Special Projects

‘They weren’t afraid of the stage’: Owls fall 70-60 to LSU in close March Madness opener

In an arena with more than double the capacity of Tudor Fieldhouse, Rice women’s basketball forward Malia Fisher admitted that at one point the Pete Maravich Assembly Center in Baton Rouge, La.,  was so loud she couldn’t hear herself think. “It was a different environment, but you get used to it fast and then you just kind of acknowledge it and put it out of your mind,” Fisher, a junior, said. “That's what we did.”

Rob Lanier named men’s basketball head coach

Less than two weeks after parting ways with head coach Scott Pera, Rice Athletics announced they have hired Rob Lanier as the program’s 26th head coach. Lanier was previously the head basketball coach at Southern Methodist University, a position he was dismissed from three days ago, on March 21. 

RUPD investigates three separate incidents of assault across campus

A male suspect followed a student into Will Rice College Feb. 21 and entered a student’s unlocked room while she was sleeping, according to Clemente Rodriguez, Rice University Police Department chief of police. When she woke up, she found him touching her leg. The student reported the incident to RUPD.

BRC Express shuttle expands to off-campus population

Rice is piloting three shuttles that will transport undergraduate and graduate students to high-density residential areas off-campus free of charge starting March 18. The three lines will expand the BioScience Research Collaborative Express route to South Braeswood residential areas, the Rice Graduate Apartment shuttle for students living north of Hermann Park and the Rice Village shuttle for the North Bissonnet area. Currently, only the BRC Express route has been expanded. All routes are available on the apps TransLoc and Ride Systems.

Hayon, Dyson make waves at NCAA Championships

Junior Arielle Hayon and sophomore Ella Dyson represented the Rice swim team at the NCAA Championships in Athens, Ga., this past week from March 20-23. The two swimmers competed in five events.

03-27-2024 Crossword Solutions

03-27-2024 Crossword: "Miss Americana"

Connections: March 27, 2024

03-27-2024 Owl-American

UFL Roughnecks discount tickets for Rice students, faculty

The Houston Roughnecks, one of eight teams in the newly-merged United Football League, begin their inaugural season at Rice Stadium on Sunday afternoon. Standard tickets start at $22 for the public but are available for university students and faculty at $10. 

Men’s and Women’s T&F finish strongly at Victor Lopez Classic

Last weekend, the women’s track and field team hosted the 41st Victor Lopez Classic track meet at Rice’s own Wendel D. Ley Track. Following the high school division of the competition, the men’s and women’s collegiate track teams started their events on Friday, March 22, and competed through March 23. The Rice men’s team posted 14 podium finishes with four event titles while the women’s squad finished the meet with 12 top-three performances and another four event titles.

Review: Matt Champion navigates love and other intimacies in ‘Mika’s Laundry’

The end of the “best boy band since One Direction” (i.e., BROCKHAMPTON) was especially sad for the insufferable people who spammed their songs in high school, but equally exciting as it inevitably presented the opportunity for solo projects. Among the prospective solo projects, perhaps the most exciting — for me, anyway — was that of the former-collective member, Matt Champion.  

Review: Waxahatchee gives all growl, no bite in ‘Tigers Blood’

Indie darling Waxahatchee first earned her country stripes on “Saint Cloud,” a resounding critical favorite of 2020. Her sixth studio album, “Tigers Blood,” fixes up new folktales of heartbreak in the same genre-defying signature. 

Review: ‘TYLA’ is a refreshing, self-assured debut

At 22 years old, singer Tyla has already seen a level of success most musicians can only dream of. In the past year, she’s had her viral, platinum-certified hit “Water” top the Billboard U.S. Afrobeats Songs chart, collaborated with Travis Scott and Summer Walker and won the first-ever Grammy for Best African Music Performance. 

Review: ‘Deeper Well’ is a melodic journey of self-reflection

Kacey Musgraves is one of the most innovative singer-songwriters within the country genre, a quality that’s been evident since she released her debut album, “Same Trailer, Different Park,” 11 years ago. Musgraves’s latest record, “Deeper Well,” melds the star’s signature country stylings with folk, resulting in a stellar collection of 14 tracks that are packed with thoughtfulness and nostalgia.

Review: On ‘Bright Future,’ Big Thief’s Adrianne Lenker remains powerfully optimistic

While indie folk-indie rock group Big Thief has consistently dropped passionately bittersweet and critically acclaimed work since their 2016 debut “Masterpiece,” the band reached their career high in 2022 with “Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You,” which stands as one of the most celebrated albums of the decade so far. Adrianne Lenker, Big Thief’s lead vocalist, has had no shortage of success herself, with her previous album “Songs” appearing in the year-end top 10 albums list of many major publications. While Big Thief tracks like “Not” and “Little Things” can be noisy and dense, Lenker’s solo work is reliably soothing yet simultaneously heartbreaking. 

Female-directed films to look out for in 2024

Female filmmakers have been innovating since the era of silent film in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. However, the 1934 establishment of the Hays Code — a set of guidelines for Hollywood films from the 1930s to 1960s that censored content deemed offensive — played a major role in stifling women’s creative say in the film industry. With Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” becoming the highest-grossing film in the states and worldwide, 2023 was a landmark year for female directors in Hollywood and signifies an ever-changing landscape of female film direction. In honor of Women’s History Month, here are some new or upcoming female-directed films that represent the variety, innovation and artistic verve that women have imbued into the film canon.

Now is the time to understand religious diversity and discrimination at Rice

In the midst of a nationwide increase in religious discrimination and hostility, particularly following the events of Oct. 7 in Israel and ensuing humanitarian crisis in Gaza, there is a need to examine how Rice University students have been impacted, how they are responding and the degree to which religious tolerance, religious accommodations, and perceptions of religious discrimination at Rice have changed. 

We need to diversify Rice’s foodscape

Rice students have lots to say about access to food while on and around campus.  Rice’s unique foodscape lives and breathes the school’s motto of unconventional wisdom by helping accommodate a diverse group of students.  But to a certain extent, it could benefit from a taste of conventional wisdom.  Implementing other universities’ foodscape features at Rice would benefit our students.

Practice safe drinking post-Prohibition

Dean of Undergraduates Bridget Gorman finally released the long-awaited Alcohol Policy Advisory Committee’s recommendations regarding the alcohol policy on March 22. We have to be honest — it could have been much worse.