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September 30, 2005 > News > News In Brief

News In Brief

Commencement speaker could be named soon

The Class of 2006 may soon know who will deliver its final lecture at Rice.

Adviser to the President Maryana Iskander (Wiess ‘97) said the Commencement Speaker Committee hopes to announce its choice for commencement speaker in about three weeks. Student Association President James Lloyd, one of two undergraduates on the committee, said the committee has invited its top candidate and is now waiting for an official response.

Unlike recent years, Iskander said the committee will not disclose a list of ranked preferences for the commencement speaker, in order to conceal the committee’s preferences for certain speakers over others.

“We don’t want our third choice finding out he or she was our third choice instead of our first,” Iskander said.

Lloyd, a Brown College senior, said he agrees with the decision not to announce a ranked list of possible speakers.

“Why produce a list of people who, for some reason, don’t work or don’t respond?” Lloyd said. “It’s better to firmly stand behind the one person we invite, rather than naming a bunch of candidates and having to say, ‘This happens to be the one who accepted.’”

In the spring, the committee collected ideas from rising seniors and compiled a list of possible speakers. President David Leebron and the committee then narrowed the list and selected the top candidate, Lloyd said.

Lloyd said he is pleased with the committee’s choice.

“I think our final candidate is one who fulfills the need for a speaker who is both notable and offers a good message,” Lloyd said.

Wiess College Master Katharine Donato, the faculty representative on the committee, said the committee settled on broad criteria for the speaker.

“There is a wide range of people who I think could fit the bill very nicely,” Donato said. “Possible speakers range from a very well-educated person to someone with a less formal education, but with an incredible life experience. The committee looks for someone who can say something inspiring to the graduates — someone who is insightful.”

Last year’s commencement speaker was Psychology Professor Miki Hebl. Other recent commencement speakers include former presidents Jimmy Carter in 1993 and George H. W. Bush in 2000, and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales in 2004, who was then White House Counsel.

— Anne Hierholzer

Tupper named Dean’s committee co-chair

Hanszen College junior Althea Tupper was named the co-chair of the Dean’s Committee on Social Culture Wednesday. Student Association President James Lloyd said he, committee co-chair Dale Sawyer, an earth science professor, and Wellness Center Director Emily Dexter-Page, who was a member of the ad hoc predecessor committee which met during the summer, interviewed three finalists last week before selecting Tupper. Dean of Undergraduates Robin Forman approved the choice, Lloyd, a Brown College senior, said.

“The choice wasn’t easy,” Lloyd said. “We had a lot of people who had a lot of experience to choose from. What was unique about [Althea] was that she had a broad range of experience in student life.”

Tupper was an Orientation Week coordinator at Hanszen this year after serving as a social last year. She is the Arts and Entertainment co-chair for Rice Program Council and has also participated in the Impact Rice Retreat and worked at the Women’s Resource Center.

Tupper said her experience as an O-Week coordinator led her to apply for the position.

“A lot of the key issues on campus were brought up during our O-Week discussions,” Tupper said. “I became more interested in social culture at Rice and in what drives different people to do different things.”

Tupper said the committee’s initial task will be to compile information and opinions.

“Our main priority is to look at social culture on the Rice campus and see what’s going on,” Tupper said. “We’re not making any suggestions or executive decisions — we’re just evaluating.”

Applications to be a student representative on the committee, which will also include faculty and staff members, are due Oct. 7, Lloyd said.

Lloyd said having a standing committee creates continuity.

“I hope to see ongoing dialogue, where in the past such dialogue had only occurred on a case-by-case basis without an overarching concept or goal,” Lloyd said. “Now, this [standing committee] provides us with a venue for ongoing dialogue.”

The SA will host a forum on social culture Monday at 10 p.m. in Farnsworth Pavilion in conjunction with its usual meeting. Sawyer and Tupper will lead the forum, Lloyd said. At the forum, Tupper said she hopes to learn which issues other students consider important.

“Forums are helpful because they allow students to voice their opinions in a constructive way,” Tupper said.

— Amber Obermeyer

Cheaper off-campus meal plan added

A meal plan for breakfast and lunch only is now available to off-campus students. The plan, called OC 6, allows students to eat any five breakfast or lunch meals per week in the residential colleges for $500 per semester — about the cost of buying five lunches every week, Housing and Dining Director Mark Ditman said.

The lower-priced meal plan is designed to encourage off-campus students to eat at and stay involved with their residential colleges, Ditman said. Students gave feedback to H&D that they preferred to eat lunch on campus instead of dinner, Ditman said.

H&D staff and college food service managers made the decision to add the new meal plan halfway through the Spring 2005 semester, H&D Business and Facilities Coordinator and former Meal Plan Administrator Leticia Arriola said.

Ditman said H&D originally proposed only offering tetra points to off-campus students. However, when Ditman visited colleges to discuss the meal plan, students suggested parents might be more willing to pay for a meal plan than for tetra points, since the lattercan be used outside college serveries, such as in soda machines and at the Coffeehouse, Ditman said.

Varsity athletes who receive five meals per week as part of a scholarship also use off-campus meal plans, Ditman said.

The old off-campus meal plan, called OC 5, was started about five years ago and is still available. With OC 5, students can eat any five meals, including dinners, per week at a cost of $675 per semester — about the cost of buying five dinners per week — Ditman said.

As of Sept. 19, 26 students had purchased OC 6, and 109 students had purchased OC 5. About 700 students live off campus each year, Ditman said. The participation in off-campus meal plans is about the same as in past years, Arriola said.

Emilia Perfetti, an off-campus Wiess College freshman, said she still plans to use tetra points to eat on campus.

“I looked at [the meal plans], but it’s better to pay as I go for the convenience,” Perfetti said. “I can use [tetra points] as I want, and I’m not tied to a specific number of meals. I can just pay for what I’m actually here for.”

With all meal plans, students can go through the line as many times as they want, Ditman said. Meals purchased with tetra points allow only one pass through the servery, he said.

Henry Jin, an off-campus Sid Richardson College sophomore, said he plans to use tetra points or bring his own food.

“[Buying a meal plan] is pointless,” Jin said. “It doesn’t really save you money over tetra points.”

—- Monica Huang

Network outage lasts longer than scheduled

A scheduled network outage Sept. 16-17 lasted about six hours longer than expected. The outage began at 7 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 16 and was scheduled to end about 10 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 17. However, systems dependent on the Mudd Data Center were not fully restored until about 4 p.m. Saturday, Director of Networking, Telecommunications and Operations William Deigaard (Wiess ‘93) said.

During the outage, electricians and Mudd Data Center staff replaced an outdated Uninterruptible Power Supply unit that had been destroyed by a lightning strike Aug. 18, installed three new Power Distribution Units and rewired a fourth PDU.

The installation of the PDUs took longer than expected, Deigaard said.

“Initially we thought that the electricians would be finished rewiring by 6 a.m., and they didn’t finish until about noon or 1 p.m.,” Deigaard said.

UPS units provide continuous power to the computers and network servers in the Mudd Data Center, Deigaard said. The PDUs monitor data flow and carry power from the UPS units to the 1,000 computers in the Mudd Data Center, Deigaard said.

During the outage, generators provided power for the telephone service on campus and kept the Rice Web site online, Deigaard said.

The outage was the second of two planned outages to replace the UPS units. Deigaard said no more outages are planned and that network services should not be interrupted in the future.

Sid Richardson College freshman Michael Cuccia said he planned for the scheduled outage but expected to be able to begin work earlier Saturday.

“I knew that [the outage] was coming, so I just went ahead and made plans and went out and did something else [Friday] night,” Cuccia said. “The outage didn’t bother me until [IT] kept pushing back the time [the network would be restored].”

However, Brown College freshman Brad Morris said the outage did not negatively impact him.

“[The outage] didn’t seem to affect anything because it was down for a short period of time,” Morris said. “Friday night was a good time because there wasn’t really much homework that I had to do, and I could wait until later in the weekend for Internet-related work.”

—- Beko Binder

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