to start
REMS in the fall of 1995 with a discre-
tionary fund of $8,000. Each residential
college also contributed $400 to help
REMS buy equipment. The first EMT
class, which consisted of about 20 stu-
dents, was offered in spring 1996 as a
non-credit class to prepare students for
the operational portion of REMS, which
started in October 1996.
According to Escott, additional
plans for improvement of REMS are
under consideration or in progress. One
plan he hopes will soon become effec-
tive is the use of electronic charts in-
stead of paper charts to store data. Zaidi
said the service REMS will be using for
electronic charting is through a repu-
table and secure company that handles
electronic data specific to health infor-
mation. This, he said, is for convenient
data storing and information security.
Basgall also said that using electronic
data will allow for better access and will
make it more convenient for REMS to
share statistical information with other
interested parties without providing
protected health information, as medi-
cal records.
In addition to his work at REMS,
Escott has a full-time job at Baylor Col-
lege of Medicine, where he is assistant
professor of emergency medicine and
assistant director for the division of
EMS and disaster medicine. He said he
believes strongly that his involvement
with REMS has been instrumental in
shaping his qualifications for his job at
Baylor College of Medicine.
Escott said that as part of the ef-
fort to bring REMS to a more advanced
level, plans are being discussed about
increased involvement with BCM, in-
cluding having undergraduate EMTs
participate in emergency medicine
research there and adding additional
emergency medicine credit courses
which may be co-taught at Baylor. Ad-
ditional plans include the EMTs gain-
ing shadowing experience at Ben Taub
Genera] Hospital, which he said would
diversify the EMTs' exposure to serious
medical emergencies.
Zaidi said Escott's return as medi-
cal director is a tremendous opportu-
nity for REMS because of the wealth of
knowledge and resources that Escott
brings with him. Despite Escott's mul
tiple other commitments, Zaidi said,
he is dedicated to REMS and is more
involved than most medical directors
because of his close ties to REMS. Zaidi
said he believes that REMS will contin-
ue to grow and improve.
"[Escott] coming back — it felt like
the prodigal son returning," Zaidi said.
"It felt so right, almost like the position
was waiting for him."
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Wilde, Anna. The Rice Thresher, Vol. 98, No. 6, Ed. 1 Friday, September 24, 2010, newspaper, September 24, 2010; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth398457/m1/5/: accessed June 22, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.