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NEWS 9/28/21 10:15pm

Electrical fire in Mudd Lab leads to campus phone and network outages

By Bonnie Zhao

Rice campus experienced phone and network outages due to an electrical problem in the Mudd Computer Science Laboratory building, according to B. Paul Padley, interim vice president for IT and chief information officer. At 11:04 a.m. on Sept. 27, an electrical fire was reported and the Houston Fire Department arrived on site, according to the Office of Information Technology Status Page.

NEWS 9/28/21 10:13pm

Annual global climate strike occurs Sept. 24, with low Houston turnout

By Viola Hsia

Sept. 24 marked climate marches that occurred across the country, including one scheduled to occur in Houston. Rice Climate Alliance, a club dedicated to advocating for and educating students on the current climate crisis, did not attend due to the Houston march’s poor organization, according to Clara Ursic, the Rice Climate Alliance treasurer.

NEWS 9/28/21 10:11pm

Moody Foundation donates $100 million to build new student center

By Hajera Naveed

Rice received a $100 million donation from the Moody Foundation which will support construction of the new student center as well as endowments to support some of the program components of the center, according to President David Leebron. This donation, along with the Welch Foundation grant, are the largest private donations in Rice’s history, according to Leebron. 

NEWS 9/28/21 10:09pm

Rice hires external agency to assist with contact tracing

By Prayag Gordy

Rice has entered a contract with Evergreen Contract Resources to support contact tracing on campus, according to Jerusha Kasch, Rice’s director of institutional crisis management. Approximately five employees from the external Houston company will work 36 hours per week as contact tracers at Rice, Kasch said.

NEWS 9/21/21 11:03pm

Working group proposes changes to undergraduate education requirements

By Bonnie Zhao

Two recommendations, including introducing themes into distribution courses and removing prerequisites from distribution offerings, have been proposed to alter the undergraduate curriculum requirements by the General Education Faculty Working Group, according to Douglas Schuler, associate professor of business and public policy. Schuler presented these working group recommendations at the Sept. 20 Student Association Senate, after presenting them at the Sept. 1 Faculty Senate meeting.

NEWS 9/21/21 11:02pm

Majority of classes return to in-person instruction this week and next

By Savannah Kuchar

The majority of classes with 50 or more students will transition back to in-person learning between Sept. 20 and Sept. 27, following an email from the Office of the Provost announcing this return. Previously, courses with 50 or more students were kept online, even as other classes returned to in-person learning after the second week of the semester, according to an email from the Office of the Provost on Sept. 2.

NEWS 9/21/21 11:01pm

Rice working to launch diversity and inclusion course for first-year students

By Keegan Leibrock

​​Rice University student leaders and faculty are currently working to develop a required course on diversity and inclusion for freshmen, according to Alexander Byrd, the vice provost for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. Byrd said that in the past, Rice was not sufficiently diverse to adequately reflect on and begin addressing social problems that the university faces. 

NEWS 9/21/21 11:00pm

Rice hosts webinar discussing abortion law

By Ivanka Perez

Rice hosted a webinar on Tuesday discussing Senate Bill 8, its impacts on Texan women’s abortion access today and how reproductive restrictions have historically impacted women. Held over Zoom, the webinar featured four Rice professors, former Texas State Senator Wendy Davis and the CEO of Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast Melaney Linton. 

NEWS 9/21/21 10:59pm

Mech lab renovated into Maxfield Hall for STATS department

By Viola Hsia

Maxfield Hall held a ribbon cutting ceremony on Sept. 13, following renovations beginning in fall of 2020 to convert the previous Mechanical Laboratory into a concentrated space for the statistics department. Its renovation was previously scheduled to be completed by May of this year.

NEWS 9/14/21 10:38pm

STRIVE, SAFE working to address possible double red zone

By Talha Arif

The SAFE Office and Students Turning Rice Into a Violence-Free Environment are currently creating a training schedule in order to provide a refresher bystander intervention workshop for College Teams and Student Leaders, according to Cathryn Councill, director of the SAFE Office.

NEWS 9/14/21 10:30pm

Rice cancels classes and activities due to Hurricane Nicholas

By Bonnie Zhao

All classes and instructional activities were cancelled on Sept. 14 due to widespread power outages caused by Tropical Storm Nicholas, according to an alert sent by the Rice Crisis Management Team. This follows an announcement originally requiring all classes after 5 p.m. on Sept. 13 to be taught remotely.

NEWS 9/7/21 10:52pm

Houston hospitals near capacity as delta variant spreads

By Hajera Naveed and Prayag Gordy

The rising number of COVID-19 cases at Rice so far this school year reflects the severity of the latest surge of the pandemic within the Houston area. According to data provided by the Texas Medical Center, August saw a record-high number of Covid patients hospitalized at the Texas Medical Center, along with 69,174 confirmed cases countywide — second only to the 71,996 cases in January, when less than three percent of Harris County residents were vaccinated.

NEWS 9/7/21 10:10pm

Local organizations prepare to welcome thousands of Afghan refugees

By Prayag Gordy

Thousands of Afghan refugees are set to arrive in Houston after fleeing the Taliban’s recent takeover of Afghanistan. Houston, which from 2017 to 2018 resettled more refugees than any other U.S. city besides Atlanta, is already welcoming new Afghan refugees, according to Elena Korbut, the community engagement manager at Interfaith Ministries for Greater Houston.

NEWS 9/7/21 10:07pm

Guest swipe program donations to return this semester

By Juliana Phan

The Guest Meal Swipe Donation program will return to Rice this semester as a collaborative effort between the Student Association, Student Success Initiatives and Housing and Dining. The program allows undergraduates with a Type A meal plan, required for all on-campus students, to donate some or all of their five meal guest swipes to off-campus students facing food insecurity. 

NEWS 8/31/21 10:57pm

Isolation space runs low as Rice reports 52 COVID cases in one week

By Prayag Gordy

Between Aug. 22 and 29, 52 people tested positive for COVID-19, according to Rice’s COVID-19 dashboard, with 40 testing positive on campus and 12 through off campus testing. Approximately 30 percent of cases were traced back to one campus event, according to a campuswide email from Kevin Kirby, chair of the crisis management advisory committee.

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