The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 87, No. 13, Ed. 1 Friday, January 21, 2000 Page: 6 of 24
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THE RICE THRESHER NEWS FRIDAY, JANUARY 21, 2000
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Grob recovering from
heart attack
English professor Alan Grob, 67,
is recovering at Methodist Hospital
after suffering a heart attack Jan. 14.
Fellow English professor and
friend Dennis Huston said that on
the morning of Jan. 14, Grob experi-
enced the classic symptom: pain in
his chest and arms. He was taken to
the hospital where doctors adminis-
tered a clot-breaking drug. He was
then in the intensive care unit until
Sunday afternoon. On the way to a
test to determine how much dam-
age the heart attack had caused,
(.rob collapsed and doctors discov-
ered thaf hVwas bleeding internally,
probably as a result of the clot-break-
ing drugs. He was given a blood
transfusion at that point, and he re-
turned to the 1CU.
He was given another transfu-
sion Wednesday, Huston said, and
was in the 1CU overnight. However,
Huston also said he spoke to Shirley,
Grob's wife, and she said he was
feeling better.
Huston said Grob will not be
teaching Humanities 102 this semes-
ter. He may be able to teach English
339, "British Romantic Poets," which
may become a two-credit-hour class.
English Department Chair
Wesley Morris told students who
went to the scheduled room for En-
glish 339 on Wednesday about
Grob's condition, and that Grob
wanted to come back and teach. They
were told to return to class on Friday
to receive an update.
Huston stressed how important
it is to Grob, a Hanszen College
associate, that he return to teach.
"There's no way to express how
much he cares about students," he
said.
Man given trespass
warning at Will Rice
' Police issued a criminal trespass
warning to a man seen walking
around the second floor of Will Rice
College on Dec. 19.
Terrence Coleman, 33, was de-
tained at Lovett College after con-
cerned members of Will Rice re-
ported a suspicious person who had
been inside the college.
, Will Rice junior Ryan Stegen saw
Coleman outside the second floor
bathroom on the afternoon of Dec.
19. Steger spotted the man again at
about 3:30 p.m. that day Entrance 3
at the intersection of Main Street
and MacGregor Way. Steger and
Will Rice junior Rachel Shreter, who
were driving off campus at the time,
stopped by the Campus Police sta-
tion to report Coleman to the police.
"He looked really fishy to me, all
furtive and stuff," she said. "I don't
know why exactly he seemed suspi-
cious, but he. did." **
Cpl. David Newman responded
to the call within two minutes. He
said he spotted Coleman by Lovett
College, and that he matched the
description Steger and Shreter gave.
Newman said that when he ap-
prehended Coleman the man denied
trespassing accusations and claimed
to be looking for Main Street.
Newman said he theorizes that
Coleman got past the card reader at
the entrance to the old dorm be-
cause one of the doors was propped
open, probably by someone moving
things out for the winter break.
Shreter said she suspected he
was the man who appeared in the
women's bathroom on the third floor
of the old dorm three times in No-
vember, but Police Chief Bill Taylor
said that this was definitely not so.
He said an officer who actually came
face-to-face with the trespasser in
the bathroom said Coleman was not
the same man.
Small changes made to
new Wiess plans
Budget concerns have prompted
small changes in the design for the
new Wiess College. The new design
NEWS IN BRIEF
has four floors throughout the en-
tire building. In the previous design,
the three segments of the building
had five, four and three floors, re-
spectively.
The new building will house
about the same number of students
as Wiess currently holds.
The changes will not substantially
affect building residents, Wiess
Master John Hutchinson said. "The
building, redesigned, will be funda-
mentally the same building," he said.
"It maintains all the functionality of
the previous design."
Construction of the residential
portion of the new Wiess will begin
in March, and the building is cur-
rently scheduled to open in Decem-
ber 2001, Vice President for Finance
and Administration Dean Currie said.
Wiess President Robert Lundin
said the mid-year move-in date was
good for the college. "Not only does
it ensure that Wiessmen can make
the new building their home as soon
as possible, but-it also ensures con-
tinuity of the Wiess spirit," he said.
"[Freshmen in 2001] will have
already been introduced to the Wiess
traditions in our old building, and
will then be able to bring them to our
new building," Lundin said. "All
Wiessmen will also have the chance
to see and learn about the new build-
ing during the fall semester, and get
ready and excited about where they'll
be living."
At its Dec. 10 meeting, the Board
of Trustees approved spending more
money than was previously budgeted
for the new Wiess College, if neces-
sary. "We're going to have to spend
some more money than we thought,
but nobody wants to do this on the
cheap," President Malcolm Gillis
said. Gillis said that is what hap-
pened when Wiess was first built in
1949.
The intent, however, was to mini-
mize unnecessary costs, Currie said.
"The message we got from the board
was, 'Save money where you can,
but don't disrupt either the beauty of
the building or its basic functional-
ity,"' he said.
New year arrives
without incident at Rice
Like most institutions and busi-
nesses, Rice experienced no major
disturbances from the changeover
to 2000.
The Campus Police worked in
conjunction with the rest of the uni-
versity in an effort to avoid any secu-
rity problems. A double shift of offic-
ers was on duty Dec. 31. As a secu-
rity precaution, the police compiled
a list of all people who would be on
campus. That afternoon,, police
manually locked all building' doors
and closed all gates to campus, ex-
cept for Entrance 8.
A crisis management team was
also on duty and spent New Year's
Eve on campus. The team's goal was
to minimize campus activity. Mark
Ditman, director of Food and Hous-
ing and a member of the team, said,
"We were watching TV that night
and as we saw things go OK east of
us, we felt relieved and weren't too
nervous."
President Malcolm Gillis said,
"There was no drama whatsoever. I
was absolutely serene on the 31st. We
knew we had all our bases covered."
According to Gillis, the adminis-
tration started talking to key deci-
sion-makers about Y2K in 1995, and
preparations began in 1996. Food
and Housing began working 18
months early with Diebold and
CBORD, who handle the software
for door access, menu inventory and
ID card functions to make all neces-
sary updates.
Police ChiefBillTaylor called the
precautions "responsible yet
reasonable."
"I'll be willing to bet we spent a
smaller percentage of our budget
than any majorjaniversity in this
country," Gillis said. "We are not
impulsive and do not throw money
at problems."
One changeover problem has
been attributed to the switching of
the phone system rather than Y2K
problems. University phones exhib-
ited strange behavior about 20 min-
utes after midnight Jan. 1. Accord-
ing to Taylor, the phones showed
the date Dec. 32 before correcting
themselves.
Telephones switch to
348 prefix
Non-residential Rice phone num-
bers, now share a single prefix, 348.
Telephone service in academic and
administrative buildings was
switched over to the new system
over winter recess, with onlym few
glitches.
The new system crashed several
times on the morning of Jan. 3 due to
problems with a new software pateli ,
Telecommunications Manager
Reggie Clarkson said. Williams C om-
munications corrected the problem
that afternoon, and the phone ser-
vice went back up. Nortel, which
manufact ured the new phone switch,
is working on fixing the patch.
Payroll Assistant Manager
Gwendolyn Aldridge, who was work-
ing during the system crash, said it
didn't cause too many problems. "It
was the first day back after break so
it wasn't busy," she said.
Many of the other problems have
been typical programming errors,
such as names spelled incorrectly
on caller ID, Clarkson said. "We're
really tweaking the changes," she said.
"Other than that I think it's gone
very well. I'm really impressed with
the user community — they have
really started playing with the
phones," Clarkson said.
Other people just needed help
adjusting to the new phones, Jones
College freshman Danielle Gregory
said. Gregory worked for two weeks
with a team that answered questions
and reported problems about the
new system.
The new Nortel digital phones,
which replace the 16-year-old Rolm
phones, include display windows,
caller ID> conference calling capa-
bility and other options.
"All the [new] features are great,"
Aldridge said. For instance, she said,
the call log allows her to check if
people who claimed to call her really
did.
"I feel pretty much that
everybody's happy and content with
their phones," Clarkson said.
"Itwas pretty successful.... I think
it's just a big job to begin with,"
Gregory said.
Residential college phone service
will join the new system in August.
Interim decision
applications increase
The number of applicants for in-
terim decision admission increased
26 percent this year, Dean of Admis-
sion Julie Browning said. The Ad-
mission Office received 2,359 appli-
cations for the Dec. 1 deadline, up
from about 1,870 last year.
Because of the increased num-
ber of applications, the Admission
Office changed its reply date for
these applicants from Feb. 10 to Feb.
15, with the letter of acceptance
mailed Feb. 11.
Although applications from
American Indians decreased from
11 to 10, applications from blacks
increased 36 percent and applica-
tions from Hispanics increased 34
percent, Browning said. The appli-
cant pool for interim decision is 49
percent in-state and 51 percent out-
of-state.
The increase in interim decision
applicants follows this year's 47 per-
cent increase in applicants for early
decision. Of these,'119 were ac-
cepted. Browning said this number
is not higher than usual.
Vice President for Enrollment
Ann Wright said the major reason
for the increase in applicants is the
revised format of the application.
Part I, mailed in first, includes the
student's name, contact information
and date of birth. Part II includes the
essays and recommendation letters.
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McAlister, Jett & Tam, Mariel. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 87, No. 13, Ed. 1 Friday, January 21, 2000, newspaper, January 21, 2000; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth246664/m1/6/: accessed May 4, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.