Special Projects

Baseball drops three of four to UTSA

In their first conference series of the season, Rice baseball dropped three of their four games against the University of Texas, San Antonio this weekend. Over the four games, the Owls were outscored 39-18, and their season record now sits at 12-12. Head coach Matt Bragga said he was disappointed with the team’s uncharacteristic mistakes on the mound and in the field over the weekend. 

Rice Design reflects on its inaugural year and lays out its legacy

Launching a new club during a virtual semester requires creativity, dedication and attention to detail. Luckily for Rice Design, their founders, board and members embody these very traits. Rice Design has a mission to connect, educate and celebrate digital designers on campus. In its inaugural year, the club has managed to recruit new members, host design contests, facilitate panels and launch its own merch.  

Chemtrails and Controversy: Lana Del Rey’s newest album fails to impress

One would imagine that it would be hard to release a record that could top the monumental critical success of Lana Del Rey’s last album “Norman Fucking Rockwell!” They would be right. Her latest project, while a valiant effort to return to Del Rey’s roots and explore storytelling à la Taylor Swift’s “folklore” or “evermore,” fails to live up to its predecessor and doesn’t quite have that same social context to hit the cultural impact that Swift’s work had. And that isn’t even considering the mess of controversies Del Rey has entangled herself in since “NFR!” While Del Rey’s seventh studio album “Chemtrails Over the Country Club” satisfies fans of the singer’s more stripped down sound, the project doesn’t hold a candle to its Grammy - nominated predecessor and unfortunately can’t escape the shadow of Del Rey’s recent controversies. 

21 different websites to spice up your study breaks

The internet is a wonderful and weird place. And since, especially now, we’re forced to spend almost the entirety of our day online, why not use the internet for ways to take new and creative study breaks? Here is a list of websites that can help you feel better while studying or while taking a break from it. 

From farming to designing vaccines, alum Barney Graham solves problems

Last week, hundreds of Rice community members received the second dose of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine following the spontaneous vaccine clinic during the February winter storm. Few may have known that a Rice alumnus, Barney Graham (Will Rice College ’75), was the mastermind behind the vaccine’s messenger RNA sequence entering their cells.

Volleyball rides hot streak into conference tournament

After having their season delayed five months, the Owls set off on a journey that ended with an undefeated conference season, an overall record of 14-4 and a momentous win against No. 2 University of Texas, Austin. Ranked No. 24 in the latest national poll, the Owls will look to build off of their success in the Conference USA tournament, which starts this Thursday. 

A year into the pandemic, research goes on — but not without changes

sAfter doing a computational chemistry project remotely while campus access was limited last summer, Will Rice College junior Hallie Trial returned to campus lab work in August. At the Ball Lab, where she investigates the synthesis of boronic acids and water, Trial is masked, physically distanced from fellow researchers and, sometimes, reusing gloves — a practice not normally recommended, she said, but necessitated by pandemic shortages of personal protective equipment.

Student Association committees deserve more from students

Rice students don’t pay attention to the Student Association. This is clear from recent Thresher coverage on the low voter turnout during the SA election and students’ inability to identify the people they “elected” to the executive team. If it weren’t for current SA President Kendall Vining’s encouragement to apply for Academics Committee chair last year, I would have fallen into that category too. I learned that although the SA is designed to represent and empower all student voices regardless of whether they hold a formal SA position in order to better our campus and broader Houston community, it struggles with apathy (or worse, alienation) and a lack of participation. 

The twelfth residential college is a clean slate

Earlier this week, Rice’s Board of Trustees announced that they had approved a measure that, by 2025, will expand the undergraduate student body by 20 percent and add another residential college to Rice’s campus, giving us an even dozen. It is the latter announcement that struck us as particularly noteworthy, as the addition of a residential college is not all that common. Rice has added residential colleges twice in the last 20 years: Martel College in 2002 and McMurtry and Duncan Colleges in 2009. If you’re thinking that’s not all that long ago, keep in mind that 2009 was the first year Silly Bandz were sold in stores. With the addition of a twelfth college, we thought it pertinent to point out that a lot can change in 12 years, be it culturally or socially, and that Rice has the opportunity to capitalize on the blank slate that is this soon-to-be-named college.

Rice releases regular decision results, accepts record number of applicants

At 5:00 p.m. today, the Rice University Office of Admission released regular decision results. This year, Rice gave a record number of admission offers to 2,749 applicants  from all 50 states and 68 countries, according to Vice President for Enrollment Yvonne Romero da Silva. 

Weekly Scenes and Screens: Mar. 31

Rice announces twelfth residential college, student body expansion approved

Rice announced today that it will open a twelfth residential college to account for the plan to expand the student body by 20 percent, which Rice's Board of Trustees has just approved.The undergraduate class is expected to grow to 4,800 by 2025 from its current enrollment of 4,052 students (Fall 2020), according to the press release. 

The statue is only a starting point

I believe Willy’s Statue should go, but I feel that much more than that is needed. I believe the ideal solution to the fate of the statue and the future of racial equity at Rice is to begin a holistic program to acknowledge, address and atone for our university's racism, past and present. 

Senior Spotlight: Nitin Srinivasan combines passions for music and medicine

When Nitin Srinivasan began his first semester at Rice, he knew that he was interested in medicine. Beyond that, the Hanszen College senior didn’t know what exactly he wanted to pursue. It was during that first semester of freshman year that Srinivasan determined what direction he wanted to take his interest: the world of psychology.

Weekly Scenes and Screens: Mar. 24

Crossword #1: "Medical Instruments"

‘We all feel scared and vulnerable’: Asian members of Rice community respond to anti-Asian violence

Over the last year, racist violence and hate crimes against Asians have spiked sharply, with Asian American women bearing the brunt of them. Last week’s Atlanta-area spa shootings of eight people, mostly Asian women, by a white man, was a horrific incident in a long line of hate crimes against the Asian community in the United States and beyond.

Debate team wins national championship

Rice University’s debate team won the national championship in the National Parliamentary Debate Association 2021 Championship Tournament. It won first place in Overall Season Sweepstakes, Open (Varsity) Division Season Sweepstakes and Overall Tournament Sweepstakes, according to David Worth, the director of the team. 

‘The only way out is to vaccinate ourselves out’: Students hustle to get COVID-19 vaccines

After Governor Greg Abbott lifted the state-wide mask mandate for Texas on March 10, getting a COVID vaccine has become more important than ever to many Rice students. An impromptu vaccine drive was held at Rice’s East Gym during the winter freeze a few weeks back, but only around 800 doses were available. Students ran across the icy campus and stood in 20-degree weather for hours to try and receive a vaccine, but there just weren’t enough for everyone. Because many were unable to get the vaccine during that time, Rice students have recently been scheming for other ways to get their hands — or arms — on a dose. 

Beer Bike races will follow revised format to ensure COVID-19 safety

Beer Bike races will stretch across two days this year, with six separate races featuring two colleges at a time and the winner determined after all teams have been timed, according to Dean of Undergraduates Bridget Gorman.