The Rice Thresher, Vol. 89, No. 2, Ed. 1 Friday, August 24, 2001 Page: 1 of 32
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the Rice Thresher
Vol. LXXXIX, Issue No. 2
SINCE 1916
Friday, August 24, 2001
Martel plans change
Spring housing plan still under discussion
by Rachel Rustin
THRKSHER EDITORIAL STAFF
The beginning of next semester
may find Martel College students
living in their new college building,
in a hotel room or on a friend's dorm
room floor.
The move-in date for Martel has
been pushed back to Jan. 28 be-
cause of damage to the construction
site caused by Tropical Storm
Allison. The flooding from the June
storm caused extensive damage to
electrical and mechanical systems.
Housing and Dining Director
Mark Ditman said Martel students
will need to find housing with other
students if the delay period is short.
In case the delay is longer than two
weeks, Ditman has been negotiat-
ing with nearby hotels as a place for
Martelians to stay. If the delay is
going to be extremely long. Ditman
said Rice may extend the leases at
Holly Hall and attempt to renegoti-
ate the penalty. In April, Ditman said
about $35,000 would be required if
the leases were extended beyond
Dec. 31.
On Monday, Martel President
Alice Hill sent an e-mail to the Martel
listserv, which included minutes of
a meeting between herself, Martel
Masters Arthur and Joan Few, Vice
President for Student Affairs Zenaido
Camacho, Ditman, as well as others.
The minutes stated there were
two options for housing Martel stu-
dents until Jan. 28; "Adopt-A-
Martelian" or putting Martel stu-
dents up at a local hotel.
Ditman said students should be
able to design a plan that is most
convenient for them, even if it is not
the most cost-effective. Ditman said
the Martel and administration lead-
ership would reevaluate any plan
after gauging Martelian's opinions.
See MARTEL, Page 8
Carting away a victory
ROB GADDI/THRESHER
%
Si ■- .HNS*#
i
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Wiess College fellow Tom Hayes, a junior, and Wiess co-fellow Andy Perez, a Hanszen College sophomore,
celebrate victory in the advisers' race during a mock Beer-Bike against Jones College. See Feature, Page 13.
Library project delayed indefinitely
by Leslie Liu
THKESHER EDITORIAL STAFF
KATIE STREIT/THRESHER
Walking on broken glass
A Lovett College adviser walked through a glass window during last-
minute preparations for Orientation Week Saturday evening.
Concern over underground stor-
age of books — heightened after
Tropical Storm Allison caused bil-
lions of dollars of damage in the
Houston area — has changed Rice's
plans to build a new $130 million
library building.
Last March, President Malcolm
Gillis announced plans to demolish
Fondren Library and build a new
structure in its place, which was to
be completed as soon as 2005.
The plans called for a structure
built around a central walkway the
width of the Sallyport connecting
the academic quad and the informal
courtyard south of the Student Cen-
ter. Much of the library's collection
would have been kept in two under-
ground levels.
On July 16, President Malcolm
Gillis announced in a memo to the
Rice community that '"the recent
flood, together with other consider-
ations, has required that we rethink
the library project in several re-
spects."
"The recent Houston flood expe-
rience ensures at least a continuing
high level of anxiety both from the
campus community and from poten-
tial donors about placing books un-
derground," he wrote. "The pro-
posed library plan places a very large
fraction of the collection under-
ground and that clearly must now be
reconsidered."
The memo also cites the diffi-
culty of raising funds for the new
library in the current economic envi-
ronment. Previous plans had called
for half the funding to be raised be-
fore breaking ground on the con-
struction.
"Fundraising is, of course, for all
charitable institutions and educa-
tional institutions, more difficult
now," Gillis said. However, Gillis said
he expects to be able to fulfill the
$500 million fundraising goal for the
"Rice: The Next Century" campaign
that ends in 2003.
Although Gillis said the adminis-
tration remains dedicated to the idea
of building a new library, he could
not say how the change in plans
would affect the timeline for its con-
struction.
Provost Eugene Levy said after
the Houston flood, it became appar-
ent that the plan to store a vast col-
lection of books underground would
not garner much support.
"Frankly, from my perspective,
[the flood threat) is a technically
solvable problem," Levy said. "[But]
I'm not sure we could ever get
enough emotional confidence within
the faculty on the campus or among
the potential donors for the library
to make a convincing case that it's a
robustly safe thing to do to put such
a precious — and in some cases,
irreplaceable — resource in a poten-
tially hazardous situation."
After the flood, Gillis said he took
responsibility for contacting Board
of Trustees members to seek their
advice while Provost Eugene Levy
spoke with academic deans and fac-
ulty members.
"We looked exceedingly carefully
at our options and concluded that it
was an appropriate time to step back
and rethink the library plans," Levy
said. "The deans were virtually uni-
formly supportive of the changed
plan.... [and] the faculty with whom
I have spoken for the most part be-
lieve that backing away from this
original plan and Setting up an op-
portunity to rethink the library
project was a good thing to do."
Levy said it's easy to understand
why some people might want the
plans to move forward.
"I think everybody agreed that
Fondren has some deficiencies —
aesthetic deficiencies, some func-
tional deficiencies, some deficien-
cies of capacity for the future. So the
See LIBRARY', Page 4
Training table moved to servery
by Olivia Allison
THRESHER EDITORIAL STAFF
Training table, the athletes' dinner served
at Sammy's Cafe, has been eliminated for this
semester in hopes of increasing interaction
between athletes and other students in the
colleges.
Athletes will have the opportunity to eat in
the colleges during the regular dinner time,
5:30 to 7 p.m. Athletes who cannot eat dinner
until after 7 p.m. will be able to eat food from
the new Wiess/Hanszen servery from 7 to 8
p.m.
Housing and Dining Director Mark Ditman
said the plan is temporary, and discussions
between the college presidents and H&D will
continue throughout the fall semester.
"Rather than making a final change effective
this fall semester, an interim solution evolved."
Ditman said.
Ditman said the main issue requiring dis-
cussion is whether dinner should be extended
to 8 p.m. at every college.
"What we were looking at is extending the
dinner hour later to eight in all the colleges,
Ditman said. "The college presidents felt that
kind of change would impact programming
significantly enough that it was necessary to
have that discussion with each college com-
munity."
Ditman said although non-athletes will not
be turned away from eating at the Hanszen
College commons between 7 and 8 p.m., more
people eating at the later time will inhibit
service.
"The serving staff won't turn anybody away,
but what I'm hoping is that the students will
see that with some cooperation, it will make
the logistics work out a little better," Ditman
said. "If we get a surge of late diners who try to
eat at the training table, it will make it a little
more difficult on everybody."
Ditman said that if many students support
extending dinner, a longer dinner can be insti-
tuted in the spring, when five of the nine
colleges' food will be cooked in a servery.
Serveries, he said, are better equipped for a
longer mealtime.
"If the undergraduates decide they want to
have a later meal hour and they do tend to eat
toward the end of the shift, the new kitchens
will support that effectively," Ditman said.
See SERVERY, Page 6
INSIDE
Welcome back! _
This is the Orientation Week issue of
the Thresher, the first issue of the 2001-'02
academic year. A special O-Week section is
included in this issue on Page 13. From
now, we will be publishing a Thresher every
Friday until Oct. 19.
Have a good first week of school!
Extended bookstore hours
The Campus Store's hours will be ex-
tended for the beginning of the semester.
The Campus Store will be open Sunday, 5
p.m. to 9 p.m. and Monday through
Wednesday 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. On Thurs-
day, the store will resume its normal hours.
Coffeehouse is closed
The Coffeehouse in the Student Center
will be closed until Sept. 3. when it will begin
with its regular hours: Monday through
Tnursday, 8 a.m. to midnight; Friday. 8 a.m.
to 5 p.m.; and Sunday 8 p.m. to midnight.
OPINION
Page 3
Analyze the media
A&E
Page 19
A mom's killer performance
SPORTS
Page 26
Looking forward to volleyball
"He and Audrey, his wife, would show up for
Rice athletic events - baseball, football,
basketball, volleyball. They would show up even
in a blizzard if there were one in Houston. Of
course we haven't had a blizzard in Houston in
a long time, but if there were one, they would
be there."
— President Malcolm Gillis, describing Wendel
Ley, for whose family the Student Center was
named. See Story, Page 4.
Weekend Weather
Friday
Sunny, 73-95 degrees
Saturday
Partly Sunnv. 74-96 decrees
Sunday
Isolated Thunderstorms, 73-94 degrees
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Liu, Leslie & Reichle, Robert. The Rice Thresher, Vol. 89, No. 2, Ed. 1 Friday, August 24, 2001, newspaper, August 24, 2001; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth443210/m1/1/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.