The Rice Thresher, Vol. 89, No. 17, Ed. 1 Friday, January 25, 2002 Page: 2 of 20
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THE RICE THRESHER OPINION FRIDAY, JANUARY 25. 2002
the Rice Thresher
RaTionaLe...
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Leslie Iiu, Robert Reichle
Editors in Chief
Seeing more is not better
at the Rec Center
The changes made to the Recreation Center in the past
year have slowly but steadily improved the facilities available
to students, staff and faculty who make use of the workout
equipment. The longer hours and the shoe-tag check-in
system have allowed more people to work out comfortably in
the Rec Center. And the new cardio room (temporarily
relocated while a new window is installed) has a plethora of
machines that use the newest technology to fit a variety of
fitness preferences.
The large glass window will be fitted sometime in the next
week and the equipment will be moved back to the room.
Whether you've just swiped your ID card or you're mingling
by the water fountain, you'll be able to gaze into the cardio
room and behold its new machines and the people using
them.
But do we really want every person who comes through
the Rec Center to be able to peer into this fishbowl room at
the tired, sweaty students within?
Though we applaud the Rec Center staff for trying to make
the facilities more enticing, we wish they had consulted with
users of the cardio room before embarking on this venture,
made possible by donated funds. A better idea may have
been to fit a one-way mirror into the wall, or even just to install
windows higher up.
We Rice students aren't known for getting dolled up to go
to class, and there's no reason to suspect watching us work
out would be a pretty picture either — nor should we feel
compelled to look attractive for onlookers while taking out
our frustrations on the Stairmaster.
Expanding, improving
the way we get books
Buying books for college classes will always be a drain on
students' wallets. Bv t it shouldn't have to drain their time and
energy too.
Book-buying mishaps at the Campus Store weren't as bad
this semester as they have been in previous years, but the
process was still a needless nuisance. The bookstore was
once again closed the weekend before classes began, prohib-
iting early birds from getting their books in advance. There
was a marked lack of extended hours during the first two
weeks of class, which would have been convenient for cus-
tomers. Slow service at the checkout lines made a mess of the
book-buying process as well, and even at peak hours the
counters were noticeably understaffed.
Rice needs a bookstore that's more efficient and provides
better services to its students. Last semester, a committee
appointed by President Gillis made recommendations for the
future of the store. Two of these recommendations (the third
recommendation is to leave the store as-is) involve
outsourcing the Campus Store and moving it to another
location. Both of these necessary changes would improve
service and make beginning-of-the-semester shopping less
of a hassle.
An outsourced bookstore could provide better selection,
faster cash registers (leading to faster checkout times) and
longer operating hours. If Rice outsourced to a Barnes &
Noble-type chain, students could benefit from their estab-
lished network of stores (the upshot of selling out to the
corporate Man), meaning better prices and faster delivery of
items that are back-ordered. And a chain would also be able
to implement a better book ordering process for professors.
And as long as the new location for the bookstore is still on
campus—the proposed old Wiess Commons location springs
to mind — it might even become an attractive place to
congregate and shop for leisure reading.
An additional benefit would be that prospective stu-
dents, visiting parents and alumni visiting campus on
weekends would be able to purchase Rice paraphernalia to
take home.
If Rice doesn't want its Campus Store to continue losing
business to online booksellers, it'll have to seriously upgrade
facilities (read: outsource and relocate) to compete. But
since administration members know all this already, it's time
to take the next step: garnering student and faculty opinion
and putting those ideas into action.
just anoTHeR cf\amc "cftaRTeL rf\ove-in"cf\onc>ay...
Guest column
KTRU unique in college radio world
KTRIJ is weird. I have only re-
cently reached this conclusion,
though people have always told me
this. I understood their reasons, usu-
ally citing the under-
ground music, but as I
recently learned at the an-
nual College Broadcaster
Incorporated convention,
that is only the tip of the
iceberg.
Because it is an
anomaly, KTRU has be-
come a celebrity on the
national college radio
scene, unbeknownst to
most of us. At the CBI
convention, station man-
agers and music directors from
around the country knew about the
station and last year's shutdown
situation. Some had our bumper
stickers in their stations; others ac-
tually knew the names of key KTRU
kids.
This was a little su rprisi ug, to say
the least, but the respect and envy
with which other stations regarded
KTRU was heartening, and as I
talked to more radio gurus I began
to understand the things that make
KTRU special in the radio world.
KTRU is free format. The DJs
pick what songs they play during
one-third of their shift from the
playlist, which contains roughly a
massive 1,500 songs. For the re-
mainder of the shift, a DJ may pick
from any other CD or record in the
station — countless more songs.
This situation is in total contrast to
some stations that have playlists of
singles (giving a choice of maybe
200 songs), or even automated digi-
tized sets, which means the sole
function of the DJ is to talk at speci-
fied breaks in the programming that
Ben
Home
are determined by the computer.
The sound is professional, but this
type of system limits DJ freedom.
Rice does not have a communica-
tions major, which means
the people involved in the
radio station are not look-
ing for careers in broad-
casting. This allows more
people to be involved who
have a strong passion for
music. KTRU kids are all
volunteers, meaning they
DJ that 4-7 a.m. shift
because they want to. De-
pending on the radio sta-
tion, station management
and even DJs are paid at
some stations.
Because we are not paid, manag-
ers have a genuine interest in the
health and content of the station. It
was a little disheartening to talk to
many people at the convention who
were only involved at their stations
because it was a career move. It
seems that not being paid allows
KTRU's motivations to stay pure.
Most college radio stations are
small. KTRU is not. There were 10
watt stations at the convention, and
even some stations that were
hardwired throughout campus, like
KTRU was 30 years ago. Most sta-
tions are in the 1,000 - 3,000 watt
range. Some, because of time-
shares of their frequency, must
broadcast for half-days or only on
the Internet. KTRU is huge (at
50,000 watts in a major metropoli-
tan area), and now that the radio
market is saturated, KTRU is per-
haps the largest student-run sta-
tion in the nation.
Also, because of its size, KTRU is
attractive to label promoters and
bands, which means quite simply
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Backpage nudity
irresponsible
To the editor:
As a student new to Rice Univer-
sity I was expecting the students
here to be a cut above. The
Backpage of the Jan. 18 Thresher
has, sadly, disabused me of that
notion. Streaking is nothing new to
college campuses. But it's usually
limited to the nighttime hours when
little children aren't around. And
it's left in the gutter where it be-
longs, not glorified in the school
newspaper.
While you were giving this idiot
a platform where he could brag
about his exploits, did any of you
notice the little girl waiting to see
the Olympic torch pass by. only to
get an unobstructed view of two
men's genitalia? She's to the left of
that KTRU plays what it wants to
play. Many of the smaller stations
told me that in order to get service
(i.e., free CDs) they had to promise
record companies they would playlist
their CDs. This partnership is to-
tally foreign to KTRU. We receive
calls from major record labels (and,
of course, smaller ones) pleading
for us to play their newest fledgling
group. And we tell them they are
free to send us their records, but
we'll use our discretion as to whether
they are fit for KTRU.
KTRU has also managed to stay
not only noncommercial, but virtu-
ally unattached to any sort of spon-
sorship. Due to a fortunate situation
that makes it possible for Rice to
have a 50,000 watt transmitter while
paying only minimally for its upkeep,
combined with the labor of station
volunteers, KFRU is able to get by
with a very small budget.
This means there is no need to do
underwriting (read: advertising) or
sponsorship drives. The students pay
for the operating budget through
the blanket tax; the administration
also contributes funds for some other
necessary expenditures. Though 1
had thought most noncommercial
stations were like KTRU, in reality it
seems that college stations are non-
commercial in law but commercial
in spirit.
KTRU is a true gift that we all
need to be more thankful for.
Hen Home is KTRU station manager
and a Wiess College senior.
the woman you pointed out. Did
you at all wonder what questions
her parents had to answer that
night?
What bothers me the most is
that since these two have been iden-
tified, Rice has not had them pros-
ecuted for what is generally consid-
ered a crime in this state. A man
exposing himself to little children
isn't funny. We'd never tolerate this
at a kindergarten. Why is it sud-
denly acceptable at a university?
All I can say to these two is grow
up, there are other people in this
world besides you. And to Rice:
Better think about the precedent
you just set. The message I hear is
not to bring my children to campus.
There's no telling what level of de-
pravity Rice will expose them to.
Matthew Hutler
Continuing Studies student
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Liu, Leslie & Reichle, Robert. The Rice Thresher, Vol. 89, No. 17, Ed. 1 Friday, January 25, 2002, newspaper, January 25, 2002; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth443100/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.