Features

Natural disasters, voting and environmental justice: Catching up with Al Gore

Three years ago, former vice president Al Gore visited Rice and sat down with the Thresher to discuss a future marked by the climate crisis. Gore came back to Houston this week to speak at a rally organized by the Climate Reality Action Fund at Texas Southern University on Feb. 19. The Thresher and other local news organizations sat down with Gore before the rally to talk about our rapidly changing world. 

Fear, discrimination, support: Chinese international students talk coronavirus outbreak

As Chinese families around the world prepared for the Lunar New Year, the Chinese city Wuhan, with a population of 11 million, prepared for something darker: announcing a quarantine to contain the unexpected outbreak of the novel coronavirus. Fears for family back home put a damper on celebrations at Rice.

Black at Rice: Black students reflect on Black History Month

This February marks a year of Black at Rice, a features series created with the intention of highlighting and celebrating Black voices on and off campus. For the anniversary and for Black History Month, the Features staff decided to do something a little different with the series. 

2-19-2020 Crossword solutions

An orientation to this year’s O-Week coordinators

In a week jam-packed with social activities and academic sessions, a thousand nervous and enthusiastic freshmen are accepted into the warm embrace of the Rice community. Throughout Orientation Week, students are introduced to countless Rice traditions, given an O-Week group and are inducted into their residential colleges. With next year's class of coordinators already drafting plans, one from each college shared their views on the magic of O-Week.

2-5-2020 Crossword solutions

Trimming feathers: Perch becomes home to haircutting business

On the Perch, a large balcony on the fourth floor of Will Rice College’s Old Dorm which overlooks the quad and New Dorm, Dyllon Schmehl operates his business: a pop-up barber shop. 

Future for refugees in Texas remains unclear

Saniya Gayake and Spoorthi Kamepalli have not had many lazy Saturday afternoons in the last year.  As co-presidents of Houston Empowering Refugees, the Baker College juniors travel once a week to an apartment complex in Houston’s Hillcroft neighborhood and teach lessons on health literacy to 14 refugee women from the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Owls fly the nest: students discuss study abroad experiences

When Serra Sozen decided to study abroad at University College London, she expected the experience to be different from her time at Rice. The enrollment at UCL is about 31,500, they offer a wide variety of courses and the university is all the way across the Atlantic. But there was one difference that Sozen didn’t expect: the clubs. 

Black at Rice: Selase Buatsi finds her voice

When Selase Buatsi was a kid, she was just like every other kid her age — constantly fighting her parents. As a young girl, Buatsi argued with her parents so often that they told her she’d make a great lawyer. A decade later, Buatsi is now president of Rice’s Pre-Law Society.

2 Down: The paper’s pair of puzzle people

Rice students are great at finding ways to avoid doing their homework. But there are only so many shows available to watch — and rewatch — on Netflix. Luckily, McMurtry College seniors Grant Lu and Sam Rossum have discovered their ideal form of procrastination: writing crosswords when they should be writing papers.

Rice students, alumni channel creativity through YouTube

TikTok may be all the rage, but for students looking for entertainment that lasts longer than 60 seconds, there’s a growing presence of content on YouTube — produced by Rice students and alumni.

Englebretson tackles misconceptions with new Braille research

Although Robert Englebretson has been reading Braille since he was 5 years old, it didn’t occur to him to research Braille until he was selected to serve on a committee to study Braille in 2005.

1-29-2020 Crossword solutions

1-22-2020 Crossword solutions

Reginald DesRoches races towards provostship

Closing in at a swift one hour, 50 minutes and 34 seconds, Reginald DesRoches set a personal record at the Aramco Houston Half Marathon on Sunday, beating last year’s time by six minutes. Next summer, DesRoches will break another record. On July 1, the current dean of the George R. Brown School of Engineering will become the ninth provost to take office — and the first Black provost in Rice’s history. 

Associate Vice Provost motivates students across the state

What exactly does an associate vice provost do? They drive over 4,500 miles across Texas to speak to high school students about building confidence, mental health and applying to college. At least that’s what Cortlan Wickliff (Wiess College  ’10), associate vice provost for academic affairs  and strategic initiatives, did last November. 

Ringing in the Lunar New Year on campus

In the United States, people often celebrate the new year with kisses at midnight, a champagne toast and resolutions. When countdown concludes and the ball drops in Times Square, the new year has officially begun — for some. However, many East and Southeast Asians celebrate Lunar New Year, which doesn’t take place this year until Jan. 25. Here’s a look at how Rice students celebrate the new year.

1-15-2020 Crossword solutions

Amongst “happiest students,” dissatisfaction persists

Last semester alone, students wrote over 35 op-eds and letters to the editor, addressing particularly controversial events at Rice and other salient issues facing the student body: from students donning ICE agent costumes to the use of the n-word at Rice to the university’s decision to let a student who was found guilty of assault graduate.