In The News

"In the
News” features a sampling of faculty, staff and administrators
who have been quoted in newspaper or magazine articles or
have been interviewed on television or radio. To obtain
a copy of the clipping packet from which the “In the
News” items are collected, contact the Office of News
and Media Relations, (713) 348-6774.

The New York
Times
An article included comments by Ken Kennedy, University
Professor, the Ann and John Doerr Professor in Computational
Engineering in Computer Science and professor in electrical
and computer engineering, who said math teacher Frances
Allen’s early work set the tone for how everyone thinks
about certain problems.

Financial
Times
A letter appeared that was written by Suchan Chae, associate
professor of economics, in which he discussed the Korean
government’s “sunshine policy” and the fact
that even though he himself has been critical of certain
aspects of the policy, in fact it has been “a strategic
success in achieving its implicit goal.”

The Washington
Post
An article discussed the partnership between America Online
(AOL) and a company called PurchasePro, focusing specifically
on a transaction involving warrant revenue. Bala Dharan,
the J. Howard Creekmore Professor of Management at the Jesse
H. Jones Graduate School of Management, suggested accounting
alternatives that might have been more appropriate ways
for AOL to have booked the gain made by the transfer of
the warrants.

ABCNews.com
An article reported the findings of an Associated Press
analysis of the shifting of federal spending after Republicans
gained control of the House of Representatives in 1994.
Robert Stein, dean of social sciences, was identified as
the co-author of a book on that topic. Stein commented,
“Republicans love contingent liabilities, guaranteed
loans, subsidies and insurance payments because they really
don’t break the budget.”

Christian
Science Monitor
An article discussed the relatively low cost of gasoline
in the United States. Amy Jaffe, senior energy adviser at
the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy, commented
that the demand for gasoline, the number of cars and the
number of drivers have all grown steadily for the past five
years.

Houston Chronicle
An article announced the establishment of the Rice Terascale
Cluster (RTC), a series of 70 Intel servers strung together,
acting as one computer, and able to perform about one trillion
calculations per second. Jan Odegard, executive director
of the Computer and Information Technology Institute, commented
that building a server “farm” would be far more
cost-effective and would also allow the users to “grow
your cluster over time; it can become a hybrid after time.”
An article that discussed the benefits of privatization
of Social Security was co-authored by James Thompson, the
Noah Harding Professor of Statistics, and Edward Williams,
the Henry Gardiner Symonds Professor of Management at the
Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Management and professor
of statistics.

KTRH-AM
Stein commented on Houston Councilman Michael Barry’s
vote against a slave-reparation bill.