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Friday, April 19, 2024 — Houston, TX

Features

FEATURES 4/16/24 11:07pm

Peggy Whitson breaks the glass ceiling, lands among the stars

By Noah Berz

Peggy Whitson has spent more time in space than any other American. She was the first female, nonmilitary Chief of the Astronaut Office for NASA and the first woman commander of the International Space Station, but despite all her success, Whitson denies any claims of special talent or giftedness. Above all else, she said, hard work and perseverance brought her to the top. 

FEATURES 4/16/24 10:26pm

Sitting Around the Bonfire with Ben and Michael

By Hamza Saeed

Being a small school has benefits and disadvantages. Some claim that one of the drawbacks of being a relatively small campus and having a strong residential college program is that it is often difficult to find events or activities happening across campus. That’s where Benjamin Liu and Michael Mounajjed stepped in.

FEATURES 4/16/24 10:24pm

Decoding the Texas Pornhub ban

By Amelia Davis

Pornhub sued Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to block the enforcement of a state law that requires commercial websites publishing pornography “harmful to minors” online establish age verification measures and show health warnings on their webpages in 2023. 

FEATURES 4/16/24 10:23pm

Dittmar on making a difference

By Hugo Gerbich-Pais

On the top floor of the Allen Center sits Provost Amy Dittmar's office. The campus she leads is spread out below; eight school deans, the deans of undergraduate and postgraduate studies and four vice-provosts all report to her. 

FEATURES 4/10/24 12:04am

‘Change is inevitable’: Rice Village through the years

By Amy Li

Today, Rice Village is frequented by students and local families alike for its collection of cafes, restaurants, boutiques and brand-name stores. At the time of its founding in 1938, though, the Village was an undeveloped, wooded area with a single dirt road. On that road — now Rice Boulevard — just two buildings stood: Rice Blvd. Food Market, which would be frequented by Rice students grocery shopping for decades to come, and an ice house.

FEATURES 4/9/24 11:37pm

Rice professors tackle teaching, tenure

By Noah Berz

Jamie Catanese stands outside the Anderson Biological Laboratories with his students as they present research posters for his BIOS 211 class. With his hands down at his sides, he snaps his fingers and throws out questions to familiar students passing by. One student comes to him with an empty major declaration form, and he fills it out without hesitation, laughing and cracking jokes as he signs his name. 

FEATURES 4/9/24 11:32pm

Abdel Razzaq Takriti reasons with revolution

By Amy Li

At 16, Abdel Razzaq Takriti already knew two things: he wanted to be a humanities scholar, and he wanted to teach. He was inspired by his mother, a high school teacher; his grandfather, a university professor, dean and prominent academic; and many of his teachers.

FEATURES 4/2/24 11:20pm

Pick(nic) your way around campus

By Kristal Hanson

Whether looking to frolic, study, pretend to study or just indulge in some serious snacking, springtime beckons for you to picnic. So grab your backpack (because who actually owns a picnic basket?) and head outdoors to one of these charming locations.

FEATURES 4/2/24 11:18pm

LPAP instructors discuss their lifetime of learning

By Hongtao Hu

While Lifetime Physical Activity Program courses at Rice are required for graduation, they’re a far cry from your dreaded high-school gym class. Not only do the classes range from tai chi to fencing, but their requisite nature and one-semester duration create a special kind of environment for instructors and students alike.

FEATURES 3/26/24 10:56pm

The road less taken: travel scholarships at Hanszen, Wiess

By Spring Chenjp

Touring a tobacco farm in Cuba, eating at a Michelin-starred bistro in Paris or visiting urban gardens in Spain: unique experiences abound when venturing beyond the hedges. Though the Rice Office of Study Abroad offers a variety of scholarships for students interested in academic travel, lesser-known are Hanszen and Wiess Colleges’ travel scholarships. 

FEATURES 3/26/24 10:55pm

Magisterial matters: a look back at renaming

By Shruti Patankar and Emelia Gauch

From wearing jackets that advertise their colleges to disciplining students when their checks bounced, magisters have had a myriad of responsibilities throughout the years. The 2017 change of their title from masters to magisters reflected a debate about whether their once-title, reminiscent of slavery’s use of the term master, correctly captured the essence of those responsibilities. 

FEATURES 3/26/24 10:49pm

Colette Nicolaou on love, learning and lecture

By Noah Berz

In 2011, Colette Nicolaou left her home in Los Angeles — along with her family, her friends and a job she loved — and followed a boy to Houston. She knew no one and her psychologist license wasn’t valid in Texas. She did it for love, Nicolaou said. Soon after her arrival in Texas, she married her now-husband.  

FEATURES 3/19/24 10:20pm

Changeover traditions: greeting or punishment?

By Hugo Gerbich-Pais

Baking, roasting and challenges: This isn’t the recipe for your favorite cooking show, they’re college changeover traditions. The outgoing college government leaders are about to leave, ceding their positions to those rising sophomores, juniors and seniors in need of a resume booster – though some are motivated by an altruistic love for their college. This power vacuum needs to be filled and nearly every college celebrates changeover in a slightly different way, from the whimsical to the disgusting. 

FEATURES 3/19/24 10:19pm

Rice business clubs bring in the big bucks

By Shruti Patankar

Energized by Apple Stocks notifications and armed with Audrey’s lattes, teams of Rice students are recreating Shark Tank here on campus. The rapidly growing business major’s popularity has made way for investing clubs with hundreds of thousands of dollars of funding. 

FEATURES 3/5/24 10:07pm

AI in the archives: Fondren Library explores new tech

By Amelia Davis

From Grammarly and Quizlet to SparkNotes and Spotify, artificial intelligence is now a major feature of nearly every website — and the archives of Fondren Library are no exception. The use of AI has been a notoriously hot-button topic for the last few years, involved in artist exploitation debates and the terms of the Writers Guild of America strike, but in the Woodson Research Center, its role has been to facilitate greater ease and expediency in many of their preservation and transcription processes. 

FEATURES 3/5/24 10:07pm

Isabella Avilez pieces together a puzzling world

By Noah Berz

Isabella Avilez is a problem solver. As co-president of Rice Escape, she got the club back on its feet after it was felled by the COVID-19 pandemic. As a mechanical engineering major with a passion for renewable energy, she attempts to find ways to power the world’s technologies while leaving space for a sustainable future. And as a friend, she’s an expert at turning a rough week into a pleasant smile.

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