The Rice Thresher, Vol. 94, No. 22, Ed. 1 Friday, March 2, 2007 Page: 1 of 20
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the Rice Thresher
Vol. XCIV, Issue No. 22
SINCE 1916
Friday, March 2, 2007
Kelley wins close
general election
by Beko Binder
THRKSHKR KDITORIAI. STAFF
Brown College junior Laura
Kelley edged out her opposition
for Student Association President
in this year's SA general elections.
Hanszen College junior Stephen
Rooke came in second place, and
Martel College junior Andrew Chi-
fari and Martel senior Gillian Serby
took third on a split ticket.
Laura Kelley
After write-in candidates and
Chifari and Serby were eliminated
from the running, Kelley had 432
first-place votes (52 percent),
and Rooke had 399 (48 percent).
However, before preferential
elimination was processed, Rooke
had 362 first-place votes, Kelley
had 338, and Chifari and Serby
had 203. Write-in candidate Chris
Warrington, a Jones College
sophomore, received five first-
place votes, and absentee write-in
candidate Bryce Gray, a Jones
sophomore, had two votes.
The preferential voting system
is designed to ensure candidates
win by majority. In each round of
calculations, the candidate with
the lowest number of first-place
votes is eliminated, and his or her
supporters' votes are given to their
second choices.
Voter turnout continued a
downward trend this year — 914
votes were cast for SA president,
compared to 961 last year, 1,162 in
2005 and 944 in 2004.
Lovett College sophomore
Sarah Baker won an uncontested
race to become SA external vice
president, Brown sophomore Matt
Youn beat two opponents for SA
internal vice president and Brown
freshman Cristina Garcia beat one
opponent to become SA secretary.
Martel College sophomore Matt
Feaga won an uncontested race
for SA treasurer.
One Honor Council amend-
ment passed, which reworded
the constitution to reflect the new
online Honor Code affirmation
procedure.
As president, Kelley said she
wants to make sure the Faculty
Senate follows through on their
promise of making online course
evaluation responses available to
students. (See story, Page 1.)
She also said she wants to focus
on adjusting campus meal plans,
dealing with new construction on
campus and pushing for renewable
energy at the colleges. Kelley has
also pushed the idea of having
an SA retreat, and she said she
plans to hold it before the end of
the year.
"The retreat will be open to
all students," Kelley said. "I will
publish minutes online so I can
get input on [all issues] from
everyone. People who don't have
time to attend can comment on the
minutes."
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JOHN SANDERS; THRESHER
To bring attention to the problem of health coverage in Texas, members of Students for Policy Awareness demonstrated
in the academic quad and in front of the Baker Institute Thursday. Feb. 22, in support of a universal healthcare system.
Rooke said the election commit-
tee could have handled the voting
process more efficiently.
"I received a call at 3 p.m. telling
me I had won," he said. "I was called
back later, told the results had been
read wrong and that they needed
to do a recount. Three hours later,
I called them back and they told
me I had lost."
Rooke said the SA will need to
prove itself in the coming year.
"I hope that Laura takes this
opportunity to recognize the im-
portance of the SA and makes it
a priority of hers to strengthen it.
and give it voice and turn it into
an organization that benefits the
student body," Rooke said.
Chifari said he is not sure wheth-
er he will remain involved the SA.
Rooke said he plans to to remain
see ELECTIONS, Page 5
Will Rice RAs to depart in May
by Matthew McKee
THRKSHKR KD1TORIAL STAFF
Political science professor Ran-
dy Stevenson and partner Rieky
Gritz will leave Will Rice College
in May, three years after becoming
Resident Associates.
Stevenson said he is leaving for
work-related reasons.
"We felt like Will Rice needed a
couple who could put all their time
into being RAs," he said.
Stevenson became an RA at
Will Rice after eight years as a
faculty member. He said he and
Gritz took the positions in or-
der to form stronger bonds
with students.
"There's often a misperception
that RAs are motivated by the free
rent," Stevenson said. "But just
about all the RAs are motivated by
getting close to the students."
During Stevenson and Gritz's
time as RAs. the college re-insti-
tuted Will Rice Day — a large,
informal gathering that Stevenson
said is his favorite memory of the
college. He said he enjoyed the
relaxed, alcohol-free atmosphere
where students socialized and
connected with each other.
Stevenson said he thinks the
RA position fits young faculty
members very well and disagrees
with those who think junior faculty
members should not be RAs.
"Even in a strict sense of having
time for your research, every day
that you're an RA, you gain time
that you're on campus that would
usually be spent on transporta-
tion," he said. "Sure, you have to
put time into being an RA and doing
events and things ... but it about
evens out."
Stevenson also said he thinks
graduate students do not have
enough experience to help stu-
dents and feels that RAs should
be part of a generation that falls
between the students and masters
in order to provide a broad range
of perspectives to students.
"1 would like to see the RA
position being enhanced and sup-
ported by the university and made
more attractive to younger faculty,"
Stevenson said.
Students will soon see
peers' course evals
Faculty1 senate approves evaluation changes
by Beko Binder
I Hkl HHFR KI>I I ORIAI STAFF
The Faculty Senate unani-
mously approved a motion to
restructure online course evalu-
ations and make the results
available to students at its meet-
ing Wednesday. The decision
comes two years after a plan to
post scanned evaluations online
died in the senate and one year
after the Student Association
introduced its own online course
evaluation system.
Political Science Professor
Richard Stoll opened discussion by
announcing structural changes to
online course evaluations. Since the
forms have been handled through
ESTHER response rates have been
unusually low—37.4 percent of stu-
dents filled out an evaluation form
in the fall, and 45 percent completed
an evaluation last spring. Response
rates for paper evaluations aver-
aged about 50 percent.
Stoll also suggested that the
comments from evaluations be
made available for students to
access online and proposed that
faculty be given the option to
"opt out" of having their evalu-
ations publicized.
Previously, online course
evaluations had one question
per page, forcing students to go
through hundreds of individual
pages to fill out the forms. Under
the new system, all questions
about a particular course are
condensed onto a single Web
page, reducing the time stu-
dents spend navigating.
Registrar David Tenney
(Sid '87) said the decline in
responses was partially due to
by the introduction of the SA's
evaluation Web site, the SA
Course Guide, last March. The
Course Guide publishes evalua-
tion responses for general view-
ing by undergraduates.
By allowing students to see
their peers' reviews, online
evaluations will become focused
in a single system, he said.
Will Rice College junior
Ashley Allen — who filled
out evaluations on ESTHER
last year — said making
official evaluation results open
to students would be helpful
because the SA Web site does
not have reviews for all classes.
However, she is concerned
that most students who fill out
evaluations feel negatively
about their classes.
see EVALUATIONS, Page 4
INSIDE
OPINION
Vagina hurts women.
Page 3
A&E Page 9
Dead Girl disappoints
SPORTS Page 12
Women's track wins C USA
Northbound Main Street
closure
Hie northbound lanes of Main Street
will be closed to all vehicle traffic this
weekend due to construction for the new
Methodist Hosptial building.
Lanes will be closed from 7 p.m.
Friday, March 2 until 5 a.m. Monday,
March 5. Northbound traffic will be
rerouted to Fannin Road.
No Thresher next week
Because we need some time off, too.
Midterm recess begins Monday, so the
next issue of the lltrcshcr will come out
March 16.
Declare your major
Friday, March 16 is the last day for
sophomores to declare their majors with
the Office of the Registrar.
Scoreboard
Baseball
Rice 6, Sam Houston State 3
Nebraska 5. Rice 9
Men's Basketball
Rice 75, SMU 66
Women's Basketball
Memphis 46, Rice 79
Weekend Weather
Friday
Mostly sunny, 48-74 degrees
Saturday
Partly cloudy. 42-69 degrees
Sunday
Sunny, 42-66 degrees
Quote of the Week
"The 21st century will belong to nanotechnology."
— U.S. Representative John Culberson (R) on the future of Houston
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Bursten, Julia. The Rice Thresher, Vol. 94, No. 22, Ed. 1 Friday, March 2, 2007, newspaper, March 2, 2007; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth443054/m1/1/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.