
Petition to expand resources for pregnant students sparks controversy
Rice For Life and the Catholic Student Association launched a joint petition together calling for Rice to expand resources for pregnant and parenting resources.
Rice For Life and the Catholic Student Association launched a joint petition together calling for Rice to expand resources for pregnant and parenting resources.
If Rice students show up for sports games, they’ll love them — the trick is to keep them coming back. This is something Hannah Wixom and Morgan Toran, two of the three co-presidents of Rice Rally, agree on.
Students are petitioning university officials to declare Rice a sanctuary campus, which offers protections to international and undocumented students and, notably, does not cooperate with immigration enforcement without a judicial warrant. The petition garnered over 400 signatures by March 4, said Conner Schultz, the co-chair of Rice’s chapter of the Young Democratic Socialists of America. Rice YDSA spearheaded the petition, which has now been co-signed by campus organizations like Students for Justice in Palestine, Planned Parenthood Generation and Rice Urbanists.
Rice Business celebrated the completion of the highest point of its new building with a “topping out” ceremony Feb. 28, where President Reggie DesRoches and Peter Rodriguez, dean of the Jones Graduate School of Business, signed the building’s final beam before it was lifted into place atop the structure.
Mahtab Dastur, a current Duncan College New Student Representative, is campaigning for External Vice President uncontested. She was previously running against McMurtry College sophomore Lajward Zahra, who announced her withdrawal from the race, citing “unforeseen personal circumstances,” at the Student Association debate Feb. 24. At the debate, Zahra endorsed Dastur for the role.
A media studies major is in development as an expansion of the existing cinema and media studies minor, with the proposal to be submitted to the University Committee on the Undergraduate Curriculum in March. If approved, classes for the major would become available in spring 2026.
The Lav Team, an LGBTQ+ leadership and outreach student organization, will be launching its pilot program co-created by Rice PRIDE and the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.
Rice’s inaugural round of Early Decision II saw a single-digit acceptance rate, admitting only 6% of its 2,513 applicants on Feb. 7, said Yvonne Romero, vice president for enrollment. A total of 36,749 people applied to Rice this admissions cycle, including applicants across the ED I, ED II, regular decision and QuestBridge National College Match programs.
The Hoot is preparing for re-opening after an unexpected period of closure.
Wiess College hosted Masks After Dark on Jan. 25, its inaugural new public, which debuted months after administration permanently canceled the Night of Decadence. NOD, Wiess’ themed underwear party, had run for five decades — and was so risqué, it allegedly garnered Playboy attention — before excessive drinking and hospitalizations drove the party to its early death in October 2023.