Special Projects

SA Initiatives Program deserves more publicity

The Student Association will continue to accept proposals for the Student Initiatives Program. The program is tied to an initiatives fund populated by $18,000 Honor Council was forced to return following a Blanket Tax Standing Committee investigation into their finances. In the future, the fund will receive money from an increase in the blanket tax from $79 to $85 (see p.1). Currently, according to SA Internal Vice President Peter Yun, the SA is primarily pursuing one viable proposal to the program — an “Inreach Day” during which students will perform tasks normally completed by the Housing and Dining staff. However, currently, the Student Initiatives Program has been underpublicized and underutilized.The Thresher believes the program has great potential if the SA expends more directed effort reaching out to the student body.The success of SA40K should serve as a model for the administration of the Student Initiatives Program. The SA40K gave funding to a new Queer Resource Center, Rice Emergency Medical Services, Rice Bikes and environmental initiatives, such as subsidized reusable containers and water bottle fillers. Though the pot may be smaller, an equal, if not more, effort should go towards soliciting proposals. Nor should the amount of available funds discourage students from applying for funding.Still, publicity for the Student Initiatives Program has been lacking. While publicizing the SA40K, the Senate Executive Committee visited college government meetings, posted extensively on Facebook and constantly made students aware of the money’s potential uses. If anonymous social media is any indication of student awareness, the buzz surrounding the SA40k on Yik Yak has been markedly absent for the current Student Initiative. For the Blanket Tax Committee to effectively distribute the $18,000, students must be made more aware of its existence and purpose.The initiatives fund has the potential to be immensely beneficial for the student body moving forward. The fund allows clubs and students to apply for funding for initiatives that the yearly allocation of the blanket tax does not make provisions for. However, if the fund is not better publicized, the money will not serve its intended purpose in a timely manner; ideally, it should be spent on ideas stemming from those from whom the blanket tax funds originated. Unsigned editorials represent the majority opinion of the Thresher editorial staff. All other opinion pieces represent solely the opinion of the piece’s author.

Rice must better support low-income students to truly provide equal opportunity for success

Let me give you an example of a lower-income student at Rice University. This student has a high school diploma but no AP or IB credits, nor the background knowledge to comfortably excel in Rice’s introductory level classes. This student is also on financial aid, either on a full or partial tuition grant, has been offered student loans, and was given a federal work-study grant of about $2,500.Lower-income students like the one I describe face barriers to success that stem from these circumstances. Federal financial aid covers only four years of college, which might pressure some students to graduate in that timeframe, leaving less time for them to explore diverse interests and extracurricular activities. Additionally, students in these circumstances may feel more pressure to pursue a major leading to direct entry into a high paying field. Without AP credits, students might need to take extra courses other students can forgo, or might need to study more due to insufficient background knowledge of a subject.A lack of AP credit also limits students wanting a double major or dual degree. A student entering without AP credits must average 16.5 credits a semester over eight semesters to get a bachelor’s degree in chemical and biomolecular engineering (If this chemical and biomolecular engineering major also wanted a bachelor of arts degree, they would need to average 20.25 hours each semester, more hours than they can register). A 16.5-credit semester load might be feasible with some classes, but it might mean stacking extra hours atop difficult courses full of new material requiring substantial study time, which could compete with a 10-hour-a-week work-study job.These hours seem flexible if you only spend work-study funds on luxury items, but this money can buy textbooks and study guides, pay cell phone bills, health insurance and Saturday dinner. Since work-study funds are often capped at around $2,500 and generally hover a few dollars above minimum wage, a student must work over 250 hours to pay for these basic amenities. This is a huge time commitment for a student for little profit.Work-study sounds like a great idea on paper. It is a federal grant Rice allocates to provide a wage to students who qualify and work at university-associated jobs. It gives students who qualify for financial aid money to pay for personal expenses not covered by tuition and housing grants. Students choose the jobs they take on, often with flexible hours. However, work-study, in concert with the circumstances mentioned above, can deprive students of a good college experience. This “college experience” means more than getting an academic education and scraping by financially. As humans we need social interactions and relationships, and as students we try to build our resumes and networks as much as our transcripts. If a student needs a work-study job, it may interfere with their well-rounded education and keep them from using that time in ways that could pay off in the long run, but will not pay for more immediate necessities.With the amount of money coming in from the annual fund every year, Rice could afford to scrap its work-study program and pay students who would otherwise qualify for work-study a living stipend or allowance. This would cost the university, but it would be a cost worth providing all students the same opportunity to explore the same options.I have described some extreme circumstances, but high achievement extremes should be accessible to low socio-economic extremes. If college is supposed to be a great equalizer and Rice tries to welcome students of diverse backgrounds, we should focus on supporting success in all students as much as possible rather than setting expectations of excellence that exceed the capabilities of a lot of students. Requiring students disadvantaged financially or in their prior education to do extra work to keep up with other students does not allow these students to participate in as many of the Rice experiences as they should be able to. In a marathon, no one would think it fair to start some people miles ahead, set their times as standard, and expect the people starting at the beginning to finish within that time, so how can it go unquestioned here?

Goldwater scholars named at Rice

Undergraduates Peter Cabeceiras, Kenny Groszman, and Eric Sung were named 2015-16 Goldwater scholars for their academic achievements from a pool of more than 1,200 nominees. 

Students win BP engineering contest

A team of three Rice University juniors won the United States division of BP’s Ultimate Field Trip last week, according to BP, beating teams from six other American research universities in the final round of competition.The team, composed of McMurtry College junior Benjamin Zhang, Lovett College junior Ruth Long and Hanszen College junior Sun Ji, will travel to Trinidad and Tobago this summer to tour BP facilities with the winning teams from other participating countries.The Ultimate Field Trip is a yearly competition sponsored by BP in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Angola, in which teams of undergraduates from different universities compete to solve an energy engineering problem, according to the program’s online description. This year, the challenge was to find a way to reduce the amount of water consumed by oil, gas and biofuel production.In the final stage of the competition, BP chose the Rice team’s proposal to use microalgae to purify wastewater and then produce crude oil over projects from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Pennsylvania State, Texas A&M University, the University of Champagne, the University of Oklahoma and the University of Texas.“We had such great synergy and fun working on the competition which ultimately culminated into a desire to settle for nothing less than winning first place,” Zhang said.Zhang credited the engineering department at Rice with helping prepare the team for the contest. Zhang, Long and Ji are all majoring in chemical and biomolecular engineering.“I would encourage every Rice engineering student to participate in design competitions outside of those offered by Rice University,” Zhang said. “There needs to be more exposure to the wonderful engineering programs offered by Rice University.”

Silva says Senate approval not needed for second-round election ballot

The Student Association did not vote to approve the ballot for the second-round elections conducted from March 23 to March 28. Former SA Parliamentarian Zach Birenbaum declined to comment; the position is currently unfilled. Director of Elections Austin Cao initially said the ballot was presented at the SA meeting on March 18, with March 23 set as the deadline for finalizing the ballot. The ballot consisted of the unopposed candidate for SA Secretary Brianna Singh. Cao said the SA made announcements at multiple SA meetings encouraging candidates and announced on its Facebook page when the ballot was released. According to Cao, the elections were also publicized on the SA website.SA President Jazz Silva said the SA presented the ballot on March 18 but did not conduct a vote.“We did not vote to approve the ballot because we interpreted that the constitution said we were not required to approve [it],” Silva said. “This election received less public attention than usual because it was an uncontested race in which quorum was not required.”According to Silva, a Sid Richardson College junior, Section XII.B.4 of the constitution requires only that the Director of Elections present the ballot at Senate. This section of the constitution states: “The Director of Elections shall present the ballot for each election, including a list of all candidates for each position and the text of all initiatives and referenda approved in accordance with Article XI (Initiatives and Referenda), to the Student Senate at its last meeting before the election. After addressing any inaccuracies, the Senate may approve the ballot by a majority vote.”Former Chair of the Committee on Constitutional Revisions Brian Baran said he does not recall any discussion of the ballot on March 18. The SA minutes for the meeting also do not include any discussion of the ballot.“I therefore believe that [the discussion] did not occur,” Baran, a Duncan College senior, said.Baran said a common-sense reading consistent with the spirit of the constitution indicates Senate approval on the ballot is necessary for a legitimate election. “If you look throughout the constitution, it’s clear that the language ‘may approve by’ along with a voting threshold... is used to specify the threshold needed to approve something, not to remove the need for approval,” Baran said. “The Senate can choose to approve it if it has enough votes to meet that requirement, or its other option — hence the ‘may’ — is to not approve it. And if Senate doesn’t approve the ballot, it’s by definition not approved and can’t be used in the election.”Baran said the SA interpretation that Senate approval is not required is unreasonable considering the wording of the article and the title of the section of the constitution, “Approval of Ballot.”“To get to the SA’s interpretation, you have to accept that the drafters of the constitution would have written this and intended that it mean that there’s two options: The Senate approves it and the election goes forward with that ballot, and the Senate does not approve it and the election goes forward nonetheless with that ballot,” Baran said.Baran said he finds this to be indicative of a larger issue of a lack of transparency from the SA. “I don’t think that burying something on a website constitutes public announcement and I think it’s important, especially with elections, and on SA matters in general, for students to be informed,” Baran said. “Part of the way for students to be informed is for the SA to tell the student what it’s doing.”

Language courses reduced to three credit hours from six

The Center for Languages and Intercultural Communication recently announced that all introductory language classes will be worth three credit hours instead of six starting next semester, though they will still offer distribution credit.The move marks a reversal from the past two years, when CLIC’s introductory language classes were increased from four to five credit hours entering the 2013-14 school year, then to six credit hours in the 2014 spring semester.CLIC director Rafael Salaberry said the center made the switch to six-credit-hour classes because these classes are easier to fit into schedules based mainly on multiples of three credit hours. Also, according to Salaberry, the center hoped longer classes would also give students a greater depth of understanding of their target language. However, students expressed concern that they would not have time to take such credit-heavy classes along with their majors, despite the fact that the classes offer distribution credit.According to Salaberry, the current administration at CLIC decided that three-credit-hour classes would be more familiar and easier for students to include in their schedules, as well as making classes more accessible to students from majors with stringent requirements. Lovett College sophomore Amber Tong said the change could increase enrollment in CLIC classes. “Reduction of hours would probably encourage more people to try out language courses considering the limited hours on our schedules,” Tong said. “But as far as learning goes, this would only work if the continuing courses are also restructured to accommodate the change.” According to Tong, who is currently enrolled in Intermediate Hindi II, restructuring would be difficult. Tong said the process of becoming familiar with a new alphabet and system would not be feasible given the shorter class period.Lovett College sophomore and linguistics major Katherine Borden also believes this change will impact the thoroughness of the language learning experience. “I’m glad it was six hours when I took beginning German,” Borden said. “It was a big time commitment, but my ultimate goal is to become fluent, and I just don’t think I could accomplish that with only three hours of instruction a week.”According to Borden, it may be difficult for students to learn languages effectively under the new system, though the classes are available to more students.“Languages are heavily nuanced, and that’s something you can’t pick up on without spending a lot of time with a fluent speaker,” Borden said. “The shorter classes make the languages more accessible, but that’s in exchange for a depth of instruction that I wouldn’t want to give up.”

Rice administration faces student, faculty concerns over rising tuition

As students fret over their GPAs, they can rest assured that there is one number that will not be dropping anytime soon. Concern is growing across campus in light of the administration’s recent announcement that the cost of tuition will rise to $41,560 for the next academic year, a 4.2 percent increase from this year’s cost of $39,880. Over the last 15 years, tuition has climbed by 135 percent, with the new total cost of attendance amounting to $55,903. Brown College Student Association senator Andrew Gatherer, who is leading an initiative in response to the tuition increase, said the administration must provide more information when addressing the rising costs. “I think it would be useful to see where the increased tuition is going,” Gatherer, a freshman, said. “You don’t really see the effects of [increased tuition] in the university. We don’t really know where it goes.”Professor of earth science Jerry Dickens stated in a letter to the Thresher that the administration must clearly explain the tuition hikes, referring to Vice President of Finance Kathy Collins’ statement that the money will be used for “educating students, faculty salaries, library resources and other operational expenses.”“The Rice community, especially students and parents, deserve at least an accurate answer for the skyrocketing tuition,” Dickens said. “I think most professors at Rice would be happily amazed by anything close to a salary increase rate of 135 percent over the last 15 years.”According to Collins, however, tuition increases help cover a number of costs beyond faculty salaries. “I did not say faculty salaries have increased 135 percent over the last 15 years,” Collins said. “I explained that tuition increases help cover a number of costs, and I cited a few examples, including faculty salaries, library resources and other operational expenses.”Vision for the Second CenturyCollins said tuition increases over the past decade have helped expand resources like the Program in Writing and Communication, create new undergraduate minors, bolster academic advising and wellness services and build projects like the Moody Center for the Arts, to be unveiled in 2016. “Inspired by our strategic plan known as the Vision for the Second Century, Rice has invested in strengthening and expanding the quality and range of its educational, research, recreational and community service opportunities,” Collins said.Rice’s operating expenses increased by 129 percent from 2001 to 2014 as a result of the investment in the Vision for the Second Century, according to Collins. Three major revenue sources — endowment distribution (57 percent), net tuition revenue (26 percent) and overhead recovery on grants (5 percent)  — account for 88 percent of the revenues to support the core budget.  Keeping the Cost AffordableAccording to Collins, Rice has tried to keep the rising tuition costs affordable through financial aid and loan programs. Rice’s financial aid packages currently require no more than $2,500 a year in loans and require no loans for families making $80,000 or less in annual income. According to data from the Federal Student Aid website, the unsubsidized federal loan maximum for first-year undergraduates is $9,500.“Rice has made an effort to keep its tuition about $5,000 to $6,000 less than most of its peers while also providing a generous financial aid policy to keep Rice affordable to qualified students from all socio-economic backgrounds,” Collins said. According to Gatherer, despite these efforts, there are still issues with transparency between students and the Office of Financial Aid that he is looking to address through the SA.“A lot of students have trouble connecting with the office,” Gatherer said. “They have to speak to many people before they actually realize how much money they owe and where it’s coming from.”Shaian Mohammadian, recipient of the Beverly and Donald Bonham Scholarship, said he experienced a lack of communication with the Office of Financial Aid.“I didn’t even know there was a tuition increase, and no one from the office has notified me about anything,” Mohammadian, a Jones College freshman said. “The transparency doesn’t seem to be where it needs to be, for sure.”Gatherer said that in light of the tuition increase, students should be aware of how rising costs affect their financial aid plans. “A lot of information is available on their website, but a lot of the time, you don’t realize the specifics for you until you’ve talked to about four or five people at the office,” Gatherer said. “We want to make sure students don’t feel like they’re sinking.”Gatherer said the SA also wants to ensure that the university expands their financial aid and loan programs to accompany rising tuition costs. “It’s not really the SA’s place to complain to the university about how much tuition is,” Gatherer said. “But what the SA is doing is, we’re trying to nullify the bad effects of increasing tuition. Some people come in with so much money in scholarships, and they feel that over the four years they see that money disappear, and if not marginalized, because of the increase in tuition.”Gatherer said despite the current problems with financial aid, he is confident that the office is willing to cooperate with the SA.“I know they’re very busy dealing with all the students who need financial aid,” Gatherer said. “But they are receptive to student concerns. It’s just about having that outline and knowing how much money you’re going to pay.”

SA seeks proposal for student initiatives program

Yun said he cannot guarantee whether they will be executed following approval due to complications from involved parties, although those are easier to solve than issues with funding.“Following through with an initiative is 80 percent planning and working with campus departments and 20 percent actual implementation,” Yun said. “However, students should not be discouraged. Rice staff and faculty are all very supportive, and in the past initiatives were halted due to cost.”Yun said feasibility and timeline were the main criteria for evaluating proposal ideas. Yun said he has received ideas on a wide variety of topics, including mental health resources and physical changes to the Rice Memorial Center. “If initiatives fall in line with the mission statements of already existing standing committees, then I move them forward to work with those committee chairs,” Yun said. “If it does not and requires significant manpower, like the potential ‘Campus Appreciation Day,’ which is still in the design phase, the student will get its own committee with its own [New StudentRepresentatives].”However, Yun said he agreed publicity for the Student Initiatives Program was not as successful or far-reaching as possible. He said the SA will push for publicity again in the fall semester. Campus Appreciation DayFalade said she has centered her proposal around giving back to the Housing and Dining staff and appreciating community members who support campus beauty and sustainability. To this effect, a new Campus Appreciation Committee would plan a staff appreciation week that culminates in an “Inreach Day.”“For Inreach Day, I see a group of willing and hardworking Rice students gather as a team and tend to our campus and take on some of the responsibilities that we are otherwise never faced with here — things like taking out the trash or tidying some of the areas around campus,” Falade said. “According to Falade, the planning process is still tentative and in early steps. She said she has had full support and approval of the proposal, but understands that not everything can be executed as imagined. Falade said she first thought of the idea for Inreach Day while at the Impact Rice retreat, although she had considered the privileged nature of Rice students ever since arriving on campus.“Volunteering and community outreach might not be such a priority to a lot of students because its importance [is] lost on some of us,” Falade said. “[I thought,] ‘Charity begins at home.’ How could we foster a desire of community serve if we didn’t create that feel for the Rice campus? I believe that once we learn to give back to our immediate community, doing the same for the Houston community will come more naturally.”

Graduate school mentorship introduced

The graduate/undergraduate mentorship program that intends to facilitate interaction and mentorship among graduate and undergraduate students attracted 207 undergraduate student applicants according to Chris Sabbagh, a former Jones College senator.Once the Graduate Student Association collects applications for graduate student mentors, the Student Association Academics Committee will pair graduate and undergraduate students before the program official begins next semester, Sabbagh, a Jones College sophomore, said.“The idea is to pair at most three undergraduate students with a graduate student,” Sabbagh said. “We will be considering the location of college, hopefully keeping them at a close area. Then we will also be considering the academic specialization that they want to go into.”According to Sabbagh, there will be an introductory kickoff event for undergraduate and graduate students to socialize in next semester. The program suggests the paired students meet three times during a semester. “We don’t want people signing up for this program and having nothing come out of it,” Sabbagh said. “We are thinking of sending out follow-up surveys saying, ‘Did you meet with your graduate students,’ ‘Did you feel this was beneficial to you’ and ‘What would you like to see in future meetings.’”The program will close with a “celebratory mixer” event, recognizing the work people did for this program and the students who get into graduate school.Sabbagh said he realized that Rice lacks in certain graduate programs, such as medical schools or journalism school, so the mentorship program cannot satisfy every students’ needs.  “The goal is to ultimately utilize the [graduate programs] that will be most beneficial to undergraduate students,” Sabbagh said. “I think what we are doing is focusing on what we do have right now, seeing if that is going to be successful and then in the future expand on that.”According to Director of Academic Advising Brian Gibson, statistics show about 70 percent of students at Rice will attend professional programs within five years after they graduate. Graduate students will be a good resource for students who want to apply for graduate schools, Sabbagh said.“One [aspect of this program] is a mentorship side, which is a way for undergraduate students to talk to graduate students about advice on how to apply to graduate school and what the culture of graduate school is like,” Sabbagh said.Sabbagh said the second aspect of the program is to increase interaction among graduate and undergraduate students. The mentorship program integrates graduate students into the associates program. “So through this program, graduate students will be like associates in the sense that they will be able to eat a limited amount of free meals at the colleges,” Sabbagh said. “They will be able to attend associates nights at their colleges. This would increase the personal connection between the graduate and the undergraduate students here.”Amritha Kanakamedala, former SA external vice president, said the program was initiated by students. The idea for the program was suggested by Mitchell Massey, a Jones College senior, who has worked on this program with Kanakamedala and Sabbagh since last semester. “This program has received a lot of support from students, both undergraduate and graduate students, as well as the administration,” Kanakamedala said. “We have support from the [Office of Academic Advising], Dean Hutchison’s office, as well as from the office of Dr. Matsuda, the Dean of Graduate and Postdoctoral Students.”Sabbagh said there are more applicants than expected, as well as support from the administration that will ensure the longevity of this program.“Our hope is that we are formalizing this process so that it can happen every year,” Sabbagh said.Cassie Peretore, a Martel College junior, said she applied for the program, which she thinks would be beneficial for students who want to apply for graduate schools. “Rice has always had great resources for students on pre-med tracks or pre-law tracks,” Peretore said. “But those of us who are interested in different types of grad schools struggle a little more to find mentors. I’m really excited about this program because it’ll give me an opportunity to meet a grad student I never would have met and get valuable advice I never would’ve gotten. For those of us who applied to this program and are interested in grad school paths that are less ‘paved out,’ this will be really beneficial.”

What's hip right now

The Thresher picks the hippest stuff you should know about right now.

Confessionals give outlet for campus

A dear friend recently told me about a weekly New York Times column gaining widespread popularity. Bored and lonely last Tuesday night, I remembered the recommendation and decided to read through a few posts. Within minutes, I was immersed. “Modern Love” features reader-submitted essays about love, in all its forms and iterations. Though anyone can submit, the stories selected are well-written, moving and, most strikingly, deeply personal. For instance, “Finding Equilibrium in Seesawing Libidos” ties the familiar marriage quandary of unbalanced sexual needs into a couple’s struggles with Parkinson’s (A wife’s libido, once low, skyrockets as a result of her medication). The beauty of the piece lies in the author’s description of the pain he feels watching a loved one suffer. Similarly, “To Fall in Love with Anyone, Do This” catches reader attention with a wacky premise (Can scientists make people fall in love?) but stayed with me due to its intimate personal story about the moment when two people begin to realize their feelings for one another.“Modern Love” corresponds with a campus trend of using the written and spoken word to express deep emotions. This past March, a group of students put together “The Speak Up Project,” a documentary-theater performance in which students submitted personal narratives about sexual harassment and assault that were read aloud by actors. Anonymous confessionals “Rice Confess” and Yik Yak similarly include various posts detailing the emotional lives and personal concerns of students. The fact that these forums exist and are utilized, seen and discussed demonstrates a dual need: the desire for catharsis and the yearning for authentic connection in an exceedingly inauthentic world.I would suspect that this trend speaks to a disturbing sense of isolation among the population — particularly those who have been through trauma or have certain emotional needs. Sharing pain and confusion with new acquaintances is taboo, yet emotional release and the need for understanding is critical. Anonymity allows release without judgment. Viewing others’ stories makes one feel connected by providing reassurance that feelings and struggles are universal and legitimate. In our celebration of these mediums, however, we must be careful not to use them as total replacements for sharing with other humans. As much as they can comfort us, there is nothing comparable to intimate sharing with real people, in the flesh. Thus, I encourage students: Use anonymous outlets and read confessionals, especially if they help. At the same time, however, be open to removing the veil over your identity and pursuing authentic connection with another human being. 

BRC welcomes student exhibition

The Bioscience Research Collaborative is known as a facility strictly devoted to science. This spring, however, the building has experienced an infusion of art. Until May 2015, the BRC’s pop-up gallery will house “Not Born Yesterday,” an exhibition created and curated by Duncan College senior Lydia Smith. The show is especially notable because it is the first student exhibition ever displayed in the gallery.Smith’s work consists of three strange, textured ovals propped delicately off the wall. Smith said she has been experimenting with tyvek, a construction material used to wrap houses. She said she likes it because it is simultaneously delicate and strong. “I work with thin materials a lot; most of my work is portable and malleable,” Smith said. “I was drawn to tyvek because it’s thin, like paper, but it’s fabricated out of plastic, so it’s a very strong material and cannot rip. You can wash it; there are clothes made out of it. It lends itself to many uses.”Smith uses a process that involves burning the tyvek with a heat gun set to 500 degrees. The high temperature warps the material so it bubbles. Then, she paints and shapes it. The final product is strange and indistinct, in between a painting and a sculpture.“They’re a really big departure from anything I’ve done in the past,” Smith said. “They’re much more ambiguous, to be interpreted by the viewer in any different way. If you walk into the space, you could see them as planets or even cells under a microscope.”Smith was invited to showcase her work in the BRC by Rice Public Art. Smith said while she did not design her pieces specifically for the space, they fit together perfectly.“I’m always so excited when I see this kind of relationship between the architecture and the work,” Smith said. “The works and the space are interconnected. You could have pieces that don’t fit with a space, and it could completely ruin the exhibition even it’s great work.”Smith also curated her exhibition, drawing on experience she has gained as director of Rice’s Matchbox Gallery. She used a mock-up of the space to try out different arrangements of the pieces. She also decided to install the pieces with small rods so they hang slightly off the wall, casting shadows.“I think there’s some gravity relevant in the way they’re shown; they’re dynamic,” Smith said. “Also, there are holes in the pieces, allowing light to be involved in the work.”Smith has continued to experiment with tyvek, and will display new works along with 13 other visual and dramatic arts majors in the senior showcase on April 23 in Sewall Hall. She was also recently awarded the prestigious Watson Fellowship, which funds a year of personal exploration and study. She says she will use it to study cemeteries in six countries.“Not Born Yesterday” will be on display in the BRC pop-up gallery until May 2015.

Indian fusion soars at Pondicheri

Parts of Pondicheri’s menu seem like they could only be a breakthrough hit or a disaster. Replace the fried dough wafers in a papdi chaat with semolina crackers and you get either a healthier, hipper version of the original, or a mealy multigrain imposter.  Adding a pumpkin bun to the black garbanzo bean veggie burger could be a stroke of genius or a mark of overzealous experimentation. Luckily, the chefs at Pondicheri are serious about their fusion cooking. With influences from French bakeries to South America’s produce, Pondicheri is all about laid-back twists on Indian favorites. Though the curries and other classics can be underwhelming, the attention paid to innovations like the masala burgers and Madras chicken wings make Pondicheri well worth a visit. Known as a great breakfast spot around River Oaks, Pondicheri keeps many of its best dishes off the dinner menu. The green dosas, omelets and aloo paratha with house-made jam are all great alternatives to the diner food and breakfast tacos that form the usual Houstonian breakfast. The bake lab offers the best of Pondicheri’s French influence in its pastries. The chocolate brioche bun rolled in orange saffron sugar and the gulab jamun donut spiced with mace, cinnamon and cardamom and soaked in a cardamom-rosewater syrup highlight what may be one of the most inventive bakery menus in Houston.The lunch and dinner menus are just as inventive, but a bit uneven. Pondicheri’s strength lies in their fusion dishes. The semolina papdi chaat is as refreshing as the Indian original, and the addition of tamarind lends a sweet and spicy element to the traditionally tangy dish. The lamb mint burger, quite possibly the best item on the menu, is a delicious blend of Indian, American and French conventions. The lamb patty is served with an Indian version of pub cheese atop a brioche bun with cilantro chutney and onion masala spread. Throughout the fusion dishes, Pondicheri’s broad influences and love of casual Indian harmonize into a peculiar and wonderful homage to Indian street food. In the more traditional curries, however, some dishes miss out on Pondicheri’s anything-goes attitude. The lamb curry, served with an overabundance of parsley and drab chunks of carrot and potato, seems especially plain compared to the rest of the menu. Still, other curries like the goat kofta, which pairs spicy goat meatballs with ginger, papaya and almonds, have all the exotic allure of Pondicheri’s best cooking.An added feature of Pondicheri’s lunch and dinner experience is the smart and concise drink menu. Sangrias and shandies are served with a number of unexpected ingredients ranging from hibiscus and lavender in the sparkling rosé Whist to the ghost peppers and black salt in the Hot Stuff shandy. The Lovely Leech is a particularly elegant blend of Chardonnay, lychee, pear and apple juice available by the glass or pitcher. The eclectic wine list focuses on unoaked whites and fruity reds that pair well with the spice and earthiness of Indian cooking. The Ernest Loosen Gewurztraminer, with exotic notes of rose and lychee, and the clean and crisp Merry Edward’s Sauvignon Blanc, are both exceptional wines that pair well with a number of Pondicheri’s lighter offerings. The non-alcoholic drink menu is equally extensive and interesting. Hibiscus soda, mint lemonade, lassis and teas are all made in house and complement the food nicely.With such a comprehensive and ambitious menu, dining at Pondicheri feels far more like an experience than meals at Houston’s other causal fusion restaurants. But while it does aim higher than many of its peers, Pondicheri never feels overly formal or frustratingly hip. Instead, it is the best of both worlds: a relaxed vibe, a moderate price and food that’s fun, exciting and, above all, tasty. 

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‘The Heidi Chronicles’ falls flat

A Letter from your new Editor in Chief

Dear Readers,

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How long have you been sitting there?

RiceX prepares for first rocket launch

RiceX completed a major milestone in the form of a successful motor on March 22, a large step towards their goal of creating and launching a hybrid rocket this summer.RiceX began the year with less than $1,000 in their budget and no set goals for the year. Lovett College junior and RiceX president Sarah Hernandez said Brown College freshman Andrew Gatherer’s interest in the club helped spur their growth.“Andrew emailed me even before school started with questions about how to get involved in RiceX. The club wasn’t serious at all back then, but after getting his messages, I felt like I couldn’t let this kid down,” Hernandez said.With a keen desire to build a functioning rocket, Hernandez, Gatherer and other committed team members actively recruited members and generated interest in the club. These efforts allowed the club to expand significantly. They were able to recruit many younger undergraduate students in particular: The team consists mainly of freshmen and sophomores, alongside one junior and one senior.According to Hernandez, one of the factors limiting their success was the lack of funding for the project. To raise money, they worked to get sponsorships from outside organizations. “At certain points, students were paying with personal funds for parts to build the project in hopes that, as their project grew, it would acquire more funding,” Hernandez said.The two biggest successes of RiceX so far have been the model rocket launched about a month ago, as well as the more recent successful motor test.At their single allotted table in the Oshman Engineering Design Kitchen, members of RiceX constructed the engine. According to Gatherer, each piece of the engine was machined in house, including the nozzle, body and ejector plate. Additionally, they made the fuel out of a mixture of candle wax, rubber and nitrous oxide.“Not more than approximately 10 other universities in the nation have been able to construct a hybrid rocket motor,” Gatherer said.As members of RiceX’s avionics and aerodynamics teams work toward a launch this summer, they hope to gain greater funding from the Brown School of Engineering and outside organizations, as well as acquire a larger workspace, accoording to Gatherer. Additionally, they plan on traveling to the Intercollegiate Rocket Engineering Competition, where they will see the different kinds of rockets that other top universities around the country are developing.

Environmental studies minor to launch fall 2015

A new environmental studies minor will be available to undergraduate students next fall, according to Dominic Boyer, co-chair of the Environmental Studies Faculty Working Group. Rice currently offers several degree programs related to environmental issues: an energy and water sustainability minor, an environmental earth science track within the earth science major and an environmental studies second major. However, the second major requires students take at least thirteen 300-400 level courses, making it  difficult for students from other majors to add.Boyer, director of the Center for Energy and Environmental Research in the Human Sciences and a professor of anthropology, said there is room for a holistic environmental studies minor in Rice’s current offerings. “[The environmental studies major is] very very heavy on the science component and lighter on the humanities and social sciences component, so we kept hearing from students that these programs were all very effective in a more narrow sense, but if a student wanted to get an introduction to environmental problems more holistically and comprehensively, they were not as effective,” Boyer said.The new environmental studies minor will serve as an introduction to environmental issues for students of all majors. Boyer said the working group designed it to be interdisciplinary, with  courses from a wide variety of departments. “38 different departments and programs [teach] courses related to environment and sustainability issues, which is a lot of departments,” Boyer said. The minor will use current faculty and will not require Rice to hire, according to Boyer.To develop the minor, the working group asked for student and faculty input on current environmental studies course. Boyer said he never heard anyone oppose the idea of a more holistically conceived minor, and that both students and professors were overwhelmingly in favor of an environmental studies minor. The working group also placed questions related to the minor on the fall 2014 Survey of All Students. “When we asked if students supported forming an environmental studies minor, 61 percent said yes and about 300 students said they would have considered taking the minor had it been available to them when they started at Rice,” Boyer said.Rice Environmental Society president Ashley Ugarte said the minor was a great step for Rice. She and other students participated in the town hall meeting and showed student support for the minor.“I’m really excited. It’s great. You know something that students and the administration have been working on,” Ugarte, a Martel College senior, said. “If I could start over and take this minor, I would.”Boyer said in the past few days, six or seven students have contacted him about the minor. Seniors who have already taken the courses cross-listed in the minor and in their own degree programs need to take only the new Environment, Culture and Society (ENST 100) core course to complete the minor. Boyer said he cannot determine how many students will be taking the courses next year, but is hopeful because the numbers on the survey show there is demand for the minor. The working group consists of faculty from the schools of Architecture, Engineering, Humanities, Natural Sciences and Social Sciences.

Budde named commencement speaker

Dennis Budde, a Baker College senior, will speak about improvisation as the student convocation speaker at the commencement ceremony on May 16. “[My speech] is about improvising and making sure that you leave some room for improvisation in your life,” Budde said. “But you also need to make sure you’re sticking to your plans and working hard. … Appreciate the balance.”Budde said he plans to talk about how he discovered improvisation in college. His experience in comedy groups, particularly Rice’s Kinda Sketchy, will be a major part of his speech. “I’m in the sketch comedy group here and I joined it freshmen year,” Budde said. “The people that I met in theater are the ones who encouraged me to start doing sketch comedy, and if I had just been just trying to stick to my plan, I wouldn’t have done that – it wasn’t anything I ever thought about doing. But instead I went for it. I improvised and it turned my life around.”Budde said he has always been interested in performing and writing. One of his writing principles, “the smaller you go, the bigger your audience ends up being,” helped him decide on the content of his speech. “If you are trying to make some big blanket statement then you will just get something wrong,” Budde said. “So I decided that I’ll just talk about something that’s important to me that I’ve personally learned and hoped that it worked.”One of the messages he wants to deliver to the graduating class is the balance between planning and improvisation, Budde said. “People don’t really think about improvising in their lives so much,” Budde said. “You want to set up your five-year plan and leave no room for improvisation. Maybe what you are doing next is what you had always been planning on doing, but don’t force yourself to stick with it if it’s not what you want.”Budde said it is important to him that the audience has fun listening to his speech. “One of the problems is that commencement speeches in general don’t keep people interested,” Budde said. “With that in mind, I really tried to make [my speech] entertaining as well.”