Thresher holds the memories of a campus
For the last two years, whenever someone has tried to make plans with me on a Tuesday, I’ve responded with some version of “I can’t, I’ve got Thresher.” The natural next question, after I explain that putting together a weekly paper takes up the vast majority of every Tuesday, is “Why do you spend so much time on it?” And silly as it may seem, I’ve never really come up with a good answer to that question.
I usually give some obligatory answer along the lines of “I enjoy it, and I think the work we produce makes campus a better place.” Both of those things are true, but they don’t accurately convey the extent of my answer. It wasn’t until recently, when I began to seriously reflect on leaving this job, that I realized the true purpose of the Thresher is what it leaves behind.
Do yourself a favor, and spend some time exploring the Thresher archives. Pick a random issue, or choose one very deliberately, and immerse yourself in whatever was happening on campus that week. From old intramural sports coverage, to discussion of conscription’s impact on students to the phenomenal shenanigans that Rice students used to get up to, I promise it is well worth your time.
I’m incredibly proud of the work the Thresher has published in my two years in leadership. Some articles made me laugh, others made me cry, but they were all worth writing. I hope that, in a few decades, someone will be looking back at our archives to learn about what Rice was like in the years following the pandemic, and thoroughly enjoying themselves in the process.
Now it’s time for some obligatory sappiness. Thank you to Savannah Kuchar and Ivanka Perez for being the best EIC role models imaginable. Thank you to Katharine Shilcutt, for agreeing to a job with no idea what she was getting herself into and for helping me love Houston. Thank you to Morgan Gage, the most talented person I’ve ever worked with. And finally, thank you to Kelley Lash — gone but never forgotten, you are missed every day on the second floor of the RMC.
More from The Rice Thresher
Beware of dissenters, reinvestigate the real Israel
Israel is a special place and arguably the most misunderstood in the world. We will be celebrating Israel’s 75th birthday at Rice, commemorating the occasion with a conference hosted by the Baker Institute on April 27, 2023. It is important to understand that the Jewish connection to the land of Israel goes back thousands of years. Jews were always in this land before Israel was created. As I prepare to graduate, having founded a Students Supporting Israel chapter at Rice, I want students to be informed about Israel and Palestine. There are many people who spew misinformation and will not want to listen to facts because of the false narrative they love to believe.
Thank you for letting me tell your stories
If there is anything I will miss about college, it is the Thresher. No matter how many long nights or years of my life I have given to this paper, I have never grown tired of the Thresher. Maybe because of a superb staff that impresses me every day with their talent and dedication to good journalism or the unwavering support and friendship (and fist bumps) from my co-editor Ben Baker-Katz, but, I think most of all, it is the work I was able to do here.
Upholding free speech is a balancing act
When I came into this job, the Thresher was learning how to do journalism in a pandemic. We couldn’t anticipate how the paper would look like if and when we returned to “normal.” The once-jam-packed opinion spread had been reduced to a single page that wasn’t always filled. As engagement with and trust of the opinion section has ebbed and flowed in the three years since then, one thing has remained constant: to uplift diverse voices and start important discussions on campus, we have to wield the platform carefully.
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