Rice Students Test Business Mettle with Paper Airplanes

Media Advisory/Photo Opportunity

CONTACT: Philip Montgomery

PHONE:
(713) 831-4792

E-MAIL: pmontgom@rice.edu

RICE STUDENTS TEST BUSINESS METTLE WITH PAPER AIRPLANES

Take the simple, childhood pleasure
of flying paper airplanes, put it in the hands of a bunch of first-year business
students at Rice and you wind up with a hair-pulling, teeth gnashing, Byzantine
event called the “Airplane Game.”

The Airplane Game, which begins at 2:20 p.m., Friday, Aug. 28,
in Herring Hall on the Rice campus, is a frenzy of students building, selling
and flying their own paper airplanes as a way to learn team work and the ins and
outs of the business world. Ten teams will be competing to design, manufacture
and fly paper planes which they then sell to a student airline. The game will
conclude about 4 p.m. with a fly-off to determine the winners.

The rules of the game include hazards such as a stubborn
Japanese paper supplier, shifting currency exchanges and arbitrary environmental
regulations&emdash;all of which can wreck havoc with the production of a
simple paper plane. Finally there is pilot error that frequently causes the best
aircraft to nose-dive and crumple into a wad on the linoleum.

For more information, call Tom Matthews, a second-year graduate
student directing the game, at (281) 343-1374. If you are unable Matthews, call
Philip Montgomery at (713) 831-4792.

###