Endowment Sees Renewed Growth Students Go to Vote
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
OP-ED P. 3 A&E P. 12 SPORTS It 15 Up in smoke Shouldn't it just be a camel? All good things must come to an end Eric Harrison thinks California's Proposition 19 should have Which of these are spirit animals for the members of The Soccer ties UH, but drops their firs* C-USA tournament game passed on Tuesday. Smoking Section: giraffe, mayna bird, lemur or octopus? to SMU, ending their season. the Rice (Ihresher VOLUME XCVIII, ISSUE NO. 11 STUDENT-RUN SINCE 1916 FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 2010 NOD Vegas CD VEGAS has high roll - 00 AILTii IT BY JOEY CAPPARELLA THRESHER STAFF Wiess College went all out for students to go all in at the 38th annual Night of Decadence: "Viva NOD Vegas" this past Saturday. More than 1,500 scantily clad stu- dents attended, approximately 200 more students than last year's NOD. Wiess Socials Kelsey Mase and Alysa Frost both said they were pleased with how the party went this year. "We did a lot of things that we haven't done before this year and we didn't know if it would all come together," Mase, a Wiess junior, said. "In the end, I think all of our hard work paid off." Most of the new attractions were seen outside in the main quad. In The entrance to the Wiess College quad Saturday night was decorated specially according to a Vegas theme for the least clothed party of the year. This keeping with the Vegas theme, year's NOD saw an approximate 200-person uptick in attendance, but did not experience the difficulties other parties this semester have. there was a magician, a fountain, card tables and a fake wedding chapel. Mase and Frost said that party more inclusive," Mase said. RUPD Major Dianna Marshall said officers. so much student involvement in these decorations were planned in According to the Rice University thert were 11 referrals to Judicial Af- Marshall said these numbers are the security plan," Marshall said. an attempt to move students into Police Department and Rice Emer- fairs and two students arrested. One similar to last year's NOD, when there "NOD is actually a good model for the quad. gency Medical Services, NOD was arrest was for public intoxication were also 11 referrals and one arrest. other parties to follow in terms of "We wanted there to be more ac- also a relative success from a secu- and the other for disorderly conduct, "NOD is safer than some other security planning." tivities besides dancing to make the rity perspective. specifically failure to cooperate with public parties because there is O see NOD, page 8 Endowment sees renewed growth Students go to vote BY HENRY DENG the amount distributed to the university double-dip recession caused financial BY ELLEN LIU tial college with the most votes cast THRESHER STAFF for spending ($221 million). markets to decline in value and the en- THRESHER EDITORIAL STAFF won a $250 study break. Long said the increase on returns dowment value to fall, though not by To help people learn more For fiscal year 2010, which ended this year can be attributed to apprecia- enough to erase gains on the year. Rice students, faculty and about the candidates, Houston's on June 30, the Rice endowment was tion in three key sectors, all of which are From July through October, Long alumni headed to the polls on League of Women Voters published measured at $3.79 billion, up from $3.61 impacted by the U.S. economy's perfor- said the markets have been steadily ap- Nov. 2 to cast their ballots for the a Voter's Guide that was distributed billion at the end of fiscal year 2009. mance. The three factors causing the preciating, though a significant portion midterm election. Between 7 a.m. throughout campus. This pamphlet According to Interim Vice President of increase in the endowment were capi- of the fiscal year, which goes through and 7 p.m., 400 people went to the included candidate responses to Investments and Treasurer Ron Long, tal appreciation in the publicly traded June 2011, remains. Miner Lounge in the Rice Memorial several questions depending on the the return on the endowment was an equity portfolio, capital appreciation When asked about future expecta- Center and voted for national, state position they were running for and increase of 9.9 percent, as opposed to a in the fixed income portfolio and ap- tions for the endowment, Long said and county officials. general information about voting. loss of 18.2 percent during the previous preciation in the hedge fund portfolio. there is no specific number that the Election Judge Cindy Dinh McMurtry senior Kathleen Li fiscal year. Long said. university targets for earnings. Accord- helped plan and oversee the entire said this year's governor's race was According to Long, the $3.79 billion According to Long, the market value ing to Long, the overall goal of the en- process and said she was extremely very important to her. She said she is calculated by taking the figure from of the endowment trended upward dowment is to earn enough to provide pleased with Tuesday's turnout. had not been very politically active the year before, adding investment from July 2009 to April 2010 with the for the annual distribution to run the Dinh, a McMurtry College senior, until she heard about the social returns on the year ($358 million) arid positive performance of equity markets. university every year plus compensate said that, according to a previous sciences curriculum change Texas' cash gifts ($36 million) and subtracting Around May, however, concern about a O see MONEY, page 10 election judge, only about 100 stu- Board of Education passed recent- dents had come to the polls a few ly. According to Li, this change in- years ago. Dinh said any eligible cluded removing Thomas Jefferson voter who uses his residential col- from required course material and RICE ENDOWMENT 1999-2OIO lege address can vote on campus, downplaying Japanese internment but usually not many people par- camps and the McCarthy scare. .<0* /V A4V ticipate during midterm elections. "I'm passionate about (public V /V 0*°V "Since Rice makes up nearly education] because I came from a ^ to" -• — «,"> all of Precinct 361, we have a very public school," Li said. "The curric- distinct voting block from the pre- ulum change made me very upset, cinct next to us," Dinh said. "It re- and I wanted to see what we could ally sends a strong message when do about it." students come out to vote in large Li said she wanted to find some 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 numbers because it shows what way to change the leadership of the candidates and issues students board and found out that education A align with here." was one of White's main priorities. Dinh said she worked with the She said she cast a straight Demo- 'V ; Office of Public Affairs, Rice Vote cratic ballot, with a few changes. Coalition and the Student Asso- Regarding overall voter atti- ciation to institute new get-out-the- tudes at Rice, Li said a spectrum of LAST FISCAL vote activities like a voters' registra- attitudes existed. tion drive, opinion-editorials in the "Some students are really ac- YEAR'S ENDOWMENT Thresher and Rice Standard and a tive." she said, "But there are al- competition in which the residen- O see VOTE, page 8 I FISCAL YEAR ENDOWMENT CALCULATION Light the fuse! Ein Buch fur Alle und Keinen The longest day INDEX Opinion 3 Dhamaka, the South Asian Society's annual The Shepherd Symphony is performing the Sleep in an extra hour Sunday morning — the News 4 fall show, is tomorrow night at 5 p.m. Tickets overture to Smetana's Bartered Bride, Tchai- clocks get set back an hour this weekend thanks Arts & Entertainment 12 are $6 for students and include the show and kovsky's Violin Concerto and Richard Strauss's to the end of daylight savings time. Or just run Sports 15 a meal afterward. Caveat emptor: Dhamaka Also Sprach Zarathustra (you know, that piece around drunk Saturday night an hour longer than Calendar 19 apparently means explosion. whose opening is used as the theme for 2001) usual. Your call. Backpage 20 tomorrow night at 8 in Stude Concert Hall. 'il FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 5,2010 2 EDITORIAL THE RICE THRESHER the Rice (Ihresher Absentee voting lacking J The Nov. 2 mid-term elections were quite historic, with Republicans regaining a wave of momentum that they had dramatically lost only two years ago. High national voting turnout was mirrored fay the turn- out of Rice student voting (see story, page 1); approximately 400 Rice students participated in voting on-campus, a distinct increase from the 2008 elections — a particularly impressive feat, since this most recent election did not include the vote for the presidency. Thus it seems that Rice's various attempts to get out the vote and promote student participation in the democratic process were success- ful. However, 400 students still represent a relatively low proportion of the entire student body eligible to vote. The fact remains that Rice is predominantly populated by out-of-state students, many of whom refuse to alter their hometown allegiances by registering to vote in Har- ris County. Thus, for future elections, it should be a priority to target ex- pansion of absentee voting. This involves pushing the get out the vote effort much sooner in order to accommodate the earlier deadline for absentee voting.