The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 86, No. 7, Ed. 1 Friday, October 16, 1998 Page: 1 of 24
twenty four pages : ill. ; page 19 x 15 in.View a full description of this newspaper.
Extracted Text
The following text was automatically extracted from the image on this page using optical character recognition software:
the Rice Thresher
Vol. LXXXVI, Issue No. 7
SINCE 1916
Friday, October 16, 1998
Baker associate blasts
off with college flag
by Laura Derr
THRESHER STAFF
NASA astronaut and Baker Col-
lege associate Jim Newman will
travel into orbit this December, along
with a Baker flag.
Newman, 42, will-serve on the
crew of the first space shuttle mis-
sion to carry hardware into space for
the assembly of the new interna-
tional space station.
"Jim Newman's crew will launch
Dec. 3 from Florida aboard the space
shuttle Endeavor," Johnson Space
Center representative James
Hartsfield said. Russia will be send-
ing up a component into space called
the Zarya module. Newman and crew
will rendezvous with the Zarya mod-
ule, capture it, dock it and attatch it
to the space station."[Newman will]
conduct three space walks to make
the Final connections," Hartsfield
said.
The space station is a coopera-
tive endeavor between the U.S. and
Russia. The launch may be delayed
due to complications with Russia. "It
depends on when the Russian com-
ponent -is ready," Baker Master
Arthur Few said.
Newman's third journey to space
continues a tradition. On each trip,
Newman has "taken some artifact of
Baker with him," Few said.
Newman carried a parchment
signed by the college's students in
his last mission in 1995.
This time Baker students wanted
to give him "something unique and
See SPACE, Page 6
Byrd Scholarship rewards
interracial communication
A close shave
ABI COHIN THRESHEK
Robert Coy from Times Barber Shop gives a student a new hairdo during Barber Day in the Rice Memorial
Center, which is sponsored by Rice Programming Council every month.
by Susan Egeland
THRESHER STAFF
In the wake of the death of James
Byrd last June, Rice established the
James Byrd Jr. Memorial Scholar-
ship to reward interracial communi-
cation.
Byrd was killed June 7 in the
small East Texas town of Jasper
when* three men beat him, chained
him to the rear bumper of a truck
and dragged him for nearly three
miles.
The act was deemed a racially
motivated hate crime because Byrd
was black and because at least two of
the three white attackers were asso-
ciated with white supremacist
groups.
In response to the tragedy of
Byrd's death, President Malcolm
Gillis proposed the scholarship a
few months ago, and the Board of
Trustees accepted the proposal.
"Rice decided to honor James
Byrd with this scholarship because
of the kind of people that he and his
family are," Gillis said.
"He was a father, a brother, a son
and a husband, and in the wake of
this tragedy, his family has shown
the capacity of forgiveness that most
of us can only aspire to," Gillis said.
'The idea of the scholarship is to
honor [Byrd].
'The crime associated with his
death is just as abhorrent as any
crime that you can imagine, and it
seemed to me that we needed to be
a part of the healing process that this
family is advocating."
Rice will award the first Byrd
scholarship in April and continue to
award one each year.
The scholarships will provide al-
most full tuition for four years, and
the recipient may be of any race,
ethnicity or gender.
Gillis said there are only two re-
quirements for this scholarship.
"First of all, the scholarship is need-
based. And second, until such time
that there is no need for people to try
to bring us together across racial
boundaries, the scholarship will be
awarded to someone who actively
works to narrow racial and ethnic
boundaries," he said.
Rice held a reception Oct. 7 to
announce the establishment of the
scholarship. Board members, fac-
ulty, students and members of Byrd's
See RACE, Page 7'
Rice Broadcast Television to air newscasts
by Jen Frazer
THRESHER EDITORIAL STAFF
Rice will soon have its own stu-
dent-produced television newscast.
Starting Oct. 29, Rice Broadcast Tele-
vision will air a prerecorded, 30-
minute news segment every Thurs-
day at 10 p.m. on Rice cable Channel
11.
The show is the first for RBT to
make it from the idea stage to pro-
duction. "We figured it was time to
stop planning. The only way we're
going to learn is to get it on the air,"
RBT administration committee
member and Sid Richardson Col-
lege sophomore Simi Blair said.
Co-News Producer and Lovett
. College sophomore NikkiNime said
that for RBT to be taken seriously,
they needed to prove they could pro-
duce. Otherwise, desperately
needed funding would remain elu-
sive, she said.
"We just got $2,000 from [Vice
President for Student Affairs
Zenaido] Camacho, so we just
bought a camera, but we don't have
anything else. We're going to use
[Rice] Media Center editing equip-
ment," Nime said.
The show will follow a traditional
news format. "We're start ing off with
a couple of national news stories and
then we're going into Rice Univer-
sity news," Nime said. "We're going
to video the [Night of Decadence]
preparations. I know that we're go-
ing to cover [Club] 13 on Hallow-
een."
RBT hopes to get students to pay
more attention to what's going on
around them. "People at Rice close
themselves off [from national
events]," Blair said.
Nime also recognizes the poten-
tial problems a student newscast
would have attracting attention.
"We're going to try to keep the show
really informative, yet funny and in-
teresting, because if it's just straight
news, Rice people won't watch it,"
she said.
But the limited resources require
the fledgling show to be prere-
corded, which hampers its ability to
stay timely. "We're going to record
it on Monday and it's going to air on
Thursday," Nime said. *
RBT's 14 news reporters and an-
chors, two from each show, are the
core of the show. Each week they
will develop story ideas, research
them and tape their own segments.
"Our news reporters and anchors
are all really enthusiastic," Nime
said. "We got people who are really
passionate about this. They want to
either pursue a career in it or have
just done this in the past and have
really enjoyed it. So we don't have a
v problem motivating people. Every-
body that's in it is really excited and
contributing a lot."
RBT currently has no plans to
run university-related advertising
during the show, but both Blair and
Nime left open that possibility. "We
don't have any commercials right
now, but I think eventually we'll want
to get parties and such to do their
own commercials. We're really new
and free," Nime said.
Smith receives Texas Professor of the Year award
by Usman Baber
THRESHER EDITORIAL STAFF
Professor of History and Direc-
tor of Asian Studies Richard J. Smith
was named Texas Professor of the
Year Oct. 8.
The Carnegie Foundation for the
Advancement of Teaching and the
Council for Advancement and Sup-
port of Education give the annual
award to recognize extraordinary
dedication to teaching, commitment
to students and innovative teaching
methods.
The U.S. Professors of the Year
program was created by CASE in
1981 and is supported by the entire
higher education community.
Smith, who has been at Rice for
25 years, was master of Hanszen
College in 1982-'87.
He has won a number of teaching
prizes, including six George R.
Brown teaching awards, the Minnie
Stevens Piper Professorship and the
Nicholas Salgo Distinguished Teach-
ing Prize.
His main academic fields are mod-
ern Chinese history and traditional
COURTESY RICE NEWS
History Professor Richard J. Smith
Chinese culture, and his current re-
search focuses on Chinese philoso-
phy, ritual and religion.
His publications include the
books Fortune-tellers and Philoso-
phers; Chinese Almanacs', Cosmology,
Ontology and Human Efficacy,
China's Cultural Heritage; and Chi-
nese Maps. Smith's basic philoso-
phy of teaching is that from other
cultures we can learn about our-
selves.
"I believe that teaching and learn-
ing are afl about imagination, find-
ing it in ourselves and appreciating
it in others," he said.
Administrators and students alike
held high praise for Smith. "Rich
Smith is a fabulous teacher, a distin-
guished scholar and a great human
being. Dean of Humanities Judith
Brown said, "His teaching is infused
by his research, and both have a
lively quality that make the experi-
ence unforgettable. He represents
the highest ideals of a university
professor."
Hanszen senior Nathan Phipps,
who took Smith's Asian Civilizations
course, expressed similar senti-
ments. "He is an extremely engag-
ing lecturer," he said. "He brings the
subject to life."
Smith also commented on the
benefits of teaching at Rice."I love
Rice. It's a wonderful place to teach
because it has inspirational col-
leagues, challenging students and a
fair number of administrators who
care about teaching as well as schol-
arship," he said.
INSIDE
Did Rice ever own
Yankee Stadium?
Some legends of Rice's past
are simply unbelievable. How
could Rice, a southern institute
of higher learning, become in-
volved in New York professional
sports?
Find out the full story of
Rice's crazy unkept secret.
Story, Page 18
No 'Thresher' next
week due to recess
Due to the midterm break,
there is no Thresher next week.
FEATURE Page 8
Picture Yourself
A&E Page 12
Beloved haunts the screen
SPORTS Page 19
Volleyball wins first WACgame
Weekend Weather
Saturday
Showers, 72-82 degrees
Sunday
More rain, 66-75 degrees
Scoreboard
Football
Rice 17, San Jose State 20
Volleyball
Rice 3, Air Force 0
The article "Mac's Beer Co. keg delivery under scrutiny from Rice
administration," which appeared in the Oct. 9 issue of the Thresher.
erroneously reported that the Alcohol Beverage Policy Advisory Committee
will meet with Mac's Beer"Company today. Instead, the Rice
representatives will be Associate General Council Carlos Garcia, Assistant
Dean for Student Judici^'Programs Patty Bass, a Campus Police officer
and possibly a college master. The Thresher regrets the error.
Upcoming Pages
Here’s what’s next.
Search Inside
This issue can be searched. Note: Results may vary based on the legibility of text within the document.
Tools / Downloads
Get a copy of this page or view the extracted text.
Citing and Sharing
Basic information for referencing this web page. We also provide extended guidance on usage rights, references, copying or embedding.
Reference the current page of this Newspaper.
Stoler, Brian. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 86, No. 7, Ed. 1 Friday, October 16, 1998, newspaper, October 16, 1998; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth246630/m1/1/: accessed April 19, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.