Language Proficiency Requirement Repealed
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•i*K •* 4 ! • ' •. : ' - . - . ... ... *,<•£ • 'pi 'X ' * t ' . 'j'H * . .5;™ Vol. LXXXVIII, Issue No. 24 SINCE 1916 Friday, March 16, 2001 Language proficiency requirement repealed by Olivia Allison lition of the language requirement. THRESHER EDITORIAL STAFF Zammito, also the History Department Change will apply retroactively to freshmen chair, then presented a motion to "retroac- The faculty voted overwhelmingly to elimi- "I think we've diagnosed the problem wrong," abolishing the requirement is the most efficient tively abolish" the requirement for students nate the foreign language competency require- Driskill said. "We didn't change our ideas about thing to do. who matriculated this year. ment for all students, including this year's fresh- the need for students to speak another lan- "The existing implementation of the language Freshmen will be able to apply foreign men, at Tuesday's general faculty meeting. guage. ... I think we're hindering the students if proficiency requirement is not something we language courses toward their humanities dis- About 10 minutes of discussion preceded we just blow out the requirement because I think can go forward with," he said. "The most sen- tribution requirement even though first-year the vote. English Professor Linda Driskill said [the faculty was! right in the first place, and sible way of dealing with that, to the faculty last language courses were not intended to count that although she thought the requirement what's wrong is the implementation." time, was to abolish the whole program." as humanities distribution, the faculty decided had been implemented poorly, it should not University Standing Committee on Under- Fewer than 10 of the estimated 75 faculty when the language requirement was instituted be abolished so quickly. graduate Curriculum Chair Jack Zammito said members in attendance voted against the abo- See LANGl LAGE, Page 11 Registrar announces preregistration changes by Olivia Allison courses at any time before or during THRESHER EDITORIAL STAFF the first two weeks of the semester, Registrar Jerry Montag said. Students will be able to adjust Also, because the Registrar's Of- their fall schedules beginning im- fice is hoping to introduce online mediately after preregistration this registration beginning this fall, year. Montag said he will not implement a Currently, students cannot add previously discussed system of pref- new classes or drop courses they erential preregistration in the near have preregistered for until the be- future. ginning of the next semester. The new add/drop policy was one Allowing students to add and drop change to preregistration approved courses after they have preregistered by the University Council Monday. April 2-6 will enable them to begin The ot her change is that students making changes to fall semester See REGISTRATION, Page 10 w-i m <4m Ballot to include revised KATIE STREIT/THRESHER SAS strikes back South Asian Society dancers prepare for one of their annual performances, South Asian Night, to be held at EM sports referendum 6:30 tonight. This year's "SAS Wars" begins in Hamman Hall and ends with dinner in the Grand Hall of the Student Center. Tickets, which are $5 for students and $7 for non-students, can be purchased in advance from college representatives. by Meghan Miller tor of Student Activities, said. "We THRESHER STAFF have great refs. They're spread too thin sometimes." A revised version of the recently Hicks added that the increased defeated referendum to increase the fee would make intramural sports intramural sports program fee will safer. Hicks said this is because when Race and the college system discussed appear on the Spring Elections bal- referees are poorly trained or do not lot. show up, the risk of injury increases. by Elizabeth Decker Richardson College senior Sonja Gee Asian upperclassmen. The paper was done for Emerson's Sociology 309, Spring Elections take place Hicks and IM Director Tina THRESHER STAFI and Hanszen College junior Mustafa March 23-28. Villard, who worked on the referen- Dohadwala to address why a dispro- Race and Ethnic Relations. The new version of the referen- dum, said they hope emphasizing Facilitating and promoting trans- portionately high percentage of Baker College junior John Lin, dum, approved Monday night by the that the program budget has not fers between residential colleges to black and Hispanic students choose an Asian panel member, introduced Student Association Senate, focuses increased in eight years will increase allow minority students to live with to live off campus. the idea that the number of minority 011 the need to increase the current support for additional funding. students of their own race was dis- The discussion began in response upperclassmen living on campus $10 per student fee by $5 to compen- "We haven't had a raise in eight cussed at a multicultural panelTues- to a research paper by Hanszen jun- could be increased by encouraging sate for inflation. The referendum years," Villard said. "When you look day. ior and Student Association Presi- students to transfer between col- states that the money will be used to at it, you can't find any budget that About 150 people attended the dis- dent-elect Jamie Lisagorand Hanszen leges to ensure that minority stu- improve training for officials, in- hasn't had a raise in eight years." cussion, moderated by Sociology As- sophomore Carolyn Shulman that dents were surrounded by other stu- crease officials' salaries and upgrade Hicks and Villard are working sociate Professor Michael Emerson. found 75 percent of black and His- dents that they felt comfortable with. equipment. with the sports representatives in The five panelists each came from panic upperclassmen live off campus Lin cited a low concentration of "We need to make an investment the colleges to inform students about different ethnic backgrounds. as compared to 40 percent of white minority students at each of the resi- into officiating," Mona Hicks, direc- See REFERENDUM, Page 8 The panel was organized by Sid upperclassmen and 37 percent of See FLIGHT, Page 9 INSIDE Spring Elections OPINION Page 3 petitions due today Respect required for diversity A&E Page 12 The deadline for submitting Lovett produces 'No Exit' petitions for the Spring Elec- tions. which will take place LIFESTYLES Page 17 March 23-28, was extended to Aries provides heavenly food today. The positions available are SPORTS Page 22 Honor Council at-large repre- Losses plague Lady Owls sentatives, Sammy the Owl, University Court senior class Scoreboard representative, University Baseball Council undergraduate repre- Texas 7, Rice 4 sentative and Campanile editor. Hawaii 4. Rice 3 Men's basketball Fresno State 60. Rice 52 Quote of the Week Women's basketball "The move will continue to go Texas Christian 78. Rice 58 forward to get rid of those stanky ELIZABETH JARDINA/ THRESHER Weekend Weather uniforms." Friday — Student Activities Director Still perfect Partly cloudy, 46-63 degrees Mona Hicks, in reference to the Freshman Richard Barker, last week s Western Athletic Conference Player of the Week, hits a running forehand Saturday Autry Court uniforms at Monday's in his 5-7, 6-4, 6-1 win over the University of North Carolina's Marcio Patrone at the No. 1 singles spot Monday. Showers, 49-59 degrees Student Association meeting. Three Owls came back to win their singles matches after losing the first set to help the Owls squeeze out a 4-3 Sunday See Story, Page 8 win and preserve Rice's undefeated 12-0 record. See Story, Page 21. Showers, 52-67 degrees - THE RICE THRESHER OPINION FRIDAY. MARCH 16.2001 "inteRacTive Rajionaue... y oavio cmen ce Thresher rm Brian Staler Jose Luis Cubria, Michael Nalepa Editor in Chief Mariel Tam Opinion Editor Managing Editors Bringing quality biice movies to campus :V:;- When Kristian Salinas began as Rice Cinema coordinator last march, he made it his mission to reconnect with Rice Cinema's traditional community audience and to provide more appealing fr fare for students. We can't speak for the non-Rice community, but he's cer- tainly piqued our interest. Earlier this month, Rice Cinema co- hosted the first Houston run of Yi Yi, a film that had already received a great deal of positive buzz. March also marked the beginning of the "Oscar Skips" series, which includes such critically acclaimed but little-nominated indie films as Dancer in the Dark and Requiem for a Dream. Independent cinema is not for everyone, but films like these represent the best the genre has to offer. In fact, sometimes they represent the best the media has to offer as a whole. For the Rice Cinema to bring these films to our doorstep is an accom- plishment, and we'd like to say thanks. Watching RBT mature </> 2 g On-campus cable may have a zillion channels, but often it seems like there's nothing on. That's precisely the problem that 0> 9^ the new blanket-tax organization, Rice Broadcast Television, is charged with fixing. As members of a blanket-tax organization that's been around for a while, we at the Thresher want to offer some friendly advice. cr> cu Rice students have come to expect a lot from the previously existing blanket-tax organizations. At a school where dozens of student clubs are formed and dissolved every year, these organizations have stood the test of time and become long- youR own Rice SToDenT standing institutions. Now that RBT has joined the ranks, K students will expect the same. RBT needs to be a dependable presence on campus from LETTERS TO THE EDITOR I year to year. This means it needs to recruit enough people to keep the organization vibrant and growing, as opposed to Language requirement form of coercive learning during his to so many people here is abso- dissolving when current members graduate.