The Rice Thresher, Vol. 88, No. 24, Ed. 1 Friday, March 16, 2001 Page: 1 of 28
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Vol. LXXXVIII, Issue No. 24
SINCE 1916
Friday, March 16, 2001
Language proficiency requirement repealed
by Olivia Allison
THRESHER EDITORIAL STAFF
The faculty voted overwhelmingly to elimi-
nate the foreign language competency require-
ment for all students, including this year's fresh-
men, at Tuesday's general faculty meeting.
About 10 minutes of discussion preceded
the vote. English Professor Linda Driskill said
that although she thought the requirement
had been implemented poorly, it should not
be abolished so quickly.
Change will apply retroactively to freshmen
"I think we've diagnosed the problem wrong,"
Driskill said. "We didn't change our ideas about
the need for students to speak another lan-
guage. ... I think we're hindering the students if
we just blow out the requirement because I think
[the faculty was! right in the first place, and
what's wrong is the implementation."
University Standing Committee on Under-
graduate Curriculum Chair Jack Zammito said
abolishing the requirement is the most efficient
thing to do.
"The existing implementation of the language
proficiency requirement is not something we
can go forward with," he said. "The most sen-
sible way of dealing with that, to the faculty last
time, was to abolish the whole program."
Fewer than 10 of the estimated 75 faculty
members in attendance voted against the abo-
lition of the language requirement.
Zammito, also the History Department
chair, then presented a motion to "retroac-
tively abolish" the requirement for students
who matriculated this year.
Freshmen will be able to apply foreign
language courses toward their humanities dis-
tribution requirement even though first-year
language courses were not intended to count
as humanities distribution, the faculty decided
when the language requirement was instituted
See LANGl LAGE, Page 11
Registrar announces
preregistration changes
by Olivia Allison
THRESHER EDITORIAL STAFF
Students will be able to adjust
their fall schedules beginning im-
mediately after preregistration this
year.
Currently, students cannot add
new classes or drop courses they
have preregistered for until the be-
ginning of the next semester.
Allowing students to add and drop
courses after they have preregistered
April 2-6 will enable them to begin
making changes to fall semester
courses at any time before or during
the first two weeks of the semester,
Registrar Jerry Montag said.
Also, because the Registrar's Of-
fice is hoping to introduce online
registration beginning this fall,
Montag said he will not implement a
previously discussed system of pref-
erential preregistration in the near
future.
The new add/drop policy was one
change to preregistration approved
by the University Council Monday.
The ot her change is that students
See REGISTRATION, Page 10
Ballot to include revised
EM sports referendum
by Meghan Miller
THRESHER STAFF
A revised version of the recently
defeated referendum to increase the
intramural sports program fee will
appear on the Spring Elections bal-
lot.
Spring Elections take place
March 23-28.
The new version of the referen-
dum, approved Monday night by the
Student Association Senate, focuses
011 the need to increase the current
$10 per student fee by $5 to compen-
sate for inflation. The referendum
states that the money will be used to
improve training for officials, in-
crease officials' salaries and upgrade
equipment.
"We need to make an investment
into officiating," Mona Hicks, direc-
tor of Student Activities, said. "We
have great refs. They're spread too
thin sometimes."
Hicks added that the increased
fee would make intramural sports
safer. Hicks said this is because when
referees are poorly trained or do not
show up, the risk of injury increases.
Hicks and IM Director Tina
Villard, who worked on the referen-
dum, said they hope emphasizing
that the program budget has not
increased in eight years will increase
support for additional funding.
"We haven't had a raise in eight
years," Villard said. "When you look
at it, you can't find any budget that
hasn't had a raise in eight years."
Hicks and Villard are working
with the sports representatives in
the colleges to inform students about
See REFERENDUM, Page 8
SAS strikes back
w-i m
<4m
KATIE STREIT/THRESHER
South Asian Society dancers prepare for one of their annual performances, South Asian Night, to be held at
6:30 tonight. This year's "SAS Wars" begins in Hamman Hall and ends with dinner in the Grand Hall of the
Student Center. Tickets, which are $5 for students and $7 for non-students, can be purchased in advance from
college representatives.
Race and the college system discussed
by Elizabeth Decker
THRESHER STAFI
Facilitating and promoting trans-
fers between residential colleges to
allow minority students to live with
students of their own race was dis-
cussed at a multicultural panelTues-
day.
About 150 people attended the dis-
cussion, moderated by Sociology As-
sociate Professor Michael Emerson.
The five panelists each came from
different ethnic backgrounds.
The panel was organized by Sid
Richardson College senior Sonja Gee
and Hanszen College junior Mustafa
Dohadwala to address why a dispro-
portionately high percentage of
black and Hispanic students choose
to live off campus.
The discussion began in response
to a research paper by Hanszen jun-
ior and Student Association Presi-
dent-elect Jamie Lisagorand Hanszen
sophomore Carolyn Shulman that
found 75 percent of black and His-
panic upperclassmen live off campus
as compared to 40 percent of white
upperclassmen and 37 percent of
Asian upperclassmen. The paper was
done for Emerson's Sociology 309,
Race and Ethnic Relations.
Baker College junior John Lin,
an Asian panel member, introduced
the idea that the number of minority
upperclassmen living on campus
could be increased by encouraging
students to transfer between col-
leges to ensure that minority stu-
dents were surrounded by other stu-
dents that they felt comfortable with.
Lin cited a low concentration of
minority students at each of the resi-
See FLIGHT, Page 9
Still perfect
ELIZABETH JARDINA/ THRESHER
Freshman Richard Barker, last week s Western Athletic Conference Player of the Week, hits a running forehand
in his 5-7, 6-4, 6-1 win over the University of North Carolina's Marcio Patrone at the No. 1 singles spot Monday.
Three Owls came back to win their singles matches after losing the first set to help the Owls squeeze out a 4-3
win and preserve Rice's undefeated 12-0 record. See Story, Page 21.
INSIDE
Spring Elections
petitions due today
The deadline for submitting
petitions for the Spring Elec-
tions. which will take place
March 23-28, was extended to
today.
The positions available are
Honor Council at-large repre-
sentatives, Sammy the Owl,
University Court senior class
representative, University
Council undergraduate repre-
sentative and Campanile editor.
Quote of the Week
"The move will continue to go
forward to get rid of those stanky
uniforms."
— Student Activities Director
Mona Hicks, in reference to the
Autry Court uniforms at Monday's
Student Association meeting.
See Story, Page 8
OPINION Page 3
Respect required for diversity
A&E Page 12
Lovett produces 'No Exit'
LIFESTYLES Page 17
Aries provides heavenly food
SPORTS Page 22
Losses plague Lady Owls
Scoreboard
Baseball
Texas 7, Rice 4
Hawaii 4. Rice 3
Men's basketball
Fresno State 60. Rice 52
Women's basketball
Texas Christian 78. Rice 58
Weekend Weather
Friday
Partly cloudy, 46-63 degrees
Saturday
Showers, 49-59 degrees
Sunday
Showers, 52-67 degrees
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Stoler, Brian. The Rice Thresher, Vol. 88, No. 24, Ed. 1 Friday, March 16, 2001, newspaper, March 16, 2001; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth443082/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.