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NEWS 1/26/21 11:17pm

Mini O-Week held for 35 Spring 2021 matriculants

By Mary Brady

Rice held a mini orientation week from Jan. 20 to Jan. 22 to welcome 35 new students, mostly transfers from other universities, to the Rice community for the first time during the Spring 2021 term, according to Araceli Lopez, the associate director of First Year Programs at Rice.  

NEWS 1/8/21 12:17pm

Students cannot return to campus and all classes are remote until Feb 15

By Savannah Kuchar

Undergraduate students will not be able to return to campus until Feb 15, according to an email from President David Leebron sent out this morning. The email also states that all classes this semester will begin in an online format and that Rice will move to Research Stage 2 in which essential on-campus research will be able to continue but with added safety protocols. 

NEWS 12/20/20 12:32pm

Record number of students apply for early decision at Rice

By Savannah Kuchar

On Dec. 10, Rice admitted 421 students through the Early Decision program, a 16 percent acceptance rate, according to Vice President of Enrollment Yvonne Romero da Silva. This year, Rice received its highest ever number of applications for this round of admission, narrowly beating the previous record set in 2018, with 2,635 applying to join the class of 2025. 

NEWS 11/18/20 12:15am

Rice launches pilot campus-wide composting initiative

By Morike Ayodeji

After years of compost deliberations, Rice has partnered with a local composting company, Moonshot, and started the early phases of campus wide composting. The project kicked off last week as Moonshot collected waste on Wednesday and Thursday morning from West and North Serveries, generating 1,418 pounds of compost, according to Moonshot co-founder Joe Villa. H&D plans to expand composting to all serveries once students return in January.  

NEWS 11/17/20 11:57pm

Rice alumna blasts off on historic SpaceX flight

By Nicole Lhuillier

Shannon Walker, Baker College ‘87, MS ’92, Ph.D. ‘93 is one of the four astronauts on NASA’s SpaceX Crew-1 mission to the International Space Station. The Crew Dragon spacecraft launched on Sunday evening and arrived on Monday night at the ISS, where the crew will spend the next six months, according to NASA. This is Walker’s second space flight to the ISS.

NEWS 11/17/20 11:51pm

Rice Lab begins trials for new saliva-based COVID test

By Alizay Azeem

Rice students are currently taking part in a research study to evaluate a new SARS-CoV-2 test developed by the bioengineering department at Rice. Led by bioengineering professor  Rebecca Richards-Kortum, the research lab is recruiting test participants from the Rice student body and has already hosted testing sites within several residential colleges, including Wiess and Will Rice Colleges. According to Richards-Kortum, any student enrolled at Rice is eligible to participate in this study.  While 1,500 students have participated in the study so far, Richards-Kortum said the number of participants necessary to conduct the study will depend on the rate of positive samples the lab receives. 

NEWS 11/10/20 11:56pm

Rice physics professor appointed to Vatican science academy

By Nicole Lhuillier

Rice professor José Onuchic has been appointed by Pope Francis as one of the 80 members of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences based in the Vatican. The scholars of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences advise the Catholic Church on scientific matters such as climate change and technology, according to Raymond Cook, chaplain and director of the Rice Catholic Student Center and Campus Ministry.

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