As classes resume, stay engaged
Rice’s campus was lucky to be largely unharmed due to Hurricane Harvey. Thanks to the administration’s careful planning, students were safe and well-fed despite the storm. The crisis management team’s updates provided a constant flow of information and Housing and Dining supplied on-campus students with plenty of food. Facilities and Engineering made sure buildings were safe before reopening them and fixed any problems they found.
As we know, however, the rest of the city was not so lucky. Thousands of people are displaced. The death toll at time of print is over 60 and rising. While members of the Rice community escaped serious injury, many lost their homes. Others have family or friends who were severely affected.
The stories of students volunteering cannot end with the beginning of classes. The Thresher encourages students to continue to volunteer through the Rice Harvey Action Team or other organizations. It will be easy in the coming weeks and months to get caught up in classes and day-to-day activities while victims of the storm are still rebuilding their lives, but we cannot forget our neighbors.
More from The Rice Thresher
Students of conscience should boycott Local Foods
Local Foods has served, for many years, as a casual Houston restaurant option for Houston residents, including Rice students. Folks on campus will notice that this option has become more proximate, as a Local Foods location claims space on campus in the Brochstein Pavilion.
Insurance options for Ph.D. students are overpriced and insufficient
Doctoral students at Rice are given insufficient health insurance options especially compared to institutions with graduate student unions. Aetna’s graduate student health insurance plan leaves students with significant costs compared to the minimum annual stipend. Additionally, the available Aetna plan offers insufficient benefits when compared both to medical insurance plans at peer institutions and to the non-subsidized Wellfleet plan – Rice’s alternative option for international students.
Keep administrative hands off public parties
Emergency Management is hoping to implement a new system that has students swipe their IDs when entering public parties to cross-check their name with a pre-registered list. This idea is being touted as an effort to reduce check-in time and lines at publics. The thing is – we are tired. After bans on events, APAC and dramatic changes in party requirements, we want hands off the public party.
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