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Baseball: LSU bests Tulane in 9-5 victory, p. 5 Wednesday, May 2, 2012 • Volume 116, Issue 137
CONNOR TARTER / The Daily Reveille
A dish featuring purple rice is showcased at Beausoleil Restaurant on Jefferson Highway.
ADMISSIONS
Football wins boost applicant numbers Lea Ciskowski Contributing Writer
Blanca Isabel in Rayne. This year, 27 acres of the rice variety were planted just outside of Crowley. “We will harvest the rice in late July and then harvest it and mill it in early August, so it should be in the stores in time for football season,” Rush said. Blanca Isabel is currently sold in a number of grocery stores including Calvin’s and Calandro’s in Baton Rouge. Rush said he hopes to expand the number of grocery vendors and break into the Whole Foods and Market Fresh market.
It’s normal for high school football players to observe a university’s athletic program’s success before they commit to a school, but nonathletes may also be influenced by a university’s football season record. The Office of Undergraduate Admissions saw a continual increase in undergraduate applications throughout the fall and is still noticing a spike after LSU’s almost flawless season ended at the 2012 Allstate BCS National Championship Game in January. Last year, Undergraduate Admissions received 14,818 applications for the fall 2011 semester. As of mid-April 2012, 15,928 applications had poured in for the fall 2012 semester. The jump represents an almost 7.5 percent increase and will continue to grow, according to David Kurpius, associate vice chancellor for enrollment management. Applications for the fall 2012 semester will be accepted until Aug. 17, the Friday before classes begin. Kurpius said he is unable to attribute the increase entirely to LSU’s
RICE, see page 7
APPLICATIONS, see page 7
THE COLOR PURPLE Brightly-hued rice to bring healthy alternative for football season
Lea Ciskowski
Contributing Writer
The numerous pots of jambalaya surrounding Tiger Stadium during each home football game may become a lot more colorful this fall. Tiger fans clad in purple will be able to consume the color in another form — purple rice. Milton Rush, president of Rush Rice Products and former LSU AgCenter rice pathologist, crossed Cypress rice and Hitan Kitan rice to create the purple-colored concoction. But Rush didn’t have
tailgating in mind 12 years ago when he began developing this, which he named Blanca Isabel after his wife. Rush said he was working to create a healthier rice variety, and when he combined Cypress and Hitan Kitan, the cross yielded a deep purple color. “The purple color was an accident but a perfect one. It is the true LSU purple,” Rush said. The compounds in Blanca Isabel have been recognized as health-enhancing substances due to their antioxidant activity, anti-inflammatory, anticancer, anti-atherogenic and
anti-hypoglycemic effects, according to Rush Rice Products’ website. Agnes M. Rimando, U.S. Department of Agriculture and Agricultural Research Service chemist, researched the Blanca Isabel rice and found a naturally occurring amount of resveratrol, the compound in red wine reported to provide health benefits including anti-cancer activity. “Resveratrol has never been reported in rice anywhere in the world,” Rush said. “It makes this variety pretty unusual.” Last year, Rush planted and harvested two acres of
NOTABLE NAMES
Cane’s founder visits business class Emily Herrington Staff Writer
Todd Graves said he wants to be the chicken finger version of Xerox. When people make a copy, they’re making a Xerox, he said. He aspires to have that interchangeable name association between Raising Cane’s and chicken fingers. Accompanied by his famous yellow lab, Cane, Graves spoke with business professor Robert Justis’ franchising class Tuesday morning about his road to success in founding Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers. Graves said entrepreneurs need to be focused and have a vision for
their business because “if you don’t have a vision, you don’t have a guide for where you want your business to go.” He’d seen restaurants specializing in chicken fingers while he was in college in Georgia and wanted to bring that concept to Louisiana. His idea was to have a limited menu consisting of high-quality food at a fast-food rate. Graves teamed up with a friend who was studying at LSU and worked to create a business plan for what would become Raising Cane’s. Graves’ partner presented the pair’s “bible on chicken fingers” to his business class and received the
worst grade. The professor told him the business plan was good but the concept wasn’t. The professor said though the concept worked in Georgia, it wouldn’t be successful in Louisiana because the people are different. “Conventional wisdom needs to be broken sometimes,” Graves said. “If you tell an entrepreneur they can’t do something, it makes them want to prove that they can even more.” Despite the discouragement, Graves followed through with his plan to create a chicken finger restaurant. But he soon learned banks don’t CANE’S, see page 7
BENJAMIN OLIVER HICKS / The Daily Reveille
Todd Graves, CEO and founder of Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers, speaks to a business class Tuesday about his experiences as an entrepreneur starting the popular franchise.