The Rice Thresher, Vol. 95, No. 17, Ed. 1 Friday, January 25, 2008 Page: 4 of 16
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THE RICE THRESHER NEWS FRIDAY, JANUARY 25,2008
CALENDAR
From page 1
holidays, including during spring
break, Siemann said. He said this
presents a problem and often
comes as a shock for students en-
rolled in these courses, especially
whom did not plan to spend their
break studying. In keeping the
spring break, he said the course
catalogs and syllabi in these
courses will more clearly inform
students of this possibility.
"A number of classes meet on
break days because of the partial
weeks," Siemann said. "So what
do you do when your lab falls on
break? Instruct over the break.
Probably some people who find out
they're going to be taking a class
meeting over break days and are
not happy about it can plan their
lives around it."
Tenney said the committee usually
decides upon an academic calendar
in the fall. The reason for the delay
in reaching a consensus this year,
he said, had to do with a painstaking
effort to thoroughly meet as many
students' and faculty members' needs
as possible. Tenney said the calendar
planning committee went through
decades of Rice history to research
past academic calendars from the
1950s through the 1970s in reaching
their proposals.
The new academic calendar is
matrix driven, which means that
it adjusts itself automatically by
year, accounting for leap years and
changes in weekdays. The matrix-
driven calendar prevents against
possible errors, like moving the
first day of classes to Jan. 8 if the
first Monday happens to be Jan. 1.
Tenney said the new calendar will
be helpful in its matrix format,
which will allow the registrar's
office to post academic calendar up
to two years ahead of the current
school year.
Representatives from the Stu-
dent Association, including the
Academic Committee, presented
their own academic calendar pro-
posal to the Faculty Senate at the
meeting. This proposal included
results from their poll earlier this
year about the proposed Plan A
and Plan B for the academic cal-
endar. Of the 701 students who
participated in the poll, 94 percent
supported Plan A, with the spring
recess, and six percent supported
Plan B.
Tenney said the SA poll results
had a strong influence on the sen-
ate's decision to vote for Plan A.
"I particularly appreciate the fact
that they got student involvement
and input on the issue," he said. "It
means a lot when a person can say,
This is not the way I feel but the
way 700 people feel.'It's like signing
a petition. It's helpful to get the full
story from students, and I think the
fSA is] to be commended."
SA President Laura Kelley said
she thought the meeting went
very well.
'The senators took the resolu-
tion at face value," Kelley, a Brown
College senior, said. "There were
a few of us [students] there at
the meeting, but the fact that 700
students answered the poll was
more significant. Hopefully this will
bolster input on future polls."
Jones College junior Chuan Li, who
took par t in the SA's academic calendar
poll, said he is glad the Faculty Senate
voted to keep spring recess.
"I really wouldn't mind starting
earlier in August or starting earlier
in the spring," Li said. "I totally sup-
port that. I would hate to have that
gone because I'm doing alternative
spring break. So it is a break, but I
would still like to keep that other
four-day weekend."
Harter said some members of
the faculty senate were bothered
by the different amounts of instruc-
tional days in both semesters. The
fall semester will have 69 teaching
days and 67 in the spring semester.
She said some members of the
senate were in favor of adding two
days to the spring semester, but
currently there are no solid plans to
change either semester's number
of instructional days.
SID
From page 1
outside the Rice community.
However, Penrod said she does
not think anyone at Sid vandalized
her office.
"I just know all my students, and
I just don't think anybody would do
such a thing," Penrod said. "I just
can't think of anybody at Sid that
would write something like that."
Sid Master Michael Orchard and
Sid President Sean Monks said the
overall reaction to the incident so far
has been shock, especially in light of
the holiday.
"There's really no place for that here
at Rice or here at Sid," Orchard said.
RICE NEEDS YOU
TO tn
SA.RICE.EDU
RUN FOR OFFICE
PETITIONS DUE NEXT FRIDAY
Report shows half black males at
Rice are scholarship athletes
undergraduates
black
47 athlete
52 non-athlete
numbers from 2005-'06 academic year
By Stephanie Jennings
THRESHER STAKE
Rice may have been named 2006's
university with "Lots of Race/Class
Interaction" by The Princeton Re-
view, but the numbers behind this
claim may not be telling the whole
truth, according to a new article by
Inside High erEd. com.
The Jan. 11 story, "Diversify-
ing through Football," states that,
according to data taken from the
N atio nal Collegiate Athletic Associa-
tion's annual survey for graduation
rates, scholarship athletes make up
at least 20 percent of the full-time
black male undergraduate popula-
tion at 96 of t he 330 schools that play
Division I sports.
At Rice, 47 of 99 black male full-
time undergraduates are scholarship
athletes. In particular, 35 out of these
47 are football players. While black
students comprise 99 of the total
1,539 male undergraduate popula-
tion, they account for 47 of the 161
scholarship athlete population.
According to the study, for which
data was taken from the 2005-'06
school year, this trend is evident
in two types of schools: smaller,
selective private institutions that
compete athletically with larger
state schools and public schools in
states with small black populations.
These schools mosdy recruit locally
or regionally, as with Montana State
University, where 88 percent of its
full-time black undergraduates are
scholarship athletes, or Boise State
University, with 37 percent scholar-
ship athletes.
The NCAA study did not include
data from either Ivy League universi-
ties or military academics, since the
study only examined scholarship
athletes and neither group of schools
award athletic scholarships.
The study highlights the ongoing
issue of increasing diversity at col-
leges nationwide and the possibility
of schools increasing their black
enrollment through athletics.
"I know there was talk in the past
of getting rid of Division 1 Athlet-
ics at Rice," Moreko Griggs, a Sid
Richardson College senior, said. "1
wonder if that had happened, what
the black male enrollment at Rice
would be?"
"That's not an unusual statistic,
especially if we're talking about
top-tier universities," Catherine
Clack, Office of Multicultural Affairs
Director, said.
Clack, who is also the Assistant
Dean of Undergraduates, said that
the statistic is affected by alarge num-
ber of social and economic factors,
including an overall smaller percent-
age of black males than black females
who attend college. According to
the NCAA, black students make up
9.4 percent of undergraduates at
Division I schools, compared to 12
percent for black females. At Rice,
they make up six percent of the male
undergraduate population.
"In the past, African-American
students have pointed out this
enrollment pattern to enrollment
management, not because they have
a problem with black male athletes,
but because they want to be sure the
admission office isn't using athletics
to bolster black enrollment," Clack
said. "I don't feel like Enrollment
Management is slacking on their
job — they're doing a great job."
Black Student Association presi-
dent Alicia Burns-Wright said she
believes the black student athlete rate
has some impact on students inter-
ested in applying to Rice, however.
"If you think about the spread of
the black non-athlete males, there are
only a few at each college," Burns-
Wright, a Jones College senior, said.
"It's really hard for them to find each
other across campus. That's not to
say that athletes, non-athletes and
people of different races can't hang
out together, but a black non-athlete
is definitely having a dif ferent experi-
ence than everyone else."
Clack disagrees.
"I think prospective black stu-
dents overall look at the overall
number of black students and who
they could interact with terms of
black students and not how many
are athletes and how many aren't,"
she said.
'During O-Week, when
everyone s supposed
to see all of the new
students in the college,
a lot of black male
athletes are missing
when they would see
the rest of the black
males participating
within the college.'
Alicia Burns-Wright
Black Student Association
President
Burns-Wright said she did not
think there was any tension between
black athletes and non-athletes, but
that most of the separation between
the two groups she observed was
because of differing schedules.
"Just as one may more easily
make friends within their college,
it's easier for athletes to befriend one
another and non-athletes to befriend
one another, unless the connection is
somewhere else," she said. "Because
99 black students in a population of
2,800 isn't a large number, what are
the chances that athlete and non-
athlete black males will bump into
each other in a different setting?"
Burns-Wright said that she
thought the divisiveness between the
two groups started with the relative
lack of athlete involvement during
Orientation Week.
"During O-Week, when every-
one's supposed to see all of the new
students in the college, a lot of black
male athletes are missing when they
would see the rest of the black males
participating with in the college," she
said. "But it's a problem that's hard to
fix overall — it's not like the athletes
can't just not practice so both sides
can be buddies."
Burns-Wright said Rice could
potentially lose black applicants in
the future due to Wee's lack of a
cohesive black student athlete and
non-athlete community,
Burns-Wright said that with
schools such as Harvard offering
tuition breaks for certain income
groups, prospective black students
may attend higher-ranked schools
with larger non-athlete black male
populations than Rice.
Clack, however, said she did not
encounter this issue while working
with admissions. She said the only
people asking for a further demo-
graphic breakdown of athletes versus
non-athletes were academicians or
researchers.
Jones sophomore Max Paul
said he has noticed a clear division
between black athletes and black
non-athletes.
"Sometimes I feel like I'm trying
harder to be their friend," he said.
"But I think it's a mindset of both
sides, not having enough time to go
beyond busy and differing schedules
and be friends."
Paul said that, for the most part
as an electrical engineering major,
he has not had professors mistake
him for an athlete, but that could be
due to the small number of athletes
majoring in engineering overall.
"I've had one professor in a
Spanish class ask me how a foot-
ball game went," Paul said. "But in
engineering classes, I don't think
professors think I'm an athlete be-
cause it's so uncommon for athletes
to major in engineering."
He said that the overall diversity of
the campus and percentage of minori-
ties was a greater factor in his college
selection than the percentage of black
students who were athletes.
"I knew that since Rice had Divi-
sion 1 Athletics, there'd be a signifi-
cant number of athletes," he said.
The study highlights the ongoing
issue of male minority college recruit-
ment. According to Burns-Wright,
17 non-athlete black male freshmen
enrolled at Rice this school year.
"The numbers in the study
are from 2005-'06, and we drasti-
cally improved our situation in this
academic year," Burns-Wright said.
"The admissions office and the
administration should really be com-
mended for all of the effort they put
behind that increase in non-athlete
black males and the Black Student
Association hopes they stay com-
mitted to maintaining and further
increasing these numbers."
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Whitfield, Stephen. The Rice Thresher, Vol. 95, No. 17, Ed. 1 Friday, January 25, 2008, newspaper, January 25, 2008; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth443110/m1/4/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.