The Rice Thresher | Wednesday, January 13, 2016

VOLUME 100, ISSUE NO. 14 | STUDENT-RUN SINCE 1916 | RICETHRESHER.ORG | WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 13, 2016

Re(solutions) Yesterday, you said tomorrow. Be deliberate

see Ops p. 6 New year, new beats Please your ears in 2016 with five upcoming concerts

see A&E p. 7

Human capital $50 million gift the result of mutual desires

Bouncing back Women’s basketball back in the groove over winter break

see Sports p. 9

New meditation and prayer room to open in RMC Anita Alem News Editor

The Student Association and Graduate Student Association have moved out of their office space in the Rice Memorial Center cloisters and designated the space as a meditation and prayer room, according to SA President Jazz Silva. Although intended to be religious, nonreligious or interfaith, the space is being allocated partly due to efforts on behalf of the Muslim Student Association as well as the Boniuk Council, Student Activities, GSA and the SA. “I would be dishonest to say that this advocacy wasn’t largely sparked to address the needs of our Muslim students on campus,” Silva said. “After looking at the needs of the MSA, we discovered that the space most suitable was our own office.”

The MSA currently utilizes the groom’s college next to the RMC chapel for prayer space. Muslims have three to five obligatory prayers every day that must each be completed within a certain time span. As some of these are during the school day, the times conflict with typical coursework and extracurriculars, so the prayers must be completed on campus.

Former MSA President and Boniuk Council member Zaid Bilgrami (Baker ’15) conducted several surveys within the MSA to determine how best to meet the students’ needs.

“We found that the prayer room was visited at least 137 times in a week,” Bilgrami said. “This is around average.”

Students raised several concerns, including size, noise, access and lack of an ablution space. Since the groom’s closet is attached to the chapel, sounds from the chapel are easily heard and the room was occasionally locked and used for weddings.

“On occasion, [weddings] also resulted in trash and sometimes alcohol being left in the space, 0see PRAYER, page 3

jake nyquist/thresher

Tom Kolditz, director of the Doerr Institute for New Leaders, hopes to design a leadership development program for any Rice student who wants to participate. Before coming to Rice, he developed similar programs at the Yale School of Management and West Point.

Miles Kruppa Senior Editor

General Tom Kolditz stood in front of a crowd of Rice University parents during Families Weekend in October and began describing the World War II surrender of a German command to General Charles Canham. In the story, the German general walks up to Canham and a group of ragtag infantrymen and asks to see his credentials. Canham then gestures to his soldiers and says, “These are my credentials.”

“That’s how I feel here at Rice,” Kolditz, director of Rice’s Doerr Institute for New Leaders, said to the audience, pointing to the seven Rice students on stage. “I’ll just tell ya, you’re going to have a great time this afternoon with my credentials.”

The students were participants in the Doerr Institute for New Leaders pilot program, which provided individualized leadership coaching to 12 hand-selected Rice students over the course of a month. It’s the first step in a larger rollout of the institute, which was endowed by the largest single gift ever made to Rice: a $50 million donation from venture capitalist John Doerr (Lovett ’73) and his philanthropist wife Ann (Jones ’75) through their charitable organization, the Benificus Foundation. The institute promises to make leadership development opportunities available for all Rice students.

“I’m an innovation junkie,” John Doerr, speaking for himself and Ann, said. “I worship at the altar of innovation. Big ideas, disruptive ideas: Those are the germ plasm, the seed corn of progress and prosperity.”

But Doerr also likes to say that ideas

are plenty and execution is scarce, making good team leadership crucial.

Doerr’s beliefs square with Rice President David Leebron’s Vision for the Second Century: In 2006, the Board of Trustees revised the university’s mission statement to reflect the V2C, which calls for the production of “leaders across the spectrum of human endeavor.” In the years since, Rice has seen a boom in leadership with the creation of the Center for Civic Leadership, the Rice Center for Engineering Leadership and a number of other leadership initiatives. The Doerrs endowed RCEL with a $15 million gift in 2008.

I’m an innovation junkie. I worship at the altar of innovation.

John Doerr Venture capitalist

According to Darrow Zeidenstein, vice president of Development and Alumni Relations, the donation for the institute was the culmination of years of discussion between the Doerrs, President David Leebron and the Office of Development and Alumni Relations beginning in 2007.

The Program Wiess College senior Isabel Scher was one of the seven students onstage with Kolditz during Families Weekend.

Her freshman year, she attended the Impact Rice Retreat. She was then selected for a Student Mentorship Experience where she was taught how to be a “star follower” at an internship. She has participated in many of the wellknown entrepreneurship and leadership programs Rice offers, including Rice Launch, OwlSpark, Alternative Spring Break, the Initiative for Students, a Center for Civic Leadership capstone and finally, the Doerr Institute for New Leaders pilot program.

Zeidenstein nominated her for the pilot program when she was interning with the Office of Development and Alumni Relations. She was assigned a coach, who helped her manage her long-term goals and short-term commitments.

“It’s kind of like having a therapist, but instead they’re your coach,” Scher said.

Another student in the program, Wiess College senior and Coffeehouse general manager Mason Daumas, worked on communicating in group settings.

Leadership coaches are licensed professionals, often with graduate experience in psychology, who discuss leadership with their clients and encourage self-reflection. On average, students in the pilot program met with their coaches for 3.5 hours over the course of the month, according to Kolditz.

Kolditz said the institute believes in the 70-20-10 system of leadership edu0see LEADER, page 2

“John’s a very analytical and methodical guy, and he said, ‘Here are the five areas Ann and I care about,’” Zeidenstein said. “From his point of view, there are probably other places where he can influence [areas such as climate change]. But leadership: He clearly thought Rice could be great in moving that agenda along.”

Not long after Leebron announced his V2C, Doerr gave the 2007 Rice commencement speech. As part of his preparation for the speech, he talked to two dozen Rice seniors about their values and curiosities. He said Rice students were clearly interested in figuring out what mattered in life, but many of them also weren’t prepared to be leaders despite their academic abilities.

“These were all very smart, very technically proficient people, but I’d say of the 24 there were only a couple of them that I think exhibited leader DNA,” Doerr said. “And I thought to myself, what if that was added to the incredible mix that Rice University is?”

Doerr defines leaders as people who dedicate themselves to a team, listen to others, are self-aware, attract followers and work well in nonhierarchical groups. Kolditz calls this a serviceoriented leader, Doerr said, and points to the types of people Google and Facebook want to hire. Leebron said he often cites Ann Doerr’s belief that every interaction is an opportunity for leadership and that everybody has the potential to be a leader.

Above all, Leebron said he sees the gift as an investment in students supporting a central aspiration of the revised mission statement: “Contributions to the betterment of the world.”

Student investment fund falls 14 percent in 2015 Maurice Frediere Thresher Staff

The Rice University Investment Fund, which manages $5,000 consisting of endowment funds and alumni and member donations, faced an uphill battle beginning the 2015-16 school year. As of Nov. 22, the Fund’s total return since its inception in fall 2014 was down 13 percent, according to RUIF President Glenn Baginski.

Ben Fisher, the fund’s founder and past president, and five student directors graduated in spring 2015, leaving RUIF without many individuals who had been with the fund since its inception. According to the Rice Finance mis-

sion statement, the fund was created to provide undergraduates with the opportunity to build skills relevant to careers in finance and business. There are currently 50 members of RUIF. In a joint response to an email, the board of RUIF said that the fund has had poorer returns than the Standard & Poor 500 but articulated an expectation of improved returns in the future.

“Our benchmark is the S&P 500,” Baginski, a Baker College senior, said.

“The total S&P 500 return since the fund’s inception: -1.52 percent. We hope that our portfolio and the U.S. stock market rises over the long term.”

The current stocks owned by the 0see FINANCE, page 5

Performance Total Return % of RUIF 10 5

S&P 500 Index (1.15)

0 -5 -10

RUIF Portfolio (-14.28)

-15 -20

1/ 3 1/1

5

3 /2

4/1

5 /1

5 /3

0

6/3

0

7/3 0

-

8/2

9

9/2 8

10 /28

/15

Yearly fund performance: -14% over 2015

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0LEADER FROM PAGE 1 cation: 70 percent experience, 20 percent reflection and 10 percent classroom learning. He said he hopes to hire a few full-time coaches who work with a larger pool on an as-needed basis. The cost of coaching 500 students is the same as the yearly salary of a top Rice professor or senior administrator, resulting in a high return on investment, according to Kolditz.

“Our basic design principle is to take the experiences that students already have and use those experiences to develop students by adding this reflective component through coaching and other processes,” Kolditz said. “And that’s a proven way.

There’s no controversy about whether that works — it does. It’s just a matter of how we fit that to the Rice circumstances and culture.”

Unlike mentors, leadership coaches do not necessarily have more subject matter knowledge than their mentees, according to Kolditz. Wiess College sophomore Marley Foster said she is unsure how helpful leadership coaches will be in different leadership contexts — she is an editor at R2: The Rice Review.

“Being that broad, you’re not going to be able to really help people, because at a certain point you need mentors who are more specialized,” Foster said. “In an effort to be so general, you’re missing the higher-level stuff that’s going to need much more specific people.”

Rice English professor Judith Roof said she was also skeptical about the administration’s attitude toward faculty and their mentorship abilities.

“Do they think perhaps the experts in the field don’t have the capacity to teach and help students

the Rice Thresher in all of these endeavors without putting a name on it?” Roof said. “... We need to bring in ringers to teach leadership because clearly the faculty don’t know how to do that — why do they think that?

And why do they think they can detach people skills from context?”

After going through the pilot, Scher said she has two main concerns about the program: the lack of a social component, such as group work, and the difficulties associated with standardizing the coaching.

Scher said some common themes emerged over the month that could have been more efficiently addressed in a group or precoaching class. She noted that multiple students said their coaches helped them with stress management, breathing techniques and issues related to team dynamics.

Kolditz plans to announce a larger pilot program for 350 students in the spring. He will then incorporate feedback from the second pilot into the full launch of the coaching program in the fall.

According to Kolditz, freshmen will be required to do a standardized preparation program before they can be coached as sophomores.

Kolditz said eight to 12 other initiatives are in the works, including the already-underway Leader Development Council meetings, a metrics team called Third Eye, a web-based Leader Development Navigator and a professional leadership coaching certification program. Kolditz hopes to reach as many students as possible through the institute, but he also acknowledged at a Leader Development Council meeting that he never estimates that more than 60 percent of students will voluntarily engage in such programs.

For Scher, the institute offers a different vision of leadership than any other offered on campus.

“The same people get the same things,” Scher

said. “You get ASB, you get Impact, you get Leadership Rice. There’s a certain very public program that [campus] leaders go for, and [the Doerr Institute] is saying you don’t need to be in a leadership position to get trained to be an effective leader when you leave Rice.”

The Donors John and Ann Doerr met when a Rice computer science professor introduced the two as undergraduates. They both completed bachelors and masters degrees in electrical engineering at Rice.

John Doerr also remembers the 1970s as a time of entrepreneurial activity — he signed KTRU’s application for an FM license.

Now, John Doerr is one of the most well-known venture capitalists in the world as a partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, an early investor in Google, Amazon and Netscape, among other companies. Forbes calculates his net worth as $4.5 billion, making him the 135th-wealthiest person in America. Ann Doerr serves on the board of trustees of the Environmental Defense Fund and is chairman of the Khan Academy.

The Doerrs have signed the Giving Pledge, meaning they plan to give more than half of their wealth to philanthropy. They primarily focus their donations on climate change, education, poverty and women empowerment.

“Human potential is evenly distributed all around the world, so I’m hoping that the Rice program will be a role model, a pioneer, an innovator, a thought leader and something that’s widely copied,” Doerr said.

Diversity, Doerr added, is critical for good leadership. He cited studies showing diverse groups work better than homogenous ones.

“The Doerr Institute for New Leaders should be

wednesday, January 13, 2016 the Diverse Institute of Leaders, or the Institute of Diverse New Leaders,” Doerr said. “Diversity is really important.”

Doerr emphasized that diversity does not just mean diversity in thought, but also in gender, race and other identities.

Doerr’s firm, KPCB, was implicated in a gender discrimination lawsuit brought by former employee Ellen Pao. During the trial in 2015, the prosecution played a tape in which Doerr, who was Pao’s mentor at the firm, told an investigator that Pao had a “female chip on her shoulder.” Pao also claimed that Doerr did not sufficiently address a list of equality concerns he asked female partners at the firm to compile.

At the same time, Doerr lamented the lack of women in venture capital during the trial, and many portrayed him as Pao’s biggest proponent at the firm. A jury eventually ruled with KPCB. “I think, in many ways, women are more effective leaders than men,” Doerr said.

The Leader Following the donation, the next step for Leebron and Doerr was to find a leader for the leadership program.

After a more than year-long, worldwide search, Rice named Kolditz as the director. Kolditz previously implemented leadership development programs at the Yale School of Management and West Point after retiring as a brigadier general in the Army.

Kolditz said in his October Families Weekend speech that he interviewed 177 Rice students and community members in 10 weeks and found students usually cited peers and upperclassmen as their main sources of leadership development.

“What they’re most excited about is that we’re not planning any contrived events — no workshops, no retreats, ropes courses, none of that — because students tell us they’re very busy,” Kolditz said. “And so they would much prefer to be developed in the way we’re planning it.”

The Impact Rice Retreat and the Leadership Summit for student organization leaders are both known for their camplike atmospheres. But Kolditz, who wrote a book about the applications of leadership in dangerous situations entitled “In Extremis Leadership: Leading As If Your Life Depended On It,” said neither he nor students are interested in contrived leadership experiences.

“We refer to that here in the institute as leadertainment,” Kolditz said.

On diversity, Kolditz believes in an individualized approach.

“Because we’re coaching people one person one at a time, there’s no greater respect for diversity than that,” Kolditz said. “You start to lose when you start herding people into classrooms based on how they look or where they came from.”

The Value Proposition When Leebron speaks to alumni to promote the Initiative for Students, he brings charts. Two of them show the value proposition of college in 1985 and his projection for 2025. In 1985, 75 percent of college’s value for students comes from the classroom and 25 percent from outside. However, in 2025, those two numbers are flipped.

The Doerr Institute, Leebron said, is part of an effort by Rice to catch up to the demands of the modern student. The Student Association’s 2015 Rice Education of the Future initiative found that, after the classroom component at 25 percent, the next highest-valued aspect of the Rice experience by students was leadership at 16 percent.

In his speech introducing Kolditz during Families Weekend, Leebron noted that student demand for extracurricular experiences has contributed to the rising cost of higher education. While donations such as the Doerrs’ often go straight into the endowment, Leebron said some of the gift was spent immediately on growing the institute. Often, the results from donations take years to be realized, he said.

Sometimes, according to Leebron, large gifts even cost the university money, making them a cost-benefit decision.

“We’re expected to provide so much more than we used to provide to our students,” Leebron said in his speech.

Foster, however, said the university focuses on larger issues at the expense of small fixes.

“In an effort to start a bunch of new initiatives, they’re missing smaller things that there is a much higher demand for,” Foster said. “I don’t think anybody is sitting around going, ‘I wish we had a leadership institute,’ but I need $5,000 for a kiln.

That is a very specific need that our art department needs to fill.”

For Roof, the university has failed to address core needs, like classroom space for the humanities.

“This place is all cosmetics and no substance,” Roof said.

According to Leebron, heated debate is all part of the development process at a university like Rice.

“I don’t get to do many things where there’s not some disagreement,” Leebron said. “I got to build the [recreation] center. That had no disagreement.”

wednesday, January 13, 2016

the Rice Thresher

NEWS IN BRIEF Open carry now legal in Texas, remains prohibited on Rice campus Effective Jan. 1, 2016, House Bill 910 authorizes licensed handgun owners in the State of Texas to openly carry a holstered handgun. Rice University will continue to prohibit all weapons on campus following the passing of Texas Senate Bill 11, which legalized concealed carry on college campuses but allowed private universities to opt out after consulting with administration, faculty and students. Other private universities in Texas also opted out of campus carry, including Baylor University, Southern Methodist University, Texas Christian University and Trinity University.

According to the Texas Department of Public Safety website, individuals with a concealed handgun license do not require

a separate license or additional training to open carry. Unconcealed handguns must be carried in a shoulder or belt holster.

Open carry does not apply on college campuses whether or not the gun is holstered. At public universities, concealed carry is permitted with no opt-out option.

Private businesses retain the right to prohibit open carry on their premises. The Torchy’s Tacos restaurant chain, which has a popular location in Rice Village, will exercise the right to prohibit open carry in their restaurants following “overwhelming customer response and concern,” according to the franchise’s website. Costco, HEB and Target are also among the businesses that will ban open carry on their property.

Turner defeats King in Houston mayoral election Houston has a new mayor for the first time in six years after Sylvester Turner was sworn into office Jan. 2.

Turner, who had served since 1988 as a State Representative, was elected in a narrow 51 percent runoff election victory over his Republican opponent, Bill King.

A member of the Democratic Party, Turner previously ran for the office of mayor twice.

He will serve a four year term after Houston voters approved a proposition in November increasing the mayoral term length from its previous two years.

Turner expressed a hopeful message for the city in his inauguration speech on Jan. 4.

“If we dare to dream beyond our current conditions and if we work hard and put aside

our individual biases and recognize that no one person can do it by himself, we can be a bigger Houston,” he said.

Turner won around just 600 votes more Sylvester Turner than King out of over 200,000 votes cast in the December election, according to the Harris County Clerk’s Office. The race attracted nationwide attention, with President Barack Obama endorsing Turner.

0PRAYER FROM PAGE 1 rendering the space unclean and unfit for worship,” Bilgrami said. “Respondents also indicated that while the old space was central and convenient, it was not close enough to a bathroom or ablution station.”

According to Bilgrami, the MSA had been pushing for a new prayer space as early as 2012, although requests to Facilities Engineering and Planning ended unsuccessfully. In 2015, Bilgrami met with Student Center Director Kate Abad as well as other administrators and received support to create a new meditation space on campus.

Bilgrami said in a later meeting with Boniuk Council President Dan McNamara, GSA President Lynn Fahey, Silva and Associate Director of Student Activities Olivia Barker, the group decided to designate the SA and GSA office as a meditation room.

Silva said that the SA and GSA space is suited to needs of the MSA as it is beautiful, spacious, soundproof and centrally located.

They also considered the possibility of retrofitting the chapel to make it more accessible and create a reservation system for students.

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“I’m pleased that the SA, GSA and administration [have] been receptive to the needs of minority students on campus,” Bilgrami said.

“It’s important to understand, though, that the conversation doesn’t end here.”

However, Bilgrami said further action is necessary to support other groups.

“We need to figure out which needs of other minority religious and non-religious groups aren’t currently being met and take steps to accommodate those groups,” he said.

McNamara said he was appreciative of all of the groups that came together to make this change happen.

“This move marks a dramatic improvement in the state of affairs for Muslim students on campus and underscores this university’s long legacy of a commitment to the value of diversity,” McNamara said.

Fahey said the SA and GSA moved out within a week of making their decision.

“The GSA feels strongly that all students should have space on campus that meets their needs and makes them feel safe and welcome in our community,” Fahey said. “We are happy that we could provide a solution that seems so workable.”

The SA office will move to the Blair Conference Room in the basement of the RMC.

Senior, alumni chosen as Schwarzman and Marshall Scholars Two prestigious international scholarships have selected Rice University students among their 2016 admittees, with Wiess College senior Isabel Scher named in the first class of Schwarzman Scholars and alumnus Muhammad Ibrahim Khan (Brown ’13) chosen as a Marshall Scholar.

According to an announcement from the Schwarzman Scholars organization, Scher was one of 111 students selected from more than 3,000 applicants, an admissions rate of less than four percent. Through the program, Scher will attend the newly established Schwarzman College of Tsinghua University in Beijing for a year, earning a master’s degree.

“Schwarzman Scholars is the first scholarship created to respond to the geopolitical landscape of the 21st century,” the program’s website said. “The success of future leaders around the world will depend upon an understanding of China’s role in global trends.”

According to her online profile, Scher will

work as a business analyst for McKinsey & Company after earning her master’s degree from Tsinghua.

Through his scholarship, Khan will attend Oxford University in the United Kingdom, working to earn a master’s degree in Islamic studies and history. Khan attended Rice for three years, then completed a final year at Dartmouth College, according to his profile. He is also currently a visiting graduate student at Rice in history and anthropology, according to Rice News.

The Marshall Scholarship provides opportunities for American students to study in the UK, funded by the British government. This year, 32 scholars were selected from a pool of 916 candidates put forward by their colleges, according to a report prepared by the scholarship organization.

Khan is the 25th Marshall Scholar to have attended Rice, according to Rice News, and the first from the university since 2013, according to the scholarship organization’s records.

Graduate school alumni named to Forbes 30 Under 30 List Forbes has included two Rice graduate school alumni, Dimitri Tsentalovich (’15) and Francesca Mirri (’09), in their annual “30 under 30” list of 600 of some of the nation’s brightest— and youngest—individuals.

While at Rice, the pair cofounded DexMat, a company which produces carbon nanotube fibers. What sets their product apart from anything developed thus far, according to Mirri, is that these fibers are mechanically strong, electrically conductive, lightweight, and flexible.

“No other material currently on the market is characterized by this unique combination of properties,” Mirri said. “I believe this is the greatest benefit of our product.”

The fibers’ use spans a variety of fields including medicine, aerospace, and the wearable electronics market. Currently, DexMat is mainly

involved with the satellite and spacecraft market, however the future will most likely include a larger focus on wearable electronics, according to Mirri.

Because DexMat is currently operating out of Rice, manufacturing processes are limited. Mirri said the company plans to eventually move out of Rice.

“Currently we are working on fundraising so that we can start scaling up the manufacturing process in order to increase manufacturing,” Mirri said.

With fundraising as a step towards greater company development, the Forbes recognition came at the right time, according to Mirri.

“This is a great accomplishment and I think it will help DexMat to get more visibility and maybe attract more investors,” Mirri said.

anita alem/thresher

The SA and GSA is designating its workspace in the RMC cloisters, pictured here, as a meditation and prayer room. They will be moving into the Blair Conference Room in the RMC basement.

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the Rice Thresher

wednesday, January 13, 2016

wednesday, January 13, 2016

Student seeks funding for service dog Elana Margosis Thresher Staff

A Rice University student struggling with depression and anxiety has created a campaign to raise money for a psychiatric service dog. Regina Aleis, a Lovett College junior, has raised more than $300 through crowdfunding site GoFundMe.com to raise money for training from Houston-based Give Us Paws, a service dog training nonprofit organization, but is still far short from the required $5,000.

Aleis said her journey toward recovery began over a year ago. She sought counseling on campus despite hearing mixed reviews of the counseling center. Ultimately, she decided to receive counseling off campus, in part because of the difficulty she had scheduling appointments on campus. Aleis also takes medication and has taken her recovery seriously.

It opened my eyes to see how many people are in the same boat.

Regina Aleis Lovett College junior

“I do yoga, I do meditation,” Aleis said.

“Right now I’m going through training to become a doula [birth assistant], and I think that’s going to help me be more centered.”

Aleis has voluntarily taken time off from school, and although Aleis has not yet discussed having a service dog on campus with the university administration, Rice does allow service animals on campus.

Initially apprehensive of telling so many people about her personal experiences with mental illness, Aleis said she has received overwhelmingly positive feedback after posting about the campaign on Facebook. She has even received messages from people sharing their similar experiences and sending positive notes.

“People who I only know as acquaintances are saying [encouraging] things, and a lot of people from Rice hope I’ll be back,” Aleis said.

“I always had a feeling that there was a lot more going on than I thought, but seeing those messages confirmed that. It opened my eyes to see how many people are in the same boat.”

Though the idea of receiving negative feedback after sharing her experiences on her GoFundMe campaign had made her nervous, so far Aleis has not received any.

“I was afraid to put my story out there,” Aleis said. “I was afraid of what people would say and the image I would have in their eyes.”

Aleis said she hopes to return to Rice next fall, service dog by her side.

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the Rice Thresher

0FINANCE

ceive advice from the Rice Management Company, who manage the endowment.”

FROM PAGE 1 fund include the American Express Company, Biogen, Foot Locker, IBM and Procter & Gamble and span industries such as biotechnology, retail, energy and business and financial services.

According to RUIF Chief Economist Eileen Huang, the decline is due to several reasons, including the fact that investment decision are longterm, and that because there is not as much of a chance to diversify the investments.

“We purchase stocks that have good fundamentals that suggest growth in the next five to 10 years,” Huang, a Martel College junior, said.

“While recent market activities, i.e., the energy crisis, concerns over the Chinese economy, have indeed negatively affected the fund, they are not reasons for any long-term concern.”

“All investment decisions are made by undergraduates,” Baginski said, “However, we do re-

Recent market activites ... are not reasons for any long-term concern.

Eileen Huang RUIF chief economist

Huang said RUIF is aware that the energy sector has been hard recently by the rapid de-

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cline in crude oil prices and that the team is currently working on addressing this issue.

“There [has been] a systematic drop in the energy equities we hold,” Huang said. “Several of them have hit the 20 percent stop loss mark and were sold recently.”

Baginski expressed optimism at future returns and the performance of the fund, pointing to increased experience of members and better performance of companies RUIF is invested in. In addition, through a new analyst training program, RUIF aims to streamline the training process.

“As our organization becomes more experienced, we hope to identify undervalued stocks with more accuracy,” Baginski said. “Our students are becoming better investors, and we hope that their new knowledge becomes permanently ingrained in the undergraduate investment fund. We believe our investments are sound, and that the market is currently undervaluing their future growth prospects.

6 Texas open carry discussion can’t end here As students come back to Rice in the new year, they can be thankful that they are returning once again to a weapons-free campus as the university has obtained an exemption from the Texas law permitting individuals to openly carry a holstered handgun (see p. 3). Although this prohibition may seem limiting to the few individuals who could appropriately use a gun, the Thresher feels the campus is a far safer environment without concealed or open carry.

Many of the 15 percent of students who voted in favor of allowing guns on Rice campus raised the concern that the community must be able to respond quickly in a potential live shooter situation. However, this concern assumes students carrying guns will be able to use them appropriately in these situations; obtaining a license to carry does not entail adequate training. Individuals must pass a 25-question, multiple-choice exam and achieve only 70 percent proficiency on the shooting test. According to the Texas Department of Safety, less than a thousand of the over 240,000 Texans who applied for a gun license in 2014 were denied. Moreover, this test is conducted not in a high-pressure, stressful situation and does not involve any sort of active shooter training. Texas law also does not require any further training to be permitted to carry openly.

Rice University Police Department must respond to student’s concerns that they may not be able to effectively and quickly keep students safe in an active shooter situation. However, data shows that such situations are rarely resolved by the actions of armed civilians.

Though the administration’s commendable choice to opt out has prevented Texas’ new gun law from adversely impacting life on Rice campus itself, the law still affects every Rice student. As soon as one of us steps off campus into the public spaces of Houston, we are entering a place where guns can be carried openly. While many Houston restaurants and stores have decided to prohibit open carry or any sort of firearms on their premises, the new law still creates a public environment in which anyone could be wielding an intimidating and frightening weapon, in which poorly trained gun holders can accidentally kill, and in which confrontations can rapidly escalate into deadly situations.

Because the new law does affect every member of the Rice community, whether or not they are from Texas, the Thresher urges students, faculty and administration to fight against expanded carry of weapons, whether through voting, joining organizations or supporting businesses that reject weapon carry on their premises. We are luckily not in the position of public universities across the state, which do not have the choice to prevent concealed carry despite the fact that such a policy was against the desire of the huge majority of students and faculty in almost every institution. For this, we can be thankful; however, we cannot allow ourselves to become complacent in opposing the expansion of firearm carry.

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

Invitation for deliberation Whoever thought up the New Year’s resolution probably intended well by it, but its meaning has eroded to today’s infamous, scare-quoted “resolution.” Failed reform became the norm.

I bet the typical resolution dies because it takes the form of a discrete time chunk one adds, often as a daily routine, to their living: Meditation, volunteering, exercise, diet shifts, etc. What stops this quickly and easily added time chunk from subtracting just as easily and quickly?

Your resolution makes a resolution succeed. So what resolution is more faithful to its intention than to be more resolute? It’s the name of the game. I prefer resolute’s more onomatopoeic synonym, deliberate. Dee-lihburr-it. Four clear syllables, hard to slur. Rather than adding a new routine, being deliberate seasons your existing routines like salt to enhance their flavor.

Some ways of being deliberate include: Using pen instead of pencil, especially for math problems and crosswords. Pencil is for

those who wish to hide their errors or indecision from themselves.

Keeping promises, no matter how trivial. Too many times have I intended to follow up with friends or family but failed. If you suggest to someone (even in passing) you should hang out again, do so.

When choosing classes, or entering into them this week and next, determining how much effort you want to put into each class and what you hope to glean from each class.

Eating the food you cook or take from the servery, if you intend to eat it all. If you don’t, don’t.

I hope you do not think these commands.

Being deliberate is a supremely flexible attitude, adding to any choice. You can decide to be deliberate about certain things and not others, or about nothing at all, but I think you will receive its full effect when being deliberate about as many things as possible.

It is easy to pass through a semester as if in a trance, carried by the rhythmic flow of due dates, parties, lectures, sporting events and presentations. Being deliberate ensures your awareness of thoughts and actions to shape your living into a more comprehensible and cohesive whole. When pursued fully, your living may resemble that of a character in a novel, with no loose ends, or loose ends deliberately left as such. That way, it’d be pretty easy to write your biography.

Mitch Mackowiak

is a Lovett College junior and the Thresher Opinions Editor

Academic breadth in a liberal education

You mention that you study the liberal arts and immediately hear the scoff, “What are you going to do with that?” This derision stems from a specious idea that equates a liberal arts education with studying certain disciplines that “don’t pay well.” But the ideological core of a liberal education is an approach toward learning that celebrates acquiring knowledge for its own end, rather than for any vocational advantage. You learn not what to think, but how to think — so goes the truism. Yet we easily shrug off this apparent banality before we consider its significance.

When people say a liberal education teaches you “how to think,” they mean it teaches you how to critique not just the validity and value of arguments, but also of the process by which they are determined. This education indispensably employs different kinds of reasoning about different types of knowledge, guided by the awareness that the world is far too complex to be understood by any isolated mode of thinking. Students of a liberal education aren’t defined by subjects they study, but by the academic breadth they espouse. They explore diverse subjects, familiar and alien, taking advantage of everything an undergraduate institution has to offer. They see their college years as a magnificent gift — the best time, and perhaps the only time, to experiment with the manifold forms of human perception and applications of abstraction, to tackle problems that utilize the complete range of their cognitive faculties.

Seeing how hyper-utilitarian and ultracareerist our academic environment has become, this endeavour for academic breadth may seem ludicrous, even naive. Breadth in education may have worked a century ago, some may say, but students today are expected to know so much more about their chosen discipline, and are encouraged to specialize as soon as possible. That depth, not breadth, will get us further in our professions seems almost a given. It seems no one can spare any time and effort for a broad education.

opinions Mitch Mackowiak* Editor sports Maddy Adams Editor Evan Neustater Editor Sarah Nyquist Designer art Carrie Jiang Director Jake Nyquist Photo Editor Jessica Kelly Asst. Photo Editor arts & entertainment Kaylen Strench Editor Walden Pemantle Editor Samantha Ding Designer

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This quandary stems from the erroneous conception that breadth and depth in contemporary education are incompatible, that a student can choose one but not the other.

But, as former Yale professor William Deresiewicz writes, “The ultimate idea of a liberal arts education is to render that distinction meaningless … The perspectives that you get from studying the general … are meant to interpenetrate the practice of your speciality.” So while you take your specialized classes, give yourself chances to pursue something totally different. Rice’s rather open curriculum already provides great opportunities to do this.

Our distribution requirements serve as a good enough impetus, but they’re not enough. It’s vital that we see these classes not merely as graduation prerequisites, time-fillers or grade boosters, but as occasions for genuinely novel challenges for the intellectual self. To this I might also propose the value of venturing beyond introductory or general courses. Instead of an overview of Western philosophy, why not a class on Plato or medical ethics? Instead of a survey of British literature, how about Milton or Victorian novels? The point is not simply to stuff your brain with a heap of information, but to carefully consider the questions and answers prominent thinkers have pondered over specific ideas, to scrutinize how great minds have wrestled with the same problems throughout time. For example, we can study how ecologists inquire into nature, how transcendentalists experienced it and how Impressionists captured it on canvas; we can study how neuroscientists research the problems of emotion, how Romantic poets perceived them and how Roman philosophers grappled with them. Survey courses may be worthwhile in acquainting us with disciplines in which we have little interest, but they often have too much to cover in too little time to afford students the luxury of slow and intricate contemplation.

Through this exposure, not just to a diversity of knowledge but also of manners of

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.

reasoning, we develop a conscientious skepticism and mental acuteness that lets us interpret information in unconventional ways.

It also expands our vocabulary to enable better cross-discipline communication, which is a rarity in a time when we are so adept at spewing jargon only a dozen other people in our insanely specialized fields understand.

Thus a utilitarian purpose of a liberal education is revealed: It allows us to realize a more civically engaged life — or, more plainly, to work better with people. It nurtures in us a humane attentiveness and concern for society. We see that everything we have done and will ever do is shaped by human experience, and this (to paraphrase Deresiewicz) gives us recourse to the full scope of our humanity in whatever career we eventually choose.

Obviously, everyone is entitled to his or her own idea of a college education’s purpose, and if a student sees it as nothing more than a glorified vocational training facility, that’s fine. Many do so and go on to lead (materially) successful lives. But I’m worried this transforms us into efficient but soulless automatons. A liberal education does the opposite. It liberates us — as the name implies — from becoming mindless followers and obtuse sophists. It may be expensive, it may be demanding and its payoff may appear distant, but ultimately a liberal education is still one of the best gifts you can give yourself.

Henry Bair is a Baker College junior

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

arts

ENTERTAINMENT

7

The art of plane bingewatching Ryan Lee

Thresher staff

Sharing the Spotlight

jessica kelly/thresher

Performers at the Shepherd School of Music take a bow after their ‘Sharing the Spotlight’ concert. From left to right: Timothy MacDuff, viola; Alana Youssefian, violin; Nathan Watts, cello; Ling Ling Huang, violin; Thomas Jaber, organ.

Five concerts to kick start the new year

Who: Tanlines Where: Walter’s On Washington When: Jan. 17, 9 p.m.

Tickets: $15 on Ticketfly Tanlines is an electro-pop duo with a warm, tropical flare that feels especially refreshing in the middle of winter. Although their latest album “Highlights” fell a little flat, it had a few tracks that called back to the catchy, upbeat singles that first turned heads on their debut album, “Mixed Emotions.” Overall, the band’s great sound and ability to turn out singles like “Slipping Away” and “Pieces” still make the concert well worth your time.

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

Who: Alessia Cara: Know-It-All Tour Where: Warehouse Live When: Feb. 5, 8 p.m.

Tickets: $18 in advance at warehouselive.com, $20 at the door You probably know Alessia Cara from her ultimate anti-party anthem “Here” that broke earlier this fall and quickly rose to the top 10. The 19-year-old’s voice is surprisingly mature, oozing with sass and personality.

Equally surprising was her sudden, sleeperhit rise to fame. She is touring for her first full-length album “Know-It-All,” which came out in November.

By Lydia Dick

Who: Unknown Mortal Orchestra Where: Numbers When: Feb. 8, 7 p.m.

Tickets: $15 on ticketweb.com Lead singer and guitarist Ruban Nielson of Unknown Mortal Orchestra has come a long way since releasing his first track “Ffunny Ffrends” anonymously on Bandcamp. The psychedelic rock outfit’s latest album “Multi-Love” has received critical acclaim, with Pitchfork naming the title track “Best New Track” soon after its release. Nielson’s ethereal vocals hover over creative layers of instrumentation, with grooves and basslines that show influences of soul, similar to artists like Tame Impala and Neon Indian.

0see CONCERTS, page 8

It was a 13-hour flight from Houston to Taipei. The constant repretzeling of legs, headsets that bite into your skin and bad breath were the all-too-familiar baggage that came with my actual baggage. And yet there is an unparalleled experience that is unique to the skies — a movie marathon that is more than just binge-watching Netflix. I give you a review of what happens when the Wright brothers meet the Lumiere brothers.

Elapsed time: one hour. Akin to attending a film festival, strategy is key: I had a limited number of hours and an even more limited attention span. First I browsed through the entire catalog. I tried to avoid the action adventures, as the small screens rarely do justice to the massive set pieces and choreography involved in these films. I also timed my least prioritized films for the middle of my flight when I most expect to fall asleep. After considerable deliberation, I decided on “Mr. Holmes.”

Elapsed time: three hours. I was feeling great, and my legs had not cramped up yet.

Ian McKellen completely sold me on his portrayal of a septuagenarian Sherlock Holmes, an image that disturbed me because of how such an assured character could become so fragile. Unlike other stories of the famous detective, the mystery in “Mr. Holmes” is not in some criminal mastermind but rather in the mysteries of human minds. The film untangles the clockwork within Sherlock as he comes to terms with his mortal coil.

Elapsed time: five hours. After rearranging my legs, I watched “Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation.” I’m not sure if it was the low resolution of the screen or just Tom Cruise’s immortality, but the 53-year-old actor looked incredibly ageless. With much of the dazzle of the action removed by the constraints of the screen, I found myself noticing and appreciating the much-needed humor in “Rogue Nation” in this post-“Dark Knight” era.

Elapsed time: seven hours. My biological clock was registering 4 a.m. when I started watching “Trainwreck.” The laughs kept me entertained and awake — Amy Schumer’s persona was pitch perfect in that she managed to breathe likability into a self-deprecating character. The plot fell slightly flat for me but avoided the tropes of romantic comedies enough to keep me positively interested.

Elapsed time: 11 hours. I woke up to the end credits of “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.” I faintly remember the comic-book noir look of the film, Henry Cavill’s and Armie Hammer’s gruff voices and a Cold War-era backdrop.

Elapsed time: 13 hours. Feeling restored, I watched the last film on my list, “Ricki and the Flash.” This film encapsulates perhaps the most ideal airplane movie, which is to say a film that I have mild interest in but probably would have forgotten about until it popped up in Netflix. Meryl Streep’s character is the lead in a rock-and-roll pub band and finds herself estranged from her children. The strength of the film lies in Streep’s authentic delivery of lines and lyrics, complemented further by her amazing hairdo, of course. Although many of the expected plot points were hit with a beat-by-beat predictability, “Ricki” reverses conventional midlife crisis structures by dealing with the social expectations of a woman, which I found pleasantly refreshing.

MIGHTY DUCKS

MLK PARADE

BLOCK PARTY

MLK TRIBUTE

As part of a continuing series of film screenings and fun, the Discovery Green is screening “The Mighty Ducks” Thursday, Jan. 14 at 7 p.m. Even better, viewers can watch the hockey-themed classic from the Discovery Green skating rink for only $14.

The Houston Martin Luther King Foundation will have their annual parade through midtown this Monday to celebrate the holiday. Starting on the corner of San Jacinto & Elgin, the parade will feature the theme, “It Takes a Village” and culminate in a battle of the bands at WW Thorne Stadium.

Calling all hipsters: Midtown’s Arts and Theater Center (MATCH) is throwing a block party this Friday, Jan. 15 off Holman Street beginning at 8 p.m. Expect all the artsy staples: Good food, art, music, improv and experimental film. Tickets are $20 in advance or $25 at the door.

Join award-winning recording artist David Banner, Houston legend Bernard “Bun B” Freeman, musical ambassador Toni Blackman and our very own professor Anthony Pinn for an evening discussion and performance in honor of the life of MLK on Monday, Jan. 18 at 7 p.m. at the Rothko Chapel.

Discovery Green 1500 McKinney discoverygreen.com/ice

Midtown Houston San Jacinto & Elgin mlkgrandeparade.org

MATCH Houston 3400 Main St. matchouston.org

Rothko Chapel 1409 Sul Ross rothkochapel.org

8

A&E

Wednesday, January 13, 2016

the Rice Thresher

WHAT’S HIP RIGHT NOW FILM:

TV:

“Anomalisa”

by kaylen strench

APP:

“East Los High”

Find. Eat. Drink.

TECH:

PicoBrew

courtesy hulu

courtesy imdb

In a phrase: Introspective puppet movie for adults.

Where to find it: Technically opened Dec. 30, but won’t hit Houston for another couple weeks.

Okay, so I’m a bit biased in this selection.

See, Charlie Kaufman, the director of “Anomalisa” and other genius works like “Adaptation,” “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” and “Synecdoche, New York,” is my favorite director of all time. But take my word for it — this man’s a genius, and everything he touches is gold. The critical reviews back me up so far.

In many ways, “Anomalisa” is your standard boy-meets-girl romantic comedy. A lonely and somewhat depressed self-help author travels to give a talk to a group of customer service professionals, only to meet the love of his life, a small business owner named Lisa.

The profundity of the movie comes in the details: the animation, beautiful and haunting stop-motion, and the crisp and insightful Kaufman-esque dialogue. “Look for what is special about each individual, focus on that,” main character Michael says. Thus, “Anomalisa” not only promises to entertain, but to rock your paradigm as well.

In a phrase: “One Tree Hill” meets high school sex-ed.

Where to find it: You can watch the current three seasons on Hulu.

Can high school teen dramas (think “Friday Night Lights” or “Hannah Montana”) be simultaneously addictive and educational? At the very least, it would seem like the latter would have to be implemented deceptively — nothing kills a good show like knowing it’s trying to teach you a lesson. Well, if you’re a viewer of “East Los High,” a relatively new series on Hulu, the secret’s out. The creators are trying to brainwash its viewers, for the better.

The show centers on Latino teens in LA, specifically an area in which teen pregnancy and STIs are exploding among mostly Hispanic teens. This is no coincidence.

Social scientists and researchers designed the show to include everything we love in good, binge-worthy TV (catfights, love triangles, new love), while also attempting to pass along knowledge about safe sex. Characters face everything from teen pregnancy to HIV-positive diagnoses, and viewers get to see how they ultimately handle these real-world crises.

courtesy picobrew

courtesy apple

In a phrase: It speaks for itself, really.

Where to find it: Apple app store should do.

It’s the world’s perennial, frustrating question: “Where do you want to eat?” When it is left open, no place comes to mind. When a suggestion arises, it never seems right. We scour Yelp and Urbanspoon, only to be left more clueless and overwhelmed than before.

Ladies and gentlemen, brace yourselves — I think I found the answer.

Find. Eat. Drink. is, in essence, a restaurant app. What makes it stand out, however, is the person behind a 3- or 4-star recommendation is no longer Joe Schmoe who lists Arby’s as his favorite restaurant of all time. No, in this case recommendations come from chefs, sommeliers (you bet I dropped that word), bartenders, winemakers and baristas. And penny pinchers, never fear — the app promises recommendations to dive bars and cheap eats as well as your standard fancy digs. So next time your boyfriend or your bro pops that annoying question, you, my friend, will be extremely prepared.

2016 in fashion calls for Abercrombie, men’s rainboots Thu Nguyen

In a phrase: Keurig for beer.

Where to find it: PicoBrew on Kickstarter — you can pre-order now.

Securing a high-quality beer is no easy task. Cans go stale, and who wants a crappy Coor’s Light, anyway? For quality craft beer, either you have to put your pants on and go to a bar or brewery, or you’ve got to get someone to secure you a growler, which doesn’t last all that long.

Well, my friends, it’s an incredible time to be alive. A little company called “PicoBrew” (Get it?) has invented a micro, and I mean micro, brewery. The gadget, shaped like a microwave, allows you to make fresh, craft beer in your very own home in half the time it would normally take. The company’s “PicoPacks” (like espresso pods) provide the hops, yeast and grain — you can get different combos from different brewers. All you have to do is throw them in your PicoBrew, wait a bit for the magic to happen, and then watch as the machine dumps it into your keg!

Though the PicoBrew’s not on the market just yet, you can preorder it on Kickstarter for $599. Graduation present, anyone?

0 CONCERTS from page 5

Thresher staff

New year, new trends, right? While the runways show something different every season, mainstream looks take a few years to get settled and maybe go away. Here are a few fashion trend predictions for 2016, some of which you may already be on top of!

The return of Abercrombie and Fitch? With a new design director in town (who was previously at Club Monaco), I can see A&F returning to the mainstream, but more likely for the new middle/high school crowd.

The designs are great (not sure about quality), but it’ll be personal preference whether to buy into the fat-shaming company from our middle school era or not.

DW black watch $199 Blue striped watch $175 The Horse watch $120

A&F cardigan $38 Dress $26 Romper $53 A&F men's stripe tee $38 Wool sweater $68 Joggers $27

Native Shoes Apollo boots $80 Tretorn Strala boots $75

Men’s rain boots — not the knee-high kind but the sleek, stylish, ankle kind. This boot looks similar to the Chelsea boot, which is a popular women’s boot becoming increasingly fashionable in menswear as well.

Now in rubber, these will kill two birds with one stone — keeping you in touch with the sleek new boot trend and being practical for the bipolar weather.

Salvatore Ferragamo pre-owned kitten slingback heels $95

Printed leggings: These have been in and out for a while, but I think they’ll be even more popular this year. Look out for florals and animal skins; though I personally dislike them, I can feel them coming back.

Monsoon UK heeled sandals $68

Zara loafers $50

Low-heeled shoes: Kitten heel slingbacks and chunky heeled loafers are still around, and while I’m not sure if these will really become big this year, I think they should. As nice as heels are, we have to start taking better care of our feet, girls, and these shoes will help without sacrificing style.

Analog watches: The sales of analog watches have been steadily going up since 2008, despite the poor economy and advent of the Apple watch. The sleek new styles coming from designers at Daniel Wellington and The Fifth are becoming more and more mainstream. On that note, you’re also going to be seeing more people with watches on their wrists and checking the time on their phone.

Who: Pell Where: Warehouse Live When: Feb. 25, 8:30 p.m.

Tickets: $15 on ticketfly.com Pell wrote his breakout hit EP “Floating While Dreaming” while working at a dollar store. Now Jared Pellerin, a Mississippibased rapper who was forced to move from his home in New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina, is touring to promote his second album “Limbo.” His work is aptly named, as his music features trippy sonic grooves and introspective lyrics. Pell has been featured in Pigeons & Planes and Paper Magazine as one of the top up-and-coming rappers to watch this year.

J.Crew men's sail print $50 Zulilly leggings $12

Small, patterned prints: Think abstract geometric things, little flowers, tiny animals. They’ve been creeping into men’s poplin shirts, but you’ll see them a lot more often now in women’s wear and home goods like bedding.

ASOS men's leaf print $28

Who: Mobley Where: The Nightingale Room When: Jan. 14, 7:15 p.m.

Tickets: Free admission If you’re looking to fill up some of your extra time during syllabus week, head over to the Nightingale on Thursday to catch some free, fresh talent out of Austin. Anthony Watkins II, known by his stage name “Mobley” is an up-and-coming indie rock artist that has been earning rave reviews in the Houston Inquirer and Austin Fusion Magazine. In his latest single “Swoon,” Watkins seems to be finding his stride and refining his sound, showing lots of promise for his upcoming EP.

9

Senior guard Max Guercy joins 1,000-point club Maddy Adams Sports Editor

vidya giri/thresher

Junior guard Maya Hawkins looks for the pass against UNT senior guard Kasiney Williams during the Owls’ matchup against the Mean Green on Sunday, Jan. 10. Rice went on to win the game in triple overtime by a score of 100-97. Hawkins was named the ASN national Player of the Week on Jan. 11.

Women’s basketball breaks losing streak Andrew Grottkau Sports Editor

The Rice University women’s basketball team cannot seem to accept that the final buzzer of the fourth quarter ends the game: Over winter break, the Owls played in three overtime games. They beat the University of Texas, San Antonio and the University of North Texas and lost to Texas Southern University in the overtime contests. The team went 3-4 overall during the break, including 2-1 in Conference USA play, bringing their record to 3-11 on the season.

Rice was still looking for its first win when it traveled to Huntsville, TX to take on Sam Houston State University on Dec. 17. It was the Owls’ first game following the break in the schedule for finals, but they were not rusty.

They opened the game by outscoring the Bearkats 19-10 in the first quarter and never looked back. Junior guard Maya Hawkins scored eight of her team-high 20 points in the first 10 minutes to lead the way for the Owls. After letting Sam Houston come within four points in the fourth quarter, the Owls closed the game on a 10-3 run to win 58-46. Head Coach Tina Langley, who earned her first collegiate coaching win in the game, said she was very happy with the team’s performance.

“I’m just really proud of this team tonight,” Langley said. “What a great team win.

It was neat to be able to get back on the floor and see them all really in sync and competing together as one.”

Rice did not have much time to celebrate the victory, however. Two days later, on Dec. 19, the Owls went to Nacogdoches, TX and fell 59-45 to Stephen F. Austin State University.

Following the loss, Rice returned home to Tudor Fieldhouse to face Texas Southern University for their final game before a week-long holiday break. The Lady Tigers held a 51-41 advantage with 7:01 to go in the fourth before the Owls began to make a comeback. With Rice down only 59-56 with 19 seconds remaining, freshman guard Gabrielle Stanton hit her third 3-pointer of the quarter to tie the game and send it into overtime. In overtime, however, the Owls could not keep up with the Lady

Tigers. Texas Southern senior guard Jazzmin Parker hit the eventual game-winning layup with 51 seconds remaining to lead the Lady Tigers to a 69-66 win. Langley said that despite the loss, she saw positive signs from her team.

“I’m excited about where our team is going,” Langley said. “You didn’t see any fear from our team tonight. They were incredibly focused and locked in and weren’t afraid to make mistakes.”

After a week-long hiatus, Rice returned to Tudor Fieldhouse on Dec. 28 to take on Loyola University Chicago in its nonconference finale. The Owls’ 24 turnovers doomed them as they lost 57-50. On New Year’s Day, Rice lost its fourth straight game, this time by a score of 60-54 against the University of Texas, El Paso in its Conference USA opener.

I’m excited about where our team is going. You didn’t see any fear from our team tonight.

Tina Langley

Women’s basketball head coach

Rice’s struggles would end there. Playing its second game of the weekend, the Owls welcomed the University of Texas, San Antonio to Houston on Jan. 3. Both teams were looking to earn their first Conference USA victory of the season. The game was close throughout, with Rice owning a three-point halftime lead. A back-and-forth third quarter trimmed the lead to two entering the fourth quarter. Then, with the Owls leading 43-41 in the final minute, the Roadrunners made a layup with just three seconds remaining to send the game into overtime. In overtime, the game remained tight. UTSA held a 48-46 lead when Hawkins hit a game-tying jump shot with 24 seconds to

go. The Roadrunners then took a shot to try to win the game, but it missed and Rice sophomore guard Wendy Knight was fouled fighting for the rebound with one second left. Knight went to the line and made the game-winning free throw to give the Owls a 49-48 victory. After the game, Langley said she was thrilled for her players.

“I’m just really proud and excited for our team,” Langley said. “They’ve been working really hard and you love to see them come out and get a win.”

The Owls got a full week off before taking the court against the University of North Texas on Jan. 10, looking for their first back-to-back wins of the season. After four tightly contested quarters, the game was tied at 61 headed to overtime. The first overtime was a back-andforth affair, and the teams remained tied after the five-minute period at 71-71. Thus, the game entered double overtime. In the second overtime, Rice trailed 83-81 with Knight stepping to the line for two free throws with three seconds remaining. With the game’s outcome riding on her shots, Knight made them both, and the teams went to triple overtime tied at 83. Junior forward Jasmine Goodwine then scored eight of her career-high 25 points for the Owls. Stanton, however, delivered the final blow, draining the eventual game winning 3-pointer with 42 seconds remaining to put the Owls ahead 97-95.

Rice held on to win 100-97 in triple overtime over North Texas. Hawkins scored a career-high 27 points before fouling out at the end of the second overtime and was named the American Sports Network National Player of the Week following the performance. Langley said the game was tough but satisfying.

“This was a great battle between two teams,” Langley said. “We spent a tremendous amount of time yesterday in practice on late game situations so it was great to see them execute in those situations.”

The Owls will continue Conference USA play on Thursday, Jan. 14 at Western Kentucky University. Five of their next seven games will be on the road. Their next home game is Jan. 21 against the University of Alabama, Birmingham at 7 p.m.

Men’s basketball senior guard Max Guercy scored his 1,000th point in a game against the University of Texas, San Antonio over winter break. Despite Guercy joining the 1,000-point club with 11 points, Rice fell to UTSA (85-80). Guercy is the 32nd Owl to earn the coveted distinction.

He also managed to snag six rebounds and provide six assists, which made him the second player in Rice history to accumulate 1,000 points, 400 assists, 300 rebounds and 100 steals.

Guercy’s impressive record today is the product of him persisting through two strenuous seasons as an underclassman.

The 5-foot-9-inch guard’s freshman and sophomore years were riddled with recurrent alterations in Rice’s coaching staff and frequent losses.

According to Guercy, his formative years were bridled with difficulties, but he persevered.

“My first two years were rough — we only won five games my freshman year and seven games my sophomore year. I learned a lot through always being there and being a competitor.”

A shift came, however, when Rice hired Mike Rhoades as a new head coach at the end of Guercy’s sophomore year. According to Guercy, Rhoades’ dedication and fast-paced coaching style resulted in him acquiring his impressive statistics.

“Rhoades wants us to have a more uptempo game, which allowed me to accumulate a lot of assists,” Guercy said. “Throughout this season and last season, the whole new staff believed in me and I was able to trust in my teammates.”

Guercy said his record is the natural byproduct of his desire to contribute to the team and play well.

“The points come along with making the right plays and reads,” Guercy said.

“The stats just come along with me going out and playing hard every night.”

Although Rice has lost its first three conference games, the team has a large portion of the season left and hopes to compete in the NCAA tournament. Guercy said that he is hopeful about the remainder of the season.

“We were on the road for our first three conference games, but now we’re able to come back and play in front of our home crowd,” Guercy said. “I’m still looking forward to the rest of the year, I think we’ll be ready by the middle or end of conference.”

0see Guercy, page 10

Max Guercy courtesy rice sports information

10 SPORTS

the Rice Thresher

0from GUERCY page 9 At Rice, Guercy is both a seasoned basketball veteran and a strong student: He is a three-time Conference USA Commissioner’s Honor Roll recipient. According to Guercy, he wants to continue to serve as a leader and role

model on the team while excelling academically during his final semester.

“I want to finish strong academically at Rice,” Guercy said. “I want to continue improving as a player and a leader; I think I can help the younger players with my experience.”

After graduating, Guercy said he hopes to continue playing the sport he loves abroad and follow in the footsteps of Rice basketball

alumnus Seth Gearhart (’15), who currently plays professionally in Switzerland.

“I want to play overseas, like [Gearhart],” Guercy said. “I love this game, and I want to continue playing.”

Guercy declined to discuss his overseas prospects, however, as he is barred from speaking to any agents until the conclusion of his NCAA career.

Wednesday, January 13, 2016

Rough C-USA start for men’s basketball Michael Kidd Thresher Staff

Owls swim to victory in UIW Invitational Andrew Grottkau Sports Editor

The Rice University swim team could hardly consider winter break a “break,” as it competed in two meets despite the time off from classes. The Owls claimed the title in the University of the Incarnate Word Invitational just prior to Christmas, then fell to No. 29 Florida Gulf Coast University in a dual meet on Jan. 3.

Rice traveled to San Antonio looking to defend their title after winning the UIW Invitational during the 2014-15 season. Facing off against the University of Houston, the University of North Texas and Incarnate Word, Rice began the meet by winning two events on the first day of the three-day competition. Sophomore Kaitlyn Swinney starred in the meet, setting a new career best time (4:52.60) to win the 500-yard freestyle and lead a one-two-three Rice finish in the event. She later joined freshman Marie-Claire Schillinger, sophomore Kiley Beall and sophomore Jaecey Parham in the Owls’ first-place medley relay team to win the Owls’ second event of the day. Despite Swinney’s strong performances, Rice sat in second place following the first day of the meet, trailing North Texas 507.5 to 464.5. According to Head Coach Seth Huston, the Owls did not have their best day.

“We got out of the gate a little slow this morning,” Huston said. “I think everybody came into this meet a little flat, but we came back tonight and swam really well.”

On the second day of the invitational, Rice hit its stride. The Owls won six of the seven

events of the day to take the lead in the meet.

Schillinger recorded a career-best 1:02.73 to take first place in the 100-yard breaststroke.

She also swam on two winning relay teams, helping the Owls win the 200-yard medley relay and the 800-yard freestyle relay. Swinney built on her strong performance from the previous day by leading a one-two Rice finish in the 400-yard individual medley. Junior Anniina Ala-Seppala earned a victory in the 200-yard freestyle, and Parham claimed the 100-yard backstroke to win the Owls’ sixth event of the day. By the end of the night, Rice led the meet with 1,194.5 points, followed by second-place Incarnate Word with 1,092. Coach Huston said he was happy with how the team performed, but his focus was on the third day of the meet.

“The last day is always the toughest,” Huston said. “We have to take pride in being on and fast and ready to go.”

For the final day of the meet, Rice won all six events to secure their second straight title in the Incarnate Word Invitational. Freshman Hanna Huston recorded her first victory of the weekend in the mile with a time of 16:56.73, and senior Cora McKenzie won the 100-yard freestyle to lead a one-two finish with Parham.

Huston said he was especially impressed by McKenzie’s swim.

“It was really a come-from-behind swim from Cora McKenzie,” Huston said. “It was awesome to see her pull that off.”

Sophomore Kaitlin Benjamin took first in the 200-yard butterfly. Schillinger and Swinney continued to shine, winning the 100-yard breaststroke and 200-yard backstroke, respec-

tively. For her strong performance in the invitational, Schillinger was honored with the Conference USA Swimmer of the Week award. The final victory of the weekend went to the Owls’ 400-yard freestyle relay team of Swinney, McKenzie, Schillinger and senior Shannon Foreman. Overall, Rice won the meet with 1,830.5 points, followed by Incarnate Word with 1,470, Houston with 1,075 and North Texas with 507.5.

Huston said he was pleased with the result.

“Today was an early Christmas present for Rice Owls swimming fans,” Huston said. “We had a really good day.”

Following the victory in the Incarnate Word Invitational, the Owls took a week off before reconvening in Tampa, FL for a training trip on Dec. 29. After a few days of preparation, Rice took on No. 29 Florida Gulf Coast in a dual meet in Fort Myers, FL. Sophomore Alicia Caldwell led the Owls with two first-place finishes. She won both the 100-yard and 200-yard freestyle events after swimming as part of Rice’s second-place medley relay team. Hanna Huston earned second place in the 500-yard freestyle and the 1,000-yard freestyle. Unfortunately for the Owls, Florida Gulf Coast won nine of the 11 events to win the meet 134-71. The loss brings Rice’s dual meet record to 3-4 on the season, but the Owls have also won two of the three invitational meets in which they competed.

The swim season will continue throughout the winter with seven more dual meets before the Conference USA Championships in late February. Rice is in action again on Jan. 12 in a dual meet away against Incarnate Word. The meet is scheduled for 2 p.m. in San Antonio.

The Rice Owls men’s basketball team has been very busy over the last couple of weeks while the remainder of the student body was on winter break. The Owls played in nine games from Dec. 2 to Jan. 9 and posted a 3-6 record during that span.

After a 10-day recess from all basketball activity due to final exams, the team enjoyed immediate success by defeating the University of St. Thomas on Dec. 17 by a final score of 6754. Rice followed that game with a road victory over a talented New Mexico squad in the famous arena known as “The Pit.” The 90-89 final was one of the biggest upsets of the college basketball season. However, following this win, the team struggled, and is currently riding a five-game losing streak. The Owls sit at 5-11 on the season (0-3 in C-USA).

I don’t know if I’ve ever been so proud of a team as I am right now.

Mike Rhoades Men’s basketball head coach

On Dec. 17, the Owls hosted the University of St. Thomas where standout freshman guard Marcus Evans recorded a career-high 32 points.

Evans, who has started and played in all 16 games for the Owls this season, is leading Conference USA in scoring, averaging 19.9 points per game. For nearly three weeks, Evans was the top scoring freshman, not just on the Owls team or in the conference, but also in the entire nation, even beating out Louisiana State freshman standout Ben Simmons who many believe will be the 2016 NBA Draft’s top pick. Simmons has since taken the top spot and Evans remains second in that category.

Just two days later on Dec. 19, another Rice Owl led the way with 32 points of his own.

However, his name wasn’t Marcus Evans — it was Egor Koulechov, the junior transfer from Arizona State University. Koulechov and the rest of the Owls went into “The Pit” at New Mexico University and defeated the Lobos for one of the biggest Rice men’s basketball victories in recent memory. The Owls trailed by as many as 17 points before fighting back, rattling off 10 points in 40 seconds with just under four minutes to play. Koulechov scored 24 of his 32 points in the second half along with a game tying 3-pointer with 21 seconds remaining and the game winning free throw with 0.1 seconds remaining on the clock. The game remains the only loss New Mexico has suffered at home this season.

After the game, Head Coach Mike Rhoades said he was very proud of his team for fighting to the end and showing resolve.

“I don’t know if I’ve ever been so proud of a team as I am right now,” Rhoades said. “That’s why I brought [our players] here — to be in “The Pit” and throw them in the fire. What a great response.”

Since that night in Albuquerque, the Owls have had trouble getting back into the win column and have now lost five straight games, including their first three Conference USA matchups. Four of those five games were on the road, and the Owls have yet to play a conference game at home. Over this stretch, it has been difficult for Rice to close out games. The Owls have only 12 players on their roster, and with significant injuries to freshman guard Chad Lott and Preseason All-Conference junior guard Marcus Jackson, they are left with 10 active players.

Despite the 5-11 overall record, many of the Owls’ games have been very close. Most recently, Rice lost three consecutive games by margins of six points or less. These results were 82-76 to the University of the Incarnate Word, 61-60 against the University of Texas, El Paso and 85-80 against the University of Texas, San Antonio. The Owls have had two other losses this season by four points and seven points.

Rice will look to turn things around when they host Western Kentucky University on Thursday, Jan. 14 at 8 p.m. The Owls will then face Marshall University on Saturday, Jan. 16 at 7 p.m. Both games will be shown on the American Sports Network.

Wednesday, January 13, 2016

the Rice Thresher

SPORTS

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BACKPAGE

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Wednesday, January 13, 2016

the Rice Thresher

Welcome back! As much as we’d love to talk about what we did over break, we must skip the pleasantries to get to a more pressing matter. We have been inspired by the Oregon Patriots Ammon and Cliven Bundy to take a stand for the growing oppression that faces us all here at Rice. Like these heroes, we propose that the student body finally acts against this injustice, and, for once, do something that actually matters.* Forget about concealed carry and S.B. #69, here are some of the issues that are affecting all of us: 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

Rice underperformed in Niche’s college rankings, and No. 5 don’t get no ribbon.

The increasing presence of hoverboards on campus is degrading the public image of Rice as a quality institution of higher learning. Because they’re stupid.

The new parking facility is stealing Lovett’s title of ugliest building on campus.

Someone spoiled “Star Wars Episode VII” for me.

El Chapo’s been arrested, and it’s driving coke prices up on campus.

Caitlyn Jenner is kind of hot, and I don’t know how I feel about that.

Trojan has demoted us 33 spots, placing Rice as the 92nd university in the nation for sexual health – which, if you’re anything like me, is worrying because I have lots and lots of sex.**

Below is a tactical map of our planned occupation of the main quad. Study it closely; we will enact at dawn.*

SALLYPORT NEW BACKPAGE OFFICES (can’t go through Sallyport - my parents will kill me if I don’t graduate)

B

HRZ

SEWALL

Backpage lounge

Rest of Thresher

T T

Public gallows (to maintain peace and order) (and play hangman)

MAIN ATTACK Rotate 360 degrees (twice as badass as 180)

BACKPAGE MANOR

RZR

WILLY

?

These people never leave the building can’t figure out a way in.

HUMA OUTHOUSE 1. Relocate SJP

Home Alone-esque booby trap

FONDREN

Strategic keg Hoverboard patrols (ok, they’re bitchin’)

*After syllabus week, of course. I’m trying to get crunk 7 days in a row **I’m just quiet about it, so that’s why you probably haven’t heard, but I promise, I have like so much sex.

Plebian Militia camp

2. Burn to the ground The Backpage is satire and written by Joey McGlone and Riley Robertson. For comments or questions, please email thirsty@rice.edu.

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OLD SCHOOL TUTORING is looking for Rice students with strong math skills to fulfill a part time child tutoring position. Offering schedule flexibility and $12-$14 an hour. Located across from Rice! Contact Bob Schmitt at OldschoolASC@gmail.com

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

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