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April 15, 2005 > News > Almost 500 prospectives on campus

Almost 500 prospectives on campus

By Katricia Lang | Thresher staff

Students offered admission to the class of 2009 have left the nest this weekend to experience life as an owl. Owl Weekend 2005 began yesterday and will continue through tomorrow.

As of Wednesday, 488 prospective students were expected to attend the recruiting weekend, and 360 undergraduates had signed up to host for Owl Weekend, Assistant Director of Admission Molly Khalil said.

Last year, the number of students who could register for the event was capped at 450 because of a lack of undergraduate hosts. Two days before last year’s Owl Weekend began, 212 students had signed up to host.

The Student Admission Council On-Campus Programs Committee organizes Owl Weekend activities and coordinates sign-ups for hosts. This year, the committee posted fliers and sent messages to listservs to encourage students to host.

Willy’s Pub closed at 5 p.m. yesterday and remained closed for the night, which is usually pub night. The pub will be open today for a drag show and performance night sponsored by GATHER, the gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, questioning and allied resource center. Pub General Manager Dave Meeker said he and the pub’s student management team decided to close the venue Thursday so employees would not be responsible for underage prospective students who drink before coming.

The pub becomes responsible for individuals once they enter the pub, Meeker said.

He said the change was not caused by any particular incident with prospective students in the past, but was a response to Baker College’s pub night March 18, during which five underage students were referred to Student Judicial Programs for drinking.

‘We’re a bar with a license, and we have to watch out,’ Meeker said. ‘We don’t turn people away. We didn’t want to turn away [prospective students] who weren’t 18. … In general, we are trying to be more proactive [about] preventing events like what happened three weeks ago.’ Owl Weekend is the most effective way of convincing admitted students to attend Rice, Vice President for Enrollment Ann Wright said.

Of the students admitted by regular decision who attended the event in 2004, 61 percent matriculated at Rice, Khalil said. About 40 percent of all students offered admission matriculated.

‘You can read brochures and look at videos and write e-mails, but there’s nothing like actually being here,’ Wright said. ‘And many people have never been to Texas before [coming] to this event, so it’s a really big, positive activity.’

The event allows prospective students to get a sense of day-to-day life at Rice, Dean of Undergraduate Enrollment Julie Browning said.

‘The advantage of Owl Weekend is that you get to see who else got into Rice and what your class will look like,’ Browning said.

Dean of Undergraduates Robin Forman spoke at the welcome ceremony yesterday. Clubs will have booths at an activities fair this afternoon, and the Rice Philharmonics, an a cappella group, will perform at a study break.

Prospective students can also attend a dinner picnic today and see a performance by Spontaneous Combustion, Rice’s improvisational comedy troupe.

An informational forum about study abroad will be held at 6 p.m. tonight in Biology Laboratory room 123.

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