During winter recess the Rice campus is probably at its emptiest, as students living in the residential colleges must leave shortly after the fall semester ends. But the past two winters have not been normal, and for the second time, students with approval from the Dean of Undergraduates’ office were permitted to remain in their dorms over the recent winter recess.
The basketball team had just recently won their season opener 60-15 while a contract for the construction of what would become Hanszen Old Section was awarded in the week that the very first issue of the Thresher was printed 106 years ago, January 15, 1916.
Throughout the winter recess, the prospect of another semester of online learning led me to continuously hit the Gmail refresh button, waiting for a sign of what my academic future would hold. Peer institutions, one by one, enrolled themselves in Zoom University, and Rice inevitably followed. Then I realized I needed to buy the blue light glasses that had been sitting in my Amazon cart for six months.
Being Black in the United States is uncomfortable, often dangerous, and the bubble of a college campus doesn’t offer much protection. While Rice and many similar institutions tout their extensive diversity and inclusion efforts, these institutions often fail at supporting Black students.
As a transfer to Rice and a junior at the university, I had to take this course as a new matriculant. However, I came into the class as a non-cis person of color with a history of student organization and community building surrounding the centering of colonized and exploited identities. This gave me a unique vantage point with regard to observing the way the course was taught and responded to. Rice’s “Dialogues on Diversity” doesn’t address the problem at hand: historically white institutions of higher education fundamentally disenfranchise colonized and exploited peoples through the continual perpetuation of white, colonial, casteist, capitalist violence.
Recently, the Student Association introduced a resolution to structurally address disordered eating at Rice. Although the resolution contains tangible ways to mitigate this issue, we also believe that an important factor to consider is the culture on campus around eating disorders and food in general. Though this culture is not unique to Rice, we have the power to challenge it by being more conscious of how our language surrounding food affects others.
Rice is one of 16 universities alleged to have broken federal antitrust laws by violating the terms of an exemption which allowed universities to use a shared method of calculating applicants’ financial needs. The plaintiffs allege that this shared method resulted in price-fixing and unfairly limited aid to students, according to a lawsuit filed Sunday.
Courses will be delivered online for the first two weeks of the spring semester, and vaccine boosters will be required for all employees and students effective Jan. 10, according to an email sent Dec. 26 by President David Leebron and Provost Reginald DesRoches. This announcement follows a recent mask mandate reimplemented amidst the spread of the Omicron variant.
Following a spike in COVID-19 cases last week, Rice has reinstated its indoor mask mandate and prohibited any in-person gatherings with more than five people, according to an email sent this morning by Kevin Kirby, chair of the Crisis Management Advisory Committee.
In need of a new show to watch after watching Grey's Anatomy for the fifth time in a row? Here are options for your new procrastination session, spread across various streaming services in case your sister-in-law stopped paying the Disney + subscription.
“House of Gucci” chronicles the decline of the Gucci company in the late 70s, exploring the family conflict that led to the company’s misfortune. Directed by Ridley Scott, the film is a beautiful yet poorly structured work which dazzles in its character work and acting but disappoints in the execution of its story.
“An Evening With Silk Sonic” is a half-hour long album that embracecs R&B and funk and beautifully pairs the voices and sensibilities of Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak. Like their combined name, Silk Sonic, the album is smooth and polished — a pristine tribute to classic funk and R&B sounds.
The album rollouts of 2021 started off as little more than a trickle — a result of artists holding back albums for a post-COVID world in which they could tour. But once the dam started to crack, it burst wide open. It felt like every other week was a massive album event, a reminder of the power of dropping multiple songs at once despite the last decade of proclamations that the album was dead. Here’s some of my favorite albums from the past year:
Through an undoubtedly up and down year, the only consistency has been massive smashes of songs. Pop saw a trio of Olivia Rodrigo anthems and the triumphant return of Lil Nas X bump out of radios while critical darlings made their own mark. While the pandemic loomed over last year's releases, no clear theme seemed to be present throughout 2021 song releases, allowing for a wide berth of tracks. Here’s some of my favorites:
The Rice University Office of Admissions accepted 440 applicants through the Early Decision program for the Class of 2026. Seventy additional students were also admitted through the QuestBridge National College Match program.
Rice volleyball’s season came to a close on Friday night as they failed to knock off No. 2 University of Texas, Austin in the second round of the NCAA tournament. The Owls fell by a score of three sets to none, despite keeping the first two sets close. After the match, head coach Genny Volpe said that the Owls played well enough to beat almost any team in the country, but the Longhorns proved to be too strong.
Rice volleyball will get another shot at No. 2 University of Texas, Austin after they swept the University of San Diego on Thursday in the first round of the NCAA tournament. The Owls took all three sets against the Toreros by at least five points, en route to the second victory in an NCAA tournament game in program history. After the game, head coach Genny Volpe said she was confident from the get-go.
A new partnership between the Texas Forensic Nurse Examiners and seven Houston-area universities, including Rice, will provide students free and faster access to sexual assault nurse examiners, Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg announced at a press conference Thursday at Rice.
