Hanszenites talk new wing, ongoing improvements
Students began moving into the new wing of Hanszen College on Jan. 5 after supply chain shortages delayed the wing’s completion to late December from early August, as originally anticipated.
Students began moving into the new wing of Hanszen College on Jan. 5 after supply chain shortages delayed the wing’s completion to late December from early August, as originally anticipated.
All Rice University rentable bike share stations, except for the Biosciences Research Collaborative station, have been temporarily suspended as of December 2022 without a designated return date. The closures are part of a city-wide suspension of 75 of the 153 Houston BCycle stations.
Rice Coffeehouse instituted a new payment system, Revel, on Jan. 11. The move was prompted by frequent credit-card processing problems that the business experienced in previous semesters, Caitlin Lindsay, the associate director of facilities, events and student run businesses, said.
Graduation ceremonies will now become one event for each graduating group, removing the all-student commencement ceremony generally on the second morning of graduation weekend, according to President Reginald DesRoches from a campus-wide email sent on Jan. 10.
Kamryn Sanamo, a Martel College senior, died on Jan. 5 at the age of 21 after a battle with brain cancer. She was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor on July 9, 2021.
Power outages affected nearly all of the Rice campus on Saturday afternoon, with reports of outages starting around 3:30 p.m. According to Jeff Falk, interim vice president for public affairs, electricians are working to restore power and the Crisis Management team has been activated. At the time of publication, power has returned to parts of campus.
On Dec. 27, 2022, Rice Management Company notified YoYo’s Hot Dog and Oh My Gogi their leases to operate in Rice Village will be terminated effective Jan. 31, 2023, according to an email obtained by the Thresher.
With a 15.2% acceptance rate, Rice admitted 486 new students — 417 through Early Decision and 69 through the Questbridge National College Match program — to the Class of 2027 on Dec. 14. These students were selected from a pool of 2,743 applicants, which is the highest number of applications to date for the Early Decision round, according to Vice President of Enrollment Yvonne Romero da Silva.
Rice University professor Megan Reiter and her colleagues discovered a previously undetected cluster of newborn stars some 7,500 light years away from Earth. The discovery, published in the December issue of Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, was made possible through observations by the James Webb Space Telescope.
Rice emeritus trustee Dr. Huda Zoghbi is a co-recipient of the 2022 Kavli Prize in Neuroscience. She and her colleagues received this award for the discovery of genes involved in serious brain disorders.
Due to a power outage at the East Water Purification Plant on Nov. 27 that led to water pressure dropping, Houston’s main water system was under a boil water notice beginning late Sunday until Tuesday morning. The Rice crisis management team sent out an email alert saying that all buildings east of Alumni Drive, including all of the residential colleges and the Rice Memorial Center, are serviced by the campus well and were not affected by the boil water requirement. However, buildings west of Alumni Drive, such as the Barbara and David Gibbs Recreation and Wellness Center, were impacted.
Rice recently established a minimum yearly Ph.D. stipend of $32,000 that will go into effect July 1.
The Owl Pep Band, which was introduced in September, debuted this basketball season. In previous years, the Marching Owl Band typically played at these games.
Rice signed an agreement with the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur on Nov. 14, marking a collaboration between the institutions for research, teaching and training.
Fizz, an anonymous social media platform created by two Stanford University dropouts and currently catered to universities, launched at Rice on Aug. 27 and has since generated mixed reactions amongst the student population.
As layoff and hiring freezes increase across the tech industry, computer science students and alumni are among those at Rice expressing concern for their current and future job prospects. In recent weeks, Elon Musk halved Twitter’s staff, Meta said it was firing 11,000 employees, Amazon announced plans to cut approximately 10,000 jobs and other tech firms such as Lyft and Stripe also announced layoffs.
The Rice University Police Department launched a “Food for Fines” initiative, during which students can donate food and hygiene items to cover unpaid parking tickets. From Nov. 15 to Nov. 17, students can bring products to PCF 1 anytime from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The new Hanszen College wing is on track for student move-in by early January, and the Rice Memorial Center demolition will occur at the end of spring semester despite previous delays in the timeline, according to Director for Project Management Anzilla Gilmore.
As Thanksgiving break nears, students and faculty planning to remain on campus have begun preparations to celebrate the holiday at Rice. During the break, some colleges will host a Thanksgiving dinner organized by students and the college’s core teams. This year, all of the serveries are closed on Thanksgiving Day. Multiple serveries will be open on Wednesday and Baker Kitchen will be open on Friday and Saturday.
TEDxRiceU held its Countdown event this past Saturday, focusing on combating climate change. The event, composed of six talks given by both faculty and students, addressed the issue of climate change through wscientific, technological and social perspectives, according to TEDxRiceU President Nicholas Ma.