The Rice Thresher, Vol. 88, No. 20, Ed. 1 Friday, February 9, 2001 Page: 1 of 28
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i r
f the Rice Thresher
Vol. LXXXVIII, Issue No. 20
SINCE 1916
Friday, February 9, 2001
Prank lands
student in jail
by Mark Berenson
THRF.SHF.R EDITORIAL STAFF
Running across Enron Field during the
Owls' baseball game on Friday seemed like
a harmless prank to Jose De La Pena. But it
laiided the Baker College senior in jail for
the night, and he may face fines of up to
$2,500.
At the game, a group of about 25 Baker
students, including De \x Pena, along with
Baker Master Mickey Quinones were sitting
on the third base line. Quinones had pur-
chased tickets to the game and given them to
Baker students.
According to Quinones, some students
started daring De I.a Pena, to run from his
seat to the flagpole in the middle of center
field.
The students collected $125 as incentive
for De. La Pena to run. Quinones did not con-
tribute to the pot.
Baker freshman Mahek Shah said he gave
money because he thought it would be enter-
taining.
"I Ihought it would be fun to see him do it,"
Shah said. "It's good to contribute to a good
cause."
When Rice was in the field in the top of the
eighth, De Pena hopped the fence and
started running toward center field.
The crowd, especially those in the Rice
section, started cheering for him.
"I was just cheering him on and hoped that
he wouldn't trip," Shah said.
De \jn Pena made it to the flagpole in
center field, climbed the short wall and then
scurried up to the Ruggles restaurant be-
yond the wall, where a security officer was
waiting for him.
Baker freshman Katie Fort was standing
next to the security officer.
"Afterjose made it over [the fence] thecop
said, 'Your friend didn't outrun the radio. He's
going to jail,'" Fort said.
De I-a Pena said the officer took him to a
holding facility to wait for the Houston Police
Department.
After the Rice students realized the police
See ARREST, Page 6
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8RIAN STOLER/THRESHER
Professor John Bryant discusses with Economics 375 students how to evaluate the grades for the course Wednesday. Bryant replaced Assistant
Professor Yasar Barut as the instructor of the macroeconomic theory course after the department received numerous negative responses to a
survey sent to students Feb. 2.
Economics courses exchange professors
by Olivia Allison
THRESHKK KDITORIAI.STAFF
One class period before their first test,
students in Economics 375 were greeted Mon-
day morning by a box of cinnamon rolls and a
new professor.
Economics Professor John Bryant, who
was replacing the macroeconomic theory
course's original instructor, Assistant Profes-
sor Yasar Barut, then announced to the stu-
dents that Wednesday's test was canceled and
all homework the students had previously
turned in would not count toward their grade
in the course.
Barut took over Bryant's graduate course,
ECON 505: Macroeconomic/Monetary
Theory II. Bryant taught ECON 375: Macro-
economic Theory last semester.
Economics Department Chair Peter Hartley
said Barut was removed after students in the
course filled out a survey sent Feb. 2. Barut,
whose contract is up for renewal this year, had
received negative evaluations when he taught
the same course last spring. However, Hartley
said the department was not sure whether
Barut's decision to make the average grade in
the class a C had influenced the evaluations,
so he sent a survey to the current students in
the course.
"There was some concern about the teach-
ing in that course, in particular last year, so I
wanted to get to the bottom of what the prob-
lem was there," Hartley said. "We got lots of
negative feedback from the students again on
this survey."
Twenty-seven of 70 students in the class
responded to the survey in the first three days
See F'ROFESSORS, Page 9
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Cheers debate goes to colleges
by Rachel Rustin
THRKSHKR EDITORIAL STAFF
So far, so good
ROB GADDI/THRFSHER
Senior right-hander Kenny Baugh throws a pitch during Rice's 1-0 win
over Baylor University last week. Baugh, who has thrown 10 scoreless
innings in helping the No. 7 Owls to a 4-0 start, gets the call against
top-ranked Georgia Tech University tomorrow. See stories, Page 19.
As part of a month-long process
to gather student opinion on the is-
sue, the Student Association held a
forum on college cheers Monday.
While the meeting did not produce
any concrete solutions, it did give
students on both side of the issue an
opportunity to voice their opinion.
About 75 f>eople attended the fo-
rum. The meeting began with a pre-
sentation and discussion led by Asso-
ciate General Counsel Carlos Garcia
and ended with an hour-long discus-
sion about the problems and solutions
to the college cheers controversy.
I"he debate over college cheers
was sparked last semester when four
students wrote, and an additional
100 signed, a petition asking the
university to look into the issue. Vice
President for Student Affairs Zenaido
Camacho passed the issue to the
college presidents, who, in turn,
looked to the SA for help. The forum
was the result of a plan to get student
input.
"1 think it went really well. 1 think
it was a great start to the dialogue
that's going to happen," SA Presi-
dent Lindsay Botsford said.
Garcia began the question-and-
answer session of the evening with a
short presentation about how the
sexual harassment policy applies to
college cheers.
"[The policy is] intended to ad-
dress conduct of a sexual nature that
has the effect of substantially inter-
fering or denying someone partici-
pation in programs that Rice pro-
vides," Garcia said. "What we're try-
ing to do is protect your ability''to
partake in the university's programs
and all of the opportunities that are
here."
Garcia explained that evaluating
whether or not a situation falls un-
der the policy involves looking at
the actual conduct and its context.
"In the end, the policy is ulti-
See FORUM, Page 10
INSIDE
Add/drop deadlines
Today is the deadline for add-
ing a course. It will cost $10 to
add a course today.
The deadline for dropping a
course without a fee is today.
Dropping a course will cost $10
until the deadline March 30.
Quote of the Week
"I was made honorary vagina
the first year. They gave me a
little vagina soap-on-a-rope."
— Lovett College senior Blake
Barker, director o/The Vagina
Monologues. See Story, Page 14.
General Elections
petitions available
Petitions are available at the
Student Association office today
and are due Feb. 15. Elections
will be held online Feb. 23-28.
Positions to be elected in-
clude Student Association presi-
dent, vice presidents, secretary
and treasurer; Thresher and
Campanile editors in chief;
Honor Council and University
Court representatives; KTRU
Station Manager and Rice Pro-
gram Council chair.
OPINION Page 4
Explaining athletic apathy
A&E Page 13
Hannibal' a suspenseful sequel
SPORTS Page 18
Men's tennis beats UTA
Weekend Weather
Today
Rain, 46-69 degrees
Saturday
Mostly cloudy, 51-56 degrees
Sunday
Showers, 55-60 degrees
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Stoler, Brian. The Rice Thresher, Vol. 88, No. 20, Ed. 1 Friday, February 9, 2001, newspaper, February 9, 2001; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth443039/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.