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NEWS 2/21/23 11:42pm

SA town hall features slate of uncontested candidates

By Riya Misra

Student Association candidates Solomon Ni, Alison Qiu, Crystal Unegbu and Yuv Sachdeva outlined their goals for the SA and addressed questions about their candidacy platforms at the Rice Thresher’s SA Town Hall on Monday, Feb. 22. The town hall was in lieu of the traditional presidential debate, as every SA executive candidate is running uncontested this year. 

A&E 2/21/23 11:03pm

Review: ‘Blood and Honey’ is a sticky mess

By Hamza Saeed

I am not an advocate of government censorship, but this movie should be criminalized. It should be a punishable offense to have been involved in the making of this movie. It shouldn’t even qualify as a movie, as it has none of the necessary elements. There is no plot, no motives, no characters, no beginning and no end. Let’s discuss this fever dream of an experience.

NEWS 2/15/23 12:57am

Sex Week heats up campus

By Hajera Naveed and Chloe Singer

This Monday marked the beginning of two Sex Weeks at Rice, one hosted by the Student Association’s Student Health Services Committee and another by the club Sex Week Educational Awareness Team at Rice. Both weeks are devoted to increasing awareness within the Rice community about sexual health and wellness.

A&E 2/15/23 12:15am

“Bigger and better”: Africayé! the Musical is back

By Shreya Challa

Africayé, the Rice African Student Association’s annual cultural showcase, is being held at the Shepherd School of Music’s Stude Concert Hall for the first time in history on Feb. 18, with doors opening at 4 p.m. Celebration of African culture is at the core of Africayé, from the overarching storyline to the food, music and fashion show. This year’s theme is Africayé! The Musical, with the aim of spotlighting the art, dance and music that come from African culture.

NEWS 2/2/23 9:24pm

Will the real Yo-Yo’s Hot Dog please stand up?: H&D brings True Dog Houston to campus after all

By Ben Baker-Katz , Morgan Gage and Prayag Gordy

Housing & Dining announced on Jan. 31 that they had reached an agreement with “YOYO” to operate on campus. But the next day, H&D sent the Rice community a follow-up email with a flyer for the vendor they had actually secured: True Dog Houston, operated by Damion Loera, a former partner of YoYo’s Hot Dog who has since opened his own business selling similar hot dogs.

A&E 1/31/23 11:14pm

Rice historian Douglas Brinkley on his Grammy nominations, musical community

By Shreya Challa

In his free time, Douglas Brinkley, a history professor at Rice University, gets nominated for Grammy awards. This year, Brinkley has been nominated for two Grammys for co-producing “Black Men Are Precious” by Ethelbert Miller for Best Spoken Word Poetry Album and “Fandango At The Wall in New York” by Arturo O’ Farrill and the Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra for Best Latin Jazz Album. Brinkley previously won a Grammy in 2017 for co-producing “Presidential Suite: Eight Variations on Freedom.” The Grammy Awards ceremony will be held on Feb. 5 in Los Angeles, broadcast live on CBS and streamed on Paramount+.

A&E 1/24/23 10:26pm

Black Art at Rice: Akaya Chambers designs her future in theatre

By Morgan Gage

When Akaya Chambers was twelve years old, she made her own Halloween costume — a steampunk TARDIS dress. It was the first time she had ever sewn, but she hasn’t put down her needle and thread since. In the years following, she discovered a passion for costume design and theatre on and off of the stage as a costume designer and actor, and on the page as a playwright. 

A&E 1/18/23 12:10am

Weston Twardowski uses theatre to spotlight environmental issues

By Hadley Medlock

Both on and off the stage, theatre has long been a part of Weston Twardowski’s life. From professionally acting to directing shows to co-founding his own theatre company in Los Angeles, Twardowski has made his love for the stage into a living. Now the program manager of the Diluvial Houston Initiative and lecturer in theatre and environmental studies at Rice, Twardowski finds his passion for theatre and academic research intertwining with a pertinent issue — environmental justice. 

SPECIAL PROJECTS 1/10/23 10:23pm

Student workers discuss job conditions on campus

 

Student workers are everywhere on campus. Rice undergraduates run O-Week, play a role in academic advising, manage large residential college budgets, work for the athletic department and more. What conditions do these student workers face?

NEWS 1/10/23 10:17pm

Rice adds 486 students to the Class of 2027 through ED

By Riya Misra

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. 

FEATURES 1/10/23 10:16pm

Inked: Exploring the stories behind student tattoos

By Sarah Knowlton

The letter ‘Oht,’ a runic character and video game logo, is emblazoned on Felicity Phelan’s inner wrist. It was their first tattoo, Phelan said. “‘Oblivion’ was the first ‘real’ video game I ever played, and the ‘Elder Scrolls’ series is one of my favorites,” Phelan said. “In the game, there are these portals you go through, and the logo is the shape of one of those portals. Since ‘Oblivion’ was my first video game, I think of it as my ‘portal’ into the world of video games and thought it was fitting for a first tattoo.”

SPORTS 12/10/22 6:51pm

Bloomgren returns as head coach for 2023 season

By Daniel Schrager

Mike Bloomgren will return next season for his sixth as the head coach of Rice football, an athletic department official confirmed Saturday. While Bloomgren’s initial five-year contract was set to expire this year, the official said that he is under contract for the upcoming year after signing an extension in 2020. The total length of the extension is unknown.

SPECIAL PROJECTS 11/30/22 12:00am

Special Project: Abortion through the ages

 

The Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June, ending 50 years of constitutional protections for abortion in the United States. Abortion in Texas is now illegal in almost all cases. Students at Rice sought abortions before Roe, during its reign and will continue in the wake of Roe’s fall. The Thresher talked to alumni from the 1950s through the 2010s to build a timeline of relationships, sex and abortion at Rice.

A&E 11/29/22 11:26pm

Writer Anna Meriano talks youth literature, community

By Hadley Medlock

Since facing her first bout of writer’s block when scribbling down a story in kindergarten, Anna Meriano said she knew she wanted to be a writer. A Martel College (‘13) alumna, Meriano has watched those childhood dreams come to life as a middle-grade and young adult author published by HarperCollins and Penguin Random House. After writing fantasy stories about a family of brujas running a fictional Texas bakery and tales of girls finding belonging on their local quadball team, Meriano understands the power of children’s literature in shaping youth perspectives and works to share diverse stories of family, adolescence and friendship. 

SPORTS 11/21/22 11:56am

Volleyball beats No. 20 Western Kentucky in title game to reach C-USA hilltop

By Daniel Schrager

In 2019, the Rice volleyball team took on Western Kentucky University in the Conference USA final only to lose in a five-set heartbreaker. They got another shot at the Hilltoppers in the following year’s title game, and again in 2021, but both times WKU came out on top. Just ten days earlier, while not in the conference tournament, the Hilltoppers beat the Owls in a fifth-set tiebreaker to secure the C-USA regular season title. Sunday, though, the result was different. The No. 22 Owls finally made it past their conference rival, on the No. 20 Hilltoppers’ home court no less, to secure a conference title for the first time since 2018. After the match, head coach Genny Volpe said that she was thrilled to see her team rewarded for their efforts all year.

NEWS 11/15/22 11:46pm

Tech layoffs, hiring freezes hit Rice community

By Brandon Chen

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.

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