Sara Tirschwell (Baker College '87) recently announced her New York City mayoral campaign as a Republican candidate. After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in Economics, Tirschwell pursued a 30-year career on Wall Street as a loan trader and hedge fund manager specializing in troubled businesses.
New international students rushed to find at least one in-person class that would begin at the start of the semester to satisfy visa requirements, after most of the classes that had an in-person section pushed back their in-person component to start on Feb. 15.
Over the past two weeks, COVID-19 cases on Rice’s campus have been decreasing after a spike in positive tests from late December until the third week of January. In response to this decrease, undergraduates were allowed to move in on campus one week earlier, on Feb. 6 and 7, without needing petitions.
Rice’s Office of Undergraduate Admission extended the test-optional policy into the 2021-2022 application cycle, according to their website. Vice President of Enrollment Yvonne Romero da Silva said that Rice’s test-optional policy gives students the option to decide whether or not to submit their scores since the pandemic continues to restrict students’ access to testing.
Love is in the air, but so is the novel coronavirus. Thus, everyone’s favorite Hallmark-sponsored holiday is going to look a bit different this year. It may seem like the only option for Rice students is to buy your special someone a fancy latte from Brochstein or take a romantic couple’s walk to Reckling Roost for a LAMP test, but we’re here to broaden your options. Whether you’re looking for a socially distant picnic date, cupid-themed photoshoots or even just sending yourself a well-deserved box of chocolates, there’s something for everyone this Valentine’s Day. Check out our guide down below for date ideas, local events, florists and chocolatiers.
Rice swimming lost their first dual-meet of the calendar year last week, falling to the University of Houston 168.5 to 91.5. The Owls failed to capture first place in a single race during the meet, but there were still some bright spots, according to head coach Seth Huston. Senior Ellery Parish took second place in the 500-yard freestyle, and sophomore Madison Howe claimed second in the 100-yard butterfly.
Rice soccer concluded their first game of the season on Sunday, beating McNeese State University 2-1 on Holloway Field. The Cowgirls got off to a strong start, finding the back of the net in the first minute of the match. But following the intermission, the Owls were able to score two unanswered goals that propelled them to victory. Head coach Brian Lee said his team recovered well from their initial shaky footing.
The Rice volleyball team began conference play with back-to-back matches against Louisiana Tech University on Sunday and Monday, winning both in straight sets. The wins improve Rice’s record to 3-3 on the season, and give them a strong start to conference play. According to junior setter Carly Graham, the team came into the series energized, and it showed on the court.
The Rice men’s basketball team won both their weekend games against the University of Southern Mississippi Golden Eagles. The Owls now have a 12-8 overall record with a 6-6 record against Conference USA teams, ranking No. 4 in the conference’s West Division.
Although many Rice seniors are eyeing their May 15 graduation date, Emily Duffus (McMurtry College '20) transitioned from student to alumnus sooner than she had expected. Instead of settling into a new semester’s schedule these past few weeks, she has been working full time at a mobile urgent care in Houston as a medical technician and part-time as a contact trader with Rice Crisis Management. She spends her time driving around in an SUV with a nurse practitioner to address patients’ medical concerns in the comfort of their own homes. Duffus is one of various Rice alumni who decided to graduate early last fall after the pandemic turned their senior year plans upside down. The Thresher checked in with three graduates to see how their transition out of Rice has gone.
I can’t remember my Orientation Week. It’s not a blur of happiness or a general lack of memory on my part. It’s a malaise of stress and not knowing my place. Coming in as a transfer, I felt simultaneously alienated from my O-Week siblings and my O-Week parents, too old to feel the freshman excitement but too inexperienced to engage with established Rice students. I had no model of what I was supposed to be or even could be — transfer students received maybe an hour of transfer-specific programming, and I only had one conversation with a transfer co-advisor who I never saw again.
In a normal spring semester, we get spring break. This year, we get five “sprinkle” days instead — random weekdays dispersed throughout the semester on which no class occurs and no assignments can be due. The idea is to give Rice students their well-deserved days off without encouraging unnecessary travel. As Christopher Johns-Krull of the Academic Restart Committee wrote to course instructors, “it is intended that, to the extent possible, these be real breaks for students and instructors.”
The Moody Center for The Arts’ spring 2021 exhibition, “Artists and the Rothko Chapel: 50 Years of Inspiration,” will open to the public Tuesday, Feb. 16. A celebration of the legacy and influence of the Rothko Chapel, the two-part show includes a restaging of “Marden, Novros, Rothko: Painting in the Age of Actuality,” a 1975 campus art exhibit held in response to the chapel, as well as contemporary abstract works that reflect the chapel’s influence on artists today.
“We will cross this bridge together.” This sentiment, expressed by the late father of Filipina-American abstract visual artist Rachel Gonzales, was the core inspiration for Gonzales’s “Portal of Healing,” a site-specific installation now on view at Fondren Library.
