Special Projects

A&E 4/16/24 10:40pm

Record stores that turn the tables

By Jay Collura

Record Store Day, a celebration of independently owned record stores, happens April 20 — but knowing where to celebrate can be challenging. Whether you are just discovering records via one of the 9,000 Taylor Swift vinyl variants, are addicted to flipping through the bins or infuriated by the fact that I referred to an LP as a “vinyl” earlier in this sentence, here are some local, independent record stores you should check out.

A&E 4/16/24 10:40pm

Review: “Monkey Man” is a Masterclass in Almost Every Way

By Hamza Saeed

Similar to this film itself, we will forgo a traditional expository opening and instead opt to dive right into the subject matter. We do so hoping that this review will benefit from such a move just as much as the movie did.

A&E 4/16/24 10:37pm

Items for your Houston summer bucket list

By Chiara Moretti

Whether you’re from Houston, working an internship or staying in town to do research, Houston has a variety of activities to keep you entertained this summer. Keeping these options on your radar will help you have a fun, relaxing summer before classes start back up in August.

A&E 4/16/24 10:36pm

Movies coming your way this summer

By Arman Saxena

With this being the Thresher’s last issue of the semester, our coverage of the biggest movies of the moment will be on hold for a few months. However, that doesn’t mean Hollywood will be on hiatus. This year’s summer blockbuster season promises to be a big one, with some of the most anticipated films of recent years like “Inside Out 2,” “Deadpool & Wolverine” and “Despicable Me 4” hitting the big screen in the next few months. Here are some other films coming out this summer that you won’t want to miss.

A&E 4/16/24 10:35pm

“Flicks!” Annual Showcase to Spotlight Student Films

By Aleena Ahmad

The Department of Art will have its annual “Flicks!” student film showcase, featuring films made by current students across multiple genres in the Rice Cinema April 20. The showing will begin at 7:07 p.m. and will be free to attend.

FEATURES 4/16/24 10:26pm

Sitting Around the Bonfire with Ben and Michael

By Hamza Saeed

Being a small school has benefits and disadvantages. Some claim that one of the drawbacks of being a relatively small campus and having a strong residential college program is that it is often difficult to find events or activities happening across campus. That’s where Benjamin Liu and Michael Mounajjed stepped in.

FEATURES 4/16/24 10:24pm

Decoding the Texas Pornhub ban

By Amelia Davis

Pornhub sued Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to block the enforcement of a state law that requires commercial websites publishing pornography “harmful to minors” online establish age verification measures and show health warnings on their webpages in 2023.

FEATURES 4/16/24 10:23pm

Dittmar on making a difference

By Hugo Gerbich-Pais

On the top floor of the Allen Center sits Provost Amy Dittmar's office. The campus she leads is spread out below; eight school deans, the deans of undergraduate and postgraduate studies and four vice-provosts all report to her.

OPINION 4/16/24 10:18pm

Do more to make campus bird-friendly

By Kayla Yao

April is the month of many things: Beer Bike, a solar eclipse, the last day of classes and, perhaps lesser known, Earth Month. As Rice launches a series of Earth Month events, I would like to address our potential as a campus community to be more environmentally conscious, particularly in an effort to make this campus more friendly to birds.

OPINION 4/16/24 10:17pm

Take time for yourself during the summer

By Thresher Editorial Board

The academic year’s close means this issue will be our last until the fall semester, which gave us some time to reflect on what our editorial for our last issue should look like.

NEWS 4/16/24 10:15pm

Students comment on Ramadan dining accommodations

By Belinda Zhu and Aisha Khemani

The Islamic holy month of Ramadan ran March 10 to April 9 this year, according to the Islamic calendar. During the month, observers fast from dawn until sundown, a period of introspection and communal prayer.

NEWS 4/16/24 10:14pm

Title: Exploring Michel Foucault’s Legacy – Foucault: Genealogies for the Future

By Wenshi Chen

Rice will host the Foucault: Genealogies for the Future international conference from April 18 and 19, convening scholars to reconsider the influence of Michel Foucault in academia and culture since his death in 1984. This international conference is a part of the Foucault: 40 Years After, a world congress commemorating the legacy of French philosopher and historian Michel Foucault.

NEWS 4/16/24 10:14pm

Junichiro Kono named director of the Smalley-Curl Institute

By Prasi Desai

Junichiro Kono succeeded Naomi Halas as director of the Smalley-Curl Institute on Feb. 1. Kono currently also serves as director of the applied physics graduate program, housed in SCI. He is also the Karl F. Hasselmann Chair in Engineering.

NEWS 4/16/24 10:13pm

Students convert Housing and Dining vehicle to electric

By Keegan Leibrock

Four Rice teams, encompassing over 20 students, worked over the past year to convert a 1997 Chevrolet P30 Rice Housing and Dining vehicle into a fully electric vehicle. The teams finalized the van’s conversion before its senior design debut at the Ion last Thursday. Two teams, the thermal management and dashboard design teams, received awards following the showcase.

NEWS 4/16/24 10:11pm

Rice students win National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship

By Hope Yang

The National Science Foundation awarded 25 Rice students the Graduate Research Fellowship April 4. The fellowship provides three years of support over a five-year period in graduate studies in a STEM field, which amount to $37,000 in stipends and $16,000 to the institution that the awarded will attend for their graduate degree.

A&E 4/16/24 10:04pm

Headshot photographers capture senior farewells

By Jennifer Liu

As the demand for senior photos escalates towards the end of the semester, Rice’s student photographers find themselves at the forefront of commemorating significant milestones for their peers.

NEWS 4/16/24 10:03pm

Everything fits right: Student completes campus Lego model

By Andrea Plascencia

Once upon a time, Brown College senior Andrew Linhart was a kid — a Lego kid, to be precise. He could not have foreseen how a love of Legos would lead him to a career in mechanical engineering, but he knew this much: he loved putting things together. Much like the fragments of the Lego sets built during childhood, the pieces of his life now fit together effortlessly.

NEWS 4/10/24 4:18pm

Rice Thresher announces $10,000 goal for the 24-hour challenge

Through wars and pandemics and everything in between, the Rice Thresher has tirelessly reported on the state of the campus and its students for well over a century. Visit the Rice Thresher’s 24-hour challenge page to donate today.

OPINION 4/10/24 2:41pm

Student activism is working – and fear-mongering cannot hold us back

By Matti Haacke

S.RES 02, titled “Student Association Boycott and Divestment from Corporations Complicit in the Ongoing Genocide in Gaza,” was presented to the Student Association on March 25. This resolution proposes the creation of an Ethical Spending Advisory Board designed to ensure that Blanket Tax funds are not dedicated to corporations that are complicit in Israeli colonial violence and apartheid based on guidelines created by the BDS movement.

OPINION 4/10/24 2:08pm

A journey with Generation Conscious: breaking barriers and expanding horizons

By Niyah Troup

When I first set foot on the Rice University campus, the contrast with my small hometown of Toomsuba was stark. Moving from a quaint town of 800 people to the big city of Houston, Texas made me realize how large the divide between my experience and that of my peers was.