Special Projects

Kanau Sushi shines with fresh high-quality catches and chic modern design

Craving Japanese cuisine and want to try something new? Kanau Sushi, an addition to Houston’s long list of sushi spots, held its grand opening on Jan.14. The restaurant is located at 2850 Fannin St #400, in Drewery Place in Midtown, and offers top-notch sushi with excellent service and a relaxing environment.

Fresh Air: Five more outdoor destinations perfect for a socially distant semester

Last August, as students were bracing for their first full semester in the pandemic, the Thresher brought you a roundup of nine outdoor destinations perfect for a life defined by social distancing. Five months later, with the spring semester unfolding and social distancing measures very much still in place, we’re back with more. Close your laptop, grab your mask and check out these five outdoor spaces in Houston — your brain will thank you.

Black at Rice: Oria Wilson-Iguade talks dancing and Black Excellence Gala

The first time Oria Wilson-Iguade stepped foot onto Rice’s campus for a tour, she felt a bit out of place. That feeling of unease, however, was temporary, as Wilson-Iguade quickly found her place among the Black community at Rice SOAR, an event for prospective students. 

Weekly Scenes and Screens: Feb. 3

Weekly Scenes and Screens: Jan. 27

Heard Around Campus, By People Who Are For Sure Definitely On Campus

LEAKED: Rice's Vaccine Priority List

Student Files Lawsuit Demanding Tuition Reimbursement from Spring 2020

Anna Seballos (Jones College ’20) filed a lawsuit against Rice University on Jan. 11 demanding a refund for students who paid full tuition and fees for the Spring 2020 semester.  

Crisis Management Plans Vaccine Rollout for Rice Community

As administration of the COVID-19 vaccine begins worldwide, Rice is working with the state of Texas to be designated as a vaccine site, according to Vice President of Administration Kevin Kirby, who chairs the Crisis Management Advisory Committee.   

Mini O-Week held for 35 Spring 2021 matriculants

Rice held a mini orientation week from Jan. 20 to Jan. 22 to welcome 35 new students, mostly transfers from other universities, to the Rice community for the first time during the Spring 2021 term, according to Araceli Lopez, the associate director of First Year Programs at Rice.  

Students to launch Remora, a community-minded food delivery app

Before they became business partners, McMurtry College sophomores Saanya Bhargava and Myles Nobles met when they were assigned to the same orientation week group. Bhargava and Nobles shared “an invested interest in entrepreneurship,” according to Bhargava, and immediately knew they wanted to start a business together. Both of them were also huge foodies, ordering food together every weekend.  

‘Just hoping it goes up from here’: Freshmen talk starting college in a pandemic

 For most of the Rice community, the experience of the fall semester consisted of adjusting to a university that was nothing like it was before the pandemic. However, for freshmen, Rice in the COVID-19 era is all they know. Our newest class of students has navigated through a rather atypical college experience, from being separated from the rest of their college and struggling to connect with their virtual classmates, to being in quarantine through Thanksgiving break and losing family members to the virus. The Thresher checked in with five freshmen, selected at random, to find out how their first semester of college went.  

Stronger together: Rice community members should embody principles of mutual aid

Mutual aid networks have cropped up around the world throughout the last year as a response to the pandemic. The concept, which is not a new one, is fairly simple — a community voluntarily shares and receives resources and services among one another, monetary or otherwise, with the goal of making the whole community stronger. Still, it’s radical, especially in a country that encourages individualism, capitalism, and a ‘pull yourself up by the bootstraps’ mentality — an expression that, by the way, is nonsense.

If the GSA Sells Out, Third Ward Suffers

On Jan. 19, the Rice Graduate Student Association met to discuss a new “endowment proposal.” GSA normally operates with a rollover fund from the previous year, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the  cancellation of activities typically financed by the GSA, they’ve found themselves with too much money on hand. With over $50,000 in funds from the previous fiscal year when the pandemic began, as well as an anticipated $70,000 in the year that started in July, this endowment is projected to top six figures. Their proposal? Hand $100,000 of this money over to the Rice Management Company for investment. Not only would this be a disservice to graduate students who paid into the so-called “surplus,” it will make us complicit in politically and ethically troubling investments. The GSA should reverse the decision.  

Senior Spotlight: Nikolas Lindauer talks fencing and a religious awakening

Nikolas Lindauer didn’t think he was going to college until his senior year of high school. In his sophomore year, Lindauer wanted to be a construction worker. Junior year, he had his eyes on joining the Navy. But then, he took the SAT to beat a friend in a bet and applied to colleges on a whim. 

Feel-Good Foods: A Guide to the Best Healthy Spots near Campus

Welcome to 2021! If you’re anything like me, you’ve seen the myriad of ads promoting healthy living and wellness in the new year. I believe in the idea that you are what you eat, and I am interested in feeding my body, mind and soul without perpetuating the toxic aspects of diet culture. If you are looking to improve your diet and lifestyle, I got you covered with a list of the best healthy options near campus.  

Review: “Promising Young Woman” bites back

Emerald Fennell’s feminist thriller, “Promising Young Woman,” boldly tackles the idea of consent and stereotypes against women. While the twist ending inevitably remains a topic of controversy for the message it sends to survivors of sexual assault, I admired Fennell’s atypical approach to expose the depth of society’s destructive rape culture. 

Sundance Film Festival brings official films and programs to Space City

This weekend, the Sundance Institute, in partnership with the Houston Cinema Arts Society, will present a Sundance Satellite Film Festival in Houston. The event, which runs from Jan. 28 to Feb. 2, will include the world premieres of six feature films from independent U.S. filmmakers as well as local programming customized for the Houston community.  

Men’s and women’s tennis hand Ls to Lamar, Louisiana

It was a good weekend for Rice Tennis, as both the men’s and women’s teams put on strong performances at home this past Sunday. The women breezed past the University of Louisiana 4-0, and the men got the better of Lamar University by a score of 6-1.

Volleyball splits opening weekend series with UH

The Rice volleyball team opened their season this weekend with a two-match home-and-home series against the University of Houston. The Owls split the series with the Cougars, winning Saturday’s opener three sets to two, before dropping Sunday’s match in straight sets. The matches marked the Owls’ return to the court, following a long and uncertain offseason that saw the season delayed by nearly five months due to the COVID-19 pandemic. According to head coach Genny Volpe, the team had been eagerly awaiting the chance to play again.