COLUMN: Students devoted summer to making 1995-96 possible
A number of students dedicated large portions of their summers to make sure that Rice would be a better place when students returned for the 1995-96 academic year. The Student Association, O-Week coordinators, Rice Program Council, KTRU and numerous other organizations had student representatives hard at work over the summer.
Three members of the Student Association laid the groundwork for major changes in the upcoming year at Rice. Internal Vice President Pavan Pinnamaneni put together an expanded "Meet Sheet" with color pictures. The upgrade in size and color was absorbed by increased advertising sales.
External Vice President Tony Tran changed the selling philosophy behind the Silver Saver Card as he tried to get more businesses on the card with more student discounts. He succeeded, and now you can look forward to a two-sided Silver Saver card that contains deals from such notable places as Spaghetti Warehouse, the Houston Astros, the Houston Aeros and both Blimpie's and Subway. Tran also designed the cover for the Campus Directory and put out the Student Summer Directory.
President Maryana Iskander teamed up with Sid Richardson College O-Week coordinator Caroline Schaeffer to create the framework for a Rice Women's Conference that will take place in early February. Iskander also worked with campus officials on the concept of a Universal Student ID card for the future which would allow Rice students to use their Rice ID for a number of services. In addition, she also worked to keep communications open with administrators on various issues that involve student life from the reconstruction of Willy's Pub to security to an energy-saving EPA program.
Glenn Levy, the student director of O-Week, put in countless numbers of hours to make O-Week a smoother experience with personally-designed professional-looking O-Week schedules, memos and the like. His work did not solely focus on O-Week though; he also was the undergraduate representative on the University Strategic Planning Committee that looked at how Rice should approach the upcoming years in terms of philosophy and change.
The individual O-Week coordinators also slaved away to make sure that O-Week would be even better than last year with professional-looking O-Week handbooks and in-depth schedules and plans.
Rice Program Council President Ryan Levy and Internal Vice President Kari Hoffman put together another RPC calendar while Levy and his staff also restructured the RPC to better serve the student body.
KTRU station manager Andy Campbell was omnipresent as he made sure that KTRU could still be heard throughout the city even with a very limited staff.
Numerous other students remained at Rice to work in science labs, Mudd Lab, CoHo, and on the Scruples play.
Without all of these students' hard work, returning students would find a university unprepared to begin the new year. Instead, the freshman and the returning undergraduates can look forward to a year of new programs, new suprises and an overall better Rice University. These are the unsung heroes of Rice. These are the ones who work behind the scenes during the summer and lay the groundwork for the year to come. Many of them volunteered and deserve much more than just this column in thanks.
Charles Klein is a Sid Richardson College junior and one of two editors in chief of the Thresher.
This item appeared in the Opinion section of the August 25, 1995 issue.
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