The Rice Thresher | Wednesday, October 28, 2015

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VOLUME 100, ISSUE NO. 9 | STUDENT-RUN SINCE 1916 | RICETHRESHER.ORG | WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2015

2015 HOUSTON ELECTIONS Tu Tues esda day, y, No Nove vem mbe berr 33

MAYORAL CANDIDAT ES & PROPOSITIONS

campus culture is up to us Concerns, not food, should drive students to discussions

see Ops p. 4 a silent display of noise Punk photography pop-up installation comes to Rice

see A&E p. 7 Owls win battle against army Football team secures victory with last-minute touchdown

12%

11%

DEMOCRAT

FOR HERO

13%

REPUBLICAN

FOR HERO

DEMOCRAT

FOR HERO

CHRIS BELL

STEPHEN COSTELLO

ADRIAN GARCIA

Former U.S. Representative, former Houston City Councilmember, Democratic nominee for governor of TX in 2006

Houston City Councilmember

Former Harris County Sheriff & former Houston City Councilmember

Top issues: Public safety, mobility, finances

Top issues: Pension reform, lowering the debt, more police in neighborhoods, tax reduction

Top issues: City budget, infrastructure, education

see Sports p. 9

Colleges hold NOD, SUSE discussions

20%

14%

Elana Margosis Thresher Staff

Following the release of the Survey of Unwanted Sexual Experiences results, Rice Health Advisors are incorporating discussions on consent and sexual assault into the usual residential college talks preceding Wiess College’s Night of Decadence public party this Saturday.

RHA Student Coordinator Renata Wettermann said RHAs should spend at least half of the NOD talk discussing wellbeing topics, including consent, safer sex and alcohol.

In the past, talks have generally focused on alcohol and discussions of what to expect at the party.

“NOD talks have had the tendency to devolve into practical ‘how-tos’ for the party itself,” Wettermann, a Baker College senior, said. “While this is valuable to include and certainly useful to new students in particular, we want to make sure that people who attend the talks come away with information that’s useful for more than one night a year.”

Duncan College President Colin Shaw said Duncan’s NOD talk will address the survey results and bystander training, and wellbeing discussions will continue after NOD. “Duncan is also looking to bring in programming from the Wellbeing Center over the next couple weeks to address topics from what healthy relationships look like to stress management,” Shaw said.

Hanszen College President Angela Masciale said she addressed consent discussions at student government meetings and wants RHAs to prioritize consent in their NOD talks.

“I made it a point to make sure the RHAs added an increased focus on sexual experiences and what defines a good versus a bad sexual experience,” Masciale said.

Separating NOD talks by gender, which has been practice at some colleges, has recently become a topic of discussion on campus. Sid Richardson College will begin combined-gender NOD talks this year as a result of the success of having smaller, all-gender group talks during Orientation Week, according 0see SUSE, page 2

REPUBLICAN

AGAINST HERO

BILL KING Attorney & former mayor of Kemah, TX Top issues: Public safety, pensions, infrastructure

DEMOCRAT

FOR HERO

SYLVESTER TURNER TX State Representative Top issues: Economic opportunities for all, road repairs, immigration reform, stronger schools, city safety

Proposition 1 A referendum on whether voters support the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance (HERO), which bans discrimination in housing and business based on sex, race, color, ethnicity, national origin, age, familial status, marital status, military service, religion, disability, sexual orientation, genetic information, gender identity and pregnancy. Rice University supports HERO through its membership in the Greater Houston Partnership.

Proposition 2 A proposal to limit the Houston mayor, city council members and city controller to two four-year terms instead of the current three two-year terms. Proponents say city council members have little time to effect change before elections come again. Opponents say shorter terms better allow new ideas and viewpoints.

Students who registered to vote using their address at Rice can vote on Nov. 3 in the Grand Hall at the RMC. Polls are open from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.

All voters will be require to show one piece of the following photo ID: U.S. passport, U.S. citizenship certificate containing voter’s photograph, U.S. military ID card containing voter’s photograph, Texas driver license, Texas Election Identification Certificate, Texas personal ID card or Texas concealed handgun license. All identification must be unexpired or expired less than 60 days.

Sources: Houston Public Media, Campaign for Houston, HOUEquality, KPRC-TV, League of Women Voters. Poll numbers provided by Click2Houston, released on Oct. 15. Top five polling candidates shown.

justin park/thresher

Hammock proposal wins design contest Anita Alem News Editor

Students will have a new spot for relaxing in the sun, based on the winning design “The Hangout” from the annual School of Architecture mini-charrette competition. Wiess College sophomores Yoseph Maguire and Andrew Bertics, Baker College junior Eric Hsu and Brown College sophomore Ethan Chan envisioned their project as a field of hammocks at various heights for studying and relaxing in the academic quad.

“Over the course of the design, we sought to create a tool that students could use to find new possible forms of learning, unrestrained by the conventions of inflexible indoor spaces,” Bertics said.

Hsu said “The Hangout” is particularly appealing for its adaptability and affordability. The poles are designed to be scattered and free-standing such that each hammock can be hung between multiple poles and in different positions. The team said the entire design can have 19,000 configurations, with a total of 21 poles.

“We imagine that this design will be implemented in a variety of environments outside of our campus,” Hsu said. “Perhaps one day our design will be installed in parks or other public spaces for the citizens of the entire city to enjoy.”

Every year, the Architecture Society at Rice elicits proposals for the theme at the mini-charrette. Two years ago, the winning design from the mini-charrette competition was later implemented as the “Sound Worm” installment, an art piece behind Anderson Hall that collects sounds from around campus.

Architecture students Mitch Mackowiak, Toshiki Niimi and Kajal Patel, and sociology student Geneva Vest began conceptualizing their idea of redoing an outdoor space late last semester, which was later chosen as the prompt for the competition.

“We were really interested in the idea of actually implementing a solution to the problem of [creating] more outdoor study spaces,” Niimi, a Hanszen College junior, said. “Places like Brochstein [Pavilion] seem to be heavily populated, which proves

yoseph maguire/thresher

The mini-charrete winning team envisions their design “The Hangout” to serve as a hub for students to study and relax outside after it is built. people would like to study outside if that were an option, but there isn’t a secondary option.”

Niimi said the competition required interdisciplinary teams to

design the currently unused space between Fondren Library and the Humanities Building to be utilized for outside learning. Teams were 0see HAMMOCK, page 2

2

NEWS

wednesday, October 28, 2015

the Rice Thresher

0SUSE FROM PAGE 1

jake nyquist/thresher

Duncan College freshman Elana Margosis, Hanszen College senior Khadijah Erskine and McMurtry College freshman Brielle Jackson work on NOD costumes as part of the I <3 Consent Week kick-off. This was the first of a series of events to promote the importance of consent, including a Q&A panel, bystander intervention workshop and breathing room tent at NOD. I <3 Consent Week is taking place Oct. 26-31.

RWRC renames ‘Consent is Sexy’ week Charlie Paul Thresher Staff

The Rice Women’s Resource Center is celebrating its seventh annual consent awareness week with a new name, “I <3 Consent Week,” in place of the previous “Consent is Sexy Week.” The week’s events include a Q&A panel and a consent-positive erotica reading.

RWRC Co-Director Sam Love said the name change has been planned since last spring, though it coincides with campus discussion about the recently released results of the Survey of Unwanted Sexual Experiences.

According to Love, a Lovett College senior, the event was called “I Heart Consent Week” in the early 2000s.

Love said the name is being changed to emphasize that consent is necessary, rather than trivial.

“We found the term ‘consent is sexy’ to be problematic in a lot of ways, as it implies that consent is sexy — it’s sexy, but it’s a required part of sex,” Love said. “We wanted to make it really clear that sex without consent is rape. We’ve been paying a lot of attention this year to the way language embeds certain ideas that we don’t want to perpetuate.”

Love said the RWRC coordinating team debated changing the week’s name last year. “[RWRC Co-Director] Cristell [Perez] and I agreed that we were going to go ahead and change it [this year],” Love said. “It’s a new

term, but it’s also going back to what it used to be.”

McMurtry College freshman Shelby Bice said she supports the move to the new name.

“I think it’s a great move,” Bice said. “The idea of consent shouldn’t have to be seen as sexy to be viewed as important. I think the goal of [the change] is positive, and it comes at a good time after the results of the sexual assault survey were released.”

Language itself can do a certain violence ... that was the reason behind the change.

Sam Love Co-Director, RWRC

Martel College freshman Thresa SkeslienJenkins also said the name change coincided well with the survey results.

“After the recent survey results, consent will be talked about a lot more than just the

week before NOD,” Skeslien-Jenkins said.

“Changing the name shows consent is always important.”

“I Heart Consent Week” began in 2008, but RWRC changed the name to match the national “Consent is Sexy” campaign for high schools and universities, Love said. She also said the RWRC’s decision to return to “I Heart Consent Week” is independent of this campaign.

RWRC also changed their question and answer panel name from “What Your Mother Never Told You About Sex” to “What Nobody Ever Told You About Sex.” According to Love, the change was made in an attempt to validate all experiences in sexual education.

“Language itself can do a certain violence,” Love said. “Only giving credit to certain experiences, giving a certain gendered notion to who educates people about sexual things. That was the reason behind the change, because we have to recognize that it’s not your mom’s job.”

This year, I <3 Consent Week will include a new, consent-focused erotica reading on Thursday night.

“A lot of people have these negative stereotypes about the week, thinking that’s it’s a bit prudish,” Love said. “It’s consent erotica, it’s erotica and literary pornography that has affirmative consent embedded in it. [It’s] trying to get this idea out there that asking someone for consent isn’t interrupting your sexual experience.”

Computer science students organize town hall to address growth concerns Amber Tong

Assistant News Editor

Undergraduates and faculty of the computer science department are planning a campus-wide town hall and formation of an advisory board to address students’ concerns as increasing numbers of students enroll in the departments’ courses.

Computer Science Club Internal Vice President Raymond Cano, who is spearheading the project with fellow students Nicholas HansonHoltry and Lauren Schmidt, said the town hall will have three parts: finding consensus on the status of the department, identifying problems and proposing solutions.

“The first question, more than anything, is ‘as students, are we discontent with our experience?’”

Cano, a Wiess College junior, said.

“It’s irrelevant if the student body as a whole doesn’t also want a change.”

Hanson-Holtry, a Sid Richardson College senior, said he believes the

discussion will focus around the recent growth of the department and how it should respond.

“The solution everyone thinks is hire more faculty [and] lecturers,” Hanson-Holtry said. “The point of the town hall is to slow the conversation down.”

CS professor and department chair Vivek Sarkar, CS professor Luay Nakhleh and Associate Dean of Engineering Education Ann Saterbak will serve as panelists for the town hall. Cano said the faculty will steer the talk in a productive direction.

“The faculty each have a unique background and expertise,” Cano said. “They [will be] providing insight into what’s feasible moving forward and what complications accompany a given solution.”

Nakhleh said he expects students will reach agreement on increasing class sizes, though he does not see unanimous opinion at the moment.

“Some students are bothered by this issue and believe their learning experience is affected

negatively,” Nakhleh said. “However, I also know of other students who don’t seem to find any problem with the class sizes. I [hope] the town hall meeting will get at this question and some consensus will emerge as to whether there is a problem.”

Nakhleh said growth in the CS student body has not been met by a corresponding growth in the faculty.

“Universities all around the country, and the world indeed, are investing in computer science, in terms of growing the faculty substantially and building new infrastructure,” Nakhleh said. “While I sense a similar recognition of the issues at Rice, investment is definitely lagging behind.”

Hanson-Holtry said the meeting will give transparency and legitimacy to department changes.

“It is really important that undergraduate population feels that they are involved in the first step,” Hanson-Holtry said. “We [also] want to show the administration — partic-

ularly the important members of the administration — that it’s not just students who care about this.”

Cano said he, Hanson-Holtry and Schmidt will also announce the creation of an advisory board, modelled upon a similar initiative in the economics department last semester, during the meeting.

“We aren’t asking for everyone to come up with amazing solutions on the spot, but just to get the wheels turning,” Cano said. “[The group will be] aimed at clearly articulating plausible solutions.”

Hanson-Holtry said the team is excited about the progress that the town hall will bring.

“Even though the reason the advisory board is going to be founded came from a place of negative energy, we have solutions and ideas to talk about,” Hanson-Holtry said.

The town hall will take place at 7 p.m. on Nov. 3 at a location to be decided. According to Hanson-Holtry, both CS and non-CS majors are welcome to attend.

to Sid Richardson College President Lauren Schmidt.

“Our NOD talks used to be separated based on gender, but [the Sid Richardson RHAs] instead wanted to bring them together and be more inclusive of different people’s backgrounds,” Schmidt said. “They think that having perspectives of multiple different backgrounds will help the discussion.”

Brown College held a discussion about the SUSE results separately from its upcoming NOD talk. The SUSE conversation was divided into male and female groups, a decision that became a point of contention, according to Brown College junior James Carter.

“My largest concern is that in separating this talk, we are creating an environment that says members of the opposite sex can’t discuss consent together and [that] in order to protect people’s feelings, we should keep these conversations separate,” Carter said. “It seems that as a college, we are not confident in our abilities to foster a safe or comfortable environment in which men and women can speak together.”

Carter said he was concerned the conversations were different in the men’s and women’s discussions, citing differences in the topics listed in the official minutes from each discussion. However, Brown’s NOD talk this week will be gender integrated, and the college RHAs released a survey to Brown residents asking for feedback on the structure of future talks.

Colleges have also addressed Student Association President Jazz Silva’s proposal for a mandatory sexuality course for new students.

Masciale said Hanszen government discussed the course at a recent Cabinet meeting.

“Most students are in favor of the spirit of the proposal,” Masciale said. “Most other concerns I have heard have been upon the logistics of the class [including] discussion framework, time considerations, [and] class sizes.”

Shaw said Duncan College government also discussed the proposal, and some students were concerned about the effect the class would have on Rice’s public image.

“Students voiced concern about what happens if parents don’t want their children to come to Rice because we teach sex-ed,” Shaw said. “Obviously, the proposal will need some fine-tuning, but the core idea ... is absolutely necessary.”

0HAMMOCK FROM PAGE 1 given a budget of $7,000 maximum and 54 hours within which to complete the challenge. Teams then presented to a jury that included Vice President for Administration Kevin Kirby and Rice University President David Leebron on Friday, Oct. 23.

“We used the mini-charrette as a generator of ideas but we also hoped it would be a method of getting a project built,” Mackowiak, a Lovett College junior, said. “Because this was a priority, we pushed for as much student involvement as possible and crafted a compelling prompt.”

Niimi said the requirement that at least one member from each team not be a student of the School of Architecture enhances the’ learning experience. Maguire, an electrical engineering student, said he has always had an interest in architecture.

“As an [electrical engineer], I am learning about the world of electronics,” Maguire said. “But as a student, I am always interested in understanding more, and widening my breadth of knowledge. We will be able to create something that will tangibly influence the experiences of students for years to come, which is crazy.

The temporary installation will be funded by sales from the KTRU transmitter and Rice’s Environmental Society, according to Rice News. “The Hangout” team will be involved within the creation of the installation, including choosing materials and the physical setup of the poles.

“Right now, all we have is a concept, so we’ve got a long way to go,” Maguire said.

“With help from all the right people, this is going to become one of the coolest places to study and relax on any college campus.”

The runner-up was the project “Posture Play,” a formation of benches at different angles intended to provide students with an ergonomic study environment. Other projects included “Capriccube,” a stained-glass design allowing students to immerse themselves in a colorful place to study, and “Continuity of Canopy,” which aimed to incorporate solar power into the space.

wednesday, October 28, 2015

the Rice Thresher

NEWS

NEWS IN BRIEF Injury-prevention sleeve design wins RECESS pitch competition Rice had recess for the first time last week, but not in the traditional sense. The university partnered with RECESS, an entrepreneurial festival, on Oct. 22 to hold a pitch competition, networking event, and speakers from the business world.

The winner of the pitch competition was Ziel Solutions, founded by Will Rice College juniors Senthil Natarajan and Sid Richardson College junior Alex Dzeda. The two designed a wearable sleeve with built-in sensors designed to help baseball pitchers avoid injury.

Natarajan and Dzeda won an all-expensespaid trip to Los Angeles in January for the RE-

CESS Field Trip. They will attend workshops from startup professionals and compete against finalists from other campuses.

RECESS was invited on campus as part of Entrepreneurship@Rice.

Dzeda said he appreciated the administration’s work to grow entrepreneurship at Rice.

“As far as future events, the more the merrier,” Dzeda said. “I’m interested to see what the official Entrepreneurship@Rice initiative brings, as it seems already that there is an uptick in the amount of events occurring, which I believe is a good thing.”

Read the full article at www.ricethresher.org.

Rice students hold demonstration after officer throws high schooler

tiffany yip/thresher

WordPress Founder Matt Mellunweg and After School Co-Founder Cory Levy shared thoughts on making impact as internet entrepreneurs at a keynote fireside chat moderated by CNET Senior Associate Editor Ashlee Clark Thompson. The event was part of a full-day RECESS idea festival.

New initiative to unify entrepreneurship groups Meghana Pannala Thresher Staff

Rice University has launched a brand new entrepreneurship initiative, dubbed Entrepreneurship@Rice, led by associate professor of finance and entrepreneurship Yael Hochberg. The initiative’s kickoff event, RECESS, brought nationally renowned businesspeople, including WordPress founder Matt Mullenwag, to campus on Oct. 22.

The goal of this initiative, according to Hochberg, is to coordinate entrepreneurial groups on campus, including the Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship, Rice Launch, the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Business Entrepreneurship Club and the Rice Center for Engineering Leadership, and serve as an umbrella organization. “[The initiative] means identifying what we were missing, plugging those holes, and enhancing what we have,” Hochberg said.

Senthil Natarajan, managing director of Rice Launch, an undergraduate organization that encourages and enables entrepreneurial ventures among Rice students, believes students are bombarded with conflicting information about entrepreneurship at Rice.

“The organizations already fit together fairly well; we serve distinct functions and distinct audiences,” Natarajan, a Will Rice College junior, said. “The trouble has always been communicating that fit to the rest of campus. I’m hoping the initiative can serve to unify this messaging and branding.”

Rice Launch is often the first point of contact for undergraduates and non-business graduate students who want to get involved with entrepreneurship, according to Natarajan.

“We host events and serve as more of an around-the-year touch point,” he said.

The Jones School Entrepreneurship Club, led by President Alexander Wesley, serves a purpose similar to Rice Launch except that it is geared towards MBA students.

Wesley said he is excited about the new initiative, believing it will promote a spirit of entrepreneurship on campus.

“I think Yael Hochberg has a great vision for the program,” Wesley said.

Hochberg, who was brought on campus specifically to build a comprehensive entrepreneurship program, has also aided in building the entrepreneurship program at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management and serves as a research affiliate to MIT’s Sloan School of Management.

Entrepreneurship@Rice will add courses for both undergraduate and graduate students, including more courses like Foundations of Entrepreneurship (BUSI 462). Hochberg said many more courses will be added in the near future, with the goal of creating a comprehensive entrepreneurship program that includes both classroom and experiential learning.

Natarajan said he would also like to see the initiative create a physical space for entrepreneurs.

“Scientists have labs, engineers have the [Oshman Engineering Design Kitchen], but entrepreneurs don’t really have a place to go,” Natarajan said.

Kerri Smith, associate managing director of Rice Alliance, said she wants to see the initiative encourage entrepreneurship among all students to enhance their education by providing them with more opportunities and exposure.

“The initiative brings a new level of energy,” Smith said. “We are hoping to tap into any and all students who are interested in this area and make their experience better.

Entrepreneurship@Rice also includes the creation of the new McNair Center, a policy research center for entrepreneurship, to expand Rice’s program outside of the business, engineering and natural science schools.

According to Hochberg, the initiative will not only prepare students who want to start their own companies, but also prepare all students for a more dynamic labor market.

“You have to understand how to find the opportunities that lead you to things that you want to do, what is meaningful to you,” Hochberg said.

Students will hold a demonstration on Friday at 11:30 p.m. in the academic quad following an incident of a school sheriff ’s deputy throwing and dragging a black female student at Spring Valley High School in South Carolina.

Wiess College senior Blaque Robinson, one of the organizers, said the demonstration will involve black women linking arms in solidarity, with black men and allies participating in other ways. There will be music, spoken word poetry and signs about violence against black females.

“The demonstration is about bringing visibility to the struggle uniquely faced by black women that fail to be addressed in the main-

stream versions of the #blacklivesmatter movement,” Robinson said.

Robinson said the event serves as a lead-up to the Channelling Passion Into Action Conference this spring. The event and conference are housed under the Office of Multicultural Affairs.

Videos of the incident have gone viral since they were released on Monday night. News outlets reported that the student refused the teacher’s request to leave the classroom, following which a white sheriff ’s deputy, who also served as a football team coach, wrapped his arm around the student’s neck and flipped her out of her seat.

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4

‘It’s Up To Us’ SA meeting problematic Sexual assault should not be associated with NOD This year, the release and discussion of the Survey of Unwanted Sexual Experiences results have bled into talks that precede the yearly Night of Decadence party. As a coincidence, in the week leading up to NOD, residential colleges are simultaneously discussing sexual assault and consent in both SUSE and NOD talks (see p. 1).

By incorporating discussion of sexual assault into the NOD talk, colleges are making a false equivocation between the sexually liberating function of NOD and sexual danger.

Discussing the two together, rather than being educational and preventional, instead creates false expectations and associations.

Until data shows that sexual assault occurs more frequently at NOD, it should be treated the same as any other public party. By tying sexual assault to a party that, when at its best, celebrates sexuality and body positivity, colleges are not only forming problematic associations, but are also detracting from the reality that sexual assault occurs on other public party dance floors regardless of one’s manner of dress as well as outside the context of public parties entirely. This further reinforces the damaging stereotype that lack of clothing and lust is a reason for sexual assault.

This does not mean that we should ditch education about sexuality and consent altogether. Instead, these discussions should be ongoing and independent of conversations that are embedded in specific contexts and experiences. Discussions on sexual assault should not be paired with pre-existing popular events or free televisions to be well-attended — this topic deserves undivided attention.

These discussions have also revealed another troubling tendency at Rice: the division into gender-binaried groups whenever sex is discussed. Supporters claim that these separations allow for men and women to speak without fear of judgment or repercussion, but this argument not only assumes a gender binary, but also a heterosexual framework for all sexual activity. It often projects males as being threatened by talks on sexual assault, when we haven’t had enough integrated conversations on sexual assault as a student body to even know whether men are feeling attacked.

There may be times and places for these gender divisions, but sexual assault education and discussion are not among them. It is important that Rice students of all genders and sexual identities receive the same information while also engaging in cross-gender and cross-sexuality discussions of these topics. In this sense, enforcing gender divisions both marginalizes individuals who do not conform to gender binaries and occludes potentially transformative understandings.

Rice: We can have better discussions about sexuality and consent. The first step, as we approach NOD, is to be mindful of the potentially harmful associations, exclusions, and assumptions the structures of our conversations enforce.

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

Editorial Staff Andrew Ta* Editor in Chief Yasna Haghdoost* Managing Editor Miles Kruppa* Senior Editor news Anita Alem* Editor Drew Keller* Editor Andrew Ligeralde Asst. Editor Amber Tong Asst. Editor Justin Park Designer

“Rice students are apathetic.” We’ve heard this lamentable statement in a thousand different contexts, from social justice movements to Student Association elections. I disagree. I’ve seen incredibly passionate student-led dialogue and action. However, the examples that come to mind — Baker lunch restrictions, college president resignations or the changing Alcohol Policy — are immediate issues, with immediate consequences to members of the Rice campus.

It’s much more difficult to incite a population of busy college students to address systemic racism in the criminal justice system than to limit a servery’s hours. Yet sexual assault is equally an immediate issue directly affecting all of us — the statistics from the Survey on Unwanted Sexual Experiences results represent real humans in our campus community. They are us, our roommates, our classmates and our peers.

From the moment Rice released the SUSE results, I’ve heard countless people remark that sexual assault is a huge problem, but Rice apathy will keep us from doing anything about it. Contrary to this assumption, I saw passionate students jump to action to discuss the root causes of sexual assault and brainstorm initiatives Rice can take to address it. As the current directors of the Rice Women’s Resource Center, Cristell Perez and I quickly organized a discussion two days after the SUSE results were released. Expecting a mere handful of people on such short notice and without any free food as bait, we were pleasantly surprised when around 30 students showed up, sat in a circle and had a meaningful, productive dialogue for over two hours. That discussion generated many new initiatives, including Jazz Silva’s “Critical Thinking in Sexuality” course.

Rice students cannot be written off as apathetic. We do care deeply about our peers and

I have seen that repeatedly expressed. Yet at the “It’s Up to Us” SA meeting two weeks later, I felt like our campus took a step backward.

Free food is ubiquitous at Rice — it’s rare to find an event on campus without free food to lure attendees — but that does not mean food should be the event’s focus. The SA Facebook advertisement for the discussion insinuated otherwise, blaring, “IT’S UP TO US” in letters made out of pepperoni pizza. The Facebook event description reads, “Because we value your voice, the college with the highest turnout (based on college size) will receive a new 50” flat screen.” The SA automatically assumed that Rice students are apathetic and require huge prizes (a pizza party and a flatscreen TV competition) to attend a discussion over a serious issue deeply affecting our community. We should not (and do not) need to be bribed with pizza and a free TV to attend a campus discussion over sexual assault. At the end of the meeting, people started screaming for their college members to sign-in so they could win the TV. The message was clear: Rice students care more about pizza and a TV than the wellbeing of their friends and peers. I left the Grand Hall feeling immensely frustrated.

The SA meeting felt like a purely symbolic move, a political checkbox so we can marvel that over 300 students attended a discussion about sexual assault. The “discussion” was merely a string of seven or eight unrelated comments, not a productive space of reflection, dialogue and action. It is impossible to have meaningful and inclusive dialogue when 300 people sit facing the stage rather than one another. Considering the attendance of several leaders of student organizations, including the Queer Resource Center, the RWRC, the SA Wellbeing Committee and the STRIVE Coalition, all of whom have

already been working to address sexual assault on campus, this event was a massive missed opportunity to break into smaller groups and have truly meaningful and productive discussion.

If “It’s Up To Us” accomplished anything, it served its symbolic purpose in keeping sexual assault in the campus consciousness. Residential colleges are beginning to have their own discussions. Students are unafraid to problematize and criticize other discussion formats and philosophies. Campus leaders are mobilizing and collaborating in truly remarkable ways.

The Rice administration is also being incredibly supportive; we cannot take that for granted.

Administrations at several other universities still refuse to acknowledge the prevalence of sexual assault or do not network with student leaders to implement meaningful initiatives.

Believing “Rice apathy” will prevent any real change becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. We must stop using food and prizes to bribe students to care, and instead foster a campus culture where we participate in discussions because we deeply care about our peers’ wellbeing. Ultimately, we must work together as a community to have the meaningful and productive dialogue that addressing the issue of campus sexual assault requires. It’s up to us.

Sam Love is a Rice Women’s Resource Center co-director and Lovett College senior.

Halloween night can be fun for everyone

One of the biggest reasons I love Rice University is its value of diversity. As Halloween approaches, what to do on one of the semester’s biggest nights dominates dinner table chatter. Since many of us come from different backgrounds and have varying ideas of fun, it is important to embrace each other and the decisions we make.

No group on campus should hold a higher morale or standard above the student body, except maybe Student Judicial Programs (ba-dum-tss!).

Jokes aside, each student holds the opportunity to go to an event and judge whether or not they feel comfortable to stick around or leave without a sound. A student should not feel compelled to hold other students in contempt for not embracing their preferences. For instance, some people like ketchup. I hate the damn condiment. My blood would boil if some person shoved ketchup in my face. Likewise, I would surely be exiled into oblivion if I eliminated ketchup from the face of the planet. Moral of the story: There are different tastes for different buds, and that is A-okay!

Luckily for Rice students, our plethora of Halloween events can satisfy even the pickiest of buds! If you love campus traditions and itch for some zesty liberation, running the annual Baker 13 Halloween Run on Oct. 30 (as to not interfere with Night of Decadence) would be a great fit for you! I ran my freshman year with a group of friends to support the Naked for Nourish fundraising and see what the big hullabaloo was about.

Now, I have asthma, bad knees and a doofy run, so I walked with an inhaler in one hand and a shaving cream bottle in the other. What does this all

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mean? No matter how awkward or athletically inept you are, you can still feel the brisk air on your caboose and run with your bits loose!

If running naked with shaving cream, blanketed by the cover of night, is not your thing, perhaps pajamas and actual blankets would suit your fancy at Sid Richardson College’s Night of Innocence on Saturday night. In the comfort of Sid Rich’s cozy commons, the event caters to your inner child and offers the comforts of Disney movies, delicious snacks and pleasant camaraderie!

The theme this year is rather clever too: “Tots and Tottleresses: Count my Crayons.”

In the same vein of tame, the Evening of Elegance in the Jamail Plaza (the space between the Jones School of Business and Baker Institute with the fountain — yeah, I did not know it had an official name either) is a great way to dress up in your best outfit to swing the night away and feel like a classy lady or gent. Have trouble dancing? The event offers dance lessons to teach you the basics of impressing a future beau or quaintrelle, or just to feel awesome about yourself.

Lastly, say you heard about the Night of Decadence and wondered whether or not you should check it out. My freshman year, I felt like it was necessary to don something super risque, wear heels, paint makeup on my face and pretend the cold air was not bothersome.

Now that I am a senior, I plan to paint my face green, wear snakes in my hair and look like the most heinous Medusa to fit the “Nods and Noddesses” theme. Just because NOD is known to be a lingerie party does not mean you must

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.

wear nipple pasties and a thong to be accepted.

You could wear an oversized onesie, a doofy umbrella hat and reflective goggles for all we care! Since we live on a campus that embraces quirkiness, people will most likely commend you for embracing your level of comfort and creativity. NOD is indeed known for being sexually charged, but, it is like any other public party: There is warm food, loud music and the opportunity to bust out your best dance moves with your friends. The only difference: Scantily clad partygoers. If this does not seem like your cup of ketchup, then dip your fries into what you deem better suited for your taste.

I believe Rice is a place for everyone to embrace themselves and their interests. So whether you embrace your body at Night of Decadence, feel sweet liberation in running Baker 13, swing the night away at Evening of Elegance or reconnect with your inner childhood at Night of Innocence, Halloween can be a wonderful holiday for every night owl.

Angela Masciale is a Hanszen College Senior and Hanszen College President

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 2015

Wednesday, October 28, 2015

OP-ED

the Rice Thresher

5

The measure of measures? A critical eye toward grades

During the 232 days HERO was in effect, 58 percent of reported cases of discrimination were based on race or national origin, 17 percent were gender based, 15 percent were based on age, 4 percent were based on disability, 4 percent were based on sexual orientation or gender identity and 2 percent were based on veteran status ... Houston needs a nondiscrimination ordinance because the absence of one affects a broad range of Houstonians.

Sarah Grefe Graduate student

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earn high marks as a by-product of your passion than for its own end.

All that said, I am not grade-shaming. Grades are important. They are a necessary stimulus in our education. Acquiring a good GPA takes dedication and effort and is commendable. But everyone thinks and learns differently, so how can you distill the uniqueness of each student’s approach to myriad distinct subjects into a unidimensional letter or number? In the end, grades are limited in telling us about a student’s true intellectual capabilities and potential for success. If I earn an A in my continental philosophy class while a classmate earns a B, does this mean I am now more able to understand Sartre than he is? If I earn an 80 in my biochemistry class while someone else earns 96, does this mean she is now 20 percent more likely than me to get published in Nature?

No, these are preposterous assumptions. This is why I maintain some skepticism towards grades.

There’s no need to get worked up over a B or C here or there, for they’re not value judgements on our worth or success as scholars. Better to relinquish the crippling neurosis over grades and just relish the phenomenal splendor of our education.

of academic and intellectual achievement. Brilliant artists and scientists such as George Bernard Shaw, Blaise Pascal, Thomas Edison and others performed mediocrely in school and commented on how the rigid path to high marks often stifles creativity and unconventional insight.

Large portions of our grades are derived from timed evaluations. Draw the reactions of the TCA cycle and include mechanisms (You have 10 minutes). Write an essay explaining carpe diem in the poems of Robert Herrick (You have 12 minutes). List and describe the implications of three classic conformity and obedience studies (You have eight minutes). For some subjects, this rapid regurgitation works perfectly fine. But for other disciplines, true comprehension and intellectual growth require students to engage in slow, deliberate contemplation — a luxury not afforded by exams. Sure, papers can offer these types of learning to some extent, but our tendency to postpone writing them until a last-minute mad dash, confident this method can result in a decent grade, unfortunately defeats the potential gains from such assignments.

And now to address the gargantuan elephant in the tiny room — that grade fixation is a result of the system, a system imposed by medical, law or other postgraduate school admissions. But here’s another way to think about it: It’s difficult to develop true enthusiasm for material taught in a class if the grade is the foremost concern, and I contend that genuine passion, something impossible to feign and easy to discern, is ultimately more gratifying in the long run and more powerful in getting you where you want to go. Moreover, it’s more effortless and rewarding to

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Without HERO, many students who would add to our community may not even consider coming to a school in a city that doesn’t treat them as equal to their peers based on an arbitrary and uncontrollable classifications of worth. HERO would impact all of us directly.

Even if you won’t suffer from discrimination, your classmates, professors and friends will.

Henry Bair is a Baker College junior.

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ONLINE

To read the full version of these three op-eds concerning the HERO legislation, visit ricethresher.org/ opinion

criticism focuses on how harshly professors grade rather than how well they teach the material.

But can grades limit learning? Some professors have expressed to me their disappointment in students’ unwillingness to challenge course material or how it is presented. Maybe grades have something to do with this. Grades lead us to believe there is one correct way to obtain the one correct answer, and this traps our thinking in a very small box as we desperately try to figure out the work needed to meet the professors’ expectations. This mode of reasoning makes perfunctory study easy.

Rarely do we question the purpose of our learning or whether there are better ways to learn. What, ultimately, do we attain after reducing a class to periodic cramming and “going through the motions”?

Not much, I think, besides perhaps a decent grade, but certainly at the cost of originality, individuality and cogitation.

What if there’s an even more serious intrinsic flaw with grades? Grades are meant to measure content mastery, but I suspect many professors themselves dislike the grading process. In fact, a professor once told me her irritation with it all: How should one weigh accomplishment, effort and improvement? Should there be a curve? If so, how should the standards be set? What about grade quotas? These concerns unveil the complications of setting benchmarks for grades, to the point that they become almost arbitrary. These benchmarks are especially dubious in the humanities, which, unlike the sciences, deal not so much with right and wrong facts as with strong and weak arguments. From the study of literature to physics, grades are an attempt to provide an explicit but faulty index for the ambiguous interpretations

Maurice Frediere Duncan College freshman

In a country embedding “the golden rule” of “treat others how you want to be treated” within every elementary schooler, the message still rings hollow. The democratic ideal ... is pushed aside in favor of societal prejudice and the desire to get ahead. Anyone can be discriminated against and that is why we need a hero. Specifically, Houston needs HERO.

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So many of us Rice students have an interesting, almost masochistic, relationship with grades.

We burden ourselves immensely with them and even claim to enjoy doing so. It’s disturbing how readily our grades shape our self-esteem. Somehow, we’ve convinced ourselves a good grade is a statement on our value, in a moral or metaphysical sense. Good grades lead to good postgraduate schools, which lead to high-paying or world-shaking jobs. This haunting sense of having our lives dictated by a fraction of a digit constantly lingers on the edge of our consciousness. Compounding to this encumbrance is our distorted perspective of what “doing well” means. For many Rice students, “doing well” equals nothing less than an A-, perhaps due to relativism: Last semester, more than 30 percent of all students obtained a GPA greater than 3.88. That’s an absurdly high number. If many of those around you are getting A’s, then getting a B, a very good grade at almost any other school (especially considering that most Rice courses are more rigorous than their counterparts in other colleges), doesn’t seem like much of an achievement.

More troubling than the unrealistic standards we attach to grades are the ways grades change how we look at learning. A professor described to me how the assignment of grades effectively erects a wall between her and students: The first few weeks have an atmosphere of genuine curiosity and hunger for knowledge, when professors are collaborators as students embark on an invigorating intellectual exploration. However, as soon as the first grades are distributed, professors abruptly become opponents impeding academic success. The end-of-term instructor evaluations sadly reflect this mindset, as the preponderance of

David Cirillo Sid Richardson College sophomore

Committee Updates paid for by the student association

Member of the month: Blessing Falade Blessing Falade is the SA Campus/Staff Appreciation Chair and a sophomore at Baker College. In the past few weeks, she has been working closely with her committee of NSRs to have the SA sponsor a staff appreciation dinner for the Housing and Dining staff next semester. Additionally, her committee has been making appreciation posters for the H&D staff at each college. Keep up the great work, Blessing! courtesy rice student association

Recently Approved New Historian position Clubs Here are some recently approved clubs on campus! You can find their contact information at studentcenter.rice.edu END7 Funkonomics Crew MoneyThink Rice Chinese Theater Rice Jewish Club Science Olympiad Alumni Association Study Buddy Club Rice Urbanists Rice Wildlife Conservation Corps Rice AllStars Women’s Club Lacrosse Matchbox Club MS150 Team Cycling Club

The SA is looking for a Historian! If you’re interested in taking pictures and recording a part of the Student Association’s history, email sasec@rice.edu for information about how to get involved!

SA Initiave Fund applications The Student Association Initiative Fund was established through a vote of the student body to increase opportunities on campus. The purpose of the fund is to further the interests of the student body and the Rice University community in general by providing a funding source for organizations. We hope to support student-related programming that enhance campus spirit, expand educational and cultural opportunities, and provide opportunities that otherwise seem valuable to students. Applications for the second round are due October 28th at 11:59 PM. Check sa.rice. edu/initiatives/initiativefund for more details.

Staff/Campus Appreciation Committee ò Making posters for the H&D staff at their respective colleges ò Committee members volunteering at the H&D Tailgate on Oct. 30 ò Meeting with H&D Administration to discuss possibility of an SA-sponsored H&D Appreciation Dinner Academics Committee ò Centralized book exchange to make it easier and more convenient for students to purchase and sell used books- Currently, student input and suggestions are being gathered ò Lecture events to increase interactions with professors outside of office hours.

The first event is tentatively scheduled for Nov. 19 from 7:00-8:30 pm. There will be a professor from a STEM department and one from social sciences or humanities ò Increasing the number of course syllabi available to students on Esther and courses.rice.edu Wellbeing Committee ò Rice, You’re Not Alone Facebook campaign has been launched to promote campus dialogue ò Wellbeing Committee with campus wide members has been established

Future Alumni Committee ò Life after Rice Lunch ò Student Spotlight in Alumni Newsletter Student Life Committee ò Campus Bike Security Project: sent out survey to gauge student interest in improving bike security around campus.

75 percent of respondents agreed that Rice should look into ways to reduce bike theft/improve bike security. Will present the results to RUPD and the administration to determine next steps ò Campus Bike Share Project: working to implement a bike sharing program like BCycle on campus to develop a convenient way for students to rent bikes to easily get around campus or get around the areas close to campus like the museum district ò Working on improving Wi-Fi coverage across campus and easier ways to report bad Wi-Fi to IT. Also looking at the possibility of replacing ID swipes with card proximity taps ò Campus-wide Ambassador Program: working to create a campus-wide new student ambassador program similar to the one for NSRs. Currently determining best practices for the program ò Looking into the possibility of more ways to get coffee into Fondren ò Working to create an online reservation system for music rooms in Shepherd

Be sure to put these upcoming Senate meeting & locations in your calendar! All meetings are Wednesdays, 8-9 pm.

OCT. 28 NOV. 4 NOV. 11 NOV. 18

Hanszen Lower Commons Wiess Commons Will Rice Commons Baker Commons

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OP-ED

the Rice Thresher

Wednesday, October 28, 2015

arts

ENTERTAINMENT Photographer and filmmaker Bill Daniel sets up one-night pop-up events with a portable “gallery,” consisting of: Lighting

7

Concert preview: November’s top tickets Lydia Dick

A standing wall with photos on both sides

Thresher Staff

Who: Josh Garrels Where: The Ballroom at Warehouse Live When: Nov. 7, 8:30 p.m.

Tickets: $19 general admission on ticketfly.com Josh Garrels has long been talked about in the Portland folk scene for his thoughtful, reflective lyricism and vocal talent. Expect to hear pleasant, soulful tracks from his latest album “Home,” his fifth full-length studio album released under Small Voice records, a label he cofounded in 2005.

Sound system

Bill Daniel’s ‘Tri-X Noise’ illuminates Rice Media Center Lenna Mendoza Thresher Staff

Photographer and filmmaker Bill Daniel made Rice the next stop in his “Tri-X Noise” tour on Friday night. The event centered around the titular collection of Daniel’s photographs which documents punk and skater scenes, among other subcultures. The event also included performances by two bands.

As with the “Tri-X Noise” tour, Daniel often chooses to present his art in this mobile format. For “Tri-X Noise,” he sets up a folding gallery wall, also providing lighting and a sound system. With these minimal elements, every space on the tour is transformed into a replication of Daniel’s comprehensive vision. He placed lights on the floor, without overhead lighting, to ensure that the viewers shade whatever photo they are standing in front of. The music began heavy and atmospheric before turning into the punk rock that was featured in the photos.

“The methodology of touring and doing a one-night show is definitely inspired by the way bands work,” Daniel said. “The visual art model is based on gallery shows. Let’s just make every night the week of the opening, we’ll just move the show to another venue.”

The photographs span 30 years, starting with Daniel’s earliest work, shooting the punk shows that he attended as a young man in Austin.

“Going to punk shows was kind of the gateway for me into the world of ideas and art. My first project was shooting bands, which quickly turned into just shooting audience,” Daniel said.

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

The bridging of the photos taken in the 1980s and the contemporary photos is seamless; each photograph was taken using the same camera, lens, film and flash. Upon initial viewing it is difficult to discern old from new, but upon closer examination Daniel finds interesting disparities.

“Looking at people through the exact same apparatus 30 years later, you can really see the differences,” Daniel said. “Especially this type of photography, it’s kind of detail-rich.”

The photographs are black and white, high contrast and center around the subject of the body. People dance, perform, skate and pose.

“It’s interesting to still find that [the lens and the light are] exactly the same even though the people are a little different,” Daniel said. “Here’s the human form six feet away from a camera and a flash.”

As a documentary photographer and filmmaker, Daniel said he finds himself in an interesting position in the communities that he follows, both an observer and a participant.

“Being there with a camera you’re in another zone,” he said, regarding shooting punk shows. “You become an observer in a way, but the way I moved and participated in the crowd ... was kind of like both.”

The event also featured his film “Who is Bozo Texino?” which explores the nomadic life of freight train riders, who refer to themselves as hobos. In these communities, many individuals adopt monikers, which become their names and are used to sign graffiti boxcar art. The practice involves drawing a given image dozens to hundreds of times, on the boxcars of different trains that they

take across the country. The film aims to discover the identity of one artist in particular, the elusive Bozo Texino, whose identity is shrouded in mystery by many contradicting accounts.

“The train film is kind of a life work,” Daniel said. “It gave me a platform to keep building as a working artist.”

It took Daniel 16 years to make the film, riding the rails, interviewing freight riders and stopping every so often to work as a bike messenger. The documentary hands the task of speech over to those in front of the camera. There is no narration, and Daniel’s voice is rarely heard. Shots taken from the insides of boxcars and the sounds of trains speeding along give the viewer a sense of constant motion, a vague taste of a life of endless travel.

Daniel’s broader body of work takes interest not only in subculture, but also in counterculture.

“I feel like culturally, we’ve destroyed the idea of one hegemonic central culture,“ Daniel said. “What’s not really present in these two pieces is people who are living in response to the crisis of our time, which is not just climate change, but a whole industrial collapse.”

Other pieces center around landscapes and how they’ve changed; one film focuses on the expansion of a Texas plastics plant and how it damages the local shrimping community.

While “Tri-X Noise” was a one-night event, it should be reason enough to keep an eye out for arts events at Rice and in Houston. As is evident from this show, there is a rich variety in art in these communities, and Houston’s art offers something for everyone.

Who: Chance the Rapper Where: Warehouse Live When: Nov. 12, 8 p.m.

Tickets: $35 general admission on livenation.com Chancelor Bennet first garnered attention with his sophomore mixtape “Acid Rap,” which is full of catchy, upbeat tracks that were the perfect soundtrack to summer 2013. His most recent collaboration project “The Social Experiment” released a full-length album “Surf” this summer and was met with plenty of critical praise. You’ve probably heard the album’s most popular track “Sunday Candy” playing in Coffeehouse. Since the start of his “Family Matters” tour in October, rumors have been flying that he’s been previewing new material and that a third mixtape is in the works.

Who: Leon Bridges Where: House of Blues When: Nov. 13, 7:30 p.m.

0see CONCERTS, page 8

MONTROSE CRAWL

RACE FOR THE CURE

EXTRAORDINARY TALES

JOURNEY TO THE UNDERWORLD

If NOD’s not really your thing but you’re still down to go out on Halloween, head out to the Montrose Crawl. Hundreds of Houstonians clad in all sorts of crazy costumes will march from bar to bar. You can even feel good about crawling — a portion of each bar’s profits will be donated to the Houston Area Women’s Center.

Want to burn off some of that Halloween candy? The best way to do it is by running the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure on Halloween morning. The race, which raises money for breast cancer treatment, starts at 8 a.m. and the course will run through the beautiful Sam Houston Park. Entry fees run from $15 to $30.

Need something creepy to get you in the Halloween spirit? The Museum of Fine Arts is screening “Extraordinary Tales,” a feature-length film of Edgar Allen Poe’s best-known stories, narrated by horror legends like Bela Lugosi, Christopher Lee and Guillermo del Toro. Tickets are $2 and screenings run from Oct. 30-Nov. 1.

On Oct. 30, Myth Kafe is hosting a cultural crossover festival for Halloween. Blending elements from Day of the Dead and the Greek story of Persephone’s trip to Hades, the event will feature astrologers, tarot readings and a land of the dead costume contest.

Various bars in Montrose Montrose @ Westheimer montrosecrawl.com

Sam Houston Park 1000 Bagby Street komen-houston.org

Brown Auditorium Theater at MFAH 1001 Bissonnet Street mfah.org/films

Myth Kafe 1730 JeffersonStreet mythkafe.com

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A&E

0 CONCERTS from page 7 Tickets: $38 general admission on stubhub.com 25-year-old Texas native Leon Bridges has a voice that makes you feel like riding your bike around the inner loop on a sunny day. His latest album “Coming Home” is a throwback to oldschool R&B, complete with female backup singers, organ accompaniments and a distinct, low-fi quality. Feel-good and catchy, the album has received a lot of buzz over the past few months.

Tickets for his shows have been selling out fast so make sure to buy them soon.

Wednesday, October 28, 2015

the Rice Thresher than on his latest mixtape, “It’s Better This Way.” Coming off of a year that saw him earning rave reviews from critics and fellow rappers alike (A$AP Rocky even admitted that K.R.I.T. owned him on his own track), the Mississippi native is expected to light up the night with his G-funk-tinged style and devoted southern following.

Who: BIG K.R.I.T. Where: Warehouse Live When: Nov. 24, 8 p.m.

Tickets: $27 general admission on ticketfly.com Big K.R.I.T.’s been in the game for a while, but rarely has he been as good at anchoring a track

jeff fitlow/thresher

Edward Castillo became executive chef of South Servery this year after a long stay at West Servery. “Chef Ed,” a Rice veteran, says he constantly looks for new ways to innovate.

Rice chefs innovate for a diverse culinary experience Jennifer Dawkins For the Thresher

College is an experience like no other. Suddenly introduced to diverse new peers and taking classes in a plethora of unfamiliar topics, we inevitably gain new knowledge and perspectives.

At Rice, even the chefs are dedicated to diversifying our experience, and they do so through the food they serve.

Edward Castillo is one of these Rice chefs.

Having worked at Rice for over 15 years, he has seen the campus expand and many kitchens built from the ground up. Currently, he works at South Servery after a three-year stay at West Servery. He is still innovating, with a goal of enticing new students to come to his kitchen and ask about the food.

“Nowadays we’re like, ‘Okay, we’ve done this recipe, let’s tweak the name,’” Castillo said. “When you read [the new name] on the website, people see it and they’re like, ‘Let’s go check it out.’”

Castillo continually incorporates puns and alliterations into his dish names. He chooses fun titles like “All The Pasta-bilities” and “Shredded Chicken with South Servery Style Sofritas.”

And why is it so important that people come and try his food?

“It’s to get people to say, ‘Hey, what’s this?’”

Castillo said. “There were people who didn’t know what jicama was. People didn’t know what yucca fries were, or a yucca. [The names are] to get people to say, ‘What is this, I’ve never heard of this?’”

Think about it — how many different types of food have you tried since you’ve been at Rice?

Compared to other universities, where students move off campus after a year and eat mostly microwaveable meals or fast food, Rice is unique.

Many students eat all three meals from the

servery for four years straight. Thus, the chefs have an opportunity to expose students to new food and different aspects of food preparation, which they definitely take advantage of.

As Castillo pointed out, the head chefs’ different backgrounds allow them to impart a unique character to their serveries. Whether Latin, Middle Eastern, or Midwestern or Southern, each head chef adds a unique style to the overall eating experience at Rice.

Yet, the head chefs aren’t the only ones conjuring up the dishes we eat. The chefs continually draw on the ideas and preferences of their staff, meaning that the food students eat is inspired by many different sources. As he comes up with the weekly menus, Chef Kyle Hardwick, executive chef of Seibel Servery, said, “I’ll ask the staff, ‘Look, be thinking of this for next week. Come bring me some ideas.’

That way I can incorporate what they want to cook as well.”

Castillo engages his staff in the same way.

“For me,” he said, “they’re working real hard in there every day, so I’ll ask them, what do you want to do ... and how are you going to prepare it?”

The chefs take students’ ideas as well.

“I’ll ask the students, if I can catch one, ‘Hey, I’m thinking about this, or about this dessert; what do you think?” Hardwick said.

So if there’s a dish you eat at home all the time but have yet to see in your servery, just ask. You could end up letting the rest of the student body get a taste of your own personal experience.

Eating is a social experience, and through exposing students to a variety of foods from many different sources, the chefs at Rice University facilitate students’ ability to connect with others through food.

“It’s all to get people engaged,” Hardwick said. “To get them to talk more about the food.”

9 Soccer falls to C-USA champ North Texas Michael Kidd Thresher Staff

sean chu/thresher

Redshirt senior quarterback Driphus Jackson evades pressure during a 38-31 victory over the United States Military Academy. Jackson led the offense on a game-winning drive with just over two minutes remaining, culminating in a touchdown pass to junior wide receiver Zach Wright. Rice is now 4-3 on the year.

Jackson leads game winning drive against Army Aniket Tolpadi Thresher Staff

On the heels of 267 passing yards from redshirt senior quarterback Driphus Jackson and two key fourth-down stops by the defense, the Rice University football team survived a late rally from the United States Military Academy and inclement weather to improve to 4-3 (2-1) on the season.

The Owls started quickly on Families Weekend, scoring touchdowns on their first two drives and keeping the Black Knights out of the endzone in their first three, much to the delight of the 24,409 fans in attendance.

The game, however, was far from over. The Owls were unable to deliver the knockout punch early, and Army’s triple-option offense started clicking in the second quarter. The teams then engaged in a back-and-forth affair, trading points until the Black Knights finally tied the game at 31 with 2:13 game to go, and the game appeared to be headed for overtime.

The Owls had other ideas. Led by Jackson and redshirt junior running back Darik Dillard, Rice marched down the field quickly, with a 75yard, 1:49 drive capped off by a 12-yard touchdown reception by redshirt junior wide receiver Zach Wright. It was the second consecutive week that the Owls needed a late fourth-quarter drive to win a critical game.

Head Coach David Bailiff was thrilled with his team’s final drive, and said his quarterback came through in the clutch.

“For Driphus [Jackson] to move the offense down the field and to score with 24 seconds left in the game is big-time,” Bailiff said. “There’s

something special about a fifth-year quarterback, and there’s something special about Driphus [Jackson]. He likes those moments and they’re when he’s at his best.”

Jackson said he credits Wright and Coach Larry Edmondson for making the call and the play, respectively, that won the game.

“Coach Edmondson made a great call, and it’s something he preaches to me all the time at practice: The most unguarded spot on the football field is right up under the goal post,” Jackson said. “I was just trying to get the ball to the back of the end zone and just put some air under it. It was an ugly ball, but Zach came down with it.”

As pleased as the Owls were with their offensive performance on the final drive of the game, they did note the need to improve defensively going forward. While they were able to make key stops when necessary, they did give up considerable yardage, according to redshirt senior defensive tackle Ross Winship.

“We just did our jobs the best we could the entire time,” Winship said. “The couple of times we weren’t doing our jobs, Army really gashed us. Those big plays that they had led to scores.

We have to stay on top of our jobs at all times.”

Jackson said the defense’s play compensated for the offense’s inability to score in the second and third quarters.

“We made it tough on them for the second and third quarter, because we weren’t really putting up points like we anticipated,” Jackson said. “Those guys did a good job of getting stops and getting us the ball.”

The Owls now await a Conference USA West Division showdown with Louisiana Tech

University this coming week. The Bulldogs are perennially a strong contender in Conference USA, and this year is no different. Led by former University of Florida redshirt senior quarterback Jeff Driskel, Louisiana Tech boasts a high-powered offense that averages 37.8 points per game, ranked No. 22 in the NCAA. Junior wide receiver Trent Taylor has also emerged, as his 861 receiving yards to date rank eighth in the FBS. With weapons at every skill position on offense, the Bulldogs will be a test for the Owls defense.

If Rice needed additional motivation, it only needs to look back to the last time these two teams met: In the final regular season game of 2014, the two teams met in Ruston, Louisiana with a berth in the Conference USA title game on the line. The Owls, however, had its worst defensive outing since 1977 and lost the game 76-31.

In the preseason, redshirt junior linebacker Alex Lyons said the loss motivated the Owls throughout much of the offseason.

“There’s nothing more motivated when you see that clip [of the 2014 matchup against Louisiana Tech] and the highlights of that clip,” Lyons said. “You never want that to happen.”

The Owls will be highly motivated to avenge last season’s loss to Louisiana Tech this week.

If they are able to do so, they would pick up a huge conference win that will make their path to the Conference USA title game considerably clearer.

The Owls will look to extend their two-game winning streak and pick up their fifth in a nighttime home matchup with the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs at 7 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 30 in Rice Stadium.

While the remnants of Hurricane Patricia swept its way through the outskirts of Dallas, Texas, the Rice University and University of North Texas soccer teams were engaged in a Conference USA battle. In a game that saw warnings and yellow cards handed out on both sides, the Mean Green narrowly beat out Rice by a final score of 2-1.

With the defeat, the Owls slipped to fourth in the C-USA rankings with one game remaining on the schedule. Rice is currently 9-6-2 on the season (5-3-1 in CUSA) and have accumulated 16 points on the season, just two points behind secondplace Florida Atlantic University. With the win, North Texas clinched the regular-season title outright for the second consecutive season.

In a game played with temperatures in the low 50s along with swirling winds, the match got off to a rough start for the visiting Owls. In just the third minute of the match, North Texas received the ball and were set for a throw-in near goal. Once the ball was thrown back in play, North Texas immediately fired a shot that found the top corner of the net for the 1-0 advantage. In the 19th minute of play, North Texas added a second goal on a long-distance shot from roughly 35 yards out for the 2-0 lead. Rice was able to regroup defensively against North Texas’ offense and would settle for a 2-0 deficit into halftime.

In the second half, the Owls came back stronger and managed to take seven shots, four of which were saved by the Mean Green goalkeeper. Rice got on the board in the 72nd minute off a goal from sophomore forward Nia Stallings. Sophomore defender Aliza Wolfe chipped a dangerous ball into the box and Stallings was right to redirect the ball into the lower left-hand corner and cut the deficit in half. It was Stallings’ third goal on the season and the seventh of her Rice career.

As Rice pushed forward, another prime opportunity for goal was in the 77th minute when senior forward Lauren Hughes drove a shot at the North Texas goalkeeper from inside the box but was prevented from scoring the equalizing goal. Rice held the North Texas offense scoreless for the last 71 minutes of the match but were unable to claim the victory.

According to Hughes, North Texas’ home field advantage had a significant impact on the game.

“Going into this game, we knew that it was really important to be focused,” Hughes said. “It was their senior night and they had a really big crowd which made it intense and fun to compete out there,” Hughes said.

0see Soccer, page 10

Volleyball falls in five sets to Louisiana Tech Aaron Shi

For the Thresher

In a tight five-setter, the Rice University volleyball team surrendered a 2-1 set lead to Louisiana Tech University and fell short Sunday evening (21-25, 25-12, 25-16, 26-28, 13-15) at the Thomas Assembly Center.

Coming off a three-game winning streak and a convincing 3-0 win against Middle Tennessee State University, the Owls drop to a 16-8 overall record and 6-4 in conference play with this loss, placing them fifth in Conference USA standings.

0see Volleyball, page 10

10 SPORTS

the Rice Thresher

sean chu/thresher

Redshirt senior outside hitter Noelle Whitlock sets the ball in a 3-2 victory over the University of North Texas. Rice most recently lost 3-2 at Louisiana Tech University; the team is now 16-8 on the season.

Wednesday, October 28, 2015

0from VOLLEYBALL page 9

0from SOCCER page 9

From a purely statistical perspective, the Owls looked dominant, controlling the total kills (64-58), hitting percentage (.244-.199), assists (59-53), digs (77-62) and blocks (10.0-9.0). Rice junior outside hitter Leah Mikesky led all players with 20 kills (.340) on 47 attacks, marking her fifth 20-plus kills game of the season, for 22.5 points. Sophomore setter Madison McDaniel and senior outside hitter Noelle Whitlock each contributed doubledoubles, notching 48 assists with 18 digs and 13 kills with 18 digs, respectively.

On the defensive end, sophomore middle blocker Portia Okafor recorded a match-high four blocks while posting up 10 kills (.471). However, a balanced attack from the Lady Techsters proved to be too much with four players in 10-plus kills territory, led by senior outside hitter Helena Gunnarsdottir, who had 14 kills and 15.5 points.

According to Head Coach Genny Volpe, the team had a lackluster performance.

“We were missing a focus and killer instinct today, and it caused us to lose a critical match,” Volpe said. “We have to mature as a team.”

Despite losing the first set 25-21, the Owls rallied to a 2-1 lead by taking the second (25-12) and third (25-16) sets with match-high percentages in sideouts (.83 and .70, respectively). Toward the end of the fourth set, the Owls held a commanding 20-14 lead and appeared to be taking home a fourth straight win but dropped 16 points in the next 20 to allow the Techsters to force a final fifth set. In the deciding fifth set, Rice jumped out to an early 11-7 lead, but Louisiana Tech returned the favor with a 8-2 run to take the match.

The Owls look to bounce back as they host the University of Southern Mississippi (21-7, 8-3) on Thursday at 6 p.m. and the C-USA leader No. 22 Western Kentucky (23-2, 10-0) on Saturday at 2 p.m. Both games will be played at Tudor Fieldhouse.

With the C-USA tournament vastly approaching, a rematch with North Texas is highly likely if the Owls wish to repeat as C-USA champions. Last season Rice defeated North Texas in the final round of the tournament.

According to Hughes, Rice should be able to beat North Texas if they play them again by not falling behind so early in the match.

“There is no reason we shouldn’t beat [North Texas] if we face them again,” Hughes said. “We had our chances and we dominated the second half …if we face them again, I think that we need to come out harder at the beginning but there is no reason we shouldn’t beat them.”

The Owls have one final regular season game yet to be played against the University of Texas, San Antonio. The game is pivotal because of how close the standings are in Conference USA between teams fighting to earn a spot in the conference tournament as well as teams looking to improve their seeding. Only four points separate No. 2 ranked FAU and No. 8 ranked Western Kentucky University.

Rice also will honor their seniors on Senior Day before the UTSA matchup on Thursday night at 7 p.m. The seniors graduating this year are goalkeeper Kara Dugall, forward Lauren Hughes, defender Jasmine Isokpunwu, forward Holly Hargreaves and midfielder Danielle Spriggs.

This set of seniors have been instrumental in establishing the brand of Rice Soccer not just in Conference USA but in circles around the nation. Last season, these players were part of a team that won a record-tying 14 games on the season and posted an undefeated home record of 6-02. Rice also won the Conference-USA tournament championship for the first time in school history.

The opening round of C-USA Championship is set to begin on Nov. 4 in Boca Raton, FL. The seeding of the tournament is yet to be determined.

Wednesday, October 28, 2015

SPORTS

the Rice Thresher

11

The Fifth Quarter A small fix to a bigger problem

catherine levins/thresher

On the fly

The Owls swim team competed against the University of Arkansas, University of Houston and University of the Incarnate Word on their way to a secondplace finish in the Rice Invitational. Sophomore Kiley Beall won the 100yard butterfly with a C-USA best 57.27 and added a third-place finish in the 200-yard butterfly with 2:04.23. Rice will next compete on Oct. 30 at home.

The Fifth Quarter is a column written by Sports Editor Evan Neustater. The opinions expressed in the column are solely his own.

Rice’s football attendance continues to be a problem. Many efforts have been made to try to remedy the issue, but the turnout has remained low. While this is, of course, a byproduct of Rice’s small size and general apathy, there is a relatively simple solution that would help the problem.

Stop scheduling intramural games during football games.

Seriously, it’s an easy fix and a very strange phenomena I’ve noticed through my years here. The athletic department is very aware of its lowly attendance figures: They’ve implemented all sorts of strategies to try to incentivize students to go to games.

Yet, somehow, IM games are still scheduled during these events. There needs to exist a greater degree of communication between the athletic department and intramurals.

Part of the problem is many of the students playing IM sports are the same students that want to go to sporting events. My freshman year, my freshman flag football team had a game scheduled during the RiceHouston football game, which was formerly our biggest rivalry game. Nearly everyone on the team wanted to watch game, so we had to make a special effort to get our game moved.

To this day, I see powderpuff games still

scheduled during football game times. Often, these games will be moved, but they are originally scheduled during these inopportune times. This encourages the entire powderpuff team, coaches and fans to miss the Rice game to do powderpuff.

Don’t get me wrong, I love powderpuff — I even help coach my college’s team. But Rice football should not have to compete with powderpuff and other IM sports for attendance. It is already a strange Rice-specific phenomenon, but it remains a very real issue.

Stop scheduling IM games during football games. The football schedule is released months in advance; there should be no excuse for accidental scheduling overlap.

While this won’t fix the larger issue, I believe it will be a step in the right direction. In the end, it will be a small, simple solution to a larger problem.

Evan Neustater is a McMurtry College junior and Thresher Sports Editor

12

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HE T T JUS

TIPS

Wednesday, October 28, 2015

the Rice Thresher

NOD is in a few days, and you havenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t quite perfected your NOD bod yet? Hey, we get it. The Rec is a scary place, full of very large and muscley people. But donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t sell yourself short. Heck, youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve been drinking mostly light beers, and sometimes you may even take the stairs. But itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s time to kick it into overdrive.

We give youâ&#x20AC;Ś

FEEL THE BERN

A Backpage guide to your 96-hour NOD Bod

DAY 1

DAY 4

First things first: Put a hold on your classes. Letâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s face it, students have priorities. And if you want the body of a Nod or Noddess by Saturday, youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re going to have to commit to training full-time.

Second: Begin your kegeling now. Right this second. Remember, â&#x20AC;&#x153;If you want that sexual tension, you best get to clenchin!â&#x20AC;? (Fellas, that means you, too!)

Third: Complete the following exercises.

WEDNESDAY

THURSDAY

FRIDAY

SATURDAY

Run hills on the Skyspace until RUPD inevitably arrives. Then, practice your wind sprints!

The cardio boost from this routine is ideal for shedding some extra pounds. And the genuine threat of arrest gives you just the incentive you need to work your tail oďŹ&#x20AC;! As a little bonus, donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t drink water before or after this workout. The dehydration will keep you slim and make pregaming a breeze.

As you settle in for your quiet, pre-pub keg stand, why not hurl that shell over your head and get a few overhead presses in?

Not only will this cancel out the calorie intake from sucking down all that beer, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a workout that doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t lose! Unless, of course, weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re talking about fat. Hereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the deal: You canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t stop lifting until you clear the keg. And as long as that keg is in the air, you should be squeezing out kegels in your underwear. Those 160.5 lb(eer)s will not only prepare you for flaunting your muscles in public, but train your liver to never quit, even when EMS is forcibly detaining you.

They changed the date, now you change the game. Instead of reaching for your favorite shaving cream before you run Baker 13, grab a can of Nair.

This workout has a multi-faceted strategy for success. For starters, the novel burning sensation will keep you moving so you can keep grooving. Second, youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll emerge with skin so smooth that even the gods will be jealous. And if you survive this experience, your spirit will be hardened like a war veteranâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s, so youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll be ready to take on anything! And that includes a night of booze-fueled debauchery.

We all know and love the sculptures in the engineering quad. But did you know you can use them as your own personal gym?

Bear crawling up and down these works of art is a great way to tone up your core, glutes, biâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s and triâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s. You can start easy with 180, but try and work up to 45 by noon.

When dinner comes around, you should be mounting 90 with little to no problem. Mobility on all fours is crucial for a NOD-tastic evening to be had by all. While youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re at it, donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t forget to get your daily dose of kegels. You can pinch â&#x20AC;&#x2122;em out in a cinch!

7KH %DFNSDJH LV VDWLUH DQG ZULWWHQ E\ -RH\ 0F*ORQH DQG 5LOH\ 5REHUWVRQ )RU FRPPHQWV RU TXHVWLRQV SOHDVH HPDLO thirsty@rice.edu.

CLASSIFIEDS WANTED

TEACH FOR TESTMASTERS! Dynamic and Energetic teachers wanted. Starting pay rate is $20 to $32 per hour. Flexible schedules. We provide all training, all training is paid, and we pay for travel. Email your resume to jobs@ testmasters.com.

STUDENT/GRADSTUDENT NEEDED for tutoring & driving elementary age children (4th grade boy & boy/girl twins in 1st grade) for a family in the Memorial area (near I-10 & Voss Rd.). Hours needed are 3-7 p.m., Mon. to Thurs. ... And if youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re able to swing it ... a bit later on Thursdays (maybe 10:30pm) so my husband & I could have a date night out ... such a bonus & needed break for us!! $18.00 to $20.00 an hour. Looking for someone that â&#x20AC;&#x153;likesâ&#x20AC;? to teach children in an encouraging way. Ideally guiding them through homework BUT also enriching the experience by trying to make it as interesting & as fun as youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re able.

They donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t seem to have that curious spark for learning they used to have. All 3 have stated in just the last month, â&#x20AC;&#x153;I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t like schoolâ&#x20AC;? ...

So disappointing as a parent to hear. And not sure why this year schoolwork has become mundane for them :( . Let me know if youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re

interested in helping them gain confidence (through your own enthusiasm for learning) in their academics & helping out our whole family in general. If this schedule will work with yours, letâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s have a telephone conversation.

Then, if it seems to be a fit we can meet face to face. Must have good references & good gpa a plus. Past experience with children would be good (but not essential). Thank you for your consideration. Lisa Bandy (mom) lisa_griďŹ&#x20AC;@ hotmail.com Cell: 832 656-4522 TUTORS NEEDED IMMEDIATELY! Rice Alum hiring tutors for Middle & High School Math, Natural & Social Science, Foreign Language, Humanities, and SAT/ACT prep. Reliable transportation required. Pay $30/hr+ based on experience. Contact 832-428-8330 and email resume to siyengar777@gmail.com.

CHILD FRIENDLY RICE student with strong math background wanted to tutor middle/high school competition math to family by the Rice Village. Transportation can be arranged. Contact dchen_0000@yahoo.com for details.

WE NEED 1-2 female tutors 3-4 times a week.

We have three girls going into 7th grade. We

will need help with languages, but mostly the focus will be on math and science. Please call 832-754-3138 20 YEAR OLD female looking for a female voice teacher. Low key, not uptight. For hobby rather than formal performance. If interested, please email emma.sora.rye@gmail.com OLD SCHOOL TUTORING is looking for Rice students with strong math skills to fulfill a part

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Display advertisements must be received by 5 p.m. on the Friday prior to publication.

First copy free, second copy $5.

time child tutoring position. OďŹ&#x20AC;ering schedule flexibility and $12-$14 an hour. Located across from Rice! Contact Bob Schmitt at OldschoolASC@gmail.com ĂĽ (** '21256 :$17(' ò *LYH D IDPLO\ WKH chance at happiness. Receive $6,000 per cycle.

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