The Rice Thresher, Vol. 88, No. 30, Ed. 1 Friday, May 25, 2001 Page: 9 of 32
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THE RICE THRESHER NEWS FRIDAY, MAY 25,2001
Six students win government-sponsored Fulbright Scholarships
by Rachel Rustin
THRESHER EDITORIAL STAFF
After being roommates since
their sophomore year, Hanszen Col-
lege seniors Mike Sew Hoy and Jo-
seph Blocher will spend next year
on different continents, courtesy of
Fulbright scholarships.
Hoy and Blocher are among the
six Rice students, five undergradu-
ate and one graduate, who won
Fulbright Scholarships for the 2001-
'02 school year.
The winners include Wiess Col-
lege senior Steve Benham, Hanszen
senior Gwen Hoben, Will Rice Col-
lege senior Margaret Van Meter and
anthropology graduate student Jae
Chung.
The Fulbright scholarship is
funded primarily through the U.S.
Department of State. It was estab-
lished at the end of World War II in
order to increase understanding
amongst countries through the ex-
change of students.
"The Fulbright selects for bright
students who want to do interesting
academic projects overseas, and
who will also be good representa-
tives of the United States," Director
of International Programs and
Scholarships Mark Scheid said.
"Rice students have traditionally
done extremely well in this compe-
tition."
Scheid said students must be
nominated by Rice and screened by
the U.S. Fulbright committee. The
U.S. committee then recommends
finalists to the committee in each
host country.
Traditionally, the committee
nominates about twice as many can-
didates as there are spots available.
Blocher heard about the scholar-
ship when he asked Mark Scheid
about programs that would allow
him to leave the country for a year.
He will spend the year in Ghana.
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Studying how the country s legal
System deals with property l ights.
Blocher said Ghana provides this
opportunity because it has both its
native legal system and one left over
from the days when England colo-
nized the country.
"My interest in it specifically came
because I studied comparative law
over the summer and for a semes-
ter, so I'm interested in how differ-
ent legal systems approach similar
problems," Blocher said.
Sew Hoy said he heard about the
scholarship through Blocher and
decided to apply as well.
Sew Hoy said he has always
wanted to study abroad in an Asian
country, but his biology and political
science double major never allowed
him the opportunity to do so. He saw
this as a way to take a year off before
starting law school.
'The Fulbright selects
for bright students who
want to do interesting
academic projects
overseas. and who will
also be good
representatives of the
United States. Rice
students have
traditionally done
extremely well in this
competition.'
— Mark Scheid
Director of International
Programs and Scholarships
I >uring the fall semester, Sew Hoy
said he plans to take both Chinese
and comparative politics classes at
the National University of Singapore.
During hi^ secpnd semester, which
is his research period, he will study
at the Institute for Southeast Asian
Studies.
Hoben also knew she wanted to
take next year off, so she will be
studying skin bioengineering, spe-
cifically skin grafts, in Germany.
"I have never been to Freiburg
but from everything I have heard it
sounds beautiful," Hoben said. "I am
especially looking forward to hiking
around the Black Forest, but I am
really excited to be doing a project
where I am actively part of the de-
sign process."
Hoben contacted professors at
the university in Freiberg, who wrote
a letter saying they would accept her
in their lab. Hoben said she thinks
this letter strengthened her applica-
tion.
"I'm a little bit scared because I
don't speak German, but the
Fulbright sponsors a seven week
intensive language course in Frank-
furt," Hoben said.
Hoben said she will start the MD/
Ph.D. program at Baylor after her
year in Germany. The Ph.D. compo-
nent of her studies will be in bioengi-
neering at Rice.
Benham will be teaching English
in high school in Germany through
the Fulbright program. Benham said
he will be in Chemnitz, a city in
Eastern Germany near the border
with the Czech Republic.
After spending a year in Germany,
Benham will attend the New York
University School of Law.
Anthropology graduate student
Jae Chung will be going to South
Korea to do a cultural analysis of
risk in venture capital industry.
She said she knew this was what
she wanted to study because she
saw how the Asian currency crisis of
1997 affected people's lives.
Chung has also received a Wag-
oner scholarship and a National Sci-
ence Foundation scholarship this
year.
Will Rice College senior Marga-
ret Van Meter won a Fulbright schol-
arship to study in Madrid, but has
decided instead to start medical
school at the University of Califor-
nia at Sau Francisco this fall.
She said that while the Fulbright
is a "great honor and undoubtedly is
a once-in-a-lifetime experience." im-
portant changes have occurred in
her life since she applied in October,
and she has decided to decline the
award.
LAURA WIGINTON/THRESHER
KATIE STREIT'THRESHER
Steve Benham
Mike Sew Hoy
T
KATIE STREIT/THRESHER
ROB GADDI THRESBEP
Joseph Blocher
Margaret Van Meter
AURA WIGINTON/THRESHER
RA WIGINTON'
Gwen Hoben
Jae Chung
Sid freshman rusticated after baiconv assault incident
ASSAl LT. from Page 1
not think the other students were
serious, and the three students then
entered the Sid building.
Hicks, his roommate Sid fresh-
man Rene Aninao and another stu-
dent stepped off the elevator on the
fifth floor and confronted Ricken. All
three students were football players.
"Tom Hicks got off the elevator
and screamed, 'Did you yell shit at
me?"' Ricken said. "He grabbed me
by the neck and pushed me to the
edge of the balcony and kept asking
me, 'Did you yell shit?"'
Ricken said he told Hicks the
cheers were a part of primal scream
and not directed at him, but Hicks
continued to choke Ricken.
Ricken said Hicks then said,
"Look down. Do you think you can
survive the fall? I'm going to throw
you off."
"He kept choking me and 1
couldn't breathe anymore and 1 told
him but he still wouldn't let go,"
Ricken said.
Students from the sixth floor bal-
cony, including Sid Chief Justice
Myrna Salinas, freshman Jeff Bishop
and freshman Sushi Suzuku,
Ricken's roommate, saw Hicks chok-
ing Ricken and ran to the fifth floor.
Ricken said Hicks then pulled
him away from the edge of the bal-
cony but repeatedly pushed him into
the balcony's west wall.
Bishop said Salinas asked Aninao
to make Hicks leave the balcony,
and Aninao told him to leave.
Hicks then confronted Salinas,
Bishop said, yelling that "weiners"
— Hicks' word for non-athletes —
do not sufficiently respect athletes.
Bishop said Hicks yelled, "They pay
me $25,000 a year to come here,
what do they pay you?"
Ricken said Hicks then stepped on
the elevator and while the elevator
doorswereclosing,Hicksyelled."This
isn't over yet. I'm going to kill you!"
'He kept choking me
and I couldn't breathe
anymore and I told him
but he still wouldn't let
go:
— Mathias Ricken
Sid Richardson College
freshman
Salinas called the University Po-
lice to report the incident, Ricken
said. After talking with Sid Master
Steve Cox, Sgt. Les Hulsey and Of-
ficer Sandra Veliz, Ricken said he
thought Hicks should be rusticated.
Around 1 a.m. on May 3, Hicks was
escorted off campus by the police
and rusticated by his master.
Football Coach Ken Hatfield said
he did not know why Hicks would
claim he receives scholarship
money, because Hicks is a walk-on
football player.
"He's not getting anything to
come out here, but he's putting out
the time and effort on his own,"
Hatfield said. "Anybody else knows
that if he said that, that's ... not a
true statement."
At press time, Ricken said he
could not reveal the verdict but was
pleased with the outcome.
"It is almost what I had hoped
for." Ricken wrote in an e-mail Tues-
day from his home in Germany.
"Even though I have not yet fully
processed it. I believe that the ver-
dict was just and approximately what
I had hoped for."
In an interview May 6, Ricken
said he had demanded Hicks be ex-
pelled. saying expulsion is the only
reasonable action Rice could take.
Ricken also filed an assau It charge
through the Rice University Police
Department. The first arraignment
for this charge was held May 7.
Hicks' lawyer. Tony Aninao. re-
fused to comment on the case. Tony
Aninao is Rene Aninao's father.
Ricken said he and Hicks were in
the same Orientation Week group,
but he had not seen Hicks often
during O-Week because of Hicks'
obligations with the football team.
Ricken said although he had not
had any previous personal problems
with Hicks, once when he ran Club
13 Hicks had squirted Tabasco sauce
into his and other runners' eyes.
Police Chief Bill Taylor said the
police had no prior documented
problems with Hicks. However,
Hicks worked in the department in
December to pay his parking fines,
so the officers knew him and at least
one officer had confronted Hicks for
acting "immaturely."
"We never arrested him or any-
thing."Taylor said. "He was a known
person, but there's nothing negative
about it. I do know some of our
officers had had contacts with him
in the college environment and he
was acting a little immaturely.
"It's not anything we had reports
on or anything like that. ... But for
some of his behaviors, boisterous or
not interacting well with other stu-
dents, I know that at least one of our
officers had talked to him about some
things."
Hatfield said Hicks' behavior on
the team was good.
"He behaves himself down here."
Hatfield said.
President Malcolm Gillis refused
to comment on Sass' verdict but said
that if any assault had occurred, it
would be dealt with appropriately.
"We take a very dim view of any
kind of action that involves harm to
students, and particularly one that
might threaten their life or limb,"
Gillis said. "Anybody who does physi-
cal violence to another student is
going to hear from me at one stage
or another if they are shown to be
guilty. We are not going to stand for
that sort of thing."
Taylor said assaults and fights
between students are more common
on other college campuses, because
Rice's college system fosters har-
mony between students.
"Basically everybody that comes
on the campus hasa place that's theirs
when they arrive and they're part of it
and it's a big group." Taylor said. "On
other campuses, you don't have it
that way. ... when you have cam-
puses that have more adversarial situ-
ations in the organizations or society
on the campus, they're more likely."
Hatfield said whether he pun-
ishes Hicks depends on Student Ju-
dicial Programs' verdict.
"He knows that our rule is to do
things that reflect goodwill on the
athletic department," Hatfield said.
"If he gets into trouble, we'll see
what happens there and if he is found
guilty, we'll take the appropriate ac-
tion at that particular time."
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Liu, Leslie & Reichle, Robert. The Rice Thresher, Vol. 88, No. 30, Ed. 1 Friday, May 25, 2001, newspaper, May 25, 2001; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth443114/m1/9/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.