The aroma of African spices, sounds of afrobeats and a vibrant energy filled the sky lawn at POST thanks to Rice MBA alumnus Ope Amosu ‘14, the visionary behind the Chopd & Stewd festival. The event was a day-long culinary and cultural celebration of the West African diaspora, taking place Sept. 30, the eve of Nigerian Independence Day.
Rice’s first-ever Moody X-Fest took place on April 7, featuring a GROUPLOVE concert, student performances, brief keynote speakers, complimentary food vendors and Moody Experience-branded merchandise.
“To the guy on the 2nd floor at Brown, you’re cute but I’m too scared to talk to you.” “To the hot shawty in Duncan 5th floor, u can ride me over when u do ur beer bike practice.” “To the guy who emerged from fondy wearing a blue&red flannel w Addidas sweatpants - u single?” These are just a sample of the student submissions featured on Rice Missed Connections, an Instagram account that gives students a platform to shoot their shot anonymously with other students.
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.
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.
After years of compost deliberations, Rice has partnered with a local composting company, Moonshot, and started the early phases of campus wide composting. The project kicked off last week as Moonshot collected waste on Wednesday and Thursday morning from West and North Serveries, generating 1,418 pounds of compost, according to Moonshot co-founder Joe Villa. H&D plans to expand composting to all serveries once students return in January.
This semester, non-Rice personnel and visitors have come to campus for several reasons varying from exercise to photoshoots, and students have noticed that these visitors are frequently maskless. Rice University Police Department is still enforcing the mask policy as it was originally announced, according to RUPD Chief Clemente Rodriguez.
The Baker 13 tradition is continuing this semester amidst a pandemic, however the run looks a little different this year to ensure it follows COVID-19 health guidelines, according to Baker 13 co-captain Michael Price. Safety measures include mandatory masks, distancing between runners and collecting the names of runners for contact tracing, Price said.
