MMfiMiii Vol. XC, Issue No. 22 SINCE 1916 Friday, March 7, 2003 . Revote ordered in three contested SA elections 6 by Jenny Rees tallied preferentially, Emmett said. THRESHER EDITORIAL STAFF "The instructions on the ballot prevented the votes from being tallied so that the voters' The Student Association will conduct vot- intent could be found correctly," Emmett said. ing for a second time in three races from the "I think a re-vote is the only viable way to get General Election ballot, the University Court the voters' interests represented and be in decided Sunday. U. Court ruled the SA must accordance with the SA constitution." hold voting again because of misleading Skye Schell, a Baker College sophomore instructions on the ballot for U. Court sopho- and SA director of technology, said although more representatives and Honor Council the electronic ballot itself will remain the same junior and senior representative. for the new elections, he will change the in- The new elections will begin at noon structions on the ballot. The instructions will March 21 and end at 1 p.m. March 26. The clearly state voters will have a number of votes same candidates will appear on the ballot, and of the same weight that will be equal to the no new petitions will be accepted. number of candidates elected in each race, U. Court justices decided to mandate the new Schell, a Thresher editorial staff member, said. vote after hearing a contest to the election filed SA Elections Chair Alan Pham, a Baker by Lovett College sophomore Robert Emmett, sophomore, said he is worried fewer students who lost the race for Honor Council junior rep- will vote in the new elections. resentative. For races in which voters elected "There's almost no chance that well have as multiple students to a single office, the ballot many students voting in this election as we had instructed voters to rank candidates in order of in the first election, which will be unfortunate MS* preference, although the SA bylaws state that because there's no way it's going to be as indica- those votes will not be tallied preferentially. tive of the students' desires," Pham said. "In an election for multiple offices, each Since U. Court's ruling, one of the candi- voter may vote for at most a number of candi- dates in the senior Honor Council representa- dates equal to the number of offices to be tive election, Martel College junior Stephen filled," the SA bylaws state in Article E-l, Zak, withdrew after he was elected the Martel msm Section 2. "The candidates receiving the most Honor Council Representative. With the num- usal votes shall be declared winners." ber of candidates equal to the number of posi- tions, the race will not be held. Although votes in multiple-choice elections SUSHI SUZUKi/THRESHfcR were tallied correctly according to the bylaws, In a separate contest to the election, Emmett claimed the ballot misled voters into U. Court ruled to uphold the decision of the Anti-war Willy believing the preferential system would be SA elections committee not to disqualify Rob used. Voters would have voted differently if Daniel, who won the race for Honor Council Sid Richardson College senior Arwen Johnson puts a Rice for Peace T-shirt on Willy's they had known their votes would not be See ELECTIONS. Page 8 statue during Wednesday's anti-war rally. See Story, Page 7. Four named to presidential search Undergraduate, graduate and Mo alumni representatives chosen »> | fe lege junior; and Will Rice College by Liora Danan (Hanszen '65). Crownover will serve as the committee's chairman. Board President Steven Caufield. a senior. THRESHER EDITORIAL STAFF of Trustees Chairman Bill Barnett The committee reviewed 18 ap- Most members of the search com- ('55) will serve as an ex officio mem- plicants before interviewing four mittee for the new Rice president ber. candidates: Weber, Wiess College have been selected. The committee, which is being junior and Thresher Editor in Chief The committee, which will begin formed after President Malcolm Rachel Rustin and Brown College meeting as soon as three faculty rep- Gillis' December announcement that juniors Kevin Bailey and Matt resentatives are chosen, is respon- he will step down as president Swineheart. Haynie said the process sible for recommending three to five June 30,2004, will determine the cri- was difficult because there was such candidates for board consideration teria for choosing the next presi- a strong group of applicants. by November. dent, interview members of other "Any of the four people we inter- Committee members who have universities about their search pro- viewed would have done a very good been chosen are undergraduate stu- cesses and finally conduct the appli- job on the committee," Haynie said. cation process. "[Weber] really impressed us be- • i * dent representative Andy Weber, a Sid Richardson College junior, Weber was selected as the un- cause he had some really good ideas graduate student representative dergraduate representative this about how to gather student opin- Miles Scotcher, the current Gradu- week by a committee consisting of ion, and he had really good ideas ate Student Association president, Student Association President Matt about how to determine what the alumni representatives Carl Isgren Haynie, a Will Rice College senior; needs for a university presidents KIJANA KNIGHT/THRESHER (Baker '61) and Karen Ostrum SA Internal Vice President Clare are." George (Jones '77, M.A. '78) and Johnson, a Sid sophomore; Honor Weber said effectively represent- Head over heals for culture board representativesTeveia Barnes Council Chair Joan Shreffler, a Lovett ing the student body is extremely College senior; Thresher News Edi- important to him and he hopes to Nehuen Rojas performs the capoeda dance during the Culture Fair Friday. (Baker '75), Steve Miller ('53), Ber- nard Pieper ('53) and Jim Crownover tor Mark Berenson, a Martel Col- See PRESIDENT. Page 5 . Ad hoc committee on INSIDE Springing for a break OPINION Page 3 Two many leaders Next week is Spring Recess and as a result there athletes releases report are no classes. Likewise, the Thresher will be taking A&E Page 10 the week off. We will return March 21. Randall White gets 'NORMAL' will continue at Rice," Matthews, a Have a fun safe break wherever your travels by Mark Berenson Will Rice College sophomore, said. may take you (even if only to the library). SPORTS Page 12 THRESHER EDITORIAL STAFF The committee's report suggests Senior Night at Autry The Student Association ad hoc a panel of junior and senior athletes Forced e-mail hiatus Quote of the Week committee on athlete and nonathlete speak to incoming students during In order to ensure that no students attempt to do relations reported to the SA Senate O-Week and encouraged O-Week "It's a crappy, old pool." work on the first day of Spring Recess, the e-mail on the recommendations it has pro- coordinators to involve athletes in — Jones College senior Jeannie Malanowski, captain of the women's club water polo team, with regard to the posed or initiated since its formation the week as much as possible. In servers will be down from 8 a.m. until 8 p.m. tomor- closure of the Recreation Center pool. See Story, Page 4. in January. addition, the committee's report en- row. During this time, Information Technology will perform maintenance on the server once again. Committee chair Derrick couraged team leaders to contact Weekend Weather new athletes during the summer to Matthews said the recommenda- Scoreboard Friday tions focus on Orientation Week. dispel stereotypes about the rela- Baseball Sunny, 52-71 degrees "We feel that if we can get a fresh- tion between nonathletes and ath- Saturday letes. Houston 3, Rice 4 man class that respects student ath- Southwest Texas State 4, Rice 10 Partly sunny, 54-76 degrees letes and doesn't have as many is- O-Week Student Coordinator Southwest Texas State 5, Rice 7 Sunday sues with integrating them in their Whitney Botsford said she supports Southwest Texas State 3, Rice 8 Partly cloudy, 54-72 degrees class, then hopefully that tradition See ATHLETE, Page 6 , « - •' ' THE RICE THRESHER OPINION FRIDAY, MARCH 7,2003 You no longer have to the Rice Thresher speak! We have a T-shirt for every occasion! Improving relationships The Student Association's ad hoc committee on athlete- nonathlete relations, which disbanded Monday, should be ap- T S plauded for accomplishing many things in a short time. AM *>T Among its recommendations, the committee suggested adding a varsity sports representative to every college government (which some colleges already have), conducting a "Did You Know?" campaign at each college, boosting student attendance at athletic events by encouraging halftime activities and other promotional LETTERS TO THE EDITOR ideas, and making changes to Orientation Week to promote inter- action between new athlete and nonathlete students. (See Story, things in the name of construction. I tential liability given levels of state Page 1.) Walk-out was an still miss the Jones deck that we and federal finding. That liability All these ideas constitute small steps in the right direction, and excuse, not a statement worked so hard to make in the mid- simply doesn't exist, though, in the we are impressed the committee was able to come up with these 1990s. If they keep paving over the current political climate. things that make Rice unique, soon While I don't want to get into a concrete suggestions and finish their business in less than two To the editor: I have a serious problem with the Rice will lose all the character that I long discourse on affirmative action, months.