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Monday, March 31, 2025 — Houston, TX

Opinion

OPINION 1/16/24 9:51pm

24/7 Fondy presents more cons than pros

By Thresher Editorial Board

A petition was posted by an anonymous Rice student Jan. 13 asking for Fondren Library to be open 24/7. By publication, the petition had garnered 313 signatures. While we understand the desire for more study spaces, the extra labor required to support this endeavor may cause more difficulties than it solves. Instead, we have some suggestions for other study spaces and resources that those who want it can access 24/7.

OPINION 1/9/24 11:06pm

Bridging the digital divide

By Abhi Jain , Carolyn Suradejvibul and Jiya Bhatia

Access to the internet plays a central role in almost everyone’s lives, especially as we enter an increasingly digitized world. Unfortunately, however, 170,000 households in Houston lack access to the internet. While many of these individuals are adults, a significant portion comprises students of college age. 

OPINION 1/9/24 11:04pm

Letter to the Editor: Trafficking is a central feminist issue

By Sarah Sowell

Last semester, International Justice Mission’s anti-trafficking fashion Interwoven was featured in the Thresher. The article concluded with a call from me imploring Rice students to consider the connections between social issues they care about and human trafficking. I am writing today to expand upon that call to action and to mobilize the campus to consider trafficking more deeply. 

OPINION 1/9/24 11:03pm

Show up to support student athletes

By Thresher Editorial Board

Despite their disappointing 45-21 season-ending loss to Texas State in the First Responder Bowl, the Rice football team has reason for optimism going forward: The Owls played in their second-straight bowl game while going 4-4 in their first season as members of the American Athletic Conference. Winning their most games in a season since 2014 and defeating crosstown rivals University of Houston in the Bayou Bucket has made this season a successful one for head coach Mike Bloomgren, who has significantly turned around this football program since he arrived in 2018. 

OPINION 11/28/23 10:39pm

Letter to the Editor: Pro-autonomy after Roe: what the life debate ignores

By Imogen Brown and Georgia Jensen

When “Pro-Life After Roe” was published in the Thresher, we were in the midst of finalizing a semester-long report on the state of reproductive rights in Texas. We had spent the day compiling firsthand accounts of the panic, pain and trauma produced by abortion bans. It felt necessary to address the guest opinion and confront the harms of abortion restrictions. 

OPINION 11/28/23 10:36pm

We should educate ourselves on Rice’s history

By Thresher Editorial Board

Rice’s 111-year history is marked by lots of positive impact — and plenty of harmful actions. William Marsh Rice, the university’s founder and namesake, was a slave owner, and from the school’s establishment as a free institution for only white students to Ku Klux Klan meetings occurring on Rice property, the connections to segregation and racial injustice cannot be denied.

OPINION 11/14/23 10:42pm

Desolation does not entail peace

By Adel Iqbal

We have lost sight of the bigger picture in the Middle East. Intensification of violence over the preceding month has shattered the veneer of an international rules-based order, promulgating the precariousness of ascertaining global prosperity, stability and peace through sui generis multilateral frameworks devised to avert the perpetuation of such hostilities. Notably, the conflict has laid bare the alarming moral calculus precluding meaningful discourse across America’s college campuses, including our own. 

OPINION 11/10/23 6:07pm

Letter to the Editor: Free speech at Rice should support open dialogue, not dangerous rhetoric

By Aviva Presser Aiden

In the article “‘All out for Palestine’ protest sees 2,000 at Houston City Hall” from Oct. 17, Associate Vice Provost Catherine Clack discusses the Rice Students for Justice in Palestine sign-making event at the Multicultural Center in the wake of the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks in Israel. She states “... how is this something that we should oppose when it's an exercise of free speech?”  I respect the complexity of issues related to the Middle East and recognize the importance of representing a spectrum of views. But while free speech is a cornerstone of academic discourse, it is imperative that we distinguish between fostering open dialogue and supporting dangerous rhetoric.

OPINION 11/7/23 10:54pm

NOD reveals a public health crisis. Admin should treat it like one.

By Anonymous

Last fall, I was one of the “dumb and irresponsible people” to wake up in a hospital bed after drinking an entire bottle of rum.  In the midst of a panic attack, I recalled memories of my ex-boyfriend sexually assaulting me, resenting my inability to ever get closure. For some reason, I convinced myself that chugging hard liquor would calm me down. I didn’t care about the consequences. Frankly, I was suicidal and too distressed for them to matter. I started to realize, half-conscious, the terrible mistake I’d made as soon as I saw my body on a stretcher. I begged emergency medical technicians not to take me to the hospital, all the while delusionally screaming at my ex-boyfriend thousands of miles away. 

OPINION 11/7/23 10:53pm

Moderation and safety crucial to on-campus drinking

By Thresher Editorial Board

After seven students were transported to the hospital at Night of Decadence Oct. 28 and the public was shut down nearly two hours early, Dean of Undergraduates Bridget Gorman announced that all publics through spring break would be canceled and Pub Night would be only open to 21+ students until further notice. Many students have responded with upset and even anger at this decision, sharing thoughts on Fizz and creating petitions about the matter. While it is fair to be sad about the loss of some important college traditions, we need to consider how severe the alcohol situation on campus has gotten to necessitate this decision.

OPINION 11/1/23 1:34pm

A case for publics blacklisting

By Santi Parra-Vargas

There’s been a worrying trend in Rice publics. The talk of the town is the recent issues at Night of Decadence, where a recent email from Wiess College explained that caretaking resources were so stretched thin that the public was shut down entirely. This isn’t the first time this has happened — recent Pub nights have also gotten so bad that Halloweekend Pub was restricted to 21+. Medical resources at these events have faced high numbers of calls multiple times now, and as much as I want to say that NOD was a one-off instance that won’t happen again, I would not be surprised if NOD isn’t the only canceled public this year. What about Martel Beer Bike or Murt Y2K or Inferno?

OPINION 11/1/23 12:41am

NOD shut down highlights a need for change

By Thresher Editorial Board

In the early hours of Oct. 29, the 50th Night of Decadence public at Wiess College was abruptly cut short. In an email to all students, the Wiess team in charge of organizing the public justified the shut down due to the complete overwhelming of Rice and Houston emergency services, which was promptly accelerated after an altercation between RUPD and several students. 

OPINION 11/1/23 12:38am

Speak out against antisemitism

By Noah Berz

Tuesday, Oct. 24, 6 p.m.: Dozens of Rice students and community members gather in the Graduate Student Bubble for an anti-war teach-in because the Basker Institute has plans to celebrate former secretaries of state Henry Kissinger, Hillary Clinton and James Baker at an upcoming gala. The flyer for the event calls the former secretaries “architects of war and imperialism”; intrigued, I, too, make my way there.

OPINION 11/1/23 12:37am

Letter to the Editor: No feminism without sex positivity

By Felicity Phelan

Last week’s Thresher included a guest opinion objecting to the 2023 Night of Decadence theme, “NODie Dreamhouse: Cum On Barbie, Let’s Get NODy.” I applaud the article’s authors for their commitment to challenging latent and linguistically-embedded sexism in their campus community — everything around us, even something as silly and salacious as a NOD theme, can and should be examined for carried biases and perpetuated marginalizations. But “Cum on Barbie” is not one of those cases.

OPINION 10/25/23 10:21am

Houston’s future depends on this mayoral election

By Thresher Editorial Board

Early voting has started in the elections of Houston’s next mayor and city council. Through Nov. 3, you can head to the Texas Medical Center to cast your ballot — and starting Saturday, Rice will provide bus service from campus. If you can’t make it by then, Sewall Hall will be a voting precinct for Election Day on Nov. 7. Houston’s next set of elected officials will inherit the complex issues the city faces today, ranging from public safety to unemployment, potholes, transit and homelessness.

OPINION 10/25/23 10:20am

The better way to distribute publics tickets

 

As I sit at my desk, refreshing the Google Form for tickets to Night of Decadence, the annual Wiess College public party, I think to myself that there has got to be a better way to do this. 

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