Some students expressed concern regarding Project SAFE (Sexual Assault Free Environment), a campuswide presentation during Orientation Week that addresses consent and interpersonal violence.
The Doerr Institute for New Leaders is now granting stipends of up to $5,000 every semester to financially support undergraduate and graduate students in leadership positions.
Students returning to campus this week saw a variety of construction projects underway throughout campus, from larger buildings like the Will Rice College Magister House and Kraft Hall, to general repairs on existing infrastructure.
New students were required to complete a new alcohol education module, AlcoholEdu, instead of the Brief Alcohol Screening and Intervention for College Students, which had been used for over ten years, according to emails from the Wellbeing and Counseling Center.
Following the announcement of the Rice Investment financial aid plan, the university’s admission rate dipped below 10 percent for the first time in the school’s history. With an acceptance rate of 8.7 percent, the undergraduate class of 2023 is the most selective class to matriculate into Rice to date.
At the April 17 meeting, the Faculty Senate formed a new Pass/Fail working group to examine the purpose of allowing students to take courses pass/fail.
The SAFE Office, formerly the Office of Sexual Violence Prevention and Title IX Support, moved to a new location next to Student Health Services this semester and now offers on-campus forensic examinations for students who have been sexually or physically assaulted, according to Deputy Title IX Coordinator Allison Vogt and Director of the SAFE Office Cathryn Councill.
Residents of the South colleges are scrambling to find parking on campus after the sale of permits for South Colleges Residents Lot was suspended, following the decision to sacrifice more parking spots for the new Sid Richardson College project. Only 45 student permits will be offered for the 2019-20 year, while 150 permits were sold for last academic year, according to parking manager Mike Morgan.
An upgraded registration system was rolled out during Orientation Week and faced several glitches, according to a joint statement by the Office of the Registrar, the Office of Academic Advising and the Office of Information Technology.
Rice University students and staff members found offensive flyers in at least two locations around campus on Thursday, prompting a Rice University Police Department investigation and a response from President David Leebron via Twitter. New students arrive this weekend for Orientation Week.
“For a lot of people, you just got to know him over time and before you knew it you were pretty close — sometimes without even realizing it,” Heggie said. “All it took was sitting with him at dinner or playing a few games of pool.”
“He loved to cook, was an excellent chef and often invited whole gaggles of us over to his apartment, working in the kitchen and talking poetry to whoever was nearby while others lounged by the pool,” Johnson wrote. “When I joined the faculty at Rice, he showed me the way, provided an atlas, a compass through the morass of elite academia, and after the presidential election that first semester, often talked me off the proverbial ledge of rage or despair.”
A new coffee shop on the first floor of McNair Hall is projected to open for business this September, according to Peter Rodriguez, dean of the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Business. According to Rodriguez, several external vendors are currently competing for a contract. Whichever vendor is selected will choose the baristas who will staff the coffee shop and the types of coffee and food offered, Rodriguez said.
A task force on slavery, segregation and racial injustice has been established by the university, according to an email sent by President David Leebron and Provost Marie Lynn Miranda. In the email, sent out on Tuesday, Leebron said that the task force was created to learn about instances of racial injustice in Rice’s past and examine ways to promote diversity and inclusion in its future.
Provost Marie Lynn Miranda announced that she will be stepping down from her role as provost, a position she has held for the last four years, at the end of June, in an email sent last Sunday. Miranda will go on sabbatical for the 2019-2020 academic year, after which she plans on reassuming her faculty position in the department of statistics, according to Miranda’s email. Her decision follows the diagnosis of her youngest child with cancer last year.
“The broader university has a strategic plan — the V2C2 — and then each of the different schools are tasked with coming up with their own strategic plan,” Karlgaard said. “So I think there is a question about, ‘Should the general student body be involved in each of those strategic plans? If you are an English major, should you have input in the engineering strategic plan? If you are a non student-athlete, should you have input into the athletics strategic plan?’“
Class of 2019 graduates came to Saturday morning’s commencement with their caps, gowns, stoles and umbrellas. Despite forecasted downpours and the proposed alternative venue of Tudor Fieldhouse, both Friday and Saturday ceremonies were held outside. Like their matriculation ceremony four years ago, the graduates saw rain fall as they were granted their degrees.
“I truly believe we find our unique purpose in that space, because no one can be copied to the T,” Uzodike said. “We have a lot to bring to the table and I just want to remind people that no matter what space they find themselves in, they should never abandon the traits, gifts or skills that make them unique.”
Student-run business The Hoot announced Wednesday that they would no longer serve food from fast food chain Chick-fil-A beginning next fall, citing misalignment between Chick-fil-A’s corporate values and The Hoot’s values. The Hoot’s announcement on Facebook garnered over 350 reactions and over 150 comments at time of publication, with students and alumni voicing varying opinions on the decision.
The Student Association Senate passed two resolutions on April 22 intended to express undergraduate concerns about the athletic department’s plans to build of an inflatable dome. One of the resolutions includes a letter written by the resolutions’ sponsors, McMurtry College senior Quinn Mathews and Duncan College senior Ashton Duke, to be sent to the Board of Trustees and the athletic department expressing the SA’s opposition to the construction of the dome.
