The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 87, No. 2, Ed. 1 Friday, September 3, 1999 Page: 4 of 20
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THE RICE THRESHER NEWS FRIDAY, SEPfEMBER 3. 1999
The following incidents were reported by the Campus Police for the
period Aug. 22-Sept. 1.
Residential Colleges
Lovett College
Aug. 31
Bicycle stolen from rack.
Lovett College
Aug.
31
Bicycle tire stolen.
Lovett College
Aug.
31
Bicycle stolen.
Other Buildings
Stadium
Aug. 24
Two subjects issued citations for
trespassing.
Alice Pratt Brown
Aug.
31
Compact disc player and speakers
stolen.
Parking Lots
Laboratory Road Lot
Aug.
28
Subject jailed„for driving while
intoxicated.
Baker/Hanszen/
Wiess College Lot
Aug.
29
Two subjects jailed for theft of a
bicycle and evading arrest.
Allen Center Lot
Aug.
29
Subject jailed for public intoxication.
Other Areas
Humanities building
construction site
i
Aug.
31
Money stolen.
In the article "Taylor begins as Campus Police chief" in the Aug.
27, issue of the Thresher, retired Campus Police Chief Mary
Voswinkel's name was repeatedly misspelled. The Thresher regrets
the error.
Reformed Uniuersity Fellowship
(RUF)
RUF is a Christian organization
committed to applying the whole
of scripture to the whole person
through teaching, fellowship and
outreach.
• ' . . r % - -• . -A • - ••• • .
' ^ \ \ • ' •' . w t • s , ... , . . •• ...
Come join u^, for our first meeting
on Thursday, Sept. 9 at 7:15 p.m in
the Miner Lounge of the RMC. If you
have questions, please call Pat
•Roach at (713) 552-0804 or e-mail
atruf@ctkpc.org.
Fondren to undergo major changes
Renovation, reconstruction, expansion to begin as early as May 2001
by J. Cameron Cooper
THRESHER STAFF
Sections of Fondren Library may
be demolished as early as May 2001
as part of a plan to unify and enlarge
the library.
The new section, which was built
in 1969 and now houses mostly book
stacks, will be torn down and a new,
larger addition will be built in the
same place. The older section, which
makes up the front of the library, will
also be renovated.
"The overall strategy is to make it
so that overall Fondren acts and feels
like one building," Jill Blackwelder,
director of Project Management and
Planning, said.
Fondren will be in a state of flux
for at least three years, she said, as
the project is currently expected to
last until fall 2004.
During demolition, construction
and renovation, the displaced books
will be housed in a temporary li-
brary building across the street from
Anderson Biological Laboratories.
Faculty members who currently
use Fondren as office space will prob-
ably not be affected.
The overall strategy is
to make it so that
overall Fondren acts
and feels like one
building.'
— Jill Blackwelder
Director of Project
Management and Planning
Most will have already moved to
the new Humanities Building by the
time of the Fondren renovation,
Blackwelder said.
According to present timetables,
the fifth floor, now the home of the
History Department, will be empty
for a year before renovation starts.
The Board of Trustees has ap-
proved the project, but has not yet
picked a design architect. There-
fore, the expected cost is also not yet
known. Although the changes will
be extensive, there are currently no
plans to rename the library.
Because of the extent of the
changes and the need to keep the
library open, the Fondren project
will be done in several phases.
"We're going to try to do some
things during student vacations
and holidays to minimize disrup-
tion," Blackwelder said.
The proposed changes are more
than architectural. In addition to
meeting short-term storage needs,
Rice will be "positioning itself for a
very different electronic future,"
according to the Januajy 1997
report of the Library (Planning
Committee.
Using electronic storage media
may allow the library collection to
continue to grow without the need
for greater long-term expansion.
The report also states, however,
that "our need to acquire books is
likely to continue at the same annual
rate as at present 'for the rest of our
lifetime.'"
This vision for Fondren's future
also calls for a larger staff and im-
proved services, a "more vigorous
collection program" and an empha-
sis on being more proactive than in
the past, the report says.
Grad students grade new apartments
by Esther Sung
THRESHER STAFF
The new Graduate Apartments
have met mixed opinions from resi-
dent students who have lived in the
old Graduate House.
While many say they are pleased
with the improvements in the new
facility, the higher prices may have
soured some opinions.
"I think the new Graduate Apart-
ments are definitely more comfort-
able [than the Graduate House],"
management graduate student An-
drew Fry said. "However, I believe
the level of service is lower. These
apartments are definitely overpriced
and will not compete with other apart-
ments nearby."
Chris Earles, a resident associ-
ate at the Grad Apartments, dis-
agrees. "I think the rents are fairly
reasonable," he said. 'That's based
on what I've seen in the area. And
the apartments are much improved.
We each have our own kitchen, the
rooms are more furnished and
there's more space."
The Grad Apartments, at
Bissonnet and Mandell, offer small
and large efficiencies and one-, two-
or four-bedroom apartments. Effi-
ciencies run from $338 to $364 per
month, while other apartments range
from $588 to $1,572 per month.
The improvements are totally
worth the extra cost," anthropology-
graduate student Angela Rivas said.
The apartments are neither too
cheap nor too expensive, she ajjded.
Although rents for the Grad
Apartments may be comparable to
those in other apartment complexes,
they are higher than the rents at the
old Grad House.
Graduate Student Association
Internal Vice President Andrea
Jace Frey resigns as
SA parliamentarian
Student Association Parliamen-
tarian and Lovett College senior Jace
Frey announced his resignation
Monday due to personal reasons.
Frey was appointed to his posi-
tion last spring by SA President Anne
Countiss.
He said then that he intended to
rewrite and clarify the SA Constitu-
tion, incorporating past amendments
and eliminating known loopholes.
"We accomplished the very press-
ing changes," Frey said Wednesday
of his shortened term. "There are
still people interested in continuing
the process."
Frolic said the higher rents may be
discouraging some students from
living in the new apartments.
"The setup is different, so it's
difficult to compare prices," Frolic, a
religious studies grad student said.
"But there's never a shortage of
graduate students looking for
houses, so the 70 percent occupancy
rate [in the Grad Apartments] is a
big indication that the rates are a
little high. My sense is that it would
be full if the prices were more ac-
ceptable."
7 still prefer the old
Graduate House.
Though it is old, it has
everything I need.'
— Yi-Jia Tsai
Religious studies
graduate student
There are a total of 222 beds avail-
able in 112 apartments, and as of last
week, about 150 beds were taken
with another 10 having deposits on
them, Food and Housing Facilities
Supervisor Loretta Pisegna said.
Managing Director of the Grad
"Apartments George Griffin III thinks
the new facility will acquire more
residents once more students hear
about it. "Because [the apartments]
are still new and have changed loca-
tions, the word still hasn't gotten
out, which is more the issue than,
anything else," Griffin said.
Frolic, however, expressed worry
that grad students will have difficul-
ties paying the rent with their sti-
NEWS IN BRIEF
According to the constitution, the
parliamentarian's job is to advise the
president on questions of procedure,
update the constitution and ensure
that student organizations conform
to the laws of the SA.
Frey's resignation is effective
Sept. 13. Countiss is responsible for
selecting a replacement.
Riceinfo gets new look
The redesign of the Rice home
page was unveiled late Tuesday as a
featured link off the current page,
a p^duct of the Office of Public
Affairs.
According to Vice President for
Public Affairs Terry Shepard, the
goal is to make the site more suit-
pends. "Evidently the administration
has made the decision that subsidiz-
ing graduate housing isn't a prior-
ity," she said. Also, because the Grad
Apartments are privately run and do
not fall under the jurisdiction of Food
afid Housing, the new graduate hous-
ing "is in no way comparable to the
college system," Frolic said.
Students have other concerns
about the Grad Apartments beyond
rent. "Basically the design of the
new GA is for the single graduate
student," religious studies grad stu-
dent Yi-Jia Tsai said. "It does not
consider the graduate students who
are couples or who have families."
Currently, the Grad Apartments
offer a nine- or 12-month lease, but
there has yet to be a final decision on
whether other leasing periods will
be available at a later date. On the
other hand, the old Grad House of-
fered shorter leasing periods as well
as month-to-month leases.
"We had quite a transient crowd
[at the Grad House] because the
lease could be shorter," Pisegna said.
"People were allowed to come in on
a month to month basis if they had a
Rice affiliation." Pisegna said cur-
rently the residents are 65 percent
first-year graduate students and 35
percent continuing students.
"The length of lease is very un-
reasonable," Tsai said. "It considers
only the convenience of manage-
ment, rather than the need of the
residents. Most of the people who
live in the new GA are those new
students who are not familiar with
Houston. I don't think they need
more than- one semester to find a
more ideal and affordable place to
stay.
"I still prefer the old Graduate
House," Tsai said. "Though it is old,
it has everything I need."
able and appealing for prospective
students and other users.
"We wanted to have something
that created interest without flash-
ing lights [to] let people get a feel for
the campus," Shepard said. *
He also said he felt there was a
need to get the new Web design up
as quickly as possible. At this point,
the site will not have any major
changes content-wise.
Web Editor Suzanne Stehr said
that the page will be in use as the
official home page of Rice starting in
late September.
The designers are soliciting stu-
dent feedback in the form of a sur-
vey linked to the trial page 'in order
to make improvements based.on
suggestions from visitors.
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McAlister, Jett & Tam, Mariel. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 87, No. 2, Ed. 1 Friday, September 3, 1999, newspaper, September 3, 1999; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth246653/m1/4/: accessed May 7, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.