History chair and former dean Katherine Fischer Drew, remembered
Katherine Fischer Drew (’44), the first woman to hold a tenured position at Rice, passed away on March 19. She was 99 years old.
Katherine Fischer Drew (’44), the first woman to hold a tenured position at Rice, passed away on March 19. She was 99 years old.
The 2023 Beer Bike races took place Saturday, with all three races — alumni, women’s and men’s — divided up into two heats. The times from both heats will be compared by the RPC to determine the final results after penalties for each team are calculated. According to campus-wide Beer Bike coordinator Anne Wang, results are expected to be released later in the week, likely on Friday.
Rice Emergency Medical Services received a $180,000 grant this March from the Pennington First Aid Squad, an organization in Pennington, New Jersey.
Rice Emergency Medical Services will host a blood drive on April 7 in memory of Kamryn Sanamo, a Martel College senior who passed away in January after battling brain cancer. The drive, open to members of the Rice community, will take place from noon to 6 pm in Lot 6.
The computer science department held a town hall announcing the redesigned COMP curriculum to students on Tuesday, March 21. The new curriculum includes many changes to the major requirements for both Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science degrees, according to a document shared with COMP majors.
Rice’s Office of Admissions admitted 2,399 students out of a total 31,049 applicants, on March 27. With a 7.7% admit rate, this year has seen a new record-low for acceptances, surpassing last year’s previous record-low of 8.56% for the Class of 2026.
The neuroscience Bachelors of Science was approved by Faculty Senate at the March 9 meeting and will be incorporated into the General Announcements for the following academic year. The major includes two tracks: molecular and cellular neuroscience and computational neuroscience.
Rice’s undergraduate tuition for the 2023-24 academic year will be $57,210, a 5.7% increase from the previous year. This brings the total cost of attendance up to $74,028, marking the fourth consecutive year of tuition increases and highest percentage increase in recent years. The most recent comparable tuition hike was an increase of 5.4% for the 2010-11 academic year, which came in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis.
The Rice Taiwanese Association held its annual night market this past Saturday, hosting 415 students in Central Quad and Ray’s Courtyard for a night of food, games and culture, according to RTA Internal Vice President Shani Chiang.
The Muslim holy month of Ramadan begins this week, falling between March 22 to April 20 this year, overlapping with events such as Beer Bike and the end of the semester. Observers fast from dawn until dusk, which is approximately 13 hours in Houston, to practice spiritual devotedness.
Beer Bike races will be held in two heats this year, instead of the traditional singular race, according to Anne Wang, a campus-wide Beer Bike coordinator. The change is in light of last year’s crash during the women’s race, which injured three bikers and sent one to the hospital.
President Reginald DesRoches announced Rice’s commitment to diversity ahead of anticipated Supreme Court rulings on affirmative action cases in a campus-wide email sent on March 3, cosigned by Provost Amy Dittmar and Vice Provost for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Alexander Byrd.
The architect firm Nelson Byrd Woltz unveiled their proposed plans for the Academic Quadrangle redesign to the public on March 9. The changes included relocating Willy’s statue to the corner of Lovett Hall and the Welcome Center, adding community gathering spaces by Fondren Library and paving a curved, tree-lined path stretching diagonally from Rayzor Hall to Herzstein Hall.
The first Student Association senate was held for the 2024 fiscal year after leadership changeover occurred prior to spring break. SA President Solomon Ni led the meeting, highlighting some changes he wanted to see in the organization moving forward.
The Jones School of Business hosted a delegation from Denmark for a roundtable discussion about innovation at Rice and the potential for collaboration between the university and Denmark. Guests included the Danish Minister for Industry, Business, and Financial Affairs, members of Parliament’s committee for business and representatives from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence chatbot, has raised concerns in academic institutions over its implications for plagiarism. Rice University’s students, faculty and administrators alike respond to whether ChatGPT has a place in higher education.
The Baker Institute Student Forum hosted a panel discussing the 118th Congress, and how that will be affecting public policy in the United States and abroad. Joseph Cozza and Joe Barnes, two faculty members in the political science department, served as panelists.
Rice University is now the home to a functional star-wheeled, copper plate, rolling press that the prominent, Romantic-period English poet William Blake used to create some of his famous pieces. The printing press, housed in the Woodson Research Center at Fondren Library, is the only functional replica in North America.
The Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion hosted a conversation about Fizz, an anonymous social media platform, as a continuation of the Critical Dialogues on Diversity series. Panelists spoke about the dangers of anonymity, impacts on the culture of care and how the conversations on the app are representative of the student body as a whole.
Solomon Ni will serve as the next Student Association president, receiving 67% of the votes in the formally uncontested presidential election. “Dilf Hunter,” a fake candidate created by the Thresher Backpage, received 22% of the vote in a satirical write-in campaign, and 10% went to other write-in candidates.