Special Projects

Sniffles season: A Pisces moon’s guide to crying on campus

Even the happiest students in the country need to cry sometimes. If crying in your room is starting to feel overdone, fear not: as your resident Pisces moon and experienced campus crier, I’ve compiled a list of on-campus alternatives where you can let those tears flow.

Agnes Ho talks wellbeing, social work and sushi

Agnes Ho has two loves: sushi restaurants and genuine connections. The latter is one that she’s spent the past decade cultivating at Rice as director of the Wellbeing and Counseling Center. Her experiences as a first-generation, international student have enabled her to tackle mental health issues for a wide variety of adolescents at Rice and in the Houston community as a whole. 

Senior Spotlight: Grace Walters spells her way through Rice and beyond

In 2019, the Scripps National Spelling Bee saw an unprecedented eight-way tie after the competition ran out of words. The person partially responsible for three of those eight wins was spelling bee coach Grace Walters. Walters, a Jones College senior, has coached two other spelling bee champions, including last year’s winner, Harini Logan. 

Emily Houlik-Ritchey explores medieval language and literature

Wacky, crazy and terrifying. These words might evoke pictures of daredevils or precarious adventures but for Emily Houlik-Ritchey, an associate English professor at Rice, they point to something entirely different: medieval literature.

ASB groups ditch the beach, connect with community

According to just about every college stereotype ever, spring break is associated with partying and hanging out on the beach. However, some Rice students spent their recent breaks a little differently. Some wrote policy briefs on mental health in migrant communities. Others volunteered at clinics for Vietnamese refugees or visited local arts organizations. These students all have one thing in common: they were a part of Rice’s Alternative Spring Break Program,  which aims to work with community partners on a range of social issues.

Review: ‘Creed 3’ is the best boxing movie since ‘Rocky’

“Creed 3” is one of the best sports films ever made. The film not only establishes Jordan and Majors as bonafide superstars, it also heralds Jordan as the next great director. 

Review: ‘UGLY’ is a post-punk rebirth

When I put on Slowthai’s newest project on a cozy Friday morning, I was not expecting to be met with a propulsive, anxious and fervidly aggressive electro-industrial track. Slowthai’s last album “Tyron” was a departure from the UK rapper’s grime and punk roots, alternating between boastful trap anthems and R&B-influenced introspection. With “UGLY,” the Northampton-born rapper has reinvented himself once again. 

Five of Houston’s indie theatre productions to watch

Tired of scrolling through Netflix for new shows to watch? Impatient for more theatre productions on campus? For your viewing pleasure, the Thresher has compiled five up-and-coming indie theatre shows produced by local venues, and all are likely to be hard acts to follow.

.SWOOSH: Nike bets on the Metaverse

Fashion has been making a comeback in the metaverse. Virtual characters can now don North Face puffers and Off-White hoodies in Snapchat Bitmojis, Jordans in the “NBA 2K” video game series and Fortnite unicorn back bling. There have long been ways to express yourself in online worlds (think skins in video games), but only recently with the emergence of blockchain technology have big fashion companies started to explore that space as well. One brand investing heavily in the metaverse market is Nike, and they recently hosted a community event at Houston’s The Better Generation sneaker shop showcasing .SWOOSH, Nike’s virtual creations division.

Rice’s newest statue founds a ‘Blank Slate’ for conversation

​​There’s a new statue on campus, and it’s intentionally provocative. This is the first time that “A Blank Slate: Hope for a New America,” an interactive sculpture on a national tour, is being exhibited on a university campus.  The monument, created by Ghanaian artist Kwame Akoto-Bamfo to disrupt Confederate and segregated spaces, was first unveiled in Ghana in 2019 and has since been exhibited in numerous American cities, including Chicago, New York and Washington D.C. Rice University is its penultimate stop before Galveston, where it will be for Juneteenth. The monument was unveiled on March 4 and is currently located in front of the Provisional Campus Facilities tents on College Way. The exhibit has been sponsored by Rice’s Center for African and African American Studies, the School of Social Sciences, the School of Humanities and Hanszen College.

The environment meets multimedia theatrical performances in EcoStudio

Inside the Shepherd School’s Wortham Theater, environmental issues are regularly brought to life in the form of multimedia works. Wortham Theater is the stage for ENST 422: EcoStudio, a space transformed into a multimedia classroom by Kurt D. Stallmann, Director of the Rice Electroacoustic Music Labs. Stallmann and his co-instructor Joseph A. Campana, Rice English professor and poet, spent months discussing how to get students to collaborate and engage with environmental issues. The idea for the course was born from these discussions.

Gunnarsdottir takes her shot at shot put glory

Hailing from a small town outside of Reykjavik, Iceland, Erna Gunnarsdottir was a young girl when she was first exposed to shot put. Now, over a decade later, Gunnarsdottir competes on Rice’s track and field team, recently earning seventh place for shot put in the NCAA Championships.

Women’s basketball bounced from NIT by Oregon in second round

The Rice women’s basketball team couldn’t replicate their 2021 Women’s National Invitational Tournament title run this time around, falling in the second round to the University of Oregon. The Owls kicked off their tournament with a 71-67 win over Brigham Young University on Friday and looked to be on their way towards a second straight road victory on Monday before a relentless third-quarter push by the Ducks gave the hosts a comfortable 78-53 win. Despite the loss, head coach Lindsay Edmonds said she was proud of her team for holding their own in the second most important postseason tournament in the sport.

Baseball breaks out brooms in Birmingham

Rice baseball swept the University of Alabama at Birmingham last weekend, the first time they’ve opened Conference USA play with a sweep since 2015. It was a chilly weekend in Birmingham — game time temperatures were around 35 degrees on Sunday — but according to head coach Jose Cruz Jr., the Owls were able to grind out a few wins despite the cold.

‘Like a dead fish’: Hayon fights through illness at NCAAs

For the second year in a row, Arielle Hayon competed at the NCAA Swimming Championship Meet, this time placing No. 39 in the 100 yard butterfly and No. 50 in the 200. But unlike last year, the sophomore from Agoura Hills, California competed in both races battling a sinus infection.

QUAD REDESIGN BLUEPRINT V2

Letter from the editors’ desk: Mourning the slow deaths of campus traditions

Several changes were introduced to Beer Bike this year, largely at the urging of administrators, in hopes of a smoother, safer race. While we don’t strongly disagree with any of the changes that were implemented, the process illustrates a broader push to strip away the traditions that make Rice Rice. 

Start by paying the students who need it most

Student Association president Solomon Ni presented a motion during the March 20 senate to pay voting members of the SA essentially $8 every senate in session, which they are required to attend. Our new cohort of SA representatives near-unanimously shot the motion down. 

MBB routed by UAB in second round of C-USA tourney

In the second round of the Conference USA tournament, the Rice men’s basketball team fell short against the University of Alabama at Birmingham by a final score of 87-60. According to head coach Scott Pera, the Blazers were able to force the Owls into mistakes throughout the game.

WBB stunned by UTSA in C-USA quarterfinals after late collapse

After earning the No. 3 seed and a first round bye, the Rice women’s basketball team’s Conference USA tournament run ended abruptly on Friday when they lost to the No. 6 seed University of Texas at San Antonio 62-54 in the quarterfinals.