News Briefs

Rice community
pledges $48,000 to United Way

The 2003 Rice
University United Way Campaign raised nearly $48,000 in
pledges by university faculty, staff and students.

A total of 120
faculty and staff pledged their financial support to the
2003 campaign.
With pledges spanning the entire year, 49 people donated
a portion of each paycheck to the campaign. Those pledges
totaled more than $28,000. One-time donations added up to
approximately 40 percent of the campaign total: 76 employees
contributed more than $19,000.

“I am pleased
that many of my colleagues share my commitment to the United
Way and its increasingly important role in our community,”
said Rice President Malcolm Gillis. “We will continue
to encourage contributions and commit to conducting a strong
campaign again next year.”

Exhibit celebrates
Women’s History Month

Photography students
in the Department of Visual Arts will celebrate Women’s
History Month with an exhibit, “Feminine Identities:
Forms and Function.” An opening reception will be held
Friday, March 12, from 4 to 6 p.m. in Farnsworth Pavilion.
The exhibit is sponsored by the Rice Women’s Resource
Center.

Call for nominations
for GSA awards

Members of the
Rice community are invited to recognize outstanding graduate
students, faculty and staff who do their utmost to enrich
the lives of Rice graduate students by nominating them for
the 2004 Graduate Student Association (GSA) awards.

The GSA annually
confers five awards: Faculty Teaching/Mentoring Award, Faculty/Staff
Service Award, Robert Lowry Patten Award (for graduate students),
GSA Service Award (for graduate students) and the Friend
of Rice Graduate Students Award.

The deadline
for submissions is April 1. Letters of nomination describing
why the individual is deserving of such recognition should
be submitted to the GSA at MS 527 or, preferably, by e-mail
to the GSA internal vice president, Marcos Huerta, at <marcosh@rice.edu>.
Nominations may be submitted by faculty, staff, graduate
students and graduate student alumni.

The GSA awards
are meant to encourage and recognize outstanding service
to graduate student life and education at Rice. The award
criteria were intentionally kept vague in order to permit
recognition of the broadest possible range of service to
the Rice graduate community.

For more information,
visit the Graduate Student Association Web site, <www.ruf.rice.edu/~gsa>.