OP-ED P. 3 A&E P. 11 SPORTS P. 14 Loop hazards run lull-circle Merrlweather Post Pavilion Track and tennis rock the house Both pedestrians and drivers may be In the dark when It Eric Doctor reviews Animal Collective's new album and Men's and women's tennis hold their opening matches while comes to safety on the outer-loop. deems It an orgasm of sound. track sprints through their first meet this season at home. thVOLUME XCVI,e ISSUE NO . 1Ric6 STUDENT-RUe N SINCE 1916 FRIDAY, JANUARY 16, 2009 Rice Chao ranked 10,818 directors 4th best Applications for 2013 class surpass 10,000, break records 12000 chosen *->(A value BY CINDY DINH C 10000 THRESHER EDITORIAL STAFF BY JOSH RUTENBERG While the rest of Rice may be 3 THRESHER STAFF 8000 experiencing a temporary hiring freeze, the Ting Tsung and Wei Rice was ranked fourth last week Fong Chao Center for Asian Studies 0> ACCEPTED on both the Princeton Review and welcomes new leadership. Earlier 6000 I REJECTED Kiplinger's Personal Finance maga- this month, Tani Barlow started her zine's lists of best value private u five-year term as the inaugural di- schools for 2009, falling from the a> 4000 rector of the Chao Center after be- number one position it held on last a 1 ing selected from an international year's Princeton Review and improv- </> pool of applicants in May 2008. o ing by one spot on Kiplinger's list. 2000 Barlow, who previously worked The lists compiled data from pri- as a professor in history and wom- vate campuses across the country. en's studies at the University of Schools were ranked on the basis of 0 '05 'o6 '07 *o8 '09 *11 '12 '13 Washington in Seattle, takes over academic quality, student opinion where interim director Richard and financial aid packages. Other Class GRAPH BY IAN WHITE Smith left off. consistently high-ranked institu- "Really, the leadership transition tions include Princeton, Harvard is to honor the work of the people BY MICHELLE JIN With the opening of Duncan and McMurtry col- and Yale universities. who founded Asian Studies at Rice THRESHER STAFF leges this fall, the university aims to increase the Princeton Review ranked Rice as entering freshman class from 789 to 850 students as and look forward to creating a Chao 1 first in 2007 and 2008 on its "Amer- Exceeding last year's count of over 9,700 appli- per President David Leebron's Vision for the Second Center that has an international re ica's Best Value Colleges" list. Ki- cants, Rice University broke records again, attract- Century, which plans for a 30 percent increase in the search profile," Barlow said. plinger's ranking of Rice as a best ing more than 10,000 applications this year for the number of undergraduate students by 2012. She credits her predecessors — in- value college has remained fairly first time in its history. Pursuing the aims of the Vision for the Second cluding Smith and Professor Stephen consistent over the past three years, For the class of 2013, Rice received 720 applica- Century, the Admission Office reported consider- Lewis — with helping to develop the fluctuating from fourth in 2007 to tions for Early Decision, compared to 661 applica- able increases across the board this year. Foreign Chao Center, which was created with fifth in 2008. tions in 2007 and 517 applications in 2006. Of the national applicants increased by more than 28 per- a $15 million endowment from the "We tend to bounce a little from 720 applications, Rice accepted about 200 students. cent, African-American applicants increased by Chao Foundation in 2007. year to year, but we have a strong Not only did Rice experience a 5.5 percent in- more than 11 percent, and non-Texan applicants "We're building on a great foun- track record of being within the top crease in the number of ED applications, which in- increased by 12.7 percent. Applications from Texas dation, so my vision for the future five schools," Vice President for Fi- creased for the second year in a row, but also a near- residents grew by 10.5 percent. includes intellectuals, students nance Kathy Collins said. ly 12 percent increase in applications in the overall The increase in the number of foreign national working together across national She attributed Rice's fall from applicant pool with 10,818 applications. applicants this year constitutes a particularly signifi- lines," Barlow said. first to fourth to the sweeping Last year Rice filled about 26 percent of its 2008- cant increase, compounded on last year's 62.3 percent The Chao Center is a new re- changes Harvard, Princeton and '09 entering freshman class through Early Decision. O see APPLICATIONS, page 4 search oriented center, whose staff Yale made to their financial aid is housed in various locations on policy last year. Harvard began campus including Fondren Library, limiting tuition to 10 percent of a Rayzor Hall and the Humanities student's family's income. None of Building. Though the Chao Center these schools require students to is separate from the Asian Studies take out loans as part of financial program, they will continue to work aid packages. However, Collins says closely together, Barlow said. she is not worried about the change in rankings. it "Look at the company we're in," We're building on a Collins said. "Rice makes a point of wanting to be affordable and be a great foundatoin, so high quality place, so it's great to my vision for the fu- have that affirmation. And it's great publicity to be right up there with ture includes intellec- really top schools." tuals, students work- With the recession looming ing together across overhead, families are sure to pay close attention to the tuition rates national lines of major universities, an area where Tani Barlow Rice has consistently outperformed Director of Chao Center its competition. The rankings reflected changes 99 made in December 2007 for the 2oo8-'o9 academic year, including the increased no-loan threshold The overarching focus this year from $30,000 to $60,000. is on the transnationalism move- Vice President for Enrollment ment ideas, people, products and Chris Munoz said Rice has con- technology moving across borders tinued to make accommodating which makes Asian Studies at Rice undergraduate financial need its distinctive. Barlow said. number one priority by raising the "When people are studying no-loan threshold this month from Asia, their interest and expertise Hanszen College sophomore Courtney Ng and Jtones College seniors Carolina $60,000 to $80,000 and lowering Owl see you in tend to stop at the national bor- the loan cap to $10,000 for students Simao and Chuan LI adom a brownie In the shape of an owl during the Rke der," Barlow said. "What has been matriculating in 2009. the kitchen Memorial Center's Snack Attack Wednesday night in the Grand Hall. significant about our focus from O see VALUE, page 7 S3 see CHAO, page 6 Registrar deadlines No classes on Monday! Inauguration procrastination INDEX Opinion 2 Today is the last day to add or drop courses The first day off of the semester is finally The editor recommends that all Rice students News 4 without a fee and the last day to convert Pass/ here, and not a moment too soon. We at the skip their classes from 10 a.m.-i p.m. on Tuesday Arts & Entertainment 11 Fails from last semester to a letter grade. For Thresher will be spending the day catching up to go to the inauguration viewing party in the Rice Sports 14 those of us graduating this spring, today is the on lost sleep and work we're already behind Memorial Center's Grand Hall. Any professor who last day to add or drop courses via ESTHER. on. Then again, some of us will sit around and tries to stop you from attending hates hope and Calendar 19 Afterward, it will be a pain. Better do it now. watch TV. Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day! change. Backpage 20 2 EDITORIAL THE Ricv. THRESHER FRIDAY, JANUARY 16,2009 LEUE.I 11 CROW TO OUTER LOOP: F1RK-E fl LEFT. the Rice (Ihresher M III—upwi'>MMi •••'i1 flf""""-' 11 111 HI K \ ^ JfUW 1 Best value ranking sits a little low for comfort Rice has always been about getting a good education for the v Vv 4 yf V best value. From the free-tuition policy that lasted more than 50 years after the university's opening day to the No. 1 "Best Value" ranking in last year's Princeton Review, maintaining the ability to educate students more effectively while charging less than our competitors has been central in Rice's institutional goals €>- since day one. This is why we hope that Rice's placement of only fourth-best on two separate best value lists is only temporary 8* (see story, page 1). It is true while we fell from the top spot in the aforementioned Princeton Review, we did rise one slot from fifth in Kiplinger's Personal Finance, but it might be worth asking: why did we stop the ascent at number four? Certain other universities took the spots ahead of us: Swarth- Rice overlooks out-of-state students more, Harvard and Princeton in the Princeton Review, and Cali- OVER THE LAST few years, we've seen lier we are forced to start again in Au- Admission Council tells me that Rice is fornia Institute of Technology, Yale and Princeton in Kiplinger's.