The Rice Thresher, Vol. 89, No. 2, Ed. 1 Friday, August 24, 2001 Page: 2 of 32
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the rice thresher OPINION friday, august 24,2001
the KK Thresher Ranortaue...
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Leslie Liu, Robert Reichle
Editors in Chief
Getting decent housing
for Martelians
Students transferring to Martel College were assured numerous
time&last year that the college would be ready for move in at the start
of spring semester.
However, the unfortunate flood damage to the construction site
over the summer has postponed the estimated date of completion.
Now it's time for the Martel leadership and the university to ensure
that all Martelians are taken care of until their permanent home is
ready for occupancy.
The current plan, as explained in an e-mail by Martel President
Alice Hill sent out to the Martel listserv, asks Martelians to find a
friend willing to "Adopt-A-Martelian" by housing them in their
residence, whether that be in a dorm room or an off-campus resi-
dence, for the two weeks until their college is ready (See Story, Page
1).
There are several major concerns that need to be addressed in
this plan.
Overcrowding students in rooms is always an inconvenience.
Though it can be fun to have a new person around the first day, any
Owl Weekend host can tell you that the situation gets old.
And would the adopted Martelians have their own keys to the
rooms just for two weeks? Or would students have to make sure to
be home when their adopted friend needs to get in?
The administration was clearly on the right track when they
decided that there was a deadline for how long overcrowding is
acceptable, but we believe the length they chose is far too long.
In addition, we are concerned about some of the logistics of this
plan — storing a TV in Hicks Kitchen will work fine, but where are
Martelians supposed to keep their clothes, books and all the other
possesions they need for two weeks?
We understand that there is a substantial cost involved for the
university if it decides to place the Martelians in a hotel or to extend
the current Holly Hall lease contract. Therefore, in the absence of
such a plan, students deserve to be compensated generously.
The current suggestion to compensate Martelians and their hosts
with Tetra points is unacceptable. Martelians will not be housed in
their college for about one eighth of the semester, which means that
about $400 of their room fee goes toward sleeping on someone's
floor or, if they're lucky, someone's couch.
And seniors might be compensated with a gift that becomes
worthless in four months. Fair compensation (which we are confi-
dent both Martelians and hosts would receive) will be in the hun-
dreds of dollars, not an easy amount for a senior — or an off-campus
student — to spend.
Instead, we suggest compensation in the form of a cash credit
with the university. For the Martelians it should equal the percent-
age of their room fee which they will be unable to use, and for hosts
a sizable amount to thank them for their inconvenience.
We are glad to hear that Hill and various administrators say this
plan is not final, and, in truth, what the solution is does not matter.
What is important is that a climate of discussion is fostered between
students and admistration in order to achieve a solution amenable to
all students.
Improving college food
leads to better interaction
Housing and Dining decided this fall to get rid of training table for
a while, allowing athletes to eat dinner with other students if they so
choose (See Story, Page 1). We applaud the decision as well as the
athletics department's willingness to give it a try.
Perhaps this change means that food in the colleges is, in fact,
actually improving. Perhaps it is an example of how the university is
responding to student complaints about athlete-non-athlete interac-
tion. No matter what the case may be, the situation shows students
that the administration is listening.
We understand that varsity athletes are often to busy to come to
regular dinner times — attending long practices and keeping up
with classes forces athletes to keep a tight schedule. But that's all the
more reason to be eating dinner with fellow students. We hope that
athletes take this opportunity to keep abreast of college activities; in
that same vein, students have no excuse not to know when their
friends have important games coming up, and this might increase
the numbers of people cheering the Owls to victory.
Some teams may prefer to eat together to encourage team bond-
ing. But with training table gone, even these groups can meet at
different colleges, making them less elusive and more approachable
by their peers.
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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
System for rating
theater productions
unfair, unnecessary
To the editor-
Please consider omitting the
practice of rating theater perfor-
mances with a star system.
The stars needlessly place very
different types of shows on the same
level of comparison.
These stars bring a feeling of
competition to the theater commu-
nity that we do not feel is neces-
sary.
While the reviews are helpful in
bringing in audiences by giving ob-
jective synopses and critiques of
the shows, the stars are superficial
and in many cases deter audiences
from coming.
Furthermore, by simply compar-
ing the number of stars given to
shows with their corresponding re-
views, it can be seen that the crite-
ria for the star scale are not consis-
tent.
Instead of an overall rating, per-
haps a better method would be one
that is similar to what is used in the
sports section: a short summary of
the highlights and strengths of the
group.
Thank you for showing your
support of the cooperative nature
of theater at Rice by changing
the practice of rating shows with
stars.
liana Bromberg
Sid senior
Troy Scheid
Baker senior
Sandy Havens
Rice Players director, 1970-2000
Jonathan Ichikawa
Martel senior
Michelle Precourt
Sid junior
Theo Yaung
Ijovett junior
Andrew Swick
Wiess junior
Christin Davis
Brown junior
Ben Westbrook
Will Rice junior
Mark Barrett
Hanzen senior
CONTACTING THE
THRESHER
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day publication date.
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We will withhold names upon
request.
■ Letters should be no
longer than 250 words in
length. The Thresher reserves
the right to edit letters for
both content and length.
News Tips
m Tips for possible news sto-
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the Thresher at (713) 348-4801.
Subscribing
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Liu, Leslie & Reichle, Robert. The Rice Thresher, Vol. 89, No. 2, Ed. 1 Friday, August 24, 2001, newspaper, August 24, 2001; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth443210/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.