News

SA discusses potential changes to CTIS curriculum at town hall

The Student Association discussed possible improvements for the Critical Thinking in Sexuality curriculum in a town hall hosted on Nov. 30. Among the improvements discussed was having the course, which is mandatory for all freshmen, taught later in the semester.

Rice mandates COVID vaccine for all employees

Rice announced that all faculty and staff are now required to be fully vaccinated for COVID-19, in an email sent on Nov. 19 by Kevin Kirby, chair of the Crisis Management Advisory Committee. According to the policy’s document, the new vaccination policy comes after President Biden issued Executive Order 14042, which mandates that all federal contractors require their employees or anyone connected with a federal contract to be fully vaccinated by Jan. 4, 2022, unless granted a medical or religious exemption. 

Rice implements $15 minimum wage for employees

Rice University will institute a $15-per-hour minimum wage for regular and temporary staff as announced in President Leebron’s address to the faculty senate on Oct. 21. This change will be implemented in the upcoming 2023 fiscal year, taking effect on July 1, 2022. 

New “Sarofim Hall” VADA building to be constructed

Rice University will construct a new building for visual and dramatic arts students and faculty, named Susan and Fayez Sarofim Hall. The building will be situated adjacent to the Moody Center for the Arts. The $25 million building will be a 50,000-square-foot facility, joining the Shepherd School of Music’s Alice Pratt Brown Hall and the Brockman Hall for Opera as part of a Rice arts district. The district aims to serve as a resource for Rice students and faculty and the Houston community, according to the Rice News article.

Campus sees handful of bike, scooter thefts this semester

There has been a recent rise in the number of reported electric scooter thefts on campus, according to Rice University Police Department Chief of Police Clemente Rodriguez. There were a total of five reports of electric scooter thefts this semester, with four occurring in November.

SA unanimously passes resolution to relocate founder’s statue

The Student Association unanimously voted to pass a resolution to relocate the Founder’s Memorial at the Nov. 29 Senate meeting. The resolution calls for the University to relocate the William Marsh Rice statue by the end of the 2021-2022 academic year.

Students introduce resolution at SA Senate to relocate WMR statue

Students demanded that Rice University remove William Marsh Rice’s statue from the Central Academic Quadrangle to a new, non-prominent location by the end of this academic year, during the Nov. 15 Student Association Senate meeting. The SA will vote on the resolution Nov. 29, according to SA President Kendall Vining.

Rice to provide vaccine clinic for community members on Dec. 3

Rice will be providing one final vaccine clinic on Dec. 3, partnering with the Houston Health Department to have 400 vaccine slots available for the Rice community. Three previous clinics were held on Nov. 4, Nov. 5 and Nov. 12.

REFS held on Nov. 12 to discuss financing energy transition

The 13th annual Rice Energy and Finance Summit was held at McNair Hall in the Jones Graduate School of Business on Friday, Nov. 12. The goal of the event was to discuss how to finance the transition to renewable energy resources, according to the school’s website and event information.

Policy 440 provides eligible staff with flexible work accommodations

Eligible staff employees will now be able to receive further work schedule accommodations with the passing of Policy 440, signed by President Leebron on Nov. 8. The flexible work options outlined in Policy 440 include remote work, alternative work schedules, compressed workweeks and reduced weekly or yearly work hours. 

BREAKING: Provost Reginald DesRoches to be first Black president of Rice

Reginald DesRoches, Rice’s current provost, will be the next president of Rice University, Chair of the Board of Trustees Robert Ladd announced at a press conference Thursday afternoon. DesRoches will become Rice’s eighth president and the first person of color to hold the role, succeeding current president David Leebron who will step down on June 30, 2022.

Astroworld leaves eight dead, hundreds injured

Eight people were confirmed dead, and hundreds injured, following a crowd surge at the Astroworld festival on Friday night at NRG Park. Astroworld is an annual music festival hosted by rapper Travis Scott. The eight victims were John Hilgert, 14 years old, Brianna Rodriguez, 16 years old, Jacob Jurinek, 20 years old, Franco Patiño and Axel Acosta, both 21 years old, Rodolfo Peña and Madison Dubiski, both 23 years old and Danish Baig, 27 years old.

Course poster removed due to copyright, amidst complaints of offensive images

A poster for HUMA 129: Who is a Terrorist? was taken down last week due to copyright issues, after the Humanities School received complaints about offensive images in the poster. The poster contained two images that Rice community members took issue with: an Israeli soldier and Leila Khaled in a keffiyeh, a Palestinian political symbol. A replacement for the flyer is in progress, which will not contain the copyrighted image. 

Rice alumnus wins VA governorship

Glenn Youngkin Will Rice College ’90 was recently elected governor of Virginia, the first Rice alumnus to win a governorship in the university’s history. Youngkin, a Republican, defeated Democrat and former Virginia governor Terry McAuliffe in the race last Tuesday Nov. 2. Originally from Virginia, Youngkin graduated from Rice in 1990, where he played on the basketball team for four years. 

Rice announces $2 billion ‘Be Bold’ fundraising campaign

On Oct. 29, President David Leebron announced the launching of “Be Bold: The Campaign for Rice” at Owl Together’s Town Hall event. The campaign is a $2 billion fundraising effort, of which $1.2 billion have already been raised, aimed at expanding Rice’s facilities, faculty, student body, programs and overall reach and impact on the world. 

Uyghur activist speaks at Rice on genocide in Xinjiang

Rushan Abbas spoke at Rice last Thursday on the ongoing genocide of the Uyghur people in Xinjiang, China. Abbas has been an advocate for the Uyghur people since the 1980s, and has been affected by this crisis on a deeply personal level, according to sociology lecturer Craig Considine. 

Rice business ranked No. 3 for entrepreneurship, up from No. 15 last year

Rice University’s Jones Graduate School of Business was ranked No. 3 in Poets & Quants’ World’s Best MBA Programs for Entrepreneurship rankings for 2022, up from No. 15 on the 2021 list. Peter Rodriguez, dean of the Jones Graduate School of Business, said that the Poets & Quants ranking is influential despite being relatively new. Rodriguez said that he is happy with the Poets & Quants ranking, which he believes tends to be more quantitative and holistic than the other rankings.

Students, faculty reflect on CDOD course after two weeks

For the past two weeks, new students have been participating in a new course known as Critical Dialogues on Diversity, discussing critical approaches to culture, identity and dialogue. The new course follows a pilot session that was taught in the spring by Associate Dean Catherine Clack and Vice Provost for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Alexander Byrd, which was attended by a small group of students, who elected to take the course. Byrd said that this was one of the things to consider when they were transitioning from the pilot course to offering the class as a required course for all freshmen.

Mapping Rice’s COVID-19 policy changes throughout the fall semester

Rice Community Mourns Loss of Ricardo Poveda Calderon

Ricardo Poveda Calderon, a Rice graduate student studying in the mechanical engineering department, passed away Oct. 24 at the age of 32. Poveda was a Fullbright scholar and an active member of the Rice graduate student community. He was involved in the Latin American Graduate Student Association, Graduate Student Association and numerous intramural graduate club sport programs.