The Rice Thresher, Vol. 94, No. 1, Ed. 1 Friday, August 25, 2006 Page: 1 of 32
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the Rice Thresher
Vol. XCIV, Issue No. 1
SINCE 1916
Friday, August 25, 2006
Board approves two new colleges
Alumni couple 's $32 million gift largest in Rice's history
by David Brown
1HRESHER EDfTURIAL STAFF
At its May meeting, the Board of
Trustees approved a $140.5 million
budget to build two new colleges
and a connecting servery on the
north side of campus. A $32 mil-
lion donation, the largest in Rice's
history, will be used to help finance
what will be Rice's largest-ever
housing expansion.
Longtime Rice donors Burt Mc-
Murtry ('56) and his wife Deedee
('56), whose gift President David Le-
ebron announced June 15, pledged
part of the sum to a new long-term
operating and maintenance fund for
the residential college system. In
recognition, Rice will name one of
the new colleges "Burt and Deedee
McMurtry College."
Rice News reported that McMur-
try College will be built on the field
south of Jones College and west of
the O'Connor House. The other col-
lege will be west of Martel College
and partly occupy what is now the
Abercrombie Parking Ijot A servery,
to be located where there is currently
a basketball and tennis court, will
connect the colleges, Senior Project
Manager Eleni Barzouka said.
Each college will house 325 stu-
dents, about 80 more than Brown Col-
lege, currently the largest of the nine.
The donation
Burt McMurtry, a venture
capitalist who co-founded several
early Silicon Valley partnerships,
said the gift is partly devoted to
the colleges because that is what
Leebron and the board said Rice
needed most.
"It was very clear that to
accomplish some of the near and
intermediate-term goals they have
for Rice, getting a couple new colleg-
es in place is very important," he said.
"Student housing in general is often
a fairly hard thing to finance."
Deedee McMurtry said the
couple likes to fund education
see MCMURTRY, Page 4
New AD DelConte
to focus on revenue
by Risa Gordon
THRESHER EDITORIAL STAFF
According to new Athlete
Director Chris Del Conte,
students can look forward to
Powderpuff games and movie
nights at Rice Stadium, a more
competitive non-conference
football schedule and a renova-
tion to Autry Court.
President David Leebron an-
nounced Del Conte, the former
University of Arizona senior
associate athletic director, Rice's
14th athletic director June 22.
Del Conte succeeds Bobby
May (Will Rice '65), who an-
nounced his retirement April
18 after 17 years as athletic
director.
For other athletics department
staff changes, see page 9.
Del Conte said his experi-
ences with fundraising suit the
Athletics Department's need to
reduce its cost to the university.
In its May 2004 evaluation of
athletics at Rice, the Board of
see DIRECTOR. Page 8
MARSHALL ROBINSON/THRESHER
Where have all the hitters gone?
Sophomore outfielder Chad Lembeck, junior pitcher Craig Crow, sophomore catcher Danny Lehmann and senior outfielder Chase Taylor look
out of the dugout in disbelief. The Owls fall just short of the finals of the College World Series after capping a 57-13 year with 23 scoreless
innings and two straight losses to Oregon State University, the eventual champions. See story, Page 24 and photos, Page 29.
One third of
freshmen fail
writing exam
by David Brown
THRESHER EDITORIAL STAFF
About twice as many new students failed
the English Composition Exam as usual after
a revamped online test challenged students
with an additional, second essay and required
analyzing complex topics.
Dean of Undergraduates Robin Eorman
said Wednesday that while some of the exams
had not yet been graded, about a third of new
students failed the test, about 55 percent
received a grade of "low pass" and about 15
percent a grade of "pass."
Last year — the first year the exam was
offered online and before orientation — 17
percent failed, 40 percent received a "low
pass" and 43 percent received a "pass." In
most previous years, somewhere between 10
and 20 percent of students failed the exam.
Students who fail are required to take
ENGL 103: Argumentation and Writing to
graduate.
Last year the exam was scored by graders
affiliated with the MIT-based consortium that
runs the online exam, and the grades were
not returned before students registered for
fall classes. This year. Rice graduate students
graded the exams and provided in-depth
feedback to each student.
see WRITING, Page 11
0-Week runs smoothly with new events
by Beko Binder and David Brown
THRESHER EDITORIAL STAFF
A rejuvenated Rice Rally, a
dynamic diversity speaker and
a consolidated health and safety
presentation were some of the
new O-Week features that many
new students said they liked. And
aside from a concern that caused
JonesCollege O-Week coordinators
to change their theme, "Hustle and
Flo-Week," to "Jones' Best O-Week
Ever" mid-summer, O-Week and all
its jacks, scavenger hunts and advis-
ing passed without any calamity.
Student Director of Orienta-
tion Week Mark Wanek said good
communication and flexibility made
this year's O-Week run smoothly.
"It was my intent that by keeping
plans as transparent and as clear
as possible, when people came to
advise they actually would know
the O-Week they were advising,"
Wanek, a Hanszen College senior,
said. "I made a very hard effort to
communicate with faculty, and a lot
For faculty address, color 0-Week
photos, see pullout, page 15
of departments were more involved
with the planning than they were
in the past."
Wanek said one of the most suc-
cessfu 1 event s of this year's ()-Week
was »he Rice Rally, a new event held
at Rice Stadium to generate student
support for the athletic program.
"The Rice Rally really was about
unifying students on a larger scale,"
Wanek said. [Head Football Coach
Todd Graham and Athletic Direc-
tor Chris Del Conte] identified
the need to bring students to the
game as something to base a rally
on. Cheering at sporting events is
a way to show our enthusiasm for
being at Rice."
Brown College freshman Roxa-
na Daneshjou said she was excited
by the rally.
"I really enjoyed it," Daneshjou
said. "I usually don't get riled up
about athletics, but I'm definitely
see ORIENTATION, Page 8
TAYLOR JOHNSON/THESHEP
A Wiess College O-Week group takes an easy hedge hop In the Academic Quad
INSIDE
Fire!
A fire in George R.
Brown Hall brought
more than a dozen
emergency vehicles
to campus Thursday
(see photo, page 10).
Quote of the Week
"We make sure we're supporting the data in the
best possible way, but everybody else is doing
this as well. The story of the rankings is as much
that there are more universities that set higher
standards rather than Rice is falling.
— President David Leebron on Rice's #17 ranking
in US News and World Report.(See box Page 4)
OPINION Page 2
The ebb and flow ofJones' Hustle and Flo
A&E Pages 10-11
Fall Museum exhibits in full bloom j
SPORTS Page 15
Soccer Preview: championship repeat?
Upcoming Pages
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Brown, David. The Rice Thresher, Vol. 94, No. 1, Ed. 1 Friday, August 25, 2006, newspaper, August 25, 2006; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth443059/m1/1/: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.