The Rice Thresher | Wednesday, January 28, 2015

LoL: Not a laughing matter

The campus beyond campus

League of Legends builds sportslike communities through gaming, resists gamer stereotypes see A&E p. 6

INSIDE

Super B[owl]

Explore the campus of the Menil Collection and let it inform how you approach the Rice campus see Ops p. 5

Former Rice football Luke Wilson talks about the thrill of playing in his second-straight Super Bowl and the future of Rice football See Sports p. 11

Students may see records, but at Rice, admission process remains a mystery See P. 3

student-run

volume 99, issue no. 16

since 1916

wednesday, january 28, 2015

Class size growth prompts concerns

SA GENERAL ELECTIONS TIMELINE

2014 Feb 15th

Election results announced; McMurtry College junior Trent Navran wins SA President.

2015

JAN

17th

Jones College Senator Clinton Willbanks and Lovett College Senator Christian Neal submit a petition to UCourt contesting the validity of the election. It outlines four alleged violations: ability of individuals with ineligible NetIDs to cast a ballot, exclusion of Martel College senior Denis Leahy from the ballot, closed-door meetings of the Election Committee to discuss voting issues and collaboration between the SA Executive Committee and the SA Election Committee.

23rd

Petitions, campaign statements and optional picture due

28th

Ballot introduced to the Senate.

FEB

27th - Feb 3rd

Confirmation of candidate eligibility

4th

Mandatory Candidate Meeting, Campaign videos due & Ballot approved by Senate.

5th - 13th

Campaigning period

28th

Mar 1st

Election packets available @ sa.rice.edu

26th

UCourt partially invalidates the elections based on the petition’s first two allegations, but denies the latter two claims. Martel College junior Ravi Sheth begins write-in campaign for SA president.

Re-election via Qualtrics, merged with previously scheduled SA IVP Elections, ends.

Jan 19th

9th-13th

MAR

Ravi Sheth announced as SA President.

SA Presidential debate (9th); Voting period

17th

Election results announced.

SA revamps election timeline, voting Amber Tong

Thresher Staff

The 2015 General Elections have officially begun and according to Director of Elections Austin Cao, they will be conducted through an improved version of Owlection, a program that contributed to the partial invalidation of last year’s elections.

Positions to be contested are the Student Association Executive Board and Blanket Tax organization leadership, including Rice Student Volunteer Program, Honor Council, University Court, Rice Program Council, Campanile, Thresher, KTRU, RTV and Sammy the Owl. In the first-round elections of 2014, two candidates, Lovett College junior Min Ji Kim and McMur-

try College senior Trent Navran ran for the SA presidency. Navran gained the most votes in the election, but it was found that a loophole in the Owlection system permitted alumni to vote.

“Last year in the first round of elections, we allowed all Rice students who had a NetID to vote in the general elections,” Cao, a Hanszen College freshman, said.

“We discovered last year that there were alumni who voted, so we had to redo the elections.”

Two SA senators filed a petition to contest the results, citing this issue as one of their four claims.

University Court acknowledged the validity of two of the four filed complaints and partially invalidated the outcome of the presidential

election. Consequently, a re-run of the entire elections was held via Qualtrics as opposed to Owlection.

We don’t want to rely on third-party software anymore.

Austin Cao Director of Elections

Ravi Sheth, the current SA President, ran as a write-in candidate in this second round and won; Ravi

then appointed Navran as the SA executive vice president. In addition, three candidates began running for the position of SA internal vice president in the second round, when none had run in the first round; Hanszen College sophomore Sai Chilakapati won the position. The election re-run also saw a greater turnout than in the first time it was held, although several candidates were afraid a 20 percent quorum would not be reached. In light of the invalidation of firstround elections results last year, Cao said this loophole has been corrected.

According to Cao, the Election Committee will again utilize Owlection, a webapp developed by 7890see ELECTION, page 2

Jieya Wen

Thresher Staff

The size of Rice University’s student body has increased by 36 percent over the last 12 years as called for by President David Leebron’s Vision for the Second Century; however, the growth has prompted some students and faculty to express concerns about class sizes. According to Leebron and Dean of Undergraduates John Hutchinson, the administration has addressed this by hiring more faculty and looking further into optimal class sizes.

Student body changes “The goal of the university [was] to increase to a target [of] around 3,800 students,” Hutchinson said. “It was a planned growth ... [We’ve] plateaued now. This year’s enrollment is smaller than last year’s enrollment.”

Hutchinson said there has been a rapid change in the range of studies students are interested in, which has led to a sudden increase in demand for certain classes.

The university has responded to this change but not fast enough, Hutchinson said.

“Because we have tenured faculty, it takes a while to be able to adjust to the shifts in [student] demands,” Hutchinson said. “We have recognized there are some problems in some areas that have caused less than satisfactory experiences.

Among the things we have done is to identify the areas that have strategic need to make sure we can reduce class sizes in areas that have gotten very large.”

According to Rice University President David Leebron, the number of engineering students, social science students and pre-med students has increased significantly well beyond the amount of the general expansion of the student body.

Leebron said the university has devised both long-term and shortterm solutions to accommodate the change in student interest.

“The short term, which we have already begun implementing, is to provide some funds to go out and hire additional instructors immediately in these areas,” Leebron said. “In economics, for example, we’ve also made long-term decisions, which [are] to expand the size of the department and recruit additional people.”

Class sizes Algorithmic Thinking (COMP 182) is one of the classes that has rapidly increased in size over the past three years. The undergraduate enrollment has increased from 94 in spring 2013 to 144 this semester, according to data from the Rice University Office of the Registrar’s website.

7890see GROWING, page 4

2

NEWS

the Rice Thresher

Wednesday, January 28, 2015

0ELECTION FROM PAGE 1 Rice Apps, in the voting process. Cao said Owlection now has built-in functionalities that will restrict the pool of eligible voters to the currently enrollwed undergraduate population.

“Our solution now is to get a list of all the current undergraduates from the Registrar first,” Cao said. “We’re now able to limit voting to that specified list of Rice undergraduates.”

According to Cao, this year marks the beginning of a move toward the full adoption of Owlections, which shows support of Rice student initiatives.

“In terms of the voting system itself, we don’t want to rely on third-party software anymore,” Cao said. “We want to continue using Owlections, which was created by Rice students, and continue to support them and help them make it more stable.”

In addition, Cao said a webapp is currently under development so that, in the near future, candidates may turn in electronic rather than paper copies of their petitions. According to Cao, online submission could potentially become available in time for the second-round elections.

“Our Director of Technology, Xilin Liu, has been developing a webapp for submitting petitions,” Cao said. “That way we can guarantee that people are getting the right number of signatures, that there aren’t repeats and that petitions don’t get lost in the process of turning them in.”

Along with its decision to invalidate first-round election results, in a letter written last year, UCourt also emphasized the importance of publicizing meetings held by the Election Committee. Two of the petition statements that were not validated by UCourt were concerned with Cao said the Election Committee will remain transparent throughout the process.

“All of our meetings are open to the public,” Cao said. “We’ll announce it on the SA website. [If anyone] wants to come join … they can definitely stop by.”

Yik Yak as Community Organizer

marcel merwin/thresher

Baker College junior Sylvia Omozee and Lovett College senior Gabe Breternitz cheer in front of Lovett Hall in protest of Dean of Undergraduates John Hutchinson canceling Cheer Battle following a call-to-arms on Yik Yak.

THE RICE THRESHER WEBEDITOR WANTED å 0XVW KDYH VRPH NQRZOHGJH RI FRQWHQW PDQDJHPHQW V\VWHP å :LOO ZRUN ZLWK HGLWRUV WR GHYHORS RQOLQH RQO\ FRQWHQW å :LOO EH UHVSRQVLEOH IRU PDLQWDLQ LQJ ULFHWKUHVKHU RUJ DQG DOO 7KUHVKHU VRFLDO PHGLD DFFRXQWV

For more information, e-mail thresher@rice.edu

ricethresher.org

Wednesday, January 28, 2015

FERPA records requests reveal little Drew Keller

Assistant News Editor

Rice University students hoping to gain access to admissions records through a 40-year-old federal law may not find the revealing information they expect, according to Director of Admissions Dan Warner.

A website started by Stanford University students, the Fountain Hopper, recently piqued interest in accessing admissions records by publicizing the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act and urging Stanford students to request their records. This 1974 law, known as FERPA, allows students to request access to their admissions records at any university receiving federal funding, but has rarely been used for this purpose historically. Warner said he had not received any FERPA requests at Rice until the Fountain Hopper published its article; since then, the admissions office has received around a dozen.

“The law has been in place for 40 years,” Warner said. “I’ve been in admissions for 25 years, and it’s been 20 years since I’ve gotten a FERPA request at any of the schools where I’ve worked. So it’s not a usual thing.”

By law, the university has 45 days after a request to comply and provide the students with their records. The information provided depends on the department from which it is requested; for example, a student would receive different information from the registrar’s office or the admissions office.

“Different offices retain different information at the same institution, and the same office might retain different information at different institutions,” Warner said. “We might, for example, keep different information on file permanently [from] Stanford.”

According to Warner, the admissions office does not keep most of the records used during the consideration process, including teacher recommendations, internal notes and almost all material authored by the student.

“It’s interesting for students to exercise [their FERPA] rights,” Warner said. “Frankly, it’s a nice professional development opportunity for my staff – but at the same time, there’s not a whole lot of information of the nature I suspect students are wanting.”

Warner said the admissions office does keep demographic information such as name and address, as well as test scores, while the registrar’s office also retains students’ high school transcripts and test scores. Additionally, the admissions office keeps records of messages sent out to prospective students, including whether messages have been opened by students, according to Warner.

“We can do some analysis on how many messages were opened, how many students actually came, so we can assess the efficacy of different messages and our process,” Warner said.

Warner also said the office keeps certain pieces of information about matriculated students to generate a profile of the incoming class for publicity, with information such as the number of class presidents or students involved in community service.

“We aggregate that information,” Warner said. “[But] there’s really not any need for [most records]. Once a student is admitted and matriculating to Rice, we don’t have a need to keep [the information].”

According to Warner, students wishing to see records must submit a request to a particular office. The admissions office is developing a process to provide information to students.

“We’re not going to get 1,000 requests like Stanford has gotten, but we obviously want to facilitate multiple requests,” Warner said.

Under the new system, Warner said the admissions office would likely schedule appointments during which they would show students their electronic records. However, the office is not required to and will not provide a hard copy, partially to protect the proprietary software used to organize student information. According to Warner, students who made information requests should receive a response from the admissions office detailing next steps sometime in the coming week.

Warner said the increased attention to FERPA requests will not have any effect on the practices of the admissions office in the future.

“We’re still going to ask for the same information we asked for in the past,” Warner said. “Every year we try to improve on what we do but it’s largely going to be the same.”

the Rice Thresher

NEWS

3

‘Green dorm’ promotes students’ roles in environmental sustanibility Drew Keller

Assistant News Editor

The Rice University EcoRep Program is preparing for the February launch of the Green Dorm Initiative 2015, its biggest annual event, with hopes of educating Rice students about environmentally sustainable living through a contest designed to increase interactivity compared to past years.

The Rice EcoRep Program, which includes members of all residential colleges, implemented the first GDI in 2011 as a means of gathering more information about the environmental habits of the student body. This year, however, the GDI has expanded to include more of an emphasis on sharing information on sustainability with students, according to Head EcoRep Zach Bielak.

“This year, the structure of the competition has changed massively,” Bielak, a Sid Richardson College senior, said. “We took a step back and re-examined the purpose of GDI, and we decided to make it more focused on teaching students new things every day and also getting them to carry it through in their daily lives.”

GDI 2015 focuses on three themes: Energy and Water, Wellbeing, and Waste. Each theme lasts one week and includes specific daily activities to complete. Participants can win prizes based on their involvement with the program. Bielak said the activities are no longer simply based on recording energy and water usage.

“We are not really concerned just with dorm life anymore,” Bielak said. “We are focused on greener lifestyles in general, lifestyles that reach beyond just living spaces.

We have days that are focused on biking to places, on building community and on getting outside.”

EcoRep Lindsy Pang, a Martel College junior, said the daily activities are designed to

encourage sustainable practices without taking up much of students’ time.

“Sustainable living is easy,” Pang said. “It is all about paying attention to what you do and creating new habits. They say it takes 21 days to develop a new habit. GDI helps with this by making the process educational, fun and interactive.”

[Sustainable living] is all about paying attention to what you do and creating new habits.

GDI helps by making the process educational, fun and interactive.

Lindsy Pang Martel College EcoRep

Bielak also said the GDI hopes to promote lifestyle changes, which would have a lasting impact beyond the three weeks of activities.

“Our sole goal in hosting [GDI] is to get participants to start critically examining their lifestyles and behaviors and perhaps start to change them,” Bielak said. “There are so many irresponsible and wasteful actions that we commit every day without even thinking about it, and we [hope] that GDI

will start shedding some light on these actions and issues.”

Richard Johnson, the director of the Administrative Center for Sustainability and Energy Management, said the GDI has the potential to not only improve environmentally friendly practices at Rice, but also to inspire students to pursue sustainable research and careers.

“I’ve not met a Rice student who isn’t interested in the betterment of the world,” Johnson said. “The GDI will give students an easy way that they can pursue this from an environmental perspective.”

According to Bielak, the EcoReps’ goal is to have 500 students involved in this year’s program, which would mark an increase from last year’s total number of participants.

Students have until Jan. 31 to sign up for GDI online, after which the contests begin.

“We believe that this year will be the best yet,” Bielak said. “I think the change of structure will get more people involved on a daily basis and will also retain the interest of people who have done GDI in the past by giving them new things to think about.”

Johnson emphasized the collective nature of this year’s GDI as one of its most important attributes.

“It will foster a shared culture of sustainability on campus,” Johnson said. “It’s not just an individual activity; it’s also a community activity, a shared experience.”

Brown College freshman Radhika Sharma said the community aspect of the GDI drew her to the program.

“What really appeals to me is the opportunity to participate in an activity with a bunch of friends and like-minded people who want to support environmental causes,” Sharma said. “[The GDI is] a chance to work for a common cause that is important to our collective values – sustainability [and] the environment.”

4

NEWS

Wednesday, January 28, 2015

the Rice Thresher

CHEM 121 course enrollment

Course enrollment over the years

450 400

SOCI 101

students

328

COMP 140

300

COMP 182

275

250

COMP 430 ENGL 200

200

191

150

91

100

122

53

50

0

109

150 148

35 Spring 2007

29

17 Fall 2007

Spring 2008

students in each section

CHEM 121

350

Fall 2008

Spring 2009

Fall 2009

Spring 2010

Fall 2010

Spring 2011

Fall 2011

Spring 2012

Fall 2012

Spring 2013

Fall 2013

Spring 2014

Fall 2014

Spring 2015

* Enrollment numbers were summed for courses with multiple sessions.

0GROWING FROM PAGE 1 COMP 182 professor Luay Nakhleh said the increase in the size of the class has had a negative influence on the teaching experience because there are not enough interactions between the instructor and the students in a bigger class. “[Smaller classes are] not about [being] easier [to teach],” Nakhleh said. “It’s about the learning experience for the students. How much attention we can give to the students and the quality of material we can deliver to the students is necessarily decreasing. I looked at, for example, last year’s course evaluations. Many students were saying that the size of the class is a problem. Even the students are seeing it.”

According to Nakhleh, the instructors share the burden of increasing class sizes by having to provide more sections of the same course. COMP 182 has two lecture sections this semester.

“This semester, for example, I am teaching, instead of twice, four times a week,” Nakhleh said. “This comes at the expense of me doing research and meeting with my research group.

So this is another way we are suffering.”

According to Leebron, a larger class size may not necessarily be less effective than a smaller class size, depending on the structure of the course and the faculty.

“With today’s technology … you might want to use a flipped classroom, [or you] might want to have smaller sections,” Leebron said. “It isn’t every class you want to reduce to 50 ... If you put more people teaching basic chemistry classes, that takes those people away from running advanced chemistry classes that might be smaller. So it’s a

question of how you allocate the faculty to achieve the best possible overall educational experience for the students.”

Nakhleh said he believes there are not enough faculty members in the computer science department.

“Except for [California Institute of Technology], we are the smallest in the top 20 [computer science departments in the nation],” Nakhleh said. “We have 18 faculty members. This is a core issue here. We are extremely happy that students are interested in computer science. We are extremely happy to be teaching courses, but we need help. We need tenuretrack faculty members to be here.”

Teaching methods Baker College sophomore Anna Ng took Comparative Political Behavior (POLI 358) with Amalia Mena-Mora, a professor from the University of Houston, in fall 2014. Ng said Mena-Mora benefited from having a class size of only two students.

“She was really analytical in reading the course material and asked us tons of questions regarding the details and logic of the articles that we read,” Ng said. “We felt really comfortable [asking] questions and [making] comments, and I think that’s especially good for international students majoring in humanities and social sciences.”

Hutchinson said one of the ways Rice maintains an interactive learning experience in large classes is through the Student Centered Active Learning At Rice teaching technique. General Chemistry 1 (CHEM 121) employs the SCALAR method.

“We put students in small groups and had the instructor lead the discussion and challenge the students to work together, while also hiring TAs to circulate through the class,” Hutchinson said. “Would [SCALAR provide an] experience that felt like a smaller

class experience and give the student the active learning that you might have in a smaller class? All the preliminary data tell us that the answer to that question is yes.”

Faculty trends As the student body increased, the number of faculty also increased to maintain the student-faculty ratio, Hutchinson said. However, the undergraduate student-faculty ratio has gone up from 5.7 in academic year 2011 to 6.2 in academic year 2014, according to the Office of Institutional Research website.

“It is the case that the [faculty has] actually grown,” Hutchinson said. “The data shows that the student-faculty ratio has gone up about 10 percent. The student-faculty ratio isn’t the issue. Where people feel the increase in enrollment is in class sizes.”

Data from the Office of Institutional Research shows the number of tenured and tenure-track faculty has grown from 477 to 522, a 9.4 percent increase, since 2004, while the number of non-tenure-track and research faculty has increased by five times from 61 to 320.

Hutchinson said hiring non-tenure-track faculty is a way for the university to respond to changes in student demand.

“If every member of the faculty is tenured in their particular field and there is a sudden shift of student interest on campus, we wouldn’t be able to respond to it,” Hutchinson said. “[Non-tenured professors] also give us the ability to hire faculty whose focus is really on teaching and who want to be outstanding teachers.”

Jenna Netland, an undergraduate teaching assistant for Computational Thinking (COMP 140) in fall 2014 and fall 2013, said it is difficult to find suitable classrooms for larger classes. COMP 140 uses the flipped classroom teaching technique, in which the students watch videos online prior to class and com-

plete practice work in class.

“I think Rice has been running out of the rooms that have the correct size,” Netland, a Martel College junior, said. “Especially for teachers trying the flipped classroom, there are very limited resources available.”

Growing pains The university has been using some college commons as classrooms for SCALAR classes. Introduction to Sociology (SOCI 101), which has an enrollment of 150 students, is taught in the Lovett College commons.

According to Hutchinson, the use of the Lovett College commons is a mutual agreement between the leadership of Lovett College and the university. Under the agreement, the university can plan classes in the commons only at certain times. The university spent over $200,000 dollars to outfit Lovett commons with a projector, a screen system and a computer system.

McMurtry College sophomore Sejeong Park, who is taking SOCI 101 this semester, said having classes in a college commons can be very distracting.

“Sometimes people [go] downstairs to get food late and our class is at 10 [a.m.], so some people eat [at the commons],” Park said. “Also, some of the people who work at the servery were eating at the area right next to the commons so my professor [had] to talk to them and quiet them down.”

Baker College sophomore Kat Sofjan, who is also taking SOCI 101, said the casual feeling of a college commons makes it a bit harder for students to get into a learning mode.

“In the Lovett commons especially it’s sometimes hard to find a seat where you can actually see what the teacher is presenting,” Sofjan said. “One plus is that it allows Dr. Werth to walk around and interact with us, which adds a lot to the class.”

Kinder Institute expands to campus-wide think tank on urban research, community engagement Aparna Narendrula For the Thresher

The Kinder Institute for Urban Research is currently in the process of transitioning from being a part of Rice University’s School of Social Sciences to being a multidisciplinary campus-wide think tank, like the Baker Institute, according to Director of the Kinder Institute Bill Fulton. The institute was founded four years ago by professors Stephen L. Klineberg and Michael O. Emerson of the department of sociology.

“The Kinder Institute is designed to use the resources on the Rice campus to do research into urban issues [and] issues of cities, particularly Houston,” Fulton said. “[The institute] then finds ways to work with politicians, civic organizations, private business and so forth to try to take the solutions to those urban challenges out into the real world and try to implement them and see whether they work.”

Currently located in Sewall Hall, the expansion involves collaboration with the School of Architecture and the departments of civil engineering and computer science, among other disciplines. Fulton said the Kinder Institute will now broaden its approach to solving ur-

ban issues in order to achieve more visibility and a wider-reaching practical impact.

“Certain aspects of its [past research] have had a very important impact. Professor Klineberg’s survey … has had a very important impact helping people in Houston understand what the city really is today,” Fulton explains.

“Thirty years ago Houston was almost entirely white; today it is 45 percent Latino. It’s very multi-ethnic. There are various issues associated particularly with educational attainment of non-whites, so the Houston area survey has highlighted that.”

The survey quantifies Houston area residents’ attitudes and beliefs in response to changes in the area. The institute aims to share the information found from the annual survey with scholars, leaders and the public.

In the past, the Kinder Institute also worked on projects such as the Houston Education Research Consortium, through which scholars work with the Houston Independent School District to help administrators understand the effect of their programming.

Fulton said he hopes for a future of collaboration between Rice’s two think tanks. Allen Matusow, academic director of the Baker Institute, also serves on the advisory board

of the Kinder Institute. According to Fulton, the Kinder Institute emphasizes quantitative research, unlike the Baker Institute, although future plans involve more policy analysis.

Houston is going to take its place as one of America’s and the world’s greatest cities.

Bill Fulton Director of the Kinder Institute

“The Baker Institute, as you may know, focuses largely on national and international issues. But we are beginning to talk about

what the overlap is,” Fulton said. “The Baker Institute does very good work on health policy, for example. We do work on urban health here, particularly health in the urban areas.

And so we are currently trying to identify areas of collaboration [between] local city and metropolis [analysis and their] state national and international stuff, so there will be some overlap and we are trying to identify how we do that.”

For now, the 4-year-old institute will remain housed primarily in the basement of Sewall Hall. Fulton is thinking about future research on education, health and strengthening the global cities program. Fulton said he is particularly interested in the growth of the Houston region.

“Houston is going to take its place as one of America’s and the world’s greatest cities,” Fulton said. “I think Houston is highly underappreciated. It’s a big, complicated, sophisticated cosmopolitan city. Our job is to help everybody else in the U.S. understand that Houston is a big, important city, and that lots of really great ideas about how to improve city life and how to deal with urban problems can come out of a city like Houston in addition to a place like New York or LA.”

5

Leave one campus, enter another

Rice must invest in instructors Rice has a scalability problem. As undergraduate enrollment at Rice has grown rapidly in the past 10 years, many students and faculty have questioned if the undergraduate experience has lost part of its value: its educational intimacy (see p.1).

President David Leebron claims that students’ changing preferences among disciplines has led to higher demand departments, such as those in social sciences and engineering, having larger classes. Dean of Undergraduates John Hutchinson said Rice has had to hire nontenure-track professors — the number of NTT faculty has increased by a factor of six over the last ten years — as a stopgap measure. However, the administration should recognize that a lack of foresight and long-term planning, which is evidenced by the hiring of NTT faculty, has led to our current problems.

Large classes are not merely caused by changing preferences; they are also caused by Rice not hiring enough faculty to keep up with the growth in undergraduate enrollment. While enrollment has increased 36.1 percent over 10 years, the number of instructors has grown 32.9 percent from fall 2004 to fall 2014 according to the Office of Institutional Research.

Rice has tried to make large classes more interactive through different teaching methods, such as the Student Centered Active Learning at Rice program and the flipped classroom method. However, many students find SCALAR not only a waste of time, but also unengaging.

Above all else, Rice should invest in student instruction, and this should come in the form of more professors, tenure-track and non-tenuretrack alike. Rice found itself in this situation because of a lack of foresight, and it would be a shame if inaction on this front led to similar consequences down the line.

Unsigned editorials represent the majority opinion of the Thresher editorial staff. All other opinion pieces represent solely the opinion of the piece’s author.

Corrections In the Jan. 21 issue of the Thresher, the article “40K comes from unapproved RESET funds” (p.

1) incorrectly stated that Resolution #7 had been approved. The final resolution was introduced at Student Association Senate and will be voted on at Senate on Jan. 28. Additionally, while the funds for RESET were initially approved by the student body in 2010, the student body failed to reapprove the funds in 2013.

The article “Student Judicial Programs revises Code of Conduct” stated several additions had been made to the Code of Conduct regarding sexual harassment and the alcohol policy.

To clarify, this information had previously been presented in the Sexual Harassment Policy and Procedures as well as the Alcohol Policy, but was incorporated into the Code of Conduct with the revision. In addition, students facing social rustication may not attend public events or private gatherings, including RPC events and college events, but may attend University-wide athletic events. The revised Code also no longer contains information about University Court proceedings such that UCourt may oversee its own governing documents.

Imagine Rice, but compressed to a 10th its size. Replace the green hedges with grey houses. Keep the old, lovely live oaks and Jim Love’s giant red jack. Add more art. Add a lot more art.

You see the Menil Campus.

It is a nexus of buildings containing art. The buildings are art, too. Lawns and trees separate the buildings. The lawns often teem with picnickers, families, musicians, sunbathers and games of catch. You know the scene if you have passed through the academic quad these past weekends.

The bastion of bungalows dampens the perpetual noise of traffic to a faint roar. The outdoors are as pleasant as the indoors. I guarantee a satisfactory experience.

Where is it?

Start at Willy’s Statue and head due north.

Follow the streets across a bridge, past a park, across Richmond Avenue, and you will look

right and see it. The Menil campus almost rubs shoulders with Rice’s campus. 1.5 miles away means a 30-minute walk, a 10-minute pedal or a seven-minute drive.

Next time you want to run the outer loop, consider running to the Menil and back. You will cover the same distance. Running away from campus will also give you incentive to complete the run. But if you need a break, wander inside the main building, the Menil Collection, for sweet climate control. Beware — they might not admit profusely perspiring patrons.

For those with particular attachments to Rice’s campus: Love installations that combine light and space like Turrell’s Skyspace? Dan Flavin filled a defunct grocery store with fluorescent tubes.

Can’t part with Mark di Suervo’s behemoth stainless and Corten steel sculpture on Herzstein’s lawn? Another one of his stainless steel-

less sculptures sits on the Menil’s lawn. Need an all-quiet zone for studying? Enter Rothko Chapel, a large room hung with big blackened canvases.

If you like Rice’s campus, the Menil Campus is similar. If you don’t like Rice’s campus, the Menil Campus is different. Either way, it is worth one or two or infinite visits.

As my term nears its completion, I wanted to reflect on the Student Association’s accomplishments over the next semester and write about what our focus will be in the remaining month.

Rice is unique in that students play an integral role in nearly all aspects of life and education on campus. Very few universities afford this same level of freedom and control to their students. Our team came in last spring with the motto “Let’s fix it” — and that we did.

From creating new leadership positions to changing meeting times, we made the SA work for you. Focusing on fostering a campus community beyond the colleges, we created a new umbrella alumni programming group,

and brought back the Senior Committee and the Rally Club. We undertook a comprehensive study and campus-wide discussion around what “Rice Education of the Future” should look like, working closely with senior administrators and the Board of Trustees. We allocated over $40,000 dollars in student money to initiatives that directly and sustainably benefit you.

On top of it all, we were able have some fun with burritos.

As we look forward to closing out this team’s term strongly, there are a few important projects on our minds. First and foremost, we want to engage and involve as many students as possible in this year’s election process so that your voice

can be heard. We are placing a distinct focus on funding — our Blanket Tax Crack Team will unveil overarching proposed changes to how the nearly $400,000 in student fees are allocated each year. Furthermore, we will unveil a new campus-wide programming fund to sustainably support groups like Homecoming, Rally Club and Senior Committee for years to come.

This past year has been a blast, and on behalf of our team, I’d like to thank you for the opportunity we were given to make a difference across campus. Have a great spring semester, make sure to vote to make your voice heard and take advantage of all the great opportunities Rice has to offer!

Editorial Staff Miles Kruppa* Editor in Chief news Andrew Ta* Editor Yasna Haghdoost* Editor Anita Alem* Editor Drew Keller Assistant Editor Justin Park Designer opinions Mitch Mackowiak* Editor

sports Maddy Adams Editor Evan Neustater Editor Sarah Nyquist Designer art Claire Elestwani Art Director Marcel Merwin Photo Editor arts & entertainment Sophie Newman Editor Kaylen Strench Editor Carrie Jiang Designer

copy Jasmine Lin Editor Julianne Wey Editor backpage Reed Thornburg Editor business William Byers Manager advertising Cynthia Bau Manager * indicates member of the Editorial Board

The Rice Thresher, the official student newspaper at Rice University since 1916, is published each Wednesday during the school year, except during examination periods and holidays, by the students of Rice University.

Letters to the Editor must be received by 5 p.m. the Friday prior to publication and must be signed, including college and year if the writer is a Rice student. The Thresher reserves the rights to edit letters for content and length and to place letters on its website.

Mitch Mackowiak is a Lovett College sophomore and the Thresher opinions editor

Editorial and business offices are located on the second floor of the Ley Student Center: 6100 Main St., MS-524 Houston, TX 77005-1892 Phone (713) 348-4801 Email: thresher@rice.edu Website: www.ricethresher.org Unsigned editorials represent the majority opinion of the Thresher editorial staff. All other opinion pieces represent solely the opinion of the piece’s author.

The Thresher is a member of the ACP, TIPA and CNBAM © Copyright 2014

arts

ENTERTAINMENT

6

Joey Bada$$ – B4.DA.$$ B+

by Benjamin Huber-Rodriguez Thresher Staff

courtesy cinematic

Available on iTunes for $11.99

geneva vest/thresher Washington, D.C.-based Be Steadwell performs at Willy’s Pub during an event sponsored by the Rice Women’s Resource Center. Be Steadwell describes her music as “queer pop and soul” and uses both a loop pedal and beat boxing as part of her performance.

“Queer pop and soul”

League of Legends is not for loners Kaylen Strench A&E Editor

When I first heard “League of Legends” tossed around in conversation among my guy friends, I couldn’t help but roll my eyes a bit.

Without missing a beat, I lumped it into the usual category of video games: mindless, violent entertainment designed to pass long, empty hours.

After researching League more thoroughly, however, I found that, in this case, I was far too quick to judge. League is no standard game — with 67 million players a month, “pro teams” that draw 32 million viewers and compete for a million dollars in the World Championships and a collegiate league that inspired the incredibly well-organized and competitive Rice League of Legends club (or LoL, as it’s called), League deserves a fresh look. It’s time to put some misconceptions to rest and for Rice students to give the game and its players a chance.

First, LoL’s fanatics are not the stereotypical Cheeto-munching, couch-potato gamers staring at their computer screens in isolation for hours on end. In truth, League is an exclusively social activity that requires sophisticated communication and facilitates bonding.

“It’s designed to be a social experience,” Sid Richardson College junior Jacob Saldinger, a noncompetitive player, said. “A lot of games have a good single player mode in addition to multiplayer. But League requires you to participate on a team of five every time; it’s 100 percent social interaction.”

Part of League’s strategic challenge rests in its requirement that one’s “champion,” or avatar, must work alongside others in a team. The best teams practice together to develop rapid commu-

THE WEEKLY SCENE The editors’ picks for this week’s best events. Time to explore the wonderful world of Houston.

nication skills and coordinate strategy.

“It’s really hard to get five people to go along with one cohesive plan,” Jones College junior Brian Lee, the external vice president of the Rice LoL club, said. “You have to work as a unit, resolve disputes about which strategy to choose in a matter of seconds and have the discipline to follow along with a plan even if you’re skeptical.”

Another draw to the game is the unprecedented “pro scene.” The game developer, Riot Games, organizes regional, national and international championships, which are broadcast on the web. The viewership is substantial — last year, over 10 million more viewers tuned into the League of Legends World Championships than to the NBA Finals.

“It has the most unmatched pro scene of any game out there,” Sid Richardson College junior Tyler Clapp, another non-competitive player, said. “The structured tournament system and competitive aspect of the game has made it easy for it to become so popular.”

Riot promotes pro-league viewership as much as playing the game itself. League of Legends thus takes on the quality of a sport — it can be enjoyed both directly and indirectly.

“There’s a lot of access points,” Saldinger said. “You can play yourself [and] you can watch people play. There’s a lot of strategy as well as brute mechanical skill, like football. Riot’s been really smart about leveraging those aspects to promote the game in as many ways as possible.”

Riot also sponsors a collegiate league, in which teams from various colleges compete against each other in regional and national tournaments for tuition money instead of straight cash.

“I started playing LoL in high school, and I was really interested in being on an intercolle-

DANCE WITH STARS Don’t you dare deny it; I know you’ve tuned in at least once to ABC’s Dancing With the Stars, the show that pairs celebrities with world-famous dancers in a multi-week competition.

Now, see the stars in the flesh Jan. 29 at 8 p.m. The 90-minute live show will include never-before-seen pieces.

Bayou Music Center 520 Texas bayoumusiccenter.com

giate team going into college,” McMurtry College freshman Savion Lee, a coordinator for the McMurtry LoL team, said. “I just really like the community environment and bonding with other people who have the same interest.”

The Rice LoL club is broken into several fiveperson “elitist,” or varsity, and junior varsity teams. The coordinator for each team arranges practices and friendly inter-college matches with other team leaders. The club also organizes tournaments, where students compete in matches against each other and other universities.

Many other students at Rice, however, choose to play the game just to blow off steam, or to hang out with friends and get to know people better.

“Some video games just involve you sitting in a room by yourself for hours on end,” Clapp said. “League’s just not like that. It’s social, and the games are discrete — after 30 minutes, you’re done. The appeal lies in the bonding potential and the fun rush of [defeating] your friends.”

Though the game offers a lot of room for improvement, Saldinger, Clapp, Brian Lee and Savion Lee all agreed that trying to be good isn’t necessarily the point.

“Just give it a shot,” Savion Lee said.

“It teaches you great communication skills, and it’s not super intense. It’s just supposed to be fun and social — light competition among art by claire elestwani friends.”

ART + WINE

In 2015, anyone with a MacBook and a microphone can be an emcee. Sifting through the throngs of budding new rappers can be an overwhelming task, with historically rich hip-hop communities like Houston all but saturated with talented artists ranging from Grammy winners to Willy’s Pub Beer n’ Beats contributors. And while the Internet contributes to the oversaturation, it can also be a tool, for better or for worse, for highlighting rappers that do deserve to make it big. Fame can arise from unexplained blog hype, a shoutout tweet from a famous celebrity or just pure technical prowess and the uncanny ability to strike a vein in listeners.

Brooklyn’s Joey Bada$$ belongs to the latter kind: a quick listen to this 20-year-old, socially conscious and fiercely deft rapper is all that is needed to explain the hype surrounding his debut LP, B4.DA.$$.

Notable Tracks 3. “Paper Trail$” Reflects on fame and money by revealing its negative impact 4. “Piece of Mind” Jazzy, chilled-out song with aggressive lyricism 6. “Hazeus View” Analyzes God and his neighbors over a low-key piano beat 11. “On and On” Standout piece with a wonderful R&B-inspired refrain In the massive wake of Kendrick Lamar’s semi-autobiographical landmark good kid, m.A.A.d. city, Joey Bada$$ paints a portrait of life for youths in a drug- and violence-marred swath of New York. Storming the gates on opener “Save the Children,” Bada$$ declares, “Peace means harmony, not war and armory / But fuck that, cock your gun back, the survival of the fittest.” As part of new breed of rappers that is able to 0see b4.da.$$, page 7

BOOK OF MORMON

Enjoy a classy night at the MFAH this Thursday, Jan. 29 at 8 p.m. First, an art expert will offer curatorial insights on Monet and his Seine River paintings currently on display at the museum.

Then, Texas Wine School founder James King will lead a wine tasting of six distilled spirits from France.

This Browadway musical is not for the easily-offended, but if you can stick through the jokes, prepare to laugh yourself to death. From the creator of South Park comes the hilarious, crude and enlightening tale of two mormon missionaries. Shows continue through Feb. 8.

Houston Museum of Fine Arts 5601 Main mfah.org

Hobby Center–Sarofim Hall 800 Bagby St. houston.broadway.com

WILD PHOTOS Now in its 50th year, the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition is one of the longest and most prestigious photo competitions in the world, and the winner’s photos are within walking distance. This special exhibition is on display through May 31.

Houston Museum of Natural Science 5555 Hermann Park Dr. hmns.org

Wednesday, January 28, 2015

0B4.DA.$$ from page 6 question and critique the lifestyle preached to them by emcees of the past while accepting its place in society, Bada$$ behaves less like an actor and more like an observer as he narrates his own urban lifestyle. On the excellent “Hazeus View,” Joey analyzes God and his neighbors, singing, “And we probably share a train or two / But I can’t see what I can relate to / Hey Jesus will I ever get to see you through my haze?” over a low-key, tinkling piano beat.

Classic themes of lyrical hip-hop pop up throughout the record. “Paper Trail$” reflects on newfound fame and money; but, rather than boasting, Joey reveals the negative impact money can have on a teen who grew up with very little, rapping, “They say money is the root of all evil / I see money as the root of all people / ‘Cause we all follow paper trails / And everybody gotta pay they bills.” The jazzy, chilled-out “Piece of Mind” evokes Nas, providing a tale of a friend’s incarceration: “It’s bugged out ‘cause I know you tryna see your child / I just gave Will a lil’ something for your baby mother.” The juxtaposition of heavy, aggressive lyricism and eerie, spacey beats effectively sets the album in a dark underworld version of Brooklyn.

The series of tracks comprising the back of the album shifts to a more monotone, moody production style, and is a bit of a letdown following the poignantly aware and gorgeous opening six tracks. Choruses are reduced to simple repetition and verses lack focus. Yet, Joey’s style is still unmistakable, and his

sharp turns and bouncing cadence are sufficient to carry the record through the second half.

Standout track “On and On” features a wonderful R&B inspired refrain (“Maybe I’mma flyyyyyyyy away”) and describes Joey’s own personal writing history, his loss of friends to violence and his consideration of his own mortality. “Picked up the pen that’s when I drew my first blood / Happiness is temporary always has been / I just lost another but sometimes I win.” This song embodies the greater message present on B4.DA.$$: Joey’s cathartic writing experience is only a temporary escape from the greater social unrest and the inevitability of an untimely death. Paradoxically, these tracks preach a message known to those in Joey’s circle, but are perhaps more resonant and painfully raw for his prime audience: suburban white kids huddled around laptops and in cars, mouthing the lyrics while wondering what life in the projects is really like.

Though the record slows down again late on the back end, the final track “Teach Me” sticks out like a sore thumb. The repeated chorus, sung by guest vocalist Keisza, of “Let me teach you how to dance, I’mma teach you how to dance!” over a breakneck salsa beat brings to a head the joy and release derived from the simple gesture of moving one’s feet to music. After a run of dark, thought-provoking material, Joey leaves us with a banger, as if all the pain and introspection on the record can melt away on the dance floor. We are left wondering if Joey’s ultimate message is not one of urban awareness and struggle, but instead one of optimism, of reveling in life’s simple pleasures even while the world around us burns.

TBO Fusion brings hip Japanese cuisine to Houston Walden Pemantle Thresher Staff

Since its opening in November, Tea Bar and Organic Fusion, also styled “TBO Fusion,” has made it clear that the operative word in their name is “Fusion.” The hip Westheimer location has a tea bar, and it does serve an extensive list of tasty milk teas and smoothies, but the real reason to visit is TBO’s affordable and creative takes on sushi, ramen and other Japanese specialties. The menu is dotted with unconventional and trendy additions like Taiwanese popcorn chicken, sous-vide short rib and sashimi with honey wasabi aioli and truffled ponzu sauce. Many of the experimental dishes are imperfect, and unfortunately, some of the menu’s most interesting inclusions are best left unordered. Nonetheless, the food at TBO Fusion makes for an exciting and eclectic meal.

Recommended Dishes Taiwanese popcorn chicken – $5.95 Taiwanese-style marinated chicken leg meat, flash fried with Japanese potato starch, topped with lemon basil Sous-vide short rib (3 pcs) – $7.95 72-hour short rib, prepared using French sous-vide technique; very tender Tako yaki – $5.50 Buttered octopus, Japanese mayo, tonkatsu sauce, katsuo, nori powder Sashimi Combo – $12.95 Honey wasabi aioli and truffled ponzu sauce

The best of TBO’s fusion cooking manifests in the inventive and addictive appetizers. The lemon garlic popcorn chicken is flash-fried in a surprisingly light batter made from Japanese potato starch that compliments the sour and zesty seasoning. The tako yaki, or battered octopus, is perhaps the best plate on the menu. The octopus fritters have a warm, eggy filling, and are topped with sweet barbecue sauce, tangy Japanese mayo and shredded smoked tuna, which give the dish a flavor reminiscent of both a Texan barbecue pit and a Japanese seaside. Moving even further from traditional Japanese, the 72-hour sous-vide short

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rib uses the French sous-vide technique to achieve a much more tender product than the tradition grilling method. Perhaps the most eclectic of the appetizers, the Taiwanese sausage dish can be ordered with salsa and queso fresco in a nod to Houston’s Hispanic influence that balances the sausage’s saltiness with the creamy cheese and fresh tomato salsa.

Despite the success of the appetizers, the sushi bar seems frustratingly inferior. The problem is not that TBO’s chefs aren’t welltrained or that the fish is not fresh. On the contrary, the fish in the unseasoned sashimi plates is lush with delicate and fresh saline flavor. The problem with the sushi lies in the chefs’ tendencies to over-sauce. In the black-and-white roll, the dominant taste is not the snow crab, avocado, peppered tuna, green onion or honeyed wasabi the menu advertises, but mayo, a shame considering how many great ingredients went into the roll. The worst instance of over-saucing is in the truffle hamachi. The truffle and hamachi, known for being among the most decadent ingredients in European and Japanese cooking respectively, simply mask each other. The truffle’s earthiness obscures the hamachi’s buttery fat, and the sour yuzu and sea salt used to round out the dish clash with the smoother flavors of the truffle and the fish.

Some of the sushi chefs’ overbearing tendencies also carry over to the entrees.

The ramen and the rice bowls are generally very good but tend to have too much onion, which again clashes with the natural flavor of the dish’s protein, be it short ribs, chicken or the wonderfully fatty pork belly.

The seasonings on the meats themselves are far improved. The pork belly has interesting flavors of raw ginger and soy, the short ribs are marinated in sake and grilled with woody Korean spices, and the chicken’s teriyaki sauce is accented with nori and a yuzu sesame dressing. One common problem with nearly all the main dishes, however, is the addition of a cold soft-boiled egg, which can be quite off-putting and which many may prefer to have left off their dish.

In spite of its numerous problems, TBO Fusion is still a standout in a city of far too many bland Asian fusion restaurants. It is a very young restaurant, a fact that is hard to ignore as the menus are still printed on stapled printer paper. Although TBO needs some fine-tuning, problems like over-seasoning and cold eggs can be easily remedied. Combined with the friendly staff and deliberately hip vibe, the exciting food at TBO Fusion makes it a restaurant not to be passed over.

7

Student theater initiative sheds light on sexual harassment Sophie Newman A&E Editor

Rice students prove that theater can be more than a recreation of fictional narrative — it can connect students to pressing issues within the Rice community, like sexual harassment and assault. The Speak Up Project is a new studentorientated theater initiative that shares anonymous stories from sexual harassment survivors.

The project’s authors, Wiess College senior Vicky Comesanas and Hanszen College junior Lindsay Bonnen, hope that it will add to Rice’s alreadyestablished sexual harassment initiatives, like campus policies and Project Safe.

We want to start a conversation. A lot of people don’t realize that victims are on campus.

Vicky Comesanas Wiess College senior According to Comesanas, the Speak Up Project addresses the difficult “after the fact” part of sexual violence, which she believes is missing from many discussions.

“We want to start a conversation,” Comesanas said. “A lot of people don’t realize that victims are on campus.”

Student survivors confirm that the Speak Up Project addresses an issue that is absent from the Rice conversation about sexual assault.

“The fact that Vicky was easily able to receive stories from so many Rice students about their ex-

periences [shows] that this happens all the time,” a student, who submitted a story and asked to remain anonymous, said. “Imagine how many more stories are out there having no audience.”

The first part of the project involves gathering anonymous stories from Rice students about situations that have occurred at Rice or elsewhere. The stories, unedited and anonymous, will then be recreated by actresses. Comesanas believes theater is the perfect medium for difficult conversations.

“Theater has an ability to represent [someone] without forcing that person to be on stage,” she said. “Over the summer, I began thinking that there [are] ways to use poetry and theater for social activism.”

The project has two main goals: to create a community to talk about sexual harassment on campus and to provide victims with a safe forum through which to share their stories.

“If someone can’t raise their hand and say, ‘Hey, this happened to me,’ that person can write it down,” Comesanas said. “Someone else then shares that burden and acts out that story — that can be healing.”

Writing also provides student victims with a way to share stories that are often difficult to bring up with family members, friends or even professionals.

“I felt like every time in the past I had to try to talk about my experiences, someone had shut me down or silenced me in some way,” another anonymous student writer said. “I’m not angry at these people — these are all normal reactions to a very hard issue. That being said, it was very hard to have something so traumatic happen and feel like it was so shut inside of me. This project gives me a chance to truly put all these feelings and thoughts out there.”

Comesanas hopes that the Speak Up Project, although not a solution for sexual harassment issues, will at least break the ice on a difficult discussion.

“Obviously, it’s not a solution,” Comesanas said. “There’s not a magical cure-all. But if this can help and this can get people talking and being sensitive about things that happen on campus, I think it’s a good start.”

The Speak Up Project is set to premiere March 18

8

A&E

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Wednesday, January 28, 2015

Sports is on Twitter. Get the scoop at twitter.com/ThresherSports

9

dante zahkidov/thresher

Senior forward Seth Gearhart drives to the basket during a 45-58 loss against Louisiana Tech University. Gearhart recorded 16 points in the game following a 16 point game in a victory over the University of Southern Mississippi. Gearhart was named as one of 30 finalists for the Senior CLASS Award, given annually to a senior who excels in community service, academics and athletics.

Basketball splits weekend conference matchups Kevin Mohanram Thresher Staff

Rice vs. Southern Miss

58-56

Rice vs. Louisiana Tech

45-58

The Rice University men’s basketball team (6-12, 3-4 C-USA) went 1-1 last week against the University of Southern Mississippi and Louisiana Tech University.

The Owls came back to defeat Southern Miss 58-56 after being down by as many as 10 points.

Sophomore guard Marcus Jackson scored the winning free throws after he was fouled when the game was tied with fewer than six seconds left. Jackson led the team with 19 points and senior forward Seth Gearhart added 16.

Head Coach Mike Rhoades said he was pleased with how the team was able to come back in the game.

“I was really proud of our guys,” Rhoades said. “We got down 10 there, and we could

have bagged it. We’ve had a lot of games this season where we were in the position and came back but couldn’t get over the hump, but we [did].”

Rice jumped out to an early lead against Louisiana Tech, who is currently second in Conference USA with a record of 15-5. The Owls never recovered after the 28-24 halftime deficit and ultimately lost 45-58. Gearhart scored 16 points for the second consecutive game, making it 12 straight games that he has scored double-digit points. Jackson contributed 12 points in the game.

According to Rhoades, Louisiana Tech’s defense played tough and did not allow Rice many scoring opportunities.

“It was a hard game to score in today,” Rhoades said. “It wasn’t lack of effort. I thought our guys did a great job of being composed and continuing to fight. We did not shoot the ball well, and their athleticism had something to do with that.”

Gearhart is one of the 30 seniors in the country nominated for the national Senior CLASS Award. The award honors student athletes who excel in community, classroom, character and competition.

The Owls will begin a four-game road trip on Wednesday, Jan. 28, against the University of Houston, their final non-conference game. The next home game is Thursday, Feb. 12 against Middle Tennessee State University.

10 SPORTS

Wednesday, January 28, 2015

the Rice Thresher

ningxin chen/thresher

Sophomore David Warren rallies during a 6-0 shutout victory against the University of Texas, Pan American. Warren swept two opponents in the matchup and improved his record to 4-0 after the match. The Owls are now 3-2 overall and ranked no. 75 nationally. Rice will next head to Mississippi State University to face off against higher-ranked Mississippi State and Texas Tech University.

Tennis continues strong start to new season Juan Saldana

Thresher Staff

Rice vs. UT Pan American

6-0

Rice vs. Old Dominion

2-4

Rice vs. Incarnate Word

6-0

This weekend, the no. 75 ranked Rice University men’s tennis team played three nonconference matches to bring their overall record to 3-2.

On Friday, the Owls swept both games of a doubleheader against the University of the Incarnate Word and the University of Texas, Pan American. Then on Sunday, the Owls lost a close matchup against Old Dominion University 4-2.

Friday’s matches were moved indoors to the Downtown Club due to rainy conditions.

With the matches held indoors, singles took place first. The Owls won all but one of the 25 sets of the day en route to two victories against in-state opponents.

Sunday’s match was once again held at the George R. Brown Tennis Center. Facing conference opponent Old Dominion University, the Owls started with an early lead after winning the doubles portion of the match. However,

singles proved to be a much larger challenge for the Owls as they dropped four of the five finished matches to the Monarchs with the lone win coming from junior Adam Gustaffson on court four.

Rice Head Coach Efe Ustundag said his team could not capitalize on the lead that they opened with after winning five of the first six sets of the day. “[Old Dominion] is a team that fights,” Ustundag said. “They are going to find ways to get back into those matches and that is exactly what happened.”

Ustundag said the team was not aggressive enough in singles play to overtake the Monarchs.

“We kept playing, hoping for them to give it to us,” Ustundag said. “We didn’t go and take it from them.”

The Owls have now lost two matches – against the University of Texas, San Antonio and Old Dominion. Both games were close

home losses against conference opponents.

The Owls will now travel to Starkville, Mississippi to face off against no. 21 Mississippi State and no. 48 Texas Tech University.

These two teams will be the highest-ranked opponents that the Owls have faced this season so far.

According to Ustundag, the team must get used to the season’s increasing difficulty.

“Now the competition gets even harder,” Ustundag said. “Our job is going to get tougher and tougher.”

Despite being ranked lower than the teams that they will face next weekend, Ustundag said he is confident that the Owls can keep pace with the best of them.

“I don’t think there is too much of a difference between us and the teams we are about to play,” Ustundag said. “It is a matter of who converts and who does a better job putting away matches.”

WRITE FOR THRESHER SPORTS email Evan at ern1@rice.edu

Wednesday, January 28, 2015

the Rice Thresher

SPORTS

11

Conference proves tough for women’s basketball Michael Kidd Thresher Staff

Rice vs. Southern Miss

54-65

Rice vs. Louisiana Tech

71-88

courtesy rice athletic communications

Seattle Seahawks tight end Luke Wilson runs in the open field during his time at Rice. Wilson, a former member of Lovett College, was drafted in the fifth round of the 2013 NFL draft by Seattle. Wilson now heads to his second consecutive Super Bowl appearance in as many years in the league.

Former Owl heads to second Super Bowl Evan Neustater Sports Editor

Few National Football League players ever get to play in a Super Bowl, and even fewer get to do it twice. Rice University alumnus Luke Wilson has accomplished that in just two years.

With the Seattle Seahawks becoming the first team in 10 years to make consecutive Super Bowl appearances, Wilson, the Seahawks’ starting tight end, will represent his alma mater in Super Bowl XLIX on Sunday, Feb. 1 in Glendale, Arizona.

Wilson, a former member of Lovett College, graduated from Rice with a bachelor’s degree in philosophy and political science and a minor in business. Wilson capped his Rice career with a victory in the 2012 Armed Forces Bowl. Wilson was then drafted the fifth round of the 2013 NFL draft by the Seattle Seahawks.

According to Wilson, his time playing football at Rice helped him prepare for his NFL career, as he learned how to move on from losses.

“My first few years [at Rice] everyone faced a lot of adversity, so that really prepared me for the NFL,” Wilson said. “Especially this year when we were struggling a little bit early on and going through some challenges. We kind of fall back on times when we faced adversity before and how we got through it and how we learned from it.”

Wilson also said he learned his work ethic during his time in Houston.

“There’s a lot of hard-working guys on that Rice team and that’s kind of what the program is built on, and that’s what I took into the NFL,” Wilson said.

Last season against the Broncos in Super Bowl XLVIII, Wilson recorded two receptions for 17 yards in a winning effort. This time, Wilson will look to improve upon those numbers, but remains focused on winning the big game. Wilson has improved on his rookie numbers this season, posting 22 catches for 346 yards and three touchdowns during the regular season, and making six receptions for 79 yards and a touchdown during

the Seahawks’ playoff run.

Wilson has already made a name for himself in the NFL as the starting tight end for the reigning Super Bowl champions. In last week’s NFC Championship game against the Green Bay Packers, Wilson made a play that may have saved the Seahawks’ season.

There’s a lot of hardworking guys on that Rice team and that’s kind of what the program is built on, and that’s what I took into the NFL. Luke Wilson Seattle Seahawks Tight End

With 1:25 left in the game, Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch scored a rushing touchdown to put Seattle up 20-19. Seattle elected to go for a two-point conversion to put them up three points, and Wilson ended up catching the ball in the end zone after a broken play.

According to Wilson, he was not even supposed to be going for the catch on the play.

“It was kind of just a backyard football play; not exactly how we were planning to go,” Wilson said. “I was actually involved in protection and

[Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson] scrambled around. I really thought I was out of the play and the next thing I knew the ball was in the air. It hung up there a while and I was able to come down with it, and it turned out to be a big play in that game.”

The touchdown put the Seahawks up 22-19, and after the Packers scored a game-tying field goal near the end of regulation, Seattle was able to win the game in overtime.

Only seven teams in NFL history have ever won back-to-back Super Bowls, and no team has accomplished that feat since the 2004 New England Patriots, who will be Seattle’s opponent in the game. According to Wilson, the team will go into their second consecutive Super Bowl with the same mindset as last year’s, although they will be more aware of the off-field hype that surrounds the biggest annual event in the United States.

“It’s a little bit different, but at the same time a lot of it is the same,” Wilson said. “We have a pretty good idea of how this game is going to as far as distractions go. But on the football side of it, it feels very similar. We’re playing a great team just like we did last year. We just have to come out and execute.”

Despite being an NFL starter on the verge of playing in his second Super Bowl in two seasons, Wilson hasn’t forgotten his roots. He still follows Rice football closely, and said he has some interesting, if not controversial, ideas about its future.

“I hope one day we’ll be in the Big 12 Conference,” Wilson said. “Especially nowadays with everyone realizing how short NFL careers are and how important education is. I feel if we went to the Big 12 we could attract some people. The way the program is headed and how we’ve been able to win a bunch of games the last three years could send us into a Power 5 conference, and that would really get the ball rolling.”

Wilson and the Seattle Seahawks will face the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLIX on Sunday, Feb. 1. The game will be televised around the globe on NBC at 5:30 p.m.

In six games, the Rice University women’s basketball game registered six losses.

This week, the Owls fell to the University of Southern Mississippi and Louisiana Tech University. On Thursday night, the Owls took on Southern Miss and lost by a final score of 65-54. Following the loss, the Owls faced off against the Lady Bulldogs. Rice led for much of the game but Louisiana Tech finished the game on a 21-8 run and won 88-71.

The team failed to reach 60 points for the seventh straight game against Southern Miss.

At the 11:22 mark of the first half, the Owls took an 18-16 lead on a 3-pointer by sophomore guard Maya Hawkins. The lead did not last long though, as Southern Miss went into halftime with a 34-26 halftime advantage.

Rice would get as close as 34-32 with a quick burst in the second half, but would not regain the lead for the remainder of the game. Key contributors for Rice included senior forward Megan Shafer, who scored nine points off the bench in just 13 minutes of action, and fellow senior Christal Porter, who led the team with nine rebounds.

Against Louisiana Tech, the Owls made the necessary adjustments on the offensive side of the ball and were rewarded by having three players score in double digits. Not only did Rice reach the 60-point mark for the contest, but they reached 70 points for only the third time this season. However, the defensive performance and turnover margin proved too much, as they allowed a season-high 88 points to the opposition and committed 22 turnovers. Louisiana Tech’s offense capitalized on Rice’s mistakes, shooting 59 percent from the field and scoring 20 points off turnovers. Senior point guard Chrisstasia Walter, who scored a game-high 26 points on 7-of-12 shooting and a perfect 11-of-11 at the free throw line, led the Bulldogs offensively.

The game featured 13 lead changes and seven ties, including Rice having led for the majority of the first half. Porter earned her fourth double-double of the season with 17 points and 11 rebounds while senior guard Nakachi Maduka scored 13 points and added eight rebounds for the Owls.

Porter said, despite the six-game losing streak, spirits are high in the locker room and the seniors on the team contribute to keeping things positive.

“The locker room has definitely been staying positive,” Porter said. “Senior leadership is important to remind the team of how successful we have been [in past years].

We have been [competitive] in every conference game, so it’s just a matter of keeping up the work.”

Freshman guard Shani Rainey has been a spot starter for the Owls and is a key player off the bench. She said she feels she and her teammates need to take advantage of every single possession to revert back to their winning ways.

“One thing that we as a team need to do is value every possession,” Rainey said. “We can’t take even one off because that could be the deciding factor on who wins the game [and who loses].”

According to head coach Greg Williams, the Owls need to focus on scoring consistently.

“Offensive consistency has been a problem all season,” Williams said. “We do not have a proven scorer in late game situations, so we [find ourselves having] to adjust game to game to find that player.”

The Owls return to Tudor Fieldhouse this coming Sunday, Feb. 1 to take on the University of North Texas. Tip off is scheduled for 2:00 p.m.

12

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Wednesday, January 28, 2015

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