% fce Thresher Vol. XCIII, Issue No. 21 £ SINCE 1916 Friday, March 3, 2006 Candidates aebate; voting opens today at noon by David Brown another potential candidate. Al- THRESHER EDITORIAL STAFF though that person is not running for SA president, he said he still Andrew Chifari focused on wants to be elected. decreasing the role of the Student Ross, a Lovett junior, said he Association on campus, Evan Ross has leadership experience as suggested the SA stress commu- Lovett president and as a mem- nication with administrators and ber of the SA senate and that he Althea Tupper said she would has formed relationships with focus on gathering student opin- administrators. Ross said the SA ion. The three candidates for SA president represents students, president debated Monday night and he will focus on efficiency and in Farnsworth Pavilion. productivity. Each candidate was given two Tupper, a Hanszen College minutes to make an opening state- junior, said she has been involved "CHOC ment and one minute to answer at Hanszen and is the co-chair of each subsequent question. Each the dean's committee on social candidate responded to 10 mod- culture and in other leadership erator questions, two audience roles. Tupper said the SA needs questions addressed to all three to get students more involved TAYLOR JOHNSON/THRESHER candidates and two candidate- and create more committees. Lovett College junior Evan Ross, Hanszen College junior Althea Tupper and Martel College sophomore Andrew specific audience questions. Chifari speak at the SA presidential debate Monday in Farnsworth Pavilion. Thresher Editor in Chief Am- Moderator questions ber Obermeyer, a Baker College For the first question, candi- should not organize activities to senate meetings by increas- many levels of government: the senior, and Thresher Senior Editor dates were asked how they would like Sammy's Picnic because Rice ing publicity and holding more colleges, the SA. the Faculty Sen- Nathan Black, a Lovett College make the SA relevant to students. Program Council should organize forums. She said the number of ate and the administration. senior, moderated the debate. Ross said the SA senate should such events. contested elections shows the SA 'Those four layers are layers In his opening statement, Chi- focus on what it does best — rep- Tupper said she supports ac- is relevant to students already. of icing on a cake, and the cake fari, a Martel College sophomore, resenting students and their tivities like Sammy's Picnic and Chifari said the SA is irrelevant is the students," Chifari said. "We said he decided to run to oppose concerns. He said the senate will encourage students to come to students because there are too See DEBATE, page 6 Outside firm begins planning for new college, renovations Matthew Taylor (Ph.D. '92) said outside con- by Monica Huang sultants will work with the housing steering IH RICHER ST AFF committee, which consists of Rice adminis- Plans for adding one or more residential trators. to formulate a plan for increasing the colleges and renovating existing ones to ac- availability of on-campus housing. commodate upcoming enrollment increases "We will definitely need at least one new are progressing. Th i s week, design con sultan ts college, but we don't know if we will need more beg;ui touring the colleges and meeting with than one or if we should expand existing col- groups to gather information about housing legesor whetherwe should put the new college at Rice. north or south," Taylor said. The consultants will produce a report by Consultants from design firm Hanbury the end of the semester that will include recom- Evans Wright Vlattas and Co. met with col- mendations for housing plans, which will be lege coordinators, RAs, college presidents and sent to the Board of Trustees for approval. masters, as well as an advisory committee, this At its December meeting, the board ap- week. Hie firm has previously worked at Baylor MATT CRNKOVICH/THRESHER proved {^resident David I^ebron's Vision for I 'niversify. Rhodes College and the University Will Rice College sophomore Chad Lembeck dives back to first base during a pickoff at- the Second Century, including a 30-percent of Central Florida. tempt by St. John's University Friday. The Owls host Cal State Fullerton for three games increase in the number of undergraduates. Taylor said advisory committee members this weekend and the University of Texas Tuesday. The first expanded class will matriculate in identified providing space in the colleges for Fall 2009, and the undergraduate population academic programs and guest speakers as a will eventually grow by about 900 students. A priority. document accompanying the vision statement Taylor said concerns were also raised about Baseball to play Fullerton, calls for the percentage of undergraduates differences in the quality of rooms and dining housed on campus to increase from 71 to 80 facilities in the colleges. Taylor said one option percent is to renovate the new wings at Baker, Hanszen UT this week at Reckling Assistant to the Dean of Undergraduates See HOUSING, page 5 right-hander Wes Roemer in tonight's by Matt McCabe 7 p.m. game. Roemer has averaged INSIDE THRESHER EDITORIAL STAFF almost eight innings per start on the The winners of the last four baseball year and has not walked a batter in 29 OPINION Page 3 national championships will all play at innings. Elections open today Apathy not so bad The Owls would typically counter with Reckling Park this week. No. 4 Rice, The General Elections start today at A&E Pages 16-17 sophomore right-hander Bobby Bell, 1 p.m. and run through Wednesday at the 2003 champion, will face No. 7 Cal Obligatory Oscars preview State Fullerton, the 2004 winner, in a but Graham held Bell out of his Friday noon. Students can vote online at sa.rice. three-game series this weekend. And start last week because of tenderness in edu for SA officers, other positions and SPORTS Page 18 Rice will play the University of Texas, his shoulder. Graham has not ruled out constitutional amendments. Men's basketball hosts season finale which won the championship in 2002 giving Bell the start, but said he might Quote of the Week and 2005 and is ranked 14th nationally, use the pitching-by-committee strategy Tuesday at 7 p.m. The Owls have won instead. If Graham chooses to use mul- See the animals "The one game in the last ten I didn't play [Baker College senior Latrice Elder is] the one 30 consecutive home series dating back tiple pitchers, freshman right-hander Passport to Houston and the Ad- missions Office are sponsoring a pic- we lost. I'm using my Rice degree to figure to April 2001, but Fullerton is the best Bryan Price, sophomore right-hander that one out. She's the X-factor for us." team to play a series at Reckling since Will McDaniel and sophomore right- nic at the Houson Zoo today from — Head women's basketball coach Greg the streak began. hander Kurt Pessa will be considered 3:306:00p.m. All studentsand prospective Williams (Hanszen '70) on Elder's role. See "Fullerton is just like us, in that their for the start. students get free dinner and admission story, page 19. "IBell| is so important to our effort to the zoo, including backstage tours. first area of concentration is pitching Scoreboard and defense," head coach Wayne Gra- that we perhaps are overly cautious about Baseball ham said. "I think they are an Omaha creating something chronic," Graham Rice 6, A&M Corpus Christi 4 team. I don't think there is any question said. "As important as Fullerton is, we First Friday and SpoCo about it." can't mortgage anything, much less Bring your owls to see a palette of Weekend Weather talents at First Friday today at the field After being swept by No. 19 Stanford forfeit anything to win the game." Friday to open the year, Fullerton (9-4) has lost TheTitansandOwlshavenot met since by Ray Courtyard at 7 p.m. The event Mostly cloudy. 56-75 degrees just one game and enters the weekend theNCAAMidwest Regional in 1996,and is free and spontaneous. Speaking of Saturday on a four-game winning streak, which Rice won that game 13-10. The weekend spontaneous, come to the Spontane- Partly cloudy. 57 74 degrees includes a three-game sweep of UCLA should feature lower-scoring games ous Combustion show at 10 p.m. in the Sunday and a 5-0 shutout of 12th-ranked Pep- than the 1996 meeting because both Hanszen College Commons. Partly cloudy. 57 78 degrees perdine. The Titans will throw star See BASEBALL page 22 - « v ' & ' • '<• * ' $ * • '" •' , ; r s V - V '"' THE RICE THRESHER OPINION FRIDAY, MARCH 3,2006 the Rice Thresher In order to both accomodate the expected 900-student enrollment increase and maintain green space, new colleges will be built on the intramural fields, College construction which will then be relocated to the roofs of the colleges. should be balanced Just don't kick the ball too hard, OK? To the average south college student, the north colleges are a mysterious land — the source of a few friends and parties and the occasional good lunch. But students from the north colleges are much more likely to frequent the south colleges, even if just on the way to Autry Court. North and south are not so polarized that Rice has two separate campuses, but certainly more interaction and balance between the two halves is desirable. With that in mind, we hope the next two colleges are not both built in the south.