The Rice Thresher, Vol. 96, No. 27, Ed. 1 Friday, April 17, 2009 Page: 1 of 20
twenty pages : ill. ; page 19 x 15 in.View a full description of this newspaper.
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OP-ED P. 3
Yes, McMuity Khan!
Is McMurtry college primed and posed to be Rice's Mongol
Identity, finally helping north ally with south?
| A&E v P. 11
Montana meets Tennessee!
Hannah Montana: The Movie/ How much fun can one girt
have? (And how much can we care?)
SPORTS P# 16
Women's tennis all weekend long
The Jake Hess Tennis Stadium hosts the Co-USA Women's Ten-
nis Championship Thursday through Sunday. Go Owls!
SINCE 1916
STUDENT-RUN
VOLUME XCVI, ISSUE NO. 27
FRIDAY, APRIL 17, 2009
jpxsniBitiUL xtisNisxrvi: NOTK
Gunson
campus
debated
Texas legislature
weighs law allowing
concealed weapons
on campus
by Jaclyn Youngblood
Thresher Editorial Staff
The Texas state legislature is cur-
rently considering a bill that could have
some college students up in arms.
The bill, HB 1893, was introduced
on March 5 by State Representative
Joe Driver (R-Dallas). It would over-
turn the provision in the Texas penal
code that states that no concealed
handguns can be brought onto the
premises of a college campus, Rice
Chief of Police Bill Taylor said. As it
stands, breaking this law is a third
degree felony.
If the bill passes, it would be il-
legal for Texas institutions of higher
learning to prohibit registered con-
cealed handgun licensees from carry-
ing their weapon on campus.
Vice President for Public Affairs
Linda Thrane said there has been a
push in favor of this legislation in the
current session of the Texas assembly.
Taylor said an amended version of
the bill passed out of the House Com-
mittee on Public Safety April 8. In
order to become law, the bill must be
approved by two-thirds of the House
as well as the Senate.
With the amendment, the bill would
allow private institutions to consult with
their students, faculty and staff to deter-
mine whether or not to change their in-
dividual policies, he said.
The Senate has its own version of
the bill, SB 1164, which is being con-
sidered concurrently with the House
version, Taylor said. He said the Sen-
ate's bill does not feature the amend-
ment of the House bill, but has not
moved out of committee yet. Should
both chambers pass their respective
bills, they would have to reconcile the
two versions of the legislation.
"We don't know what to ex-
pect when it goes to the full floor,"
Thrane said.
Thrane said Rice, along with the
Independent Colleges and Universi-
ties of Texas organization, is against
the legislation. She said while the bill
O see Guns, page 9
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How ana
s making its cuts
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Greek life
at Rice
Brown College's annual toga-themed Bacchanalia party was held last Saturday night
in the Brown commons, offering stressed-out students a break from their work in
the week before finals.
Rice receives grant for compiler research
by Josh Rutenberg
Thresher Editorial Staff
A team of Rice scientists are a
chip off the old block, or rather, their
work will be. Five Rice professors re-
ceived a $16 million grant from the
Defense Advanced Research Projects
Agency for their research on improv-
ing the efficiency of programs run-
ning on processors.
Comprised of specialists span-
ning various sectors in the fields of
computer science and probability
and statistics, five Rice scientists
have come together to work on the
platform-aware compilation proj-
ect, also called the PACE project.
Computer systems, including ones
found in iPhones and other cell
phones, use compilers to translate
human phrases and code into bina-
ry zeroes and ones that a machine
can operate on, computer science
professor Krishna Palem said.
The project aims to make het-
erogeneous machines, those that
can only run certain combinations
of programs, more efficient. The
U
Every element of what
a compiler can do,
there is a world expert
at Rice. I am person-
ally excited about
probabilistic approxi-
mation learning.
Krishna Palem
Computer Science Professor
W
team plans to accomplish this task
through the use of what is called
"parallel computing," which breaks
a large task into smaller, simultane-
ously computed tasks, rather than
the current system of having indi-
vidual vendors fine-tune software
to match their hardware, Palem
said. Parallel computing would
allow a compiler to translate the
software as if one vendor had made
them all.
"[In] every element of what a
compiler can do, there is a world ex-
pert at Rice," Palem said. "I am per-
sonally excited about probabilistic
approximation learning."
Probabilistic approximation learn-
ing is the set of tools that allow soft-
ware to evolve and learn. This infor-
mation is then given to the compiler,
Palem said. He said that no compiler
in existence today uses probabilistic
approximation learning.
The PACE project formally be-
gan last March when Palem, along
with Professors Keith Cooper, John
Mellor-Crummey, Linda Torczon
and Vivek Sakar brought compiler
knowledge from their individual
backgrounds together to form a team
to approach the task of developing a
O see GRANT, page 4
Common
reading
selected
by Jaclyn Youngblood
Thresher Editorial Staff
This year's Common Reading
book will take students an ocean
away and back again. The House at
Sugar Beach: In Search of a Lost Af-
rican Childhood, by Helene Cooper,
has been chosen as Orientation Week
2009's selection. It exposes students
to a coming-of-age story written by a
woman who survived a war-torn up-
bringing in Liberia to eventually im-
migrate to the United States.
The Common Reading selection
committee, composed of faculty, staff
and students, began searching for a
book last fall. Dean of Undergradu-
ates Robin Forman said. A month
ago, the list of potential books was
whittled down to four: In Defense of
Food: An Eater's Manifesto by Mi-
chael Pollan, Transforming Leader-
ship: A New Pursuit of Happiness by
James MacGregor Burns, Opportunity
Urbanism: An Emerging Paradigm for
the 21st Century by Joel Kotkin and
The House at Sugar Beach.
Forman made that list available to
faculty and asked for feedback. After
weighing the faculty's opinions, the
committee made its recommendation to
Forman April 1, and Forman approved
the recommendation a week later.
In The House at Sugar Beach, Coo-
per tells of her emigration from Libe-
ria to the United States after a coup in
Liberia in the 1980s, discussing how
she struggled to shape her identity in
a foreign land.
In an e-mail to the Rice commu-
nity, Forman said this year's selec-
tion was chosen for the salience of
its message and its meaningfulness
to incoming freshmen, who will also
have to deal with forging new identi-
ties in a new environment.
"We believe Ms. Cooper's story will
be meaningful to new students ... be-
cause it illuminates the challenges of
transitioning from something familiar
to something foreign," Forman said.
Forman said the book also lends
itself well to the opening of Duncan
and McMurtry Colleges in the fall. He
said the theme of self-identity runs
through the story.
"What does it mean to introduce
new colleges to this community?"
he asked. "[It's] about adapting to
new surroundings and not losing
sight of yourself."
O see Reading, page 5
Velociraptor Awareness Day
For those of us too preoccupied by Assas-
sins to notice, velociraptors have been
on the rise lately. In celebration (or sheer
terror?), Saturday is Velociraptor Aware-
ness Day.
Hanging with the Prez
The Candyland-themed President's and
Dean's Study Break is Sunday from 9-11
p.m. in the RMC. There will be mas-
sages, a green screen and loads of free
candy. And Queen Frostine, perhaps?
Phinal Phils Concert
The phinal Phils concert will take place Satur-
day at 10 p.m. in the Lovett Underground. The
concert will pheature requests phrom Phils
phans all night long. Phinally, a chance to hear
some phine tunes.
INDEX
Opinion 2
News A
Arts & Entertainment 11
Sports 14
Calendar 19
Backpage 20
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Michel, Casey. The Rice Thresher, Vol. 96, No. 27, Ed. 1 Friday, April 17, 2009, newspaper, April 17, 2009; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth442989/m1/1/: accessed May 5, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.