Special Projects

Hot off the press: Authors share new works

Literary enthusiasts filed into Congregation Emanu El on Monday to hear from acclaimed authors Yiyun Li and Matthew Salesses. As part of the Inprint Margarett Root Brown Reading series, the authors came to Houston to share excerpts of their newly released novels and take part in an on-stage conversation with the University of Houston creative writing program faculty member Brenda Peynado. Both Li and Salesses shared insight on politics in their novels and finding joy in their writing.

Rice should allow more than 8% of graduate students to eat at campus serveries

Everyday, many graduate students are struggling with meals, because Rice offers very limited on-campus servery dining opportunities for them. Many students have expressed concern over this policy including Yajie Liu, a bioengineering Ph.D. student. Her day is filled with coursework, research and mentoring undergraduates in the lab. Though Yajie is on campus from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. every day, she enjoys her busy life. This semester, she applied for the graduate meal plan but failed to get selected. She is very disappointed and has to spend extra time and effort preparing affordable meals herself. The on-campus graduate meal plan is very important to student life, Ph.D. students in particular. Rice should expand the on-campus meal plans to cater to the demand of increasing graduate students.  

Bring Sunday brunch back to campus

At the very first Editorial Board meeting of this school year, the seniors on our board got on our high horses to inform the Rice community of the way things used to be done vis-a-vis selling tickets to public parties. We’ve held our tongues since then, as we can appreciate that circumstances change and growth is good. But the time has come for us to speak again, this time in support of resurrecting the greatest of all pre-COVID traditions: Sunday brunch.

Even after cold-streak, WBB’s rebuild is still ahead of schedule

Rice’s women’s basketball team got off to a ridiculous start this year. The Owls won their first nine games, their best-ever start to a season in program history. They weren’t just beating up on an easy non-conference schedule either. The Owls beat a pair of power-five teams in Texas A&M University and Texas Christian University, in addition to a win over the American Athletic Conference’s University of Houston (although admittedly all three  of those higher-profile teams are having down years).

T&F indoor season gets off to fast start at UH meet

For the first time this year, both of Rice’s track and field teams were in action on the same weekend, competing at the University of Houston’s Robert Platt Invitational. The meet was the first of the indoor season for Rice’s men’s team and the second for the women’s team, which sent a few competitors to UH the previous weekend. Five Owls took gold over the weekend, and seven others medaled.

Ashlee Austin discusses her journey from bench to brilliance

If you watched any Rice women’s basketball games in the past two years, you’ve seen No. 22 with pink highlights hitting shots and making plays. But if you saw Ashlee Austin as a freshman, you would be shocked to see the transformation that the forward from Johns Creek, Georgia has gone through: from the last seat on the bench to the face of Rice women’s basketball.

Quiet confidence: Travis Evee wants the last shot

In Rice’s Jan. 14 home victory over conference rival University of Texas at El Paso, junior guard Travis Evee took the last shot and did not miss. With seven seconds on the clock and the Miners leading by one, Evee got the inbound pass from sophomore guard/forward Cameron Sheffield, drove the length of the court, jumped off his right foot just inside the three-point line and floated the ball in. The buzzer rang, and the game ended. Evee ran to hug his coach and celebrate.

Rush Kappa Upsilon Kappa

Hanszenites talk new wing, ongoing improvements

Students began moving into the new wing of Hanszen College on Jan. 5 after supply chain shortages delayed the wing’s completion to late December from early August, as originally anticipated. 

Campus BCycle stations suspended indefinitely

All Rice University rentable bike share stations, except for the Biosciences Research Collaborative station, have been temporarily suspended as of December 2022 without a designated return date. The closures are part of a city-wide suspension of 75 of the 153 Houston BCycle stations.

Payment system revamped at Rice Coffeehouse, eliminates processing issues

Rice Coffeehouse instituted a new payment system, Revel, on Jan. 11. The move was prompted by frequent credit-card processing problems that the business experienced in previous semesters, Caitlin Lindsay, the associate director of facilities, events and student run businesses, said. 

Rice announces changes to May Commencement Ceremonies

Graduation ceremonies will now become one event for each graduating group, removing the all-student commencement ceremony generally on the second morning of graduation weekend, according to President Reginald DesRoches from a campus-wide email sent on Jan. 10.

Kamryn Sanamo, Martel senior, passes after battle with brain cancer

Kamryn Sanamo, a Martel College senior, died on Jan. 5 at the age of 21 after a battle with brain cancer. She was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor on July 9, 2021. 

Kiss quality TV goodbye: Best reality shows to hate-watch

Now that the semester has started, it’s officially time to procrastinate again. Here is a list of the best worst new reality television shows to hate-watch. Disclaimer: Once you start watching, you won’t be able to stop.

​​Review: New Netflix flick falls flat

The strongest part of “The Pale Blue Eye,” a collaboration between Netflix and director Scott Cooper, is its premise. Christian Bale plays a detective tasked with solving a murder at West Point in the 1830s. To solve the crime, he teams up with a young Edgar Allen Poe and discovers a web of occult, gothic horrors that underlie the seemingly simple academy. This concept is incredibly sharp — the film creates a backstory that informs Poe’s invention of the mystery genre and casts Bale, a proven actor, in the leading role. However, the film itself is unconfident in this premise and often feels hollow. The end result is a movie that is watchable (if a bit boring), but not nearly as special as it could be.

Review: Home Slice Pizza fires up new Houston location

One of the most amazing parts about coming to Rice and getting to meet people from all sorts of backgrounds and cultures is that you are exposed to a variety of opinions and ideas that help mold you into a more well-rounded individual. One of the most fascinating opinions that I feel people bring with them is their taste in pizza. Whether a debate between Pizza Hut and Papa John’s or New York versus Chicago, we all have opinions on how we like our pies.

Senior Spotlight: Hannah Usadi colors outside the lines

Rice owes much of its visual landscape to Hannah Usadi, whose art reaches from the end pages of the 2021-2022 Campanile to President Desroches’ holiday card and Pub merchandise. Although Usadi started drawing and painting as a child, her distinct artistic voice has emerged more recently. 

Weston Twardowski uses theatre to spotlight environmental issues

Both on and off the stage, theatre has long been a part of Weston Twardowski’s life. From professionally acting to directing shows to co-founding his own theatre company in Los Angeles, Twardowski has made his love for the stage into a living. Now the program manager of the Diluvial Houston Initiative and lecturer in theatre and environmental studies at Rice, Twardowski finds his passion for theatre and academic research intertwining with a pertinent issue — environmental justice. 

Evee beats the buzzer as MBB bests UTEP in chaotic final minute

If momentum really is as powerful a force in sports as countless armchair coaches and talking heads would claim, someone forgot to tell Rice junior guard Travis Evee. Up by five with 30 seconds to go, the Owls men’s basketball team allowed a quick basket, turned the ball over, allowed another layup, turned the ball over once more and committed a foul with six seconds remaining to give the University of Texas at El Paso a chance to take the lead with two free throws. The Miners’ Tae Hardy hit both free throws, and Rice, now trailing by one, appeared on the verge of a collapse of somewhere between normal and epic proportions. But Evee told “uncle Mo” to sit down, driving the length of the court to sink a left-handed floater as time expired to give the Owls a whiplash-inducing 83-82 win.

1-18-2023 Sports Cartoon: "Owl-American"