Special Projects

This election, vote to protect the Affordable Care Act for the millions who need it

As its name aptly suggests, the Affordable Care Act is a crucial piece of legislation that has made healthcare much more affordable for low-income communities, including expanding Medicaid. Most notably, though, it ensured that those with preexisting conditions could not be denied insurance coverage because of their health status. Not only that, but the ACA allows children to stay on their parents’ insurance plans until they are 26. This legislation has saved lives. Now, President Donald Trump wants to take it away. 

10-12-20 Crossword: "Indigenous Peoples' Day"

In-person events at McMurtry cancelled with five students testing positive

Dean of Undergraduates Bridget Gorman cancelled all in-person events at McMurtry College starting Oct. 2 after three off-campus students and one on-campus student from McMurtry  tested positive for COVID-19. Gorman made her decision in conjunction with the McMurtry magisters and the Rice Crisis Management Team.

Alumni push to restore "historic" 2017 graffiti to Berlin Wall

Get off your phone — fight the good fight at Fondy.

Baker 13 tradition continues through a pandemic

The Baker 13 tradition is continuing this semester amidst a pandemic, however the run looks a little different this year to ensure it follows COVID-19 health guidelines, according to Baker 13 co-captain Michael Price. Safety measures include mandatory masks, distancing between runners and collecting the names of runners for contact tracing, Price said. 

10-7-20 Crossword #2: "Athletic Phonetics"

10-7-20 Crossword #1: "Cryptic Ideas"

Review: Blackpink’s ‘The Album’ is glossy, glamorous and grandiose

Blackpink, arguably one of the hottest K-pop groups in the world, just dropped their highly anticipated debut album titled “The Album” last Friday. Managed by YG Entertainment in South Korea, the quartet is composed of four women — Jennie, Rosé, Lisa and Jisoo. Past hit singles like “DDU-DDU-DU,”  “Kill This Love” and “As If It’s Your Last” have taken the international pop world by storm, amassing billions of streams and YouTube views. With their breakout performance at Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in 2019 and collaborations with big name artists such as Lady Gaga and Dua Lipa, Blackpink has paved a way into the mainstream American pop music industry, and with the release of their first album, have finally claimed their spot as international pop mainstays. 

Ghostbusters: Housing and dining staff adapt to a semester like no other

Ghostbusters are on campus. They’re not a fictional group of men fighting supernatural beings, but a team of Housing and Dining staff led by Noel Romero, tasked with sanitizing hand-touched surface areas and performing other duties that help to stop the spread of COVID-19 around campus. The Ghostbusters team, along with many other H&D staff members, are trained to use an electrostatic sprayer, which uses a positively charged disinfectant that coats surfaces and cleans them.  

Anonymous discussion app Librex sparks conversation and controversy

Librex, an anonymous discussion app for college students, expanded to Rice University in August after becoming popular at Ivy League schools. Approximately 700 Rice students are currently signed up, according to Ryan Schiller, founder of Librex. While the app provides a platform for a large variety of conversations, it has been facing criticism by some Rice students for the users who are expressing slurs and offensive language without accountability or consequences.  

Rice Students Launch Mutual Aid Network Amidst Pandemic

 As Rice students prepared to begin an unprecedented fall semester, a team of six undergraduates launched Rice Mutual Aid, a mutual aid network that compiles resources from among the Rice community for other students and offers financial support. 

Culture of Care FAQ updated to include clarifications on amnesty, other general policies

The FAQ section of the Culture of Care agreement was updated in September to include further clarifications on student life, including enforcement and student travel policies. The first version of this document was released to all returning students on July 1 to inform them about the Culture of Care and how it will function in residential colleges, dining and social events. 

Alcohol will be permitted at collegewide outdoor events

After weeks of campus being fully dry, Dean of Undergraduates Bridget Gorman sent out an email on Sept. 17 outlining plans to allow for “public events with alcohol” on Rice’s campus. The email, which was sent to various residential college student leaders, presents the guidelines and considerations for colleges to host events with alcohol, including the necessity for a dry, alcohol-free college event before hosting events serving alcohol. According to college chief justices, this decision may be the first step toward an eventual wet campus. 

Cocktails for a newly Dampus Campus

10/7 weekly scenes and screens

Rice Theatre to livestream first socially distanced production

Rice Theatre will premiere a livestreamed performance of Oscar Wilde’s “The Importance of Being Earnest” this Friday, Oct. 9 at 8 p.m. CST. The play, originally published in 1895 with the subtitle, “a trivial comedy for serious people,” narrates the double lives of two men, John Worthing and Algernon Moncrieff, who both pretend to be named “Ernest” and deceive their lovers in doing so. Directed by Christina Keefe, director of the Rice Theatre Program, the production will be available to view online as well as to a select live audience who must abide by Rice’s social distancing protocol. All actors will be wearing masks and remaining at least six feet apart on stage, painting a stark portrait of how the pandemic has changed performance art. 

Black Art at Rice: A Conversation with Morgan Seay

Performance can elevate the power of poetry, already a valuable avenue of self-expression, by allowing the artist to share their work and feel the support of an audience. That, at least, has been the experience of spoken word poet Morgan Seay. Her work, which often highlights the Black woman’s experience, has been showcased in the Rice Women’s Resource Center’s “Engender” zine and at the Black Student Association’s Soul Night. The Hanszen College junior spoke to the Thresher about her creative process; struggle, resilience and hope in the Black community; and her presence as an artist at Rice. 

Senior Spotlight: Nicole Tan talks engineering and dancing at Rice

In the first week of Nicole Tan’s freshman year, Hurricane Harvey arrived in Houston and devastated the city. Tan, who is from Philadelphia, said she had never experienced a natural disaster like Harvey before. “I had experience with hurricanes before, but not to this level,” Tan, a Sid Richardson College senior, said. “It was very much a bonding experience for my class.”

The pandemic hasn’t gone away. Neither should academic accommodations.

There are so many ways in which this semester is unlike any semester before. We’ve heard this said a million times in a million different ways. Every media outlet from the New York Times to the Wall Street Journal has written about how the pandemic has changed higher education. And yet, amid people constantly admitting that this year is different, one thing has remained the same: academic expectations.