The Rice Thresher, Vol. 89, No. 2, Ed. 1 Friday, August 24, 2001 Page: 7 of 32
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THE RICE THRESHER
FRIDAY, AUGUST 24,2001
Wiess basement storage burglarized
by Rachel Shiffrin
THRESHER EDITORIAL STAFF
The Wiess College basement,
used as a storage area by Wiess
students during the summer, was
broken into by a person or group of
people using a Wiess ID card during
the month of July.
Both the number of items stolen
and number of entries to the room
are still unknown. The entry was
discovered by University Police Of-
ficer Terry Robinson, who is in
charge of the investigation.
Robinson opened the storage area
and accompanied a student who
needed to retrieve her passport from
her stored belongings. He noticed
the room looked a little disheveled
and made a mental note to return a
few days later. When he returned, he
noticed even more boxes had been
opened and more items had been
disturbed since his first visit. At that
point it was clear the room had been
entered at least several times.
Housing and Dining immediately
stopped all card access to the room
and the police notified Wiess mas-
ters Katherine Donato and Dan Kalb,
who had only recently moved onto
campus. The masters were accom-
panied to the basement to examine
the damage.
"You could tell boxes had been
opened," Donato, a sociology asso-
ciate professor, said. "There were
personal items that wouldn't have
just been left out of a box — clothing
items, shoes, pictures. We saw a
couple of broken glasses. It was clear
that someone had been rummaging
through the items."
When Wiess President Amy
Schindler was able to enter the base-
ment a few days later, she observed
that all the boxes looked like they
had been rummaged through, but
most of the items were still there.
The basement functions as an
entertainment area when class is in
session, but it is used as free storage
space over the summer.
"As much as we warn people not
to put valuables or electronics that
they wouldn't want stolen or flooded
down there, they do," Schindler, a
senior, said.
University Police Chief Bill Tay-
lor said the police are simply unable
to guarantee secure storage in the
colleges.
"I would rather [students] not
store any property in the colleges
over the summer simply because
it's always at some risk. It's a nice
gesture on the part of the colleges,
but we cannot guarantee security in
those areas," he said.
Taylor recommends students
look to off-campus storage facilities
for the summer.
'Free storage is free
storage and it's not
necessarily secure.'
— Bill Taylor
University Police chief
"It costs a little bit of money, but
you get what you pay for. ... Free
storage is free storage and it's not
necessarily secure," he said.
As a rule, even though students
have access to the basements over
the summer, they are not allowed to
enter during that period.
The particular security system
on the Wiess basement doors uses a
card reader which can read only a
part of the entry code, according to
Assistant Director of H&D Frank
Rodriguez. Because this type of de-
vice does not read the entire card
number, H&D cannot specify which
cards are allowed to open the room.
That means that anyone with a Rice
ID card, no matter how old the card,
can enter the room.
Robinson said the card used for
the repeated entries was issued to
the participants of a summer camp
during the summer of 2000. Unfor-
tunately, the same card number was
issued to all 57 camp participants.
Also, Robinson believes it is very
possible one of the participants lost
the card which could then be picked
up by someone else, further compli-
cating the search for a suspect.
"We do everything possible to
destroy all cards and get cards back
from summer camps whenever pos-
sible," Rodriguez said. "But people
do lose cards."
Police were able to determine
which card was used because of the
card reader records.
"Every time you use your card, it
gets logged into.a computer system,
so we were able to take that list and
eliminate all but one card," he said.
Investigations are continuing, but
the search for a suspect is difficult
because many people could have
used the card, Robinson said.
H&D is planning to install new
card readers, Rodriguez said, and
they should be purchased in the next
couple of months. The new system
will be capable of reading the entire
card number, so only specific people
will be allowed to enter the room.
Schindler was the first Wiess stu-
dent to examine her belongings and
file a report. As students come back
to campus, they will examine their
belongings and add all missing items
to the original report, Schindler said.
Originally, the basement was still
being treated as a crime scene and
students could only enter accompa-
nied by police officers.
Now, University Police say they
are at a point in their investigation
where the added security is unnec-
essary, Schindler said.
Even though the security system
will be improved. Rodriguez pointed
out that if someone wants to break
in, all they really need is a crowbar.
"We all have to be on guard and
that's why we have a police depart-
ment and that's why they're on guard
24 hours a day," he said. "If students
notice anything suspicious, they
should call us immediately — that's
what we're here for."
Sid student suspended
by Olivia Allison
THRESHER EDITOR STAFF
Sid Richardson College sopho-
more Tom Hicks was suspended
for an undetermined amount of
time after being accused of as-
saulting and threatening to kill
another Sid sophomore, Mathias
Ricken, in May.
Hicks, a football player, will
be suspended until he has com-
pleted certain requirements de-
tailed in a verdict determined by
former Interim Dean for Student
Judicial Programs Ron Sass. Sass,
the chair of the ecology and evo-
lutionary biology department,
refused to comment on the na-
ture of the requirements.
"The committee [conducting
the hearing ] had made a more gen-
eral recommendation,... so I gave
him the leeway of completing the
requirements in the amount of time
necessary," Sass said.
The incident in question oc-
curred on Sid's fifth floor balcony
about midnight on May 2. Ricken
and several other students were
yelling cheers for "Primal
Scream," a tradition in which Sid
students yell from the college's
six balconies at midnight each
night during finals.
Ricken and several other stu-
dents present at the incident said
Hicks came up to the fifth floor
with two other football players
and began asking if Ricken had
been yelling at him. Ricken said
Hicks then grabbed him by the
neck, pushed him to the edge of
the balcony and said, "Look down.
Do you think you can survive the
fall? I'm going to throw you off."
Michelle Hicks, Tom Hicks'
mother, would not comment on
whether the Judicial Programs'
ruling was appropriate and said
she could not speak for Tom
Hicks' reaction. However, she
said he would complete the re-
quirements of the verdict and
continue with his life.
'Tom is a person who accepts
whatever consequences come
from his behavior anytime, any-
where," she said. "This will not
keep Tom from realizing his
dreams. He has overcome many
adversities, so he will move on."
Sass said the goal of such ver-
dicts from Student Judicial Pro-
grams is to educate, not punish.
"I think of the office as an
educational opportunity, not an
opportunity for punishments," he
said.
Ricken refused to comment
on the specific nature of the ver-
dict but said he thought the ver-
dict was fair.
"It comes pretty close to what
I had hoped for, but it also is quite
open-ended," he said.
However, Ricken said he
thinks it will be strange to see
Hicks again, regardless of when
he returns to Rice.
"I don't think he can afford to
harm me in any way, and I hope he
won't, but it's still going to be awk-
ward meeting him again," he said.
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In the story "Students, Cohen House resolve conflict" in the July 20
issue. Cohen House staff member Rick Gaido was misidentified as the
head waiter. J.T. Trevino was the head waiter at the time of the incident.
The Thresher regrets the error.
_J
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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/m1/7/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.