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A&E 1/24/23 10:26pm

Black Art at Rice: Akaya Chambers designs her future in theatre

By Morgan Gage

When Akaya Chambers was twelve years old, she made her own Halloween costume — a steampunk TARDIS dress. It was the first time she had ever sewn, but she hasn’t put down her needle and thread since. In the years following, she discovered a passion for costume design and theatre on and off of the stage as a costume designer and actor, and on the page as a playwright. 

A&E 1/18/23 12:10am

Weston Twardowski uses theatre to spotlight environmental issues

By Hadley Medlock

Both on and off the stage, theatre has long been a part of Weston Twardowski’s life. From professionally acting to directing shows to co-founding his own theatre company in Los Angeles, Twardowski has made his love for the stage into a living. Now the program manager of the Diluvial Houston Initiative and lecturer in theatre and environmental studies at Rice, Twardowski finds his passion for theatre and academic research intertwining with a pertinent issue — environmental justice. 

SPECIAL PROJECTS 1/10/23 10:23pm

Student workers discuss job conditions on campus

 

Student workers are everywhere on campus. Rice undergraduates run O-Week, play a role in academic advising, manage large residential college budgets, work for the athletic department and more. What conditions do these student workers face?

NEWS 1/10/23 10:17pm

Rice adds 486 students to the Class of 2027 through ED

By Riya Misra

With a 15.2% acceptance rate, Rice admitted 486 new students — 417 through Early Decision and 69 through the Questbridge National College Match program — to the Class of 2027 on Dec. 14. These students were selected from a pool of 2,743 applicants, which is the highest number of applications to date for the Early Decision round, according to Vice President of Enrollment Yvonne Romero da Silva. 

FEATURES 1/10/23 10:16pm

Inked: Exploring the stories behind student tattoos

By Sarah Knowlton

The letter ‘Oht,’ a runic character and video game logo, is emblazoned on Felicity Phelan’s inner wrist. It was their first tattoo, Phelan said. “‘Oblivion’ was the first ‘real’ video game I ever played, and the ‘Elder Scrolls’ series is one of my favorites,” Phelan said. “In the game, there are these portals you go through, and the logo is the shape of one of those portals. Since ‘Oblivion’ was my first video game, I think of it as my ‘portal’ into the world of video games and thought it was fitting for a first tattoo.”

SPORTS 12/10/22 6:51pm

Bloomgren returns as head coach for 2023 season

By Daniel Schrager

Mike Bloomgren will return next season for his sixth as the head coach of Rice football, an athletic department official confirmed Saturday. While Bloomgren’s initial five-year contract was set to expire this year, the official said that he is under contract for the upcoming year after signing an extension in 2020. The total length of the extension is unknown.

SPECIAL PROJECTS 11/30/22 12:00am

Special Project: Abortion through the ages

 

The Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June, ending 50 years of constitutional protections for abortion in the United States. Abortion in Texas is now illegal in almost all cases. Students at Rice sought abortions before Roe, during its reign and will continue in the wake of Roe’s fall. The Thresher talked to alumni from the 1950s through the 2010s to build a timeline of relationships, sex and abortion at Rice.

A&E 11/29/22 11:26pm

Writer Anna Meriano talks youth literature, community

By Hadley Medlock

Since facing her first bout of writer’s block when scribbling down a story in kindergarten, Anna Meriano said she knew she wanted to be a writer. A Martel College (‘13) alumna, Meriano has watched those childhood dreams come to life as a middle-grade and young adult author published by HarperCollins and Penguin Random House. After writing fantasy stories about a family of brujas running a fictional Texas bakery and tales of girls finding belonging on their local quadball team, Meriano understands the power of children’s literature in shaping youth perspectives and works to share diverse stories of family, adolescence and friendship. 

SPORTS 11/21/22 11:56am

Volleyball beats No. 20 Western Kentucky in title game to reach C-USA hilltop

By Daniel Schrager

In 2019, the Rice volleyball team took on Western Kentucky University in the Conference USA final only to lose in a five-set heartbreaker. They got another shot at the Hilltoppers in the following year’s title game, and again in 2021, but both times WKU came out on top. Just ten days earlier, while not in the conference tournament, the Hilltoppers beat the Owls in a fifth-set tiebreaker to secure the C-USA regular season title. Sunday, though, the result was different. The No. 22 Owls finally made it past their conference rival, on the No. 20 Hilltoppers’ home court no less, to secure a conference title for the first time since 2018. After the match, head coach Genny Volpe said that she was thrilled to see her team rewarded for their efforts all year.

NEWS 11/15/22 11:46pm

Tech layoffs, hiring freezes hit Rice community

By Brandon Chen

As layoff and hiring freezes increase across the tech industry, computer science students and alumni are among those at Rice expressing concern for their current and future job prospects. In recent weeks, Elon Musk halved Twitter’s staff, Meta said it was firing 11,000 employees, Amazon announced plans to cut approximately 10,000 jobs and other tech firms such as Lyft and Stripe also announced layoffs.

A&E 11/15/22 11:22pm

U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo grapples with life, death and art

By Bonnie Zhao

America’s first Native American U.S. Poet Laureate, Joy Harjo, stopped by Rice’s Brockman Hall for a reading of her newly published poetry collection, “Weaving Sundown in a Scarle Light: 50 Poems for 50 Years,” on the rainy evening of Monday, Nov. 14. Following  the reading was an on-stage conversation with 2022 Texas Poet Laureate Lupe Mendez, during which Harjo shared harrowingly intimate details of her view on art, life, death and loss.

SPORTS 11/15/22 11:15pm

Volleyball gets final chance to reverse the C-USA tournament curse

By Cadan Hanson

Even though they’ve won 48 of their last 50 conference regular season games, the Rice volleyball team has not won a Conference USA tournament since 2018. After three straight years as the conference’s runners-up, the Owls will finally look to reverse their fortunes in what will be their final postseason in C-USA. This year, the No. 22 Owls enter the tournament with an almost perfect conference record of 13-1, and 23-3 overall. According to head coach Genny Volpe, the team is excited to jump into postseason volleyball.

NEWS 11/9/22 12:34am

Sewall voting location sees hour-plus wait times

By Ben Baker-Katz

Rice’s Sewall Hall served as an Election Day voting location for around 900 voters on Tuesday. According to Vivian Zheng, the presiding election judge, people waited in line for one to two hours before casting their ballots, though wait times dropped off significantly as it got closer to 7 p.m.

SPORTS 11/9/22 12:12am

Volleyball heads to No. 22 Western Kentucky for rivalry’s potential final chapter

By Daniel Schrager

The last time Rice volleyball lost a conference regular season game, back in 2019, it took Western Kentucky University two match points to knock off the Owls in a five-set battle that ultimately decided the regular season conference title. The two teams would meet again that year, this time in the conference championship game, but the result was the same: a five-set Hilltopper victory. Only three players from that Owls team are still with the program, but according to fifth-year setter Carly Graham, the losses still haven’t faded from memory.

A&E 11/8/22 11:53pm

‘As wonky as possible’: Rice Chorale finds joy in music

By Shreya Challa

Every Monday and Wednesday, music director Tom Jaber shepherds the Rice Chorale, a group of students plucked from various majors and years, into a practice room to sing choir music. Currently, the chorus is preparing for their upcoming show on Nov. 15 at 7:30 p.m. in the Edythe Bates Old Organ Hall at the Shepherd School of Music. This is Jaber’s 35th year as a professor and director of choral music at the Shepherd School of Music. Throughout the years, he has led the Chorale through multiple changes in the voice department and revived the group after disbanding during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

SPORTS 11/2/22 12:45am

Nightmare on South Main: Football blown out by last-place Charlotte on Homecoming

By Cadan Hanson

In the true spirit of Halloween, Rice Stadium resembled a haunted house with proverbial carnage all over the field following Saturday’s loss. Going into the game as 15 point favorites against the last-place team in Conference USA, who had fired their head coach six days prior, all indications pointed to the Owls celebrating Homecoming with a resounding win. But not only did the University of North Carolina at Charlotte spoil the Homecoming festivities, they did so with a 33 point victory, defeating the Owls 56-23. Head coach Mike Bloomgren was very disappointed with the loss after the game.

A&E 11/2/22 12:32am

Senior Spotlight: Kenzie Pickett brings life to museums

By Michelle Gachelin

Kenzie Pickett accomplishes the impossible — she revives centuries-old artifacts for the modern world. As a Camfield fellow at the Museum of Fine Arts, she spends 10 to 15 hours each week researching historical objects, preparing for the museum’s new traveling exhibit and writing tombstones, which are 100-word labels that describe each artwork. At Rice, Pickett is double majoring in art history and ancient Mediterranean civilizations and double minoring in museum studies and cultural heritage. Her interest in curatorial work and museums was first ignited as a child, when she watched “Jurassic Park” and “Night at the Museum,” in which characters are magically resuscitated, reentering the 21st century as new beings.

NEWS 11/2/22 12:23am

Rice prepares for Election Day

By Bonnie Zhao

Early voting for the midterm elections ends on Nov. 4 in Harris County. On Election Day, Nov. 8, Sewall Hall’s Welcome Center will be Rice’s on-campus polling location, open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. 

NEWS 10/25/22 10:25pm

DesRoches inaugurated as Rice’s eighth president

By Viola Hsia

Reginald DesRoches was officially inaugurated as the eighth president of Rice University on Saturday, Oct. 22. The ceremony, which followed a two-day series of events leading up to the investiture, included student and faculty representatives, in addition to delegates from around 150 universities and organizations. 

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