The Rice Thresher, Vol. 95, No. 9, Ed. 1 Friday, October 26, 2007 Page: 2 of 24
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TOE RICE THRESHER OPINION FRIDAY. OCTOBER 26,2007
the Rice Thresher
RUPD: Stop stealing
Since September, there has been an increase of thefts on campus,
and we are glad to know that the Rice University Police Department is
on the case. However, the current crime deterrence method of fake-
stealing students' bicycles and property in the library is one measure
too extreme (see story, page 1).
Of course, students should not be so naive as to leave their belong-
ings where they can be easily stolen. But RUPD's current plan only
makes the situation worse.
Students go to the library in moments of extreme stress, whether
studying for tests or scrambling to write a paper. The last thing they need
is for RUPD to play some sort of practical joke as a learning experience.
Learning for classes can be demanding enough without having a note
filled laptop swiped during a bathroom break.
The problems do not end at the doors of Fondren. Busy schedules fill
every day with cross-campus treks, and construction does not make it
any easier. An unnecessary trip to the police station to recover a bicycle
or backpack would not only make any day a bad one, but could raise
more hatred against RUPD than a college pub night police bust. The
last thing we want is for students to mistrust RUPD.
We agree that students need to be made aware of risks on campus,
but not in a manner that makes RUPD looks like the bad guys. So instead
of the current plan, in which RUPD officers take students' property and
leave notes stating where they can be found, we recommend that they
simply leave notes. A note along the lines of 'Tour property could have
been stolen! Be more careful" would certainly suffice.
Of course, students could always embrace the mantra of "If you can't
beat 'em, join 'em." Whenever you see a RUPD bicycle or golf cart that is
not properly secured, move it and leave a note. After all, it is better that
they come get it from students than have it stolen by someone else. Then
again, stealing something that is not yours is always wrong, isn't it?
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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
E-mail failure, solutions
Last Tuesday around 2:30 p.m., about half of students and several
faculty members lost their RiceMail e-mail accounts (see story, page 1).
To adopt corporate-speak, e-mail is a mission-critical system. It is a main
mode of communication, and when those lines collapsed, classes were
postponed, schedules disrupted and students thrown into disarray.
Functioning e-mail is necessary for a university campus. Students
should be able to expect that their university will provide a functioning
e-mail service. It cannot fail. But it did.
While it does not make the situation better, it is reassuring to know
that there was redundancy across the board — failures just happened
to occur on all levels simultaneously. And we are glad to know that
Information Technology quickly implemented its contingency plans,
which it had drawn up for such disasters.
While the responsibility should not fall on them, we encourage stu-
dents to create their own levels of redundancy. First, always keep old
emails you would like to save in a folder on your hard drive. Second, use
Gmail, Yahoo! Mail or another reliable email service as your primary
email account and just forward everything from your Rice account.
This way, even if RiceMail fails, you can still send and receive emails,
and access old emails.
After all, even the best-laid plans of mice and keyboards oft go wrong
and leave us naught but grief and pain for promised emails.
Homecoming oligarchy
Rice students have a proud tradition of voting for preposterous
homecoming kings and queens. When Rice was in the Southwest
Conference, ether schools marched their best beauties to the
50-yard-line for all to see, while we would give the crowds a refrigera-
tor. For years, the results of our Homecoming Elections represented
a grassroots effort by students to mock the outdated practice and
promote the Rice Zeitgeist. But now those grassroots have been
replaced by Astroturf (see story, page 11).
Homecoming Elections should be an open democracy—students
should be allowed to choose any candidate they desire. But the deci-
sion to ban write-in votes stifled this student voice. Furthermore, the
switch to basing elections out of college commons excludes students
who live off campus or do not eat at their colleges.
We find it quite disturbing that New Student Representatives, who
have only been at Rice for two months, and an unelected Director
of Elections, who spent last year abroad, have been put in charge
of campus opinion.
Homecoming Elections should be run like every other election in
the Student Association: candidates placed on a ballot after enough
signatures are submitted, followed by online elections via preferen-
tial voting and a write-in option. This method would ensure that the
homecoming king and queen elections truly reflect majority student
opinion. But for the time being, the rest of us will have to wait while
the SA clique decides homecoming court for the rest of us.
Homecoming king? Hah. More like homecoming despot.
Unsigned editorials represent the majority opinion of the Thresher editorial staff.
SA Environmental
resolution necessary
To the editor:
While I was glad to see the
Thresher's devotion to environmental
issues in last week's edition, I found
your editorial piece somewhat puz-
zling ("Environmentalism does not
end at carbon, " Oct 5, 2007). Your
staff seemed to imply that Rice was
well on its way to fully addressing its
energy issues and that our efforts
were not necessarily "worthy of the
university's time and money."
Rice has certainly taken steps to
tackle its carbon emissions, and the
Student Association Environmental
Committee is very happy with the
university's commitment. Never-
theless, the issue of Rice's carbon
emissions is far from settled and to
suggest that further improvement is
not necessary is blatantly ignorant.
The purpose of our resolution is to
show student support for the issue
and open up more dialogue between
students and the administration so
we can begin to make tangible prog-
ress on the matter, seeing as Rice has
a long way to go before it could be
considered carbon neutral.
Also, we have placed so much
emphasis on carbon emissions not
"because of its popularity," but be-
cause of its importance. Mercury,
sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen oxide all
constitute significant environmental
dangers. And many of our initiatives,
such as buying renewable energy,
would address these problems as well.
But the urgency required to seriously
address global warming means that
we must prioritize. If we treat global
warming as just another environmen-
tal issue, there is no way we will ever
be able to muster the resources in
time to effectively combat it.
Patrick McAnaney
Brown sophomore
Climate commitment
earns commendation
To the editor:
We want to commend President
Leebron for signing the President's
Climate Commitment, which pledges
Rice to create a university-wide plan
to become carbon-neutral. Leebron
has taken a courageous step in mak-
ing Rice one of the few prestigious
research universities to sign onto this
commitment and we truly thank him
for being a leader in this regard.
This pledge demonstrates that
the Rice administration treats climate
change as a dire issue and is willing
to invest the necessary time and
resources in minimizing our univer-
sity's role in contributing to climate
change. By promising to reduce its
carbon emissions to zero, Rice has
shown its deepconcern for the serious
potential social and environmental
consequences of global warming.
We look forward to the next two
years as the administration develops
the institutional plan to reduce our
greenhouse gas pollution. We are
certain that with improved efficiency
measures, the purchase of clean,
renewable energy and the collective
efforts of Rice students, faculty and
staff to conserve resources, we can
make tremendous progress towards
reaching this goal.
Thanks again to President Lee-
bron and the Rice administration
for taking the initiative to create
a better world for ourselves and
future generations.
Karen Leu
Wiess senior
Member of Rice Environmental Club
Late professor truly
part of Rice family
To the editor:
1 attended Alan Grob's retirement
party in 2002, which is why 1 was so
surprised, two years later, to hear
from my cousin that she was taking
Shakespeare from him.
I had been at the retirement party
Heard the kind words about his long
and distinguished career. Seen the
goodbyes said. And yet, her report
was vivid: Dr. Grob in front of a class
of students, getting sad-eyed over the
deaths of Romeo and Juliet, again,
to a roomful of breathless under-
graduates. In another class, he was
reportedly still sighing over John
Keats' passion and Wordsworth's
bucolic Ixike District.
1 wrote him a note, and he wrote
back: "I also shamefully confess
that the rumors about my pseudo-
retirement and continued teaching
are true," he said. "Like an addict, I
cannot lay off the stuff."
Dr. Grob's death is a terrible loss
for Rice. He made you swoon for
Matthew Arnold, yes, but more im-
portantly, he was a tremendously in-
teresting faculty member who made
it his business to know and care about
undergraduate students. He was fre-
quently at lunch at Hanszen; he was
always happy to shoot the breeze or
debate the future of Rice. Whichever
you were in the mood for.
It is impossible to properly me-
morialize Dr. Grob's devotion to
undergraduate education without
contrasting it with the current tack
of the university administration,
which seems hell-bent toward larger
and larger freshman classes, more
focus on graduate studies, and less
interest in undergraduates. But I
think Dr. Grob — who was famous
(infamous?) for his passionate ora-
tion (rants?) at faculty meetings —
would not mind. He cared so deeply
about how Wee's academic policies
and programs affected students
that after he had a heart attack in
2000, he said he had to quit going to
faculty meetings for the sake of his
blood pressure. I do not exaggerate.
His namesake scholarship and fund
for Shakespeare in performance are
both fine ways to remember him,
but the best way to honor Dr. Grob's
legacy is for both students and faculty
to get to know each other, in the hope
that more professors develop the kind
of warm relationships with students
that he had. He always showed up for
lunch, and we were glad for it.
Elizabeth Jardina
Will Rice '01
Nestle Waters cares
about environment
To the editor:
Nestle Waters shares Karen Leu's
concern for the environment, and our
company has taken many steps to
reduce its footprint ("Bottled water
See LETTERS, page 4
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Whitfield, Stephen. The Rice Thresher, Vol. 95, No. 9, Ed. 1 Friday, October 26, 2007, newspaper, October 26, 2007; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth443035/m1/2/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.