Special Projects

Crosthwait’s career-high leads women’s basketball past UTSA

The Rice women’s basketball team came back from an 11-point deficit in the second quarter to defeat the University of Texas at San Antonio on Monday night by a score of 78-76. Their second straight win against Conference USA opponents, the Owls are now 3-4 in conference play and have a 12-4 record overall. The Owls were led offensively by senior guard Katelyn Crosthwait, who scored a career-high 23 points against the Roadrunners while also tying the school record for threes scored in a game with seven.

Swimming sweeps SMU meet in preview of new-look AAC

Over the weekend, the Rice swim team traveled to Dallas for their first meet of 2023 against three American Athletic Conference foes. Across the two days of competition, the Owls swept the meet, defeating Tulane University 247-68, the University of North Texas 254-93 and Southern Methodist University 171.5-161.5. Following the sweep, head coach Seth Huston was really pleased with how hard the team fought.

Owls run past the hedges, into Houston

The Chevron Houston Marathon, Houston’s annual marathon hosted every January, took place on Jan. 14 and 15 this past weekend. Rice students, faculty and even president alike took part, running anywhere from 3.1 to a whopping 26.2 miles.

Oh nori they didn’t: Lovetteers try for sushi world record

It’s a frequent joke that Rice students never travel beyond the hedges of campus. But a group of students at Lovett College are trying to change this stereotype with a single sushi roll. Lovett’s sushi committee, founded by Resident Associate Naoko Ozaki during the 2021-2022 academic year, has two objectives: break a world record for the longest sushi roll and use the event as a catalyst for local outreach. 

Guggenheim Fellow Tomás Q. Morín on music, inspiration

Poet and assistant creative writing professor Tomás Q. Morín does not like musicals. “I’ve never liked the movie ‘The Sound of Music.’ That was one of the first [musicals] that I really intensely disliked,” Morín said. “As an adult, when I discovered [jazz saxophonist John] Coltrane’s version of ‘My Favorite Things,’ it just completely blew my mind, and while it didn’t change my feelings about the movie, it definitely changed my feelings about the song.” 

Behind closed doors: FLI students navigate SSI resources

How does a school ranked No. 1 for both its race/class interaction and quality of life provide resources for students experiencing financial, academic or personal burdens? The Office of Student Success Initiatives, and by extension Rice’s resources for first generation and/ or low-income students, runs largely through word of mouth, according to director Araceli Lopez.

The RMC needs to reread their mission statement

We reported at the end of last week that popular late-night food spots YoYo’s Hot Dog and Oh My Gogi are being forced out of Rice Village by the end of the month. Justifiably, Rice students and the local community were outraged — a petition to the Rice Management Company titled “Save Yoyos and Oh My Gogi” has over 4,500 signatures as of publication.

Too many people are comfortable with their fatphobia

On Dec. 21, the following message was posted on Fizz:  “Fat people are disgusting and I’m tired of people like you sugar coating it saying it’s ok. If you don’t want to be disgusting eat healthier and go to the gym. Yes of course some people will have it harder than others but that’s life, that doesn’t mean you get to hide under your ‘genetics’ and pretend you don’t look disgusting when you’re clearly obese and unhealthy.” 

Rice needs more streamlined democracy and less Ed. Board tabloidism

Last week, I quit my role as Student Association director of elections because I need to take more time for music and academia this semester, but there are two additional reasons I left the position relevant to campus politics that I want to share.

Backpage Reports on More of the Latest Campus Scandals

Temporary power outage impacts campus, smoke forces evacuation at McMurtry

Power outages affected nearly all of the Rice campus on Saturday afternoon, with reports of outages starting around 3:30 p.m. According to Jeff Falk, interim vice president for public affairs, electricians are working to restore power and the Crisis Management team has been activated. At the time of publication, power has returned to parts of campus.

RMC terminates leases for YoYo’s, Oh My Gogi

On Dec. 27, 2022, Rice Management Company notified YoYo’s Hot Dog and Oh My Gogi their leases to operate in Rice Village will be terminated effective Jan. 31, 2023, according to an email obtained by the Thresher.

Student workers discuss job conditions on campus

Student workers are everywhere on campus. Rice undergraduates run O-Week, play a role in academic advising, manage large residential college budgets, work for the athletic department and more. What conditions do these student workers face?

1-11-2023 Crossword: "Back to School"

1-11-2023 Crossword Solutions

Rice adds 486 students to the Class of 2027 through ED

With a 15.2% acceptance rate, Rice admitted 486 new students — 417 through Early Decision and 69 through the Questbridge National College Match program — to the Class of 2027 on Dec. 14. These students were selected from a pool of 2,743 applicants, which is the highest number of applications to date for the Early Decision round, according to Vice President of Enrollment Yvonne Romero da Silva. 

Inked: Exploring the stories behind student tattoos

The letter ‘Oht,’ a runic character and video game logo, is emblazoned on Felicity Phelan’s inner wrist. It was their first tattoo, Phelan said. “‘Oblivion’ was the first ‘real’ video game I ever played, and the ‘Elder Scrolls’ series is one of my favorites,” Phelan said. “In the game, there are these portals you go through, and the logo is the shape of one of those portals. Since ‘Oblivion’ was my first video game, I think of it as my ‘portal’ into the world of video games and thought it was fitting for a first tattoo.”

Owls fly high: Students talk work on Artemis missions

It’s a bird. It’s a plane. It’s Artemis. Artemis 1, NASA’s first mission in a series of lunar exploration trips, launched in November 2022. Perhaps you saw some of your Rice peers’ handiwork — as Rice and NASA continue to collaborate, several Rice students are able to contribute to the Artemis missions through the Johnson Space Center’s Pathways Program.

Looking back at Rice’s first year of Gulf Scholars Program

From sewer overflows to environmental resilience toolkits, Rice students are becoming better equipped to handle an ongoing climate crisis. The Gulf Scholars Program at Rice is supported by the National Academies Gulf Research Program, which provides support for similar programming at universities in the Gulf of Mexico region. The environmental studies program specializes in action related to local-level challenges faced by communities in the Gulf of Mexico region. According to the program website, participants will address challenges in areas of community health and resilience, environmental protection and offshore energy safety.

JT Daniels’ transfer highlights Bloomgren’s best asset: his ambition

A year and a half ago, in an interview, Rice’s head football coach Mike Bloomgren told me about his proudest memory from his days as Stanford University offensive coordinator. On the back of a New Year’s Day 45-16 thrashing of the University of Iowa in the Rose Bowl, the Cardinal ended the season ranked No. 3 in the country. Bloomgren thought that ranking was significant since Stanford had also cracked the top-four in that year’s U.S. News and World Report college rankings, meaning that his players had gotten the rare chance to play for a world-class football team while receiving a world-class education.