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The Rice Thresher
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movies to campus When Kristian Salinas began as Rice Cinema coordinator last march, he made it his mission to reconnect with Rice Cinema's traditional community audience and to provide more appealing fare for students. We can't speak for the non-Rice community, but he's certainly piqued our interest. Earlier this month, Rice Cinema co-hosted the first Houston run of Yi Yi, a film that had already received a great deal of positive buzz. March also marked the beginning of the "Oscar Skips" series, which includes such critically acclaimed but little-nominated indie films as Dancer in the Dark and Requiem for a Dream. Independent cinema is not for everyone, but films like these represent the best the genre has to offer. In fact, sometimes they represent the best the media has to offer as a whole. For the Rice Cinema to bring these films to our doorstep is an accomplishment, and we'd like to say thanks.
Watching RBT mature On-campus cable may have a zillion channels, but often it seems like there's nothing on. That's precisely the problem that the new blanket-tax organization, Rice Broadcast Television, is charged with fixing. As members of a blanket-tax organization that's been around for a while, we at the Thresher want to offer some friendly advice. Rice students have come to expect a lot from the previously existing blanket-tax organizations. At a school where dozens of student clubs are formed and dissolved every year, these organizations have stood the test of time and become long-standing institutions. Now that RBT has joined the ranks, students will expect the same. RBT needs to be a dependable presence on campus from year to year. This means it needs to recruit enough people to keep the organization vibrant and growing, as opposed to dissolving when current members graduate. The bigger and more dedicated the staff is, the greater the options for producing content. And right now, content is what RBT needs most. The student body's expectations have increased - an hour of programming here and there doesn't cut it anymore. The Campanile is expected to come out once a year, the Thresher once a week. Now that you have the money to increase your capabilities, it's time for RBT to start coming up with programming on a regular, timely basis. A brand-new installment of "Owl's Eye News" once a week is great; it's up to you to produce and advertise it. But that hour each week isn't enough. Once there is increased programming, RBT needs to work on actively informing students about what is being broadcast. The RBT Web page (http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~rbt) shows promise, but it's not updated frequently enough. We can't know to tune into "Owl's Eye News" on Thursdays if we don't know that it's going to be on. The various other segments and programs RBT runs are often interesting and deserve an audience, but they get even less publicity than the news show. Students need easy access to a well-publicized schedule; then again, if the shows pop up in weekly time slots long enough, hopefully we'll know their times by heart. By watching RBT's news broadcasts, we can tell that RBT folk enjoy doing what they do, and that's essential to keep it from becoming a chore. But perhaps it's time to better separate the news and humor aspects of "Owl's Eye News." It would add credibility to keep the news show straightforward and, well, true. There are countless other hours in the week for comedy and all sorts of other interesting things.
Erratum The March 2 editorial "Construction's other costs" incorrectly stated the number of sand volleyball courts remaining on campus. There are three such courts, not one. Brown, Sid Richardson and Lovett Colleges each have one. The Thresher regrets the error.
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