Students from Sid Richardson College who originally planned to live on campus this year, including many new students, have been reassigned to Martel, McMurtry, Duncan and Wiess Colleges based on their preference after Sid Richardson College was converted to isolation housing for on-campus students who test positive for COVID-19.
The Thresher reached out to seven freshmen to understand what their experience was like. While these blurbs are not representative of all voices on campus, they provide a perspective from new students –– whether they’re on campus at their assigned residential college, staying at another college for the semester, or remote.
In July, Dean of Undergraduates Bridget Gorman sent out an email to the undergraduate student body which highlighted the policies for Rice’s reopening plan for the fall. It is very thorough and we greatly appreciate the work the administration has put into this plan, but we have a lot of concerns about how it will affect students with learning and physical disabilities, as well as students with medical and mental health issues. We urge the administration to ensure that the voices of students with disabilities will be heard and that their needs will be accommodated.
For our first installment of Black Art at Rice, we sat down with Preston Branton, a third year architecture undergraduate student who creates visual art, working mostly with charcoal and graphite drawings as well as mixed media collage. Branton spoke on his transition to making more personal art, how he stays inspired, and the role played by animation in imagining a better world. His work can be found on his Instagram art page, @br.u.tal.
Five months ago, we sat in the Thresher office, eating chips, chatting and editing articles along with our fellow staffers. During our last in-office work cycle for the spring semester, before everyone began using phrases such as "these unprecedented times," we were focused on finishing our articles under the wire, wondering how likely it would be for Rice to make classes remote for the rest of the semester.
When Rice officially canceled the remainder of its spring sports seasons on March 12 of this year, all eyes turned to the fall. As the COVID-19 situation evolved in Houston, the question shifted from how we would finish the spring season to whether we would be able to play at all in the fall. Five months later, we finally have an answer: Conference USA announced on Friday that all fall sports, with the exception of football, have been postponed until the spring, meaning that there will be no conference championships this season.
No matter where he is on the football field, Blaze Alldredge always stands out with the help of his long blond hair. “When my parents finally let me grow out, I never looked back,” Alldredge said. “I don’t know who I would be without it.”
Every time Anna Margaret Clyburn gets a Slack notification, her computer plays the monotone sound of a British woman saying “hummus.” It’s fitting — Clyburn, a senior at Martel College, is a vegan, and gets very excited about hummus, as well as sweet potatoes and peanut butter. She enjoys eating the latter two together after coating the sweet potatoes in ginger, cayenne pepper, curry powder, cinnamon and salt, then baking them for 30 to 40 minutes at 400 degrees F.
Au revoir macarons, howdy macaroni and cheese topped with Cheeto dust. Little Kitchen HTX, a local family-owned restaurant and catering business, has ushered in a new dining dynasty at Brochstein Pavilion.
Despite the current situation with COVID-19, there are still a plethora of places for Rice students to explore the arts culture of Houston both on and outside of campus while maintaining the community’s safety and health. Use this guide of artistic hotspots offering virtual interaction options as a starting point for safely exploring Houston’s vibrant art scene.
Now that school is back in session, “servery fatigue,” or that feeling you get after your umpteenth piece of water/safety/athlete chicken and rice, is sure to follow. Never fear, because the Thresher has a starter list for places to explore around the local area.
While the pandemic is keeping us all inside, it’s not stopping us from keeping up with our to-read lists. With small businesses severely impacted by financial hardships brought on by public health and safety necessities, what better way to support Houston’s literary community than by cozying up with a brand new book purchased from local, independent bookstores?
A special plenary meeting of the Faculty Senate will be held on Aug. 19 at 4 p.m. to discuss the risks and benefits of coming back to campus, following the creation of an online petition by computer science professor Moshe Vardi that received 94 faculty signatures.
On Tuesday, Will Rice College announced that the remainder of Orientation Week will be conducted fully online. The announcement came after a second Will Rice O-Week advisor tested positive for COVID-19 this morning.
Rice University’s president and provost’s message on July 28 summarized all the steps the university has taken to assure the safety of our community and our ability to fulfill our mission. As the new academic year is about to begin, however, the rate of new COVID-19 cases is still very high and deaths in Harris County continue to increase. The pandemic is still spreading unabated in a community where approximately 1,500 of our off-campus undergraduates, our graduate students and our staff and faculty will live, dine, shop, party and risk being exposed to COVID-19. The same group of people will then come to campus to attend classes, teach, research, work and potentially infect more people.
Rice is offering Chinese international students the opportunity to live on campus at Southern University of Science and Technology in Shenzhen, Guangdong, for the fall 2020 semester, while enrolling in and taking Rice classes online.
“Even at this reduced risk, students and their parents need to know that the campus will not be safe, and the risk to health and lives should be evaluated against potential benefits. Therefore, it is worth examining what these benefits are,“ writes Professor Moshe Vardi.
“[Calls] to remove Rice’s statue are problematic and should be rejected. They present a false view that we should not commemorate a historical figure who has made valuable contributions to society because this person had moral flaws,“ writes Jacob Saldinger (Sid Richardson ‘16).
