The Rice Thresher, Vol. 96, No. 6, Ed. 1 Friday, September 26, 2008 Page: 7 of 20
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Friday, September 26,2008
the Rice Thresher
NEWS
#
0
«>
OSAC
Memorial
The Rice Chorale performs its Sept. 11
requiem concert last Tuesday.
□ ESPERANZA
FROM PAGE 1
noon Nov. 7 in the Brochstein Pavil-
ion quadrangle. Over 500 students re-
quested artists they would like to see
perform from a list of 21 bands in late
August via the RPC Facebook page,
and they selected The National, Hot
Hot Heat and Gavin Degraw as the top
three, in no particular order.
Currently, RPC and the Capital
Campaign Committee are in the pro-
cess of negotiating with the bands
and booking agencies.
"We're looking to add new attrac-
tions to the usual Esperanza events,"
Formals Committee co-Chair Esra Gu-
muser said.
In spring 2007, RPC was forced to
cancel Rondelet, the spring formal,
due to financ -1 issues, making such
a display of extravagance a little sur-
prising to some students.
"I'm a little amazed that they are
able to do all this, but I'm looking
forward to the festivities" Will Rice
College sophomore Gaelyn Sicher-
Ford said.
RPC's increased budget can be at-
tributed to the adoption of other pro-
grams on campus.
"We have now consolidated the
Passport [to Houston] program which
hosts around 12 cultural events per
year around Houston with [RPC's]
Arts & Entertainment committee,
which offers discount tickets to vari-
ous Houston sporting, theatre and
cultural events," Kerkstra, a Will Rice
junior, said. "With this money comes
great responsibility, and [RPC] is up
for the challenge."
RPC also plans to host a Willy
Week concert in the spring with
the money from the Pavilion Fund,
Kerkstra said.
For Esperanza, Rice Program Council will use the same tent the Rice
Board of Trustees uses for its Capital Campaign kickoff event. The tent
will have hardwood floors, clear plastic walls and air conditioning.
NEWS IN BRIEF
Beer Bike
coordinators
chosen
This year's Beer Bike coor-
dinators will be Brown College
junior Mary Chapman and senior
Mark Eastaway, Rice Program
Council President Michelle Kerk-
stra said at the club's meeting
Tuesday.
Both Chapman and Eastaway
have been involved in Beer
Bike before, but they will not
participate in Brown's activities
this year.
"We've taken ourselves
out of the equation to increase
fairness throughout the whole
event," Chapman said.
Chapman said the two plan
to increase communication be-
tween the RPC and alumni and
formulate better contingency
plans in the event of unforeseen
circumstances.
Chapman said she was
thrilled to be chosen and had
high hopes for the event.
"It's a huge honor," Chap-
man said. "We're really excited. I
hope that it's successful."
- Catherine Bratic
Mark Eastaway
FROM PAGE1
discussions with seasoned tour
guides about their past experiences.
Additionally, guides completed a
mock tour of campus, which allowed
them to practice with a supervisor
before confronting visitors.
"An hour of training is not
enough to push you out there to
start communicating about Rice,"
Jackson said.
Hanszen College senior Eric Sil-
berman said training during previ-
ous years was more student-directed
and informal.
The application process for tour
guides has been revamped. In pre-
vious years, experienced students
were not required to reapply to the
SAC. This year, all students desir-
ing to be tour guides had to sub-
mit applications, which asked for
faculty references and contained
several essay questions. Also, ap-
plicant interviews were conducted
by faculty this year, whereas a stu-
dent panel performed interviews
in the past.
SAC Director Kevin Sigerman said
interviews from faculty eliminated
the threat of student bias.
"In the interviews, we wanted
to make sure it was not just student
run," Sigerman, a Lovett College
junior, said. "We wanted to profes-
sionalize and elevate it, to make
sure students weren't just picking
who they knew."
Silberman said the application
process reflects greater faculty regu-
lation of the SAC. He said this differs
from past years, when Rice students
were solely responsible for inter-
viewing new tour guide applicants,
training the new guides and setting
tour schedules.
"The SAC used to be very much
run by students, and the students
have been progressively phased out,
but there was a big jump this year,"
Silbeman said.
Sid Richardson College sophomore Sara Millimet leads a tour white wear-
ing the new Student Admissions Council uniform polo. The polo will be
standard attire for all tour guides from now on.
Silberman said he knew at least
eight former tour guides from Hanszen
who did not reapply as tour guides.
"Some don't want to be paid,
some don't want to jump through the
hoops of reapplying, some for other
reasons," Silberman said.
Former Chair of Tours Sam Ba-
non, who did not return this year
due to schedule restraints, said he
was wary of the reapplication re-
quirement at first, but now considers
it to be reasonable.
"They have changed so much that
everybody who wants to [give tours]
should find out more information
by talking with somebody," Banon,
a Hanszen senior, said. "Returning
guides who want to do the same
things that they've always done
might run into problems."
Jackson said the SAC interviewed
about 40 tour guide applicants this
year, and finally selected around 20
sophomores, juniors and seniors.
She said the requirement to reapply
was reasonable, and was designed
to reveal students' dedicated inter-
est in the SAC.
"We wanted [applicants] to be
enthusiastic and invested," Jack-
son said. "We thought that with
rolling out new modifications, all
students might not be committed
to the vision of Rice University ...
There were a lot of returning tour
guides who did resubmit, those
who were fully committed and in-
terested in being part of change
and working with the admissions
office to move into Rice's Vision for
the Second Century."
Sigerman said he does not be-
lieve this new policy will negatively
impact the SAC.
U
There were a lot
of returning tour
guides who did
resubmit, those who
were fully committed
and interested in be-
ing part of change.
Fitima Jackson
Associate Director of
Admission
n
"The tour guide program is not
going to suffer because certain stu-
dents decided not to reapply," Si-
german said.
Banon said it might be too soon
to tell what kind of impact these
changes will have on the SAC and
campus tours.
"Things have certainly changed,
but the jury's still out," Banon said.
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Chun, Lily & Farmer, Dylan. The Rice Thresher, Vol. 96, No. 6, Ed. 1 Friday, September 26, 2008, newspaper, September 26, 2008; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth443129/m1/7/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.