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October 26, 2007 > News > News in Brief

News in Brief

By The Rice Thresher Editorial Staff | Thresher Editorial Staff

Homecoming elections will not accept write-in votes

A new system of nominating homecoming king and queen and the promise of a pizza study break are part of the Student Association’s efforts to increase student participation in homecoming voting. Voting started Wednesday and ends today.

The homecoming king nominees are the Master Chief from Halo, the Green Fences, English Professor Dennis Huston and G. Christopher Warrington. The Rainbow Building, Virgin’s Walk, Todd Graham and Warrington are the homecoming queen nominees.

Unlike previous years, write-in votes are not permitted. Instead, the New Student Representatives from each residential college compiled nominee suggestions and sent them to Director of Elections Andrew Bowen.

Bowen, a Martel College senior, worked with the senators and Parliamentarian Christopher Warrington, Secretary Cristina Abedrabbo, Director of Technology J.D. Leonard, SA President Laura Kelley, Treasurer Matt Feaga, Internal Vice President Matt Youn, External Vice President Sarah Baker and Director of Communications Stephen Rooke to narrow down the list to the four candidates that appeared on ballots this week, Baker said.

“We went through the list and chose the ones that came up more than once and kind of were cute and were somewhat appropriate,” Baker, a Lovett College junior, said.

Last year, the SA put up posters in the colleges calling for homecoming king and queen nominations, Baker said. Students wrote their nominations on the posters and the SA generated a ballot based on these suggestions.

Write-ins, permitted last year, were eliminated for this election in the hope of more accurately reflecting students’ views, Baker said.

“There has been a problem with voting in the past in that we don’t get a ton of people out voting so write-ins can win with like 20 votes,” Baker said. “We wanted to eliminate that possibility and do a better job of getting good candidates on the ballot to begin with in order to get student opinion that way.”

Bowen said there were no specific rules on how homecoming king and queen should be nominated.

“We felt this was the best way to get candidates that students would be interested in voting on,” he said.

— Jocelyn Wright

Examiner releases Redman autopsy information

After additional testing, the Harris County medical examiner released information pertaining to the death of Baker College junior Parker Redman. The medical examiner has classified Redman’s death as an accidental combined toxic effect of morphine and alprazolam.

Morphine, a strong painkiller and component of opium, is usually taken intravenously and can produce euphoria and relaxation in the user. Alprazolam, commonly known as Xanax, is an anti-anxiety drug in pill form.

The combination of the two drugs and their high concentration in Redman’s system led to his death.

Redman was found unconscious in his room at 7 a.m. March 31 and declared dead of unknown causes at Memorial Hermann Hospital at 8:35 a.m that morning. All residential colleges postponed their Beer-Bike activities after learning of Redman’s death.

The Medical Examiner did not release additional details.

— Sarah Rutledge

Beer keg shatters RMC glass door

One of the glass doors at the Rice Memorial Center entrance was shattered last Tuesday when a Budweiser keg fell off a dolly. Facilities Coordinator Timothy Abraham said a new glass door has already been ordered but will take two weeks to arrive because it needs to be specially made. Budweiser will pay for the replacement glass door. A wood panel has been put in temporarily.

“You can’t go in and out, but it’ll be totally secure,” Abraham said.

He said students did not seem too upset about the doors and that most just wanted to know what happened.

— Lily Chun

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