The Rice Thresher, Vol. 95, No. 9, Ed. 1 Friday, October 26, 2007 Page: 8 of 24
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THE RICE THRESHER NEWS FRIDAY, OCTOBER 26,2007
Rice receives $1 million
for digital archiving project
by Diana Lee
THRESHER STAFF
Rice recently received a National
Leadership Grant for Building Digi-
tal Collections from the Institute of
Museum and Library Services. The
IMLS is a government institution
supporting libraries and museums
through grants, research, and
publications.
IMLS and Rice have contributed
a total of $2 million for the devel-
opment of digital resources that
will help students search, browse,
analyze and share electronic texts
through the Our Americas Archive
Partnership.
The archive consists of elec-
tronic texts about the social,
economic and cultural histories of
the Americas. Rice will make these
documents open to the public for
free. Additionally, the university
will hire more researchers, trans-
lators and scanners for the OAAP,
Director of Humanities Research
Center Caroline Levander said.
"Creating a digital database
would be crucial to the develop-
ment of [hemispheric studies]
because many of the researchers
tend to be from the international
community," Levander said.
Levander said it was important
to acquire this because the docu-
ments are rare and that the collec-
tion will be open to everyone in the
near future.
"This project will allow students,
including undergraduates, to gain a
new view of studies on the Americas
from what has traditionally been
taught," Executive Director of the
Digital Library Initiative Geneva
Henry said.
About 15 percent of the archive
currently has both English and
Spanish translations, and the vast
majority of the remaining docu-
ments are either all in Spanish or
all in English. In the future, Rice
hopes to add French, Portuguese
and other translations. Translation
will be a continuing process but
starts with funding from the three-
year National Leadership Grant,
Levander said.
The Early Americas Digital Ar-
chive at the Maryland Institute is
a complementary archive to Rice's
OAAP. The Maryland Institute's
EADA concentrates on the time
period between the 1500s and late
1700s while Rice's project picks up
from the late 1700s and extends
to the era of the Panama Canal,
Levander said.
Henry said it is important take
advantage of resources to get the
full sweep of information with a
wider historical reach.
"Building infrastructures such
as for OAAP allows researchers
to span these individual digital
collections in a seamless way,"
Henry said.
In the completed project,
researchers will be able to use
geospatial interfaces similar to
Google Maps. Henry said they
will be able to point to a specific
region of the Americas on a map
and be able to pull out all related
digital resources.
Documents are assigned official
library descriptions, but research-
ers will be able to go in to tag ad-
ditional relevant key terms that will
facilitate the search process.
Lily Chun contributed to this article.
PIZZA
Newest proposed academic calends
features longer break, rescheduled finals
by Rachel Carlson
FOR TOE THRESHER
The newest proposals for the
academic calendar will primarily
affect the spring semester with a
later start date to lengthen the winter
break and a common exam period
for all students.
Several factors may impact future
revisions. Ecology and Evolutionary
Biology professor Evan Siemann said
key Rice policies may be debated,
such as commencement occurring
on a Saturday, the spring mid-term
recess, and the two exam per two
day rule.
Sieinann, Registrar David Tenney
and Associate Dean of Architecture
John Casbarian worked with Student
Association President Laura Kelley
and the SAto revise the calendar. Sie-
mann said the team hopes to finalize
the 2009-'10 calendar for the Faculty
Senate meeting Nov. 14.
The need for modifications stems
from by protests regarding the earli-
nessof spring semester'sj anuar y start
date. Siemann said the changes also
respond to complaints that different
finals weeks for seniors and non-
seniors cause discrepancies in
grading criteria.
These changes are proposed
for spring '09, Siemann said. 'Hie
semester would start Jan. 12 instead
of the Jan. 5 and the term would
consist of 67 instructional days as
opposed to the current 70. Siemann
said reducing instructional days
would allow classes to start later
in the spring while preserving the
mid-term recess.
'Hie proposed academic calendar
for spring '10 would include a Jan. 11
start date, with days off for Martin
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CALENDAR CHANGES
Among several plans, the following changes to the academic cal-
endar were proposed at the Faculty Senate meeting on Oct. 24:
■ The number of instructional days per semester would
go down from 70 to 67.
■ The spring semester, which currently starts the first
week of January, would start a week later.
■ All students would share a common finals period and
a common study period for the spring semester.
The proposed changes would not take effect until the 2009-'10
academic year at the earliest. The Faculty Senate plans to vote on
a new academic calendar at its next meeting Nov. 14.
Luther King Jr. Day, spring break
and mid-term recess, Siemann said.
There would be a common study
period for all students and a common
finals period.
Siemann said that spring '09 is too
soon to implement a common finals
week for seniors and non-seniors,
but that 2009-'10 is far enough in the
future to permit such revision.
Typically, seniors take finals
beginning the day after the end of
classes, while non-seniors are grant-
ed a five day study period. Siemann
complained that professors must
assign senior grades before non-
seniors have taken exams, leading to
discrepancies in inter-year grading
criteria. Siemann said senior grades
are sometimes used to set the entire
class's curve.
One problem with implement-
ing a common finals week is that
it would have to occur later in the
spring to leave room for a five day
study period, reducing the time be-
tween finals and commencement.
This would violate Section Five of
the Faculty Senate Constitution,
which requires all seniors to be
approved by faculty prior to the
ceremony. The shortened period
between finals and commence-
ment would limit the time for this
screening process.
Siemann, Casbaraian.andTenney
envision two scenarios to address
this difficulty. In the first, com-
mencement would take place as
scheduled with non-certified gradu-
ates participating in the ceremony,
Siemann said.
Or, in an alternative schedule,
commencement would be delayed
until the third Saturday in May, one
week after its traditional day. Resi-
dential colleges would remain open
for all students for an additional week
after the end of finals.
Jones College senior David
Brown said he would want to be certi-
fied before commencement.
"If I'm going to walk across the
THEFT
From page 1
Jacobson said. "I don't need
RUPD to play mommy for me."
On the other hand, Baker sopho-
more Kathy Deng said she appreci-
ated RUPD's efforts.
"Since we're so used to a trusting
community where we don't have to
worry about things being stolen,
it's kind of a shock so it's good that
we're trying to bring awareness to
this," Deng said.
However, some students have to
face the problem of real burglaries.
Jones College junior Esha Mankodi
had her wallet stolen from her
backpack last week while studying
in Fondren Library. Mankodi said
she thought she had misplaced it
but soon found out that someone
had spent $300 on purchases from
Target and CVS Pharmancy.
"You feel like you don't have to
take care of everything as much
because it will magically take care of
stage, I want to make sure that it
means something," Brown said. "I
would hate to have my parents and
grandparents watch me graduate,
and then find out that I'm ineli-
gible."
In order to occupy students who
are staying for a later commence-
ment, Siemann proposed an "out-
reach week" coordinated through
the Center for Civic Engagement.
This program would involve students
in community service activities in the
Houston area.
The option of staggering dead-
lines for final grades is also being
explored. Currently, final grades
are due from professors on a uni-
versal date. Siemann said if grades
were due at a set time after a final
instead of on a common date, more
seniors could be approved before
commencement.
Siemann said he referred to
other prominent institutions when
making the calendar. He said that
Rice's current spring calendar
includes an abnormal number of
instructional days when compared
to other prominent institutions.
The academic calendars for Princ-
eton, Harvard, Yale and MIT have,
respectively, 60, 64, 65 and 63
instructional days in the spring.
Siemann said Rice historically had
between 67 and 68 instructional
days in its spring calendar. It began
a 70-day schedule in 2004.
"Reducing instructional days
would put us more in sync with the
schedules of other institutions,"
Siemann said.
Siemann said Rice's short winter
break is a common grievance.
"One thing that we hear from
everybody across the board is that
winter break is too short," he said.
Martel sophomore Rose Cahalan
agreed.
"My friends at Ivy league schools
have a month off," Cahalan said. "We
need to extend winter break. Right
now, it's ridiculous."
itself which I'm now finding is false,"
Mankodi said. "I'd heard about the
thefts at college meetings, but it
didn't really hit home."
Taylor said students should
keep personal items secure at all
times, not let anyone into campus
buildings, not walk alone at night,
be aware of their surroundings and
use common sense. Taylor said
his concern is that students are
too complacent within the hedges
and feel that their property is safe
as well.
Deng said she tries to be careful
with her personal belongings.
"If I know I'm not going to be at
the library for more than a couple
minutes, I probably find someone to
look over my stuff for me or take it
with me," Deng said.
Sarah Kutledge and Lily Chun contrib-
uted to this article.
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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/m1/8/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.