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NEWS 3/10/20 8:17pm

Rice suspends classes after positive COVID-19 case

By Rishab Ramapriyan and Rachel Carlton

Rice Crisis Management canceled all classes for the week of March 9, along with all on-campus public events with more than 100 attendees through April 30, according to an alert sent on Sunday afternoon. The cancellation follows the confirmation of a Rice employee testing positive for the novel coronavirus disease, COVID-19, which was reported last Thursday. 

NEWS 3/10/20 8:12pm

Beer Bike, major events canceled for semester

By Christina Tan

For the first time in its 64-year history, Beer Bike is canceled with no current plans to reschedule. As part of their response to the emerging crisis of COVID-19, Rice has prohibited all on-campus public events with more than 100 people,

NEWS 3/10/20 8:06pm

Student-run businesses close in wake of COVID-19

By Rynd Morgan

All student-run businesses, including Rice Coffeehouse, Rice Bikes and The Hoot in addition to student-owned East-West Tea, will be closed from now until the end of spring break, according to the businesses’ respective Facebook pages. The closures come in the wake of the cancellation of all classes for the week of March 9.

NEWS 3/4/20 12:18am

Rice employees donate mostly to Democratic candidates

By Serene Lee

Rice faculty and administrators have donated $791,014 to various political campaigns and organizations since the 2012 election cycle, with the majority of donations going to Democratic candidates, according to a review of the Federal Election Commission Records. 

NEWS 3/4/20 12:10am

Panel discusses xenophobia sparked by coronavirus

By Christina Tan

 After six Rice Alert emails about the novel coronavirus COVID-19 and rising fear about the spread of the disease, student clubs on campus organized to address another aspect of COVID-19: xenophobia toward Asians and Asian Americans. Last Thursday, faculty members and students gathered to listen to panelists speak about the topic and offer potential solutions.  

NEWS 3/3/20 11:38pm

Student Association calls for student accommodations amid coronavirus alerts

By Anna Ta

The Student Association introduced a new resolution recommending that Rice implement student accommodation policies in the case of an outbreak of COVID-19 cases, colloquially known as coronavirus, at Monday’s SA Senate meeting. Resolution #15 also calls for Rice to “strengthen its public health efforts in response to the concerns surrounding coronavirus.”

NEWS 2/28/20 10:08am

Vining and McClendon win contested SA elections, Clyburn confirmed as SA president

By Christina Tan

Anna Margaret Clyburn will serve as the next Student Association president after running uncontested, the first time in seven years that the race has been uncontested. With 1,082 ballots cast, which represents 27.2 percent of the student body, the elections saw significantly lower voter participation than previous years (42 percent last year and over 50 percent the year before). 

NEWS 2/25/20 11:50pm

College elections plagued by errors and violations

By Kavya Sahni

Spring elections at the residential colleges came with a myriad of problems this year, following the implementation of OwlNest voting at some colleges. Tabulation errors of ranked-choice voting by OwlNest have pushed Will Rice College’s secretary race to the its college’s court. Although Jones College continued with Qualtrics, similar problems have led to a re-election for the positions of internal vice president and treasurer.

NEWS 2/25/20 11:48pm

On-campus primary polling location moved off campus

By Rishab Ramapriyan

Student groups are expressing concerns over the lack of an on-campus polling location for the upcoming March 3 primary election. These concerns follow a decision by county party officials to not hold a polling location at Rice due to accessibility concerns for non-Rice voters. 

NEWS 2/25/20 11:45pm

3 Years of SA In Review: Onwenu, Engles and Wickerson speak on progress, achievements

By Brian Lin

The end of the Student Association election season on Tuesday marked a new term for the SA. We asked the last three presidents to speak, in their own words, on the most prominent SA accomplishments from the past three years. In the administrations of former SA presidents Justin Onwenu, Ariana Engles and Grace Wickerson, the SA’s achievements span the creation of the Rice Harvey Action Team to the formation of the Financial Accessibility Working Group. 

NEWS 2/20/20 3:22pm

U-Court rules Ledig eligible to run for RPC president

By Savannah Kuchar

Ending a weeklong controversy, the University Court ruled 6-3 that Will Ledig, a candidate for Rice Program Council President, was eligible to remain on that Student Association election ballot that was released today. According to the case abstract obtained by the Thresher, the UCourt majority agreed that the definition of membership is not made clear enough in the RPC constitution to justify excluding Ledig from the ballot. 

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