The Rice Thresher | Wednesday, August 31, 2016

VOLUME 101, ISSUE NO. 2 | STUDENT-RUN SINCE 1916 | RICETHRESHER.ORG | WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 31, 2016

Is the Rice experience accessible?

SA report: Low-income students face barriers to opportunities at Rice Students who took the survey: (251 responses)

Now you CUC me, now you don’t

Students who took the survey: (251 responses) receive receive a financial Students receive aidwho took the survey: (251 responses) Pell grant receive a financial aid receive financial aid

Students call for transparent communication from admin

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40% 40%

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*total Rice population statistics

see Ops p. 5

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Students’ perceptions of the quality of Rice’s services Students’ perceptions the quality of Rice’s services decrease asofincome decreases.

Students’ perceptions the quality of Rice’s services decrease asofincome decreases. decrease as income decreases.

Fire and ice cream What’s hot at Matchbox and cool at Creamistry

see A&E p. 6 Go West, young men!

Football begins season against Western Kentucky

see Sports p. 9

Students learn shooter response

INCOME INCOME INCOME $200k+ $200k+ ... ... $0-25k $200k+ $0-25k ...

Administration Accessibility Administration & Navigation Accessibility Administration & Navigation Accessibility & Navigation 6.1

Admissions Process Admissions Process Admissions Process 7.8

FAFSA support FAFSA support FAFSA support 4.9

Career Advising & Summer Career Advising Opportunities & Summer Career Advising Opportunities & Summer Opportunities 6.7

Student Life & Extracurricular Student Life & Opportunities Extracurricular Student Life & Opportunities Extracurricular Opportunities 8.0

7.0

6.1

7.8

4.9

6.7

8.0

6.2 7.0 6.2

6.0 6.1 6.0

7.3 7.8 7.3

6.6 4.9 6.6

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Emily Abdow

0see TRAINING, page 4

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Academic Advising & Support Academic Advising & Support Academic Advising & Support 7.0

6.0 of 1-10, with 17.3 6.6 10 the best.

Judged on a scale being the worst and Judged on a scale of 1-10, with 1 being the worst and 10 the best.

Judged on a scale of 1-10, with 1 being the worst and 10 the best.

Assistant News Editor

Around 40 students attended the Rice University Police Department’s upgraded active shooter training at Brown College on Saturday. Over the last four years, RUPD has provided lecture and video based training to 1,100 people, but this training, which includes practical application exercises, is the first of its kind, according to lead instructor Sergeant Tom Hudak.

“We know how to run, but if we can’t get out of the building, we haven’t taught students what to do beyond that,” Hudak said. “Students don’t know how to barricade and how to fight back and [people have] lost lives that way. We don’t want students to be sitting ducks.”

Brown President Santiago Avila coordinated the training with RUPD following a shooting at the University of California, Los Angeles in June.

In an email to college residents, Avila announced that the training was mandatory for Brown cabinet members; Martel College President Ly Nguyen highly recommended that Martel cabinet members attend.

“While we hope that we will never encounter an active-shooter situation in our community, given recent events and today’s environment, preparedness is becoming essential,” Avila, a junior, said in the email. “Preparation, training and simulation can help mitigate the negative impact of such an event.”

Over the course of three hours, students identified escape routes such as windows and learned where to break them: in the top right- and left-hand corner. Students also barricaded the entrances of three different rooms at Jones College and Brown, utilizing belts and furniture to keep the door shut. Hudak said that even with a barricade, it is important to be prepared to fight, and so students practiced distracting, disarming and subduing a shooter played by an RUPD officer.

Hudak emphasized “OODA,” which stands for observe, orient, decide and act.

“If you do those four things faster

*

Low-income students are 2-3x more likely to find Low-income studentsatare 2-3x more likely to find opportunities Rice inaccessible.

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educational educational

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student life Educational, co-curricular and student lifeeducational opportunities that students who haveco-curricular been unable to partake in due to financial costs associated with them: Educational, co-curricular and student life opportunities that students who have been unable to partake in due to financial costs associated with them: Study abroad

College/SA president

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like Beer Bike, CCL activities like Educational, co-curricular and student life opportunities that students whoRPC haveevents been unable to partake in due to financial costs associated withASB, them:GIS Study abroad College/SA president Anitaclasses Alem Summer

Managing Editor

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He said he agreed that include study abroad programs, Global O-Week coordinating

A report from the Student Association shows that nearly 60 percent of students with a household income of less than $50,000 have been unable to participate in Rice events like Beer Bike or Center for Civic Leadership activities such as Alternative Spring Break due to their associated financial burden.

The Student Access and Success Report, released this month, found students’ perceptions of the quality of campus resources such as career advising and extracurricular to decrease with lower income. But awareness of resources was fairly constant between students of differing income levels.

Lower-income students were two to three times more likely to find educational, student life and leadership opportunities to be cost-prohibitive. These

Urban Lab courses which have a fee of several thousand dollars for travel, Rice Program Council events and unpaid college leadership positions.

According to SA President Griffin Thomas, who created the Student Access and Success task force in October, the report reveals a disconnect between Rice’s extracurricular education model and funding provided to support it.

“Rice prides itself on having extracurricular opportunities that have become part and parcel of the Rice undergraduate curriculum,” Thomas, a Lovett College senior, said. “At the same time, we’re only providing financial aid to explicitly academic programs.”

Albert Maldonado, president of Generation College, a club for students who are of the first generation in their family to attend or graduate from college, said he found the report fairly

career advising and summer opportunity programs lack focus on first-generation and low-income students at Rice.

“With parents never attending a four-year university in the U.S., much less an elite one such as Rice, our demographic often gets introduced to jobs, majors, and opportunities that we would have never known about without our own research and our own luck,” Maldonado said.

The task force surveyed the student body in February and received 251 responses. Thomas then invited students to attend a focus group in April to elaborate on the survey responses.

Thomas said Rice administration has demonstrated its investment in supporting low-income students through initiatives such as the CCL’s scholarship funding for ASB programs According to Thomas, meal plan

campus are a few changes students might see in the coming year.

“We want to be sure students aren’t hungry on Saturdays or forced to make unfortunate choices,” Thomas said.

Thomas also suggested scholarship funding for extracurricular programs may expand across campus. However, Thomas does not expect college leadership to become paid in the near future because only a small percentage found these to be cost-prohibitive.

Maldonado said he hopes Rice will make an effort to allocate money towards students who can’t afford programs to give them an equal chance at having the unique Rice experience.

“If Rice made a collective effort to attack these problems, this demographic could really stride to being the last first- or last low-income generation of their family,” Maldonado said.

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NEWS

Wednesday, August 31, 2016

the Rice Thresher

New year brings new major, minors Megan Gordon For the Thresher

The beginning of the academic year has seen the launch of new programs in three departments: a Bachelor of Science in environmental science, a minor in physics, and a minor in medical humanities. The new programs bring Rice’s total selection of undergraduate majors to 53 and minors to 20.

courtesy christine diaz

Doctor Hoot

Brown College senior Christine Diaz, right, was among seven Rice students who worked with Malawian healthcare providers this summer in Blantyre, Malawi, in a partnership organized by the Rice 360º Institute for Global Health.

The students worked on issues such as neonatal hypothermia. Read the full story at www.ricethresher.org.

McNair speaks on entrepreneurship Emily Abdow

Assistant News Editor

The McNair Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation hosted “A Conversation with Bob McNair” at the Baker Institute on Monday. In 2015, the McNairs gifted $8 million to Rice University to establish the McNair Center at the Baker Institute, which provides analyses of issues affecting entrepreneurship and innovation. McNair, a philanthropist and businessman is best known as the founder of Cogen Technologies and the founder, chairman and CEO of the Houston Texans.

Now one of the 500 richest people in the world, McNair arrived in Houston in 1960 with only $700 in his bank account, and when he attempted to break into the trucking industry, the industry became deregulated, plunging him into over $10 million of debt. But McNair used his failure and newfound knowledge of deregulation for success.

“I saw what happened to us when you get a regulated industry,” McNair said. “Inefficiencies build up over time. So I decided well, why can’t I use my experience going through this to my advantage. What industries are going to be trans-

formed thereby creating opportunities?”

McNair identified intermodal transportation which is shipping using at least two means of transport, telecommunications, and cogeneration, the simultaneous generation of electricity and heat, as three industries for opportunity. For McNair, cogeneration proved to be a goldmine and in 1999 he sold his company, Cogen Technologies for $1.5 billion. That year, McNair was awarded the Houston Texans franchise, which McNair said he founded because he was always asked why Houston didn’t have its own football team.

“People would say, ‘What’s wrong with Houston?’” McNair said. “I said, ‘What do you mean what’s wrong with Houston?’ ‘Well your economy is so bad you can’t support an NFL football team.’ And I had to give an explanation and I got tired of that.”

When asked what advice he had for students, McNair emphasized honesty, a willingness to work, and adding value to every environment.

“The most important thing is putting yourself in a position where you can add the most value and when you add the most value, the compensation will come to you,” McNair said. “When you

are patient and persist you will be successful.

You’ll have long term success instead of short term success.”

McNair also discussed views on philanthropy, saying job creation is more beneficial than charity.

“Anything we can do to create opportunity for jobs, I think we’re helping more people,” McNair said. “The only way to create jobs is to have a growing economy. And that’s why we’re working with you and [The Baker Institute], to help people understand what are the economic theories that are successful. There are many models out there, and most of them other the free enterprise system have been failures. [The free enterprise system] is the fairest, it’s the most moral, it’s a meritocracy.”

Wiess College sophomore Constantine Tzouanas said he was grateful for the chance to hear McNair speak.

“This was a really interesting opportunity to connect and hear the unfiltered thoughts of someone who is this prominent in Houston,” Tzouanas said. “I’ve seen his charitable donations from volunteering at the food bank. It’s interesting to hear where he started as a young entrepreneur and connect him to today’s billionaire.”

NEWS IN BRIEF Engineering dean to leave position at end of school year Drew Keller, News Editor Ned Thomas will step down as dean of the George R. Brown School of Engineering at the end of the school year and return to teaching as a full-time faculty member, according to an email Provost Marie Lynn Miranda sent to faculty last week.

Miranda said the search for a replacement to Thomas, who has served since 2011, will begin soon. Thomas declined to comment on the factors leading to his transition out of the role.

“Thanks to you students for helping to create an extraordinary culture of high energy in our can-do, hands-on, highly collaborative engineering community,” Thomas said in an engineering newsletter. “All of these things occurred during historic, unprecedented growth of undergraduate engineering majors with nearly 40 percent of all undergrads now majoring in engineering.”

In his message, Thomas said three of the four largest majors at Rice are currently computer science, mechanical engineering and chemical and biomolecular engineering. Since Thomas’s arrival, the number of graduating engineers has increased by more than 40 percent for both undergraduates and the department as a whole, according to Office of Institutional Research data. Thomas also noted that more than 35 percent of Rice engineers are now women.

In the message to the engineering school, Thomas mentioned several accomplishments: the creation of the Engineering Advisory Board and departmental review committees, the founding of the Nanotechnology Enabled Water Treatment Center and the creation of awards to recognize research and teaching excellence.

Thomas also said he is proud of recruiting talented faculty and staff, as well as improvements to the Rice Center for Engineering Leadership and Owlspark entrepreneurship program. At the start of his term, in a 2011 interview with the Thresher, Thomas had described student entrepreneurship, leadership and innovation as key to his vision.

Thomas, who served as head of the materials science department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology before coming to Rice, will teach materials science full-time next year.

Thomas said he would continue to work on initiatives as dean this year, including hiring more faculty, renovating labs and raising funds for an Oshman Engineering and Design Kitchen garage.

“I have ten more months at the helm and I don’t plan to spend them getting ready for my post-dean life,” Thomas said. “Let’s crank it up a few notches and do a lot of good for the School of Engineering and Rice.”

Financial aid and admission policy revised for undocumented student

Amber Tong, News Editor

Rice University is restating its admission and financial aid policy to reflect its welcoming attitude toward undocumented students, according to a Rice News press release. The policy, which will be updated online, will take effect in admission starting in fall 2017.

The policy concerns undocumented students with Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals status at the time of admission as well as those without DACA status who will have graduated from a U.S. high school at the time of matriculation and who have lived in the U.S. for an extended period of time.

“We believe that it serves both these talented students and our nation to assure that they have access to a Rice education,” President David Leebron said.

Leebron and Provost Marie Lynn Miranda credit the impetus for these changes to the discussions they had with members of the Students of Color Collective, a coalition formed by Blaque Robinson (Wiess ’16) last year with the goal of improving underrepresented minority students’ experiences at Rice. Robinson said she was grateful for the group of fellow students she worked with to achieve change.

“Don’t ever let anyone tell you that your voice doesn’t matter,“ Robinson said in a Facebook post. “Stand up and speak out.”

Bachelor of Science in environmental science Rice will now offer both a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Science in environmental science.

Dominic Boyer, director of the Center for Energy and Environmental Research in the Human Sciences, said it was necessary to create a new environmental science program to serve students well.

“It’s about flexibility, it’s about filling the gaps in the curriculum and it’s about meeting student needs,” Boyer said.

Richard Johnson, director of the Administrative Center for Sustainability and Energy Management and a professor in the practice of environmental study and sociology, said the new Bachelor of Science in environmental science is a result of crossdepartmental efforts.

It’s about flexibility, it’s about filling the gaps in the curriculum and it’s about meeting student needs.

Dominic Boyer Environmental Studies Director

“What we found was that a wonderful partnership emerged between earth sciences and bio sciences,” Johnson said. “They were both willing to share the degree.”

Prior to launch of the Bachelor of Science in environmental science, a Bachelor of Arts in environmental science was available, but Boyer said it failed to raise much student interest.

The Bachelor of Arts initially was available only as a double major. In structuring this new Bachelor of Science program, Rice looked to similar programs at other institutions, Johnson said.

“We looked at environmental science major programs at other universities and used that as the basis for completely rethinking our own approach,” Johnson said. “We concluded we needed to offer a Bachelor of Science and a Bachelor of Arts, and that they needed to be stand-alone degrees.”

The Bachelor of Science in environmental science includes a minimum of 73 credit hours of major requirements and a declared concentration in either earth science or ecology or evolutionary biology. The program is designed to be a rigorous course of study for students with defined interests in natural sciences and the environment.

Physics minor Jason Hafner, professor of physics and astronomy, said the new physics minor was created to broaden the reach of the department.

“We just wanted to be able to reach out and teach physics to more undergraduates,” he said. “That was really our motivation.”

To graduate with the new minor offered through Rice’s physics and astronomy department, students must complete a minimum of 35 credit hours from the courses laid out in the General Announcements. Hafner said the minor is designed to be fewer hours than the major, but still be comprehensive.

“We still wanted to give [students] the basic ideas of classical and modern physics,” Hafner said.

Hafner said because it requires many lower-level courses, some students might have already taken steps toward completing the minor without realizing it.

0see PROGRAMS, page 4

Wednesday, August 31, 2016

the Rice Thresher

NEWS

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NEWS

Wednesday, August 31, 2016

the Rice Thresher

0TRAINING FROM PAGE 1

zixuan zhou/thresher

Brown College junior Jack Weis, left, and Brown sophomore Andrew Maust, center, practice restraining a simulated active shooter at a Rice University Police Department workshop. Brown required cabinet members to attend the practical training on Saturday, including Weis, who serves as internal vice president.

0PROGRAMS FROM PAGE 2 “It’s got strong overlap with most science and engineering majors so a lot of students already have the [introduction] part taken care of,” Hafner said.

For this reason, he said, the minor is wellsuited for students who have completed these sorts of courses and want to go further in their physics education.

“I would say electrical engineers, mechanical engineers, computer science majors, people who has completed those intro science and math courses and have an obvious physical science interest are most likely to tack on a few extra physics classes,” Hafner said.

If this program is successful, the department hopes to construct similar minor programs in the coming years. Hafner said information on these programs will be forthcoming.

Medical humanities minor Kirsten Ostherr, director of the medical humanities minor and a professor of English, said the new minor was created as a result of student and faculty collaboration, especially with the Rice Medical Humanities Club.

“There is a huge, very active medical humanities student group with whom I and the other faculty involved with the minor have had ongoing dialogue,” Ostherr said. “They were very vocal early on about how much they would love to have additional opportunities to take

classes and do research in medical humanities.

In addition, those students wanted to have some visible acknowledgment of their work in this field on their transcripts.”

Ostherr said the minor is designed to address another element of health that is often overlooked in the sciences.

“The social, cultural, human aspects of health and illness are shaped by many factors that students don’t learn about in science classes, or even in medical school,” Ostherr said.

Students take 18 credit hours of required courses to complete the minor. The program includes a practicum, which is designed to allow students to put into action the skills that they have learned in the program.

According to Ostherr, pre-medical and pre-health students would find great benefit in the program, but she noted that the omnipresence of health makes the minor a useful course of study for a number of other disciplines.

“There are few professions that do not bring some aspect of health into play, so if a student is interested in pursuing law, or studying literature, or becoming an environmental scientist, their approach to the field will be richer with a medical humanities minor as part of their education,” Ostherr said.

She said interested students should email her directly or enroll in one of the department’s course offerings. Introduction to Medical Humanities (HURC 201), the core course, is being offered this semester and will be offered again this spring.

than your opponent,” Hudak said. “You will win.”

The training also included a 30-minute lecture on active shooter statistics and a video from the Houston Police Department, “Run. Hide. Fight.”

According to a study by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, 200 active shooter incidents have occurred since 2000; three such incidents occurred at institutes of higher education in the last two years. Citing similar figures, Hudak noted that 96 percent of shooters are male and 98 percent act alone. Shootings typically last between five and seven minutes, and 50 percent of the time, the shooting ends before police arrive on the scene.

The course was also instructed by Officers Paul Cordova, Gary Evans, Rommel Espinola and Captain Paul Cordova and attended by Chief of Police Johnny Whitehead. Cordova said the training is not meant to scare people and expressed his belief that the Rice University campus is one of the safest in the nation.

Credit hour req.

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“We would just rather err on the side of caution and be ready, much like a fire or a hurricane or a natural disaster, so people can feel safe like they have a plan,” Cordova said.

Alex Cerda, Brown’s parliamentarian, said the training made him feel more prepared in the event of an active shooter.

“I feel more confident about what I would do in a scenario like this and about maintaining calm and keeping composure,” Cerda, a senior, said.

Josh Perez, a Jones sophomore, said he hopes to see the training expand in the future.

“I would honestly say that if this course could be condensed to an hour or two then it should be included in [Orientation Week] for every new student coming in,” Perez said.

Cordova said RUPD’s goal is to offer the improved active shooter program to as many students as possible.

“We hope to start out with student leadership and branch out to each college either during cabinet meetings or lunches,” Cordova said. “Somewhere where it isn’t too inconvenient for them to break away from studies. We don’t have a ceiling.

We’ll keep going as long as there is interest.”

B.S. in environmental science

Medical humanities minor

73 credits

18 credits

35 credits

25-28 courses

6 courses

8-10 courses

Physics minor

ENST 100 Environmental Culture and Society

RELI 344 Seminar on the End of Life

PHYS 101 Mechanics

ESCI 301 Introduction to the Earth

ENGL 386 Medical Media Arts Lab

PHYS 201 Waves and Optics

ESCI 380 Visualizing Nature

ANTH 354 Disability and Gendered Bodies

PHYS 202 Modern Physics

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Credit cap shows student-admin disconnect Active shooter training necessary for safety In the wake of mass shootings throughout the country as well as certain college campuses, Brown and Martel Colleges’ recent initiative to provide active shooter training their for cabinet and college members (see p. 1) should serve as a model for the rest of the Rice community. Events like the shooting at the University of California, Los Angeles, show that although the chance of experiencing a mass shooting may be low, preparedness is necessary not only to save lives but also to prevent a breakdown into chaos.

The most logical time for uniform training is during Orientation Week. While physical drills might be logistically impractical for O-Week and potentially upsetting to new students, some basic exposure to shooter safety protocol alongside other presentations should be mandatory. Rice University Police Department can coordinate with O-Week leaders to provide informational videos and training similar to what was recently offered to some students. In addition, chief justices at residential colleges should have unified talking points to clarify on-campus safety standards, ensuring that each new student receives similar information.

Furthermore, extensive training, including physical self defense components, should be broadly available throughout the year for interested students. Exposure to basic safety topics on active shooter scenarios is important at the beginning of the year and should be followed up with publicized opportunities for further, highly-recommended trainings. Within student leadership, such as at residential colleges, active shooter training should be mandatory.

Ideally, every student will undergo active shooter training. The best time to conduct such training is during O-Week, but we understand concerns about overwhelming students with excessive training on a sensitive issue, in addition to logistical problems with providing one-on-one combat practice. Thus, we suggest a middle-of-the-line solution, wherein RUPD provides an introduction during O-Week, supplemented with further opportunities for all students throughout the year.

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

Recent comments made by Dean Hutchinson compel us to condemn the current state of communication, transparency and responsiveness between the administration, faculty senate and student body. The faculty and administration ignored the opinions of students, dismissing them with grandiose statements highlighting Rice’s “student-run senate” and “transparent administration” throughout the entire approval process.

During Orientation Week advisor training, Dean Hutch hosted a “fireside chat” so that advisors would be able to inform the new students about the “proper” reasons for which the proposal was passed. The chat, advertised as an open conversation between Dean Hutch and advisors, began as a monologue of why the administration — specifically Dean Hutch — fought for the credit limit. It was a thought-provoking speech. Many of the advisors still opposed to the credit limit found themselves, if not pleased with its passage, able to understand its purpose.

Why was the opportunity for such a dialogue not available before the Faculty Senate voted to pass the legislation? When asked, Dean Hutch argued the university should not stop what it is doing simply because the student body disagrees.

He also asserted that he attempted to explain the proposal at Student Association Senate, but found the student body unreceptive.

This answer epitomizes the error in the administration’s approach to engaging the student body with the Committee on Undergraduate Curriculum proposal. When a critically important and controversial proposal arises, it is the shared responsibility of the administration and the

FRESHMEN

student body to properly communicate. The administration must do more than attend more SA senate meetings. When 87 percent of the surveyed student body takes issue with a proposal, they deserve to be the target of a meaningful communication strategy, be it by attending college cabinets or sending an email to the student body before the proposal was passed (the provost’s email delivered after the CUC passage deserves attention here, but to be brief we characterize it thusly: Yikes, man).

Reducing student stress is a noble goal, but it is clearly not the CUC proposal’s main objective.

When asked why the Faculty Senate wasn’t addressing department degree hour requirements themselves, Dean Hutch offered the lukewarm encouragement that hopefully this new limit would allow him to convince departments to lower graduation requirements. This response deeply alarms us, especially because we were not given the opportunity to further question it. Does the administration really condone “experimenting” with students’ academic schedules, likely limiting their educational pursuits, simply to “send a message?”

Advisors also wanted more information about appeal process in the proposal, though they were not given the opportunity to question Hutch about it. Students called for a specific appeals process throughout the approval process and the administration repeatedly tabled the request for after the proposal’s passage. Apparently the administration felt it unnecessary to consider the appeals process before passing the proposal though it played a critical role in marketing the proposal to students, and will be crucially

SOPHOMORES

JUNIORS

Pub through the years

important to the future success of many incoming students with unavoidably intense credit requirements. Considering that little if no student feedback was incorporated in the CUC proposal and Dean Hutchinson’s recent remarks, we fear that students who intend to give direct feedback to the appeals process will better spend their time on Fondren seventh.

There should be serious discussion between the administration and the SA about changing how the Faculty Senate is allowed to function independently of the SA, and how the administration and student body can better communicate with and respect one another.

Fostering legitimate interaction (rather than the meaningless veneer of such interaction) between the Student Association and Faculty Senate is the first step in this process. Rice students were just ranked the happiest in the nation — but how happy can students truly be, and how long will the happiness last, when they don’t trust the administration?

Alex Cerda and Tim Nonet are a Brown College senior and a Brown College sophomore

SENIORS

cartoon by reagan williamson

Letter to the editor: Excelsior, Dean Thomas!

I recently heard the news that Ned Thomas will leave his position as the Dean of the George R. Brown School of Engineering. I respect the university-level decision, and understand that most administrative issues fall outside of the purview of undergraduate and graduate students. At the same time, I wanted to share the positive impact that Dean Ned Thomas has had on my career.

If memory serves correctly, Dean Thomas was appointed to his position in 2011, as I began my second year of graduate school in electrical and computer engineering. I’ll never forget his first town hall meeting with engineering graduate students.

Dean Thomas described where Rice Engineering stood against other elite institutions in the nation and where we wanted to be. More importantly, he convinced a room of graduate students that we were the ones who could make the transitions

Editorial Staff

happen. I know I am one among many who felt personally inspired to carry his enthusiasm into my own research career.

Looking for ways to spread Dean Thomas’ enthusiasm to the rest of the school, David Ramirez, Luke Boyer and I wanted to use the Rice Center for Engineering Leadership to launch a lightning talk competition. We met with Dean Thomas in his office to discuss challenges we were facing in trying to get the event started. With Dean Thomas helping us encourage faculty and students to participate, we launched the Screech 90-second graduate research competition across all Rice engineering departments. Screech was a fantastic success, inspiring the university-wide 90-second thesis competition the following semester. Both events have continued annually since their inceptions.

Without the help of Dean Thomas, Screech never

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would have launched.

There were also multiple cultural shifts within Rice Engineering. From nerdy t-shirts to banners, Rice Engineering established an identity of unity amongst the departments in the School of Engineering. And every week, all students, faculty and staff got an enthusiastic newsletter from the Dean’s office about ongoing projects and accomplishments of faculty and students.

The gusto made it feel that Rice was right where I wanted to be.

Personal hallway interactions were just as strong and just as meaningful. When I told him I was defending my doctorate thesis, he gave words of encouragement. When I was on the job market, he gave critical advice. When I told him I was leaving Rice to start an assistant professorship at Arizona State University, he gave a litany of great

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.

things to look forward to about my new destination.

On my last day at Rice, I went without appointment to Dean Thomas’ office. He paused his meeting, shook my hand, and told me that I am on my way to great things. If he’s right — and I hope he is — it has been through the encouragement and identity of Rice Engineering.

I hope that the next Dean of Rice’s George R. Brown School of Engineering will express the same level of enthusiasm that Dean Thomas has for undergraduate and graduate students, and the same level of passion for Rice University.

Thank you Dean Thomas. Excelsior!

Robert LiKamWa Will Rice College, B.S. ’10, M.S. ’12 and Ph.D. ’16 in the department of electrical and computer engineering.

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 CMBAM © Copyright 2015

arts

ENTERTAINMENT

6

Covering grounds: A two-part series on Houston’s coffee scene WALDEN PEMANTLE A&E EDITOR

Just like that, syllabus week is over. As you get back down to work, you might be finding that for all of it’s beauty, campus doesn’t have that many great places to study. Fondren is quiet, but not the most comfortable for long study sessions, and the rush of Coffehouse can be particularly distracting when you need to concentrate. My suggestion is next time you want to get down to work, try getting off campus.

A new setting always makes work seem more interesting, and these coffee places all offer laid-back and at least somewhat studious atmospheres.

Black Hole — 4504 Graustark

Black Hole — 4504 Graustark Black Hole has long been a student favorite. The food and coffee is excellent, and it’s easily accessible from campus on foot or by the 56 bus line. My only qualms with it are that it tends to be popular enough that seating can be hard to snag, and while the food is great, the prices can be a bit higher than nearby competitors like Agora.

Agora — 1712 Westheimer Agora — 1712 Westheimer

courtesey meagan dwyer

Wiess College senior Meagan Dwyer looks on at her installation ‘Inner Light’ at the Matchbox Gallery during its Thursday opening. The piece explores the complexities of our constantly changing and hidden emotional climates. The Matchbox Gallery is open upon request.

Matchbox Gallery’s ‘Inner Light’ inaugurates a new year of student art Lenna Mendoza A&E EDITOR

You can see the room glowing from a distance. Inside the small white gallery, a form of crumpled paper extends around the space, rising and falling along three walls. Sections of the paper change color gently, moving from dilute off-white to vivid green and through the rest of the color spectrum, fueled by hidden strips of LED lights. This constant recoloring of the paper causes the viewer to reexamine the piece, note the way the form is undone and reconstructed with each change. Throughout the room silver circles sit on the floor, offering a blurred version of your reflection, further distorted by a tinting of colored light. Wind and the movement of visitors stir the papers slightly, adding another dynamic element to the piece.

Matchbox Gallery opened “Inner Light” by visual and dramatic arts major Meagan Dwyer on Aug. 25, but the piece has been in Dwyer’s head for two years.

“I got the idea at the end of my sophomore year, and I intended to put it in Matchbox my junior year,” Dwyer, a Wiess College senior, said. “I applied summer after my sophomore year and got approved … [but] some stuff happened at the end of my junior year where I didn’t have time to do it.”

The idea has seen multiple trials over the course of that time.

“My first iteration of it I made at the end of my sophomore year for a final project and it was … four or five feet long, but it didn’t go the

full height of the wall … [and] I made one in my bedroom at home junior year,” Dwyer said.

Thanks to that she was ready to begin work on the installation immediately following Orientation Week, spending five to six hours per day over the course of three days constructing the piece.

According to Dwyer, whose VADA concentration is studio art, the opportunity to use a whole exhibition space was new for her, and brought its own challenges.

“It’s a very manageable size, I’ve never made anything that large before … I liked working in more of a full space … [but] it was kind of scary because I didn’t know how it was going to turn out,” Dwyer said.

“The idea of ‘Inner Light’ comes from our innermost feelings and emotions that we often struggle to identify, acknowledge, and label,” Dwyer said in her artist’s statement for the installation. “The space changes in color to reflect the sudden shifts in mood and feeling … The installation itself is meant to serve as a meditative space where the viewer may come to terms with these emotions that we are often afraid to recognize — the feelings we bury under our over-committed, busy lives.”

The small size of the gallery space only amplifies these effects. At only 1,600 cubic feet, the Matchbox Gallery is aptly named. While it does share a building with the Rice Gallery, the two spaces are very different. The Rice Gallery is easily spotted driving down the inner loop, staffed by docents, in many ways run like

galleries in the museum district. Rice Gallery affords an opportunity for professional artists to make something large scale, often so big that it dwarves the viewer. Meanwhile, Matchbox is tucked a floor below in the Sewall courtyard. No reception desk, student-run, so small that not all of the visitors to the opening could have stood in the exhibition space at once.

Matchbox’s informality and lack of pomp create a special kind of artistic space at Rice.

Anyone can submit a proposal for a show, and the gallery has featured both community and student artists. In addition, the size of the space and the lack of any divisions necessitates a certain intimacy with fellow patrons as well as with the installations themselves.

The chance Matchbox gives to student artists at Rice by featuring and facilitating the sharing of their work is incredibly valuable at a university where art can sometimes get pushed to the fringe.

“There are not very many of us, there are five [studio artists] in my year,” Dwyer said. “It’s kind of cool, because my friends always ask me if they need help ... I’m their point person. If I went to an art school, I’d be one in a sea of a thousand … [but] it’s definitely challenging sometimes because I feel like our community doesn’t get a lot of support just because a lot of people don’t know we exist.”

Matchbox Gallery will reopen “Inner Light” with live music on Sept. 9 at 8:30 p.m., and the student directors can open the installation on request via the Matchbox Gallery website.

Among myself and many other Rice students, Agora is the definitive favorite for caffeination and concentration. Though it’s detractors include dim lighting, and furniture that doesn’t always lend itself to productivity, the excellent coffee and laid back vibe always draw me to the Westheimer mainstay. As an added bonus, when you’re burnt out on books, Agora offers a number of interesting Greek wines to reward a long day’s work.

Double Trouble — 3622 Main

Double Trouble — 3622 Main You won’t want to study here in the evening. The cocktail hour crowd on the patio can make Double Trouble preventatively loud and smoky, however, for an all-day study sesh, Double Trouble’s patio can be ideal. Located right off the metro and close to a number of good lunch spots, Double Trouble is one of my favorite places to unwind while casually working on a paper.

Double Trouble — 3622 Main Fellini Caffe — 5211 Westheimer If you would rather not go too far beyond the hedges, Fellini should be high on your list of study spots. Located on the northern edge of Rice Village, the cafe has been applauded as one of Houston’s only “true” Italian pasticcerias. In addition to its excellent pastries, Fellini’s Shakerato, a sweetened, iced double espresso, is perhaps the most refreshing alternative to the usual cold brew in Houston.

Wednesday, August 31, 2016

WHAT’S HIP RIGHT NOW RECYCLING: Gleaning

A&E

the Rice Thresher

GARDENING:

Community Gardens

by walden pemantle

LIFESTYLE:

Good and Cheap: Eat Well on $4/day

courtesy leanne brown courtesy feedbackglobal.org

In a phrase: Gathering leftover crops from previously harvested fields Where to find it: Farms The books of Deuteronomy and Leviticus in the Bible mention overlooked and dropped produce should not be farmed, but instead left for the poor and marginalized as a source of food. Though there have been several centuries and many technological advancements since those books were written, the concept of gleaning remains the same. Spending a day on a farm experiencing where food comes from in America is eye opening, bucolic and pretty entertaining too. Check out gleantexas.org for more info on good locations and times to glean near Rice.

Meredith Gardens in Mandell Park, less than a mile north of campus, is a beautiful spot to hang out and pick some produce. They have many volunteer opportunities available on their website and lots of fresh fruits and vegetables for Houston citizens. Much like gleaning, the purpose of community gardens isn’t always to feed the person harvesting from the garden, but instead is often to procure food for the greater community. Community gardens can be a fun and rewarding place to spend a Sunday afternoon. If you don’t want to stray from campus, Rice has their own gardens too, and you can even get class credit for working in them.

BURIAL:

Capsula Mundi

courtesy capsula mundi

courtesy weareideal.com

In a phrase: Plots of land used to grow food by groups of people Where to find it: Many neighborhoods around Rice, the nearest being Mandell Park

7

In a phrase: Healthy cookbook designed for small budgets Where to find it: leannebrown.com/goodand-cheap.pdf Leanne Brown turned her food studies master’s thesis into a freely available, non-commercialized cookbook. Originally targeted at people on food stamps, “Good and Cheap” includes an introductory guide to cooking and budgeting with useful advice on shopping, cleaning and stocking food. The recipes are fairly simple and cover a wide range of culinary types such as breakfast, desserts, salads, soups, sauces and staples. It’s perfect to have when you find yourself living off campus for the first time. I’d highly recommend the chocolate zucchini muffins.

In a phrase: Burial pod in which the nutrients of your dead body help grow a tree Where to find it: capsulamundi.it/en/ project/ Death is an uncommon subject on college campuses outside of the sterility of an academic context. Many young adults feel invincible and would rather not think about an unpleasant subject they likely won’t have to deal with for decades. It nonetheless will happen to everyone reading this sentence (meta!) and figuring out how you want to be disposed of is vital. One interesting new burial option is the Capsula Mundi, a biodegradable oval in which a dead body helps grow any tree of the deceased’s choice.

It may be strange or gross to some, but the project, aiming to turn cemeteries into arboretums, undoubtedly has appeal to many eco-friendly souls out there.

Creamistry serves ice cream with a scientific twist Melody Yip

Thresher Staff

Rice students are all too familiar with the beloved class called General Chemistry. But what about food and chemistry? Houston’s heat has still yet to dissipate and the humidity is cloaking campus more than ever, but there’s a new food trend that’ll help everyone cool off — liquid nitrogen ice cream.

Liquid nitrogen is at a whopping negative 320 degrees Fahrenheit, and it causes some pretty fascinating effects on various foods.

For example, certain oils can be frozen.

Cheese can be freeze-dried. Nuts are perfectly split into pieces when frozen and then broken up. However, liquid nitrogen’s most renowned use in the cooking world is with ice cream. It freezes into tiny particles, resulting in a smoother, denser texture.

Seriously, it’s like matte ice cream.

Creamistry, which first opened in California, has introduced Houston to this newfangled notion with a location in the Galleria area. To order, customers have four different milk base options — premium, organic, sorbet and coconut. Then they choose the flavor and perhaps add some toppings. The concoction is placed in a bowl attached to a sleek, impressive machine that wafts liquid nitrogen clouds all over the place when turned on. After a couple minutes of waving away these plumes, the dessert is complete. What was just a humble little mixture has been transformed into a tantalizing frozen confection.

The texture is absolutely mesmerizing.

Unlike regular ice cream, which seems to immediately start melting, liquid nitrogen ice cream holds its shape sturdily. Digging in a spoon requires a bit of carving, but it’s luxuriously smooth. If interested in flavor options, the Thai tea with a coconut milk base emphasizes a robust tea softened by the coconut’s creaminess. The burnt orange hue also looks rather fluorescent. The cookie butter choice has a subtle buttery kick at the end, and according to one staff worker — try the Nutella. But these creations don’t come cheap. At $5.50 for a single scoop, it’s a splurge. So why the popularity?

Maybe it’s because watching the ice cream being made makes people feel indirectly involved in a fascinating science experiment. Maybe the process is reminiscent of a Captain America-like transformation, with puffs of smoke and the like creating something magnificent.

Liquid nitrogen seems a bit of a mystery too, drawing people to try and understand it.

Whatever the reason, it has won people over with its ability to create an extraordinarily smooth texture for one of America’s most favorite desserts. For food aficionados or chemists alike, the fusion of these two unlikely elements creates a unique, innovative dessert.

melody yip/thresher

Single-scoop servings of cookie butter and Thai iced tea ice cream at Creamistry in River Oaks. The newly opened ice cream shop serves ice cream treated with liquid nitrogen to give it a thicker, denser texture.

8

A&E

the Rice Thresher

Wednesday, August 31, 2016

9

Football hopes seniors lead team back to bowl Aniket Tolpadi Thresher Staff

As the Rice University football team looks forward to the fast-approaching 2016 season, it does so with the usual goals for the season: Compete for a Conference USA title, play in a quality postseason bowl game and finish the year as a top-25 team. Coming off a 2015 season in which it failed to qualify for a bowl game for the first time since 2011, the team will enter the 2016 slate more motivated than it has been in years to return to those heights. According to senior linebacker Alex Lyons, the team is ready to begin the new campaign.

“We’re hungry and we’re ready to kick things off Thursday and have a good season,” Lyons said.

The Owls will return the vast majority of what was a very young 2015 team. Among last year’s consistent contributors, the team sustained only three losses: top cornerback Ryan Pollard, wide receiver Dennis Parks and most recognizably, quarterback Driphus Jackson.

A quick look around Conference USA shows that Rice is not unique in this regard: Former Western Kentucky University quarterback Brandon Doughty was drafted by the Miami Dolphins, while Louisiana Tech’s Jeff Driskel was drafted by the San Francisco 49ers, among others. Quarterback play remains a crucial ingredient to the success of any football team.

Head coach David Bailiff is confident in senior Tyler Stehling, who will step into the starting role this year. “[Stehling] has been in here for five years, he’s grinded, he’s worked,” Bailiff said. “We’re counting on him, and he’s got enough pieces on the offense. He’s got to make good decisions with the football. He got some snaps last year, and we think he’s a guy that can lead us back to where we need to be.”

Senior running back Jowan Davis elaborated on the team’s new quarterback.

“Last year, [Stehling] played in a few games and he was ready to play last year,” Davis said.

“At the quarterback position, we’re pretty solid.”

Given the team’s youth a year ago, there are a considerable number of experienced offensive players that can help take the load off of Stehling as he transitions into the starting role. For instance, Davis and senior running back Darik

Dillard will return to anchor the Owls’ rushing attack for the third consecutive year, and other backs such as sophomore Samuel Stewart have played well when called upon in the past.

Senior wide receiver Zach Wright, the team’s leading receiver from a year ago, will return to anchor a new-look receiving corps. Senior tight end Connor Cella, who Bailiff has referred to as the best tight end in Conference USA, could help attack the middle of the field. And the team’s offensive line, which was mainly made up of underclassmen last year, should benefit from another year of maturation and experience.

Davis said he is excited about the offense’s versatility and is hopeful it can surpass last year’s mark of 26.1 points a game, which ranked just 86th among Division I schools.

We’re holding people a lot more accountable.

Everybody’s trying to do their job, taking care of their one-eleventh.

Alex Lyons

Senior Linebacker

“We have many different personnel groups,” Davis said. “If we want to slow it down, we can pound it, pound it, pound it. If we want to speed it up, we have so many playmakers now that can make plays on the perimeter, make plays on the inside. We can do so many things with the playmakers we have on the offensive side.”

From a defensive perspective, the team is hoping to turn around what at times was a dismal 2015. In several different games, the team gave up huge numbers of points: Most notably, it gave up 70 points to Baylor University, 49 to Western Kentucky University, 42 to Louisiana Tech University and 65 to the University of Southern Mississippi on the day of homecoming. In all, the defense gave up 35.8

sean chu/thresher

In last year’s season opener, then-junior running back Darik Dillard ran for two touchdowns to lead the Owls to a 56-16 win over Wagner College. Rice opens 2016 tomorrow night at Western Kentucky. points per game last year to rank 110th out of 128 Division I schools. Senior linebacker Alex Lyons said he recognizes the improvements the defense must make.

“We’re holding people a lot more accountable,” Lyons said. “Everybody’s trying to do their job, taking care of their one-eleventh, and not doing more than what [they’re] responsible for.”

Outside of many young starters on the defense being a year older, the team is hoping that the return of junior defensive end Graysen Schantz, an all-Conference USA freshman in 2014, can catalyze improved play from the defensive line, and thus, the defense. Bailiff said he expects the unit to rebound from last year’s struggles.

“All of those freshmen that started on the defensive line last year are sophomores,” Bailiff said. “You get Graysen Schantz back, who was a

freshman All-Conference player. We’ll put more pressure on the quarterback this year. A lot of those guys will be back, and we’re healthy this year.”

Lyons said he believes the Owls’ defense will improve thanks to an extra year of experience.

“We’re definitely better from a personnel perspective,” Lyons said. “We had a lot of young guys up front and on the back end. Those guys are older and healthy, so we should be able to get more pressure on the quarterback and hold the coverage for longer to get the pressure to develop.”

The Owls will begin their 2016 slate against the reigning Conference USA champion, Western Kentucky University, in Bowling Green, Kentucky on Thursday, Sept. 1. It will be the first of two road games to open the season before the Owls’ home opener against Baylor University on Friday, Sept. 16.

Volleyball ready to rebound from tough end to 2015 Craig Broadman Thresher Staff

Last season, the Rice volleyball team was soaring. After sweeping the University of Southern Mississippi, the Owls were 17-8 and were preparing for a home match against No. 22 Western Kentucky University. Weeks later, however, the Rice volleyball team suffered a meltdown in the first round of the Conference USA tournament, losing 3-1 against the same Southern Miss squad that they had swept earlier in the season. It was a disappointing ending to an otherwise positive season, one in which the Owls won 21 games. After the season-ending loss, head coach Genny Volpe said Rice players are sure to use the 2015 season as motivation for the upcoming campaign.

“We’re going to work harder than ever now to build on our achievements from [2015],” Volpe said. “Absolute, 100 percent, we’ll use this fuel for fire next year.”

This year, the Owls will have to do it without some of the veterans that led them to an 11-5

conference record. Most notably, last year’s seniors Kimberly Vaio (team-leading 375 digs over the course of the season) and Noelle Whitlock (350 digs, 279 kills) will be missed. According to Volpe, the team will be ready to continue without them.

“There is always a bond developed with seniors and a leadership quality that will be missed,” Volpe said. “Luckily for us, it was a small class of seniors, so we’ll return with a lot of experience.”

While experience is certainly a valuable asset for a team aiming for its first NCAA tournament berth since 2009, it was a rookie who stole the show in the Brigham Young University Invitational Tournament. Freshman Lee Ann Cunningham recorded a team-high 54 digs over the weekend and earned the Conference USA defensive player of the week while anchoring the Owls’ floor defense.

Despite the individual accolades, Rice finished the invitational 1-2. In the opening game, the Owls simply did not play to their potential, losing a sloppy 3-1 match to the California Polytechnic State University. Junior Madison

McDaniel earned her first double-double of the season, recording 38 assists and a team high 19 digs, but Cal Poly outhit Rice 65-50 and held a 7052 advantage in digs.

In the following game, Rice faced a tall task, competing against No. 13 BYU and its 27-match home win streak. The back and forth match featured standout performances from McDaniel (48 assists, 13 digs), senior Leah Mikesky (16 kills), senior Chelsey Harris (15 kills), freshman Grace Morgan (eight blocks) and Cunningham (28 digs). It was not enough, however, to fend off an unrelenting BYU squad, which beat the Owls 3-2. Despite the loss, Volpe said she was happy with the improvements her team showed.

“When we played BYU, the team was very focused and made some key changes from the Cal Poly match,” Volpe said. “That was very encouraging to me. We put up a great fight but came up a little short of pulling off a big upset,” Fortunately for the Owls, Rice was able to leave Utah with a win. The Owls swept Utah Valley University to finish the tournament on a high note. Harris and Mikesky led the team with

10 kills apiece. According to Volpe, the team’s focus was impressive during the win over the Wolverines.

“A lot of times in that situation, a team will play down and still be drained from the previous match they just lost,” Volpe said. “We might have done that in the past, but did not this time. I’m inspired by that.”

Despite their current losing record, Volpe said there is a lot to be optimistic about for this resilient team.

“I’m excited to see how this group can continue to improve and grow each and every day,” Volpe said. “We are always striving for that championship. I am very excited about the future, but I am 100 percent focused on the now and 2016. We have a lot of work to do and this team is hungry.”

The volleyball team plays its next game on Friday, Sept. 2 against the University of Utah at the Tiger Invitational in Columbia, Missouri. The Owls will play three games in the tournament before returning to Tudor Fieldhouse for the Rice Adidas Invitational.

10 SPORTS

the Rice Thresher

Wednesday, August 31, 2016

Defensive anchor Isokpunwu continues to stand out Michael kidd Thresher Staff

Senior defender Jasmine Isokpunwu played in all but one of the Rice soccer team’s games last season, totaling 1,754 minutes over a span of 19 games, all as a starter. In a sport like college soccer, namely one that takes a tremendous physical toll on the body, those numbers are uncommon.

Isokpunwu held the team-high in both minutes and starts, and she did so while coming off an injury-plagued junior campaign during which she saw just 34 minutes of action.

A native of Austin, Texas and a member of Brown College, Isokpunwu got off to a fast start to her college career back in the fall of 2012. Leading all Rice freshmen in playing time, she earned Conference USA All-Freshman honors while starting 20 games at either defense or midfield. The following year, during her sophomore campaign, she added three goals to her stat sheet and started in all 17 games for the Owls, running her total up to 37 starts out of a possible 38 games for the Owls.

Things seemed to be progressing as planned through the first half of her soccer career, but a sudden Achilles injury and later ankle injury quickly changed that. According to Isokpunwu, missing time during her junior season was frustrating.

“It was one of those [situations] where I mentally and emotionally wanted to play but physically couldn’t play at 60 to 70 percent while everybody was giving 110 percent,” Isokpunwu said.

Isokpunwu worked to get back on the field last season, making all 19 starts in the 2015 campaign while tallying two more goals and playing nearly every minute. The determination to return as a top form defender paid off as she received Preseason Conference USA Co-Defensive Player of the Year honors for the 2016 campaign, an award she said she did not expect.

“It was a definitely a surprise and a big honor because it’s a testament to the hard work needed to get back to form.” Isokpunwu said. “This year I aim to try to do the best I can to put my name on the stats and to personally solidify what I did last year and look ahead of me.”

Following a season-opening loss to No. 8

Texas A&M on the road, Rice bounced back in its home opener against Houston Baptist University with a 2-1 victory. According to Isokpunwu, the win against Houston Baptist was a vital one.

“Coming off A&M, that HBU game was a must win, no doubt about that,” Isokpunwu said.

“When we were tied with HBU late in the second half, we thought ‘This cannot be happening.’ [We] turned it up a notch and that is how we were able to rise to the occasion with the second goal late in the match.”

We want a conference championship [and] NCAA second round at least.

Jasmine Isokpunwu Senior Defender

The Owls currently sit at 1-1 on the season, and they have two home matches coming up this weekend against Samford University and Sam Houston State University. The Owls’ conference schedule begins against the defending Conference USA champion, the University of North Texas, on Sept. 18. Isokpunwu said that winning the conference title is part of her dream for her senior season.

“We want a conference championship [and] NCAA second round at least,” Isokpunwu said.

“It’s a pride thing to go undefeated at home; we want no losses at home.”

As for the team, the senior said this year’s squad has some of the best chemistry of any group in her five-year career.

“Out of all the teams I’ve been on, this one has the best camaraderie,” Isokpunwu said. “I can look to the player to my left and to my right and get energy from them to push myself. I know that we are a good team this year; we just have to go out and show it.”

jiayi lu/thresher

Senior defender Jasmine Isokpunwu looks to pass the ball during Friday night’s home opener, a 2-1 win against Houston Baptist University. Isokpunwu begins her senior year as the Preseason Conference USA Co-Defensive Player of the Year after leading Rice in minutes last season.

Wednesday, August 31, 2016

SPORTS

the Rice Thresher

RICE FOOTBALL 2016 Previews & Predictions by the Thresher

by Andrew Grottkau, Sports Editor

at Western Kentucky Thursday, September 1 @ 7 p.m.

Rice opens its season on the road against the defending conference champions on a Thursday night in primetime. Rice’s defense will get an early test against the WKU offense, which ranked ninth in the country in yards per game last season and is returning the majority of its starters. The defending conference champions will not falter in the season-opener.

PREDICTION: Western Kentucky 41, Rice 24

at Army-West Point Thursday, September 10 @ 11 a.m.

Rice will take on Army-West Point for the second consecutive season, this time on the road.

In a rain-soaked contest in Houston last October, the Owls beat the Black Knights 38-31.

Rice’s running game will have a chance to break out against one of the worst defenses in the nation. The Owls will take care of business on the road and rebound from an 0-1 start.

PREDICTION: Rice 28, Army 24

vs. Baylor Friday, September 16 @ 7 p.m.

In the home opener, Rice welcomes Baylor, one of the best teams in the Big 12, to Rice Stadium. The Bears have been to six consecutive bowl games and have contended for the national championship each of the past three years. This offseason, however, has been tumultuous, as a sexual assault scandal has rocked the team and the university. Focusing on football, Baylor returns many contributors from a high-powered offense that scored 70 points against the Owls last year. Rice will not be able to keep the Baylor offense in check.

PREDICTION: Baylor 59, Rice 20

vs. North Texas Saturday, September 24 @ 5 p.m.

Rice plays its second consecutive home game and first home Conference USA game against last season’s last place team, North Texas. The Mean Green are coming off a 1-11 season and have just one winning season in the last 11 years. This year could be different, but there is little reason to believe it will be. In a home game against one of the worst team’s in the conference, Rice will take home its second victory of the season.

PREDICTION: Rice 41, North Texas 17

at Southern Mississippi Saturday, October 1 @ 6 p.m.

The Owls will travel to Hattiesburg, Miss. to try to knock off a team that beat them 65-17 last season on its way to the conference championship game. The Golden Eagles will feature a new head coach this season and has lost their top two wide receivers and one of their top two running backs. The Golden Eagles had not won more than three games since 2011 before going 9-5 last year, and without the head coach responsible for the surge, Southern Miss may regress. Rice pulls off the minor upset over the Golden Eagles.

PREDICTION: Rice 31, Southern Miss 27

vs. UT San Antonio Saturday, October 15 @ 6 p.m.

Following a bye week, Rice returns home to face the Roadrunners in its third straight Conference USA contest. UTSA went just 3-9 last year but has a new head coach, Frank Wilson, to lead the team this season. Wilson’s brought in quarterback Jared Johnson, a transfer from Sam Houston State University, to compete for the starting job. If Johnson can succeed in the starting role, the Roadrunners could give Rice a test. After a strong showing on the road, the Owls will falter against a lesser opponent.

PREDICTION: UTSA 35, Rice 27

11

Football season begins Thursday night for the Rice Owls, and that means it is time for the first annual Thresher Sports game-by-game predictions. This season, Rice takes on two opponents ranked in the AP Preseason Top 25 and plays eight Conference USA games. The Thresher predicts Rice will go 6-6 and earn bowl eligibility for the fourth time in five years.

Saturday, October 22 @ 2:30 p.m. vs. Prairie View A&M Like many schools, Rice will play one game this season against an opponent outside of Division I. For the Owls, that opponent is Prairie View A&M. Last season, the Panthers went 8-2 and are picked to win the Southwestern Athletic Conference’s west division this season.

Despite the team’s success, it is still a lower-division school and likely will not be able to compete with a Division I football team like Rice.

PREDICTION: Rice 52, Prairie View A&M 21

Saturday, October 29 @ 6 p.m. at Louisiana Tech Rice will go on the road to face Louisiana Tech in a mid-season matchup of Conference USA West Division rivals. Louisiana Tech’s defense took a step back last season, giving up more rush and pass yards per game than the prior year. Rice will likely lean on its running game, and although Louisiana Tech’s defense regressed, its run stopping remained strong . The Owls will struggle to move the ball against the Bulldogs and fall on the road.

PREDICTION: Louisiana Tech 30, Rice 14

Saturday, November 5 @ 2:30 p.m. vs. Florida Atlantic This year is Rice’s turn to host the battle of the Owls. Florida Atlantic went 3-9 last season, but it went just 1-4 in one-possession games last season. The Owls are returning 15 of 22 starters, and this experience should help them improve on a team that lost by just one point to Rice last season in Coral Gables. FAU will hand Rice its fifth loss of the season and its second conference home loss.

PREDICTION: FAU 27, Rice 21

Saturday, November 12 @ 1 p.m. at Charlotte In their second-ever matchup as conference rivals, the Owls and the 49ers will square off in a late-season game in Charlotte. After a 2-10 season last year, Charlotte enters 2016 looking for its first conference victory and first bowl appearance. Charlotte scored just 17.5 points per game last year, good for just 119th out of 128 NCAA teams. While the defense was slightly better, it still gave up 417 yards per game. The Rice defense will have a chance to break out in this game.

PREDICTION: Rice 34, Charlotte 7

Saturday, November 19 @ 11 a.m. vs. UT El Paso In their second-ever matchup as conference rivals, the Owls and the 49ers will square off in a late-season game in Charlotte. After a 2-10 season last year, the 49ers enter 2016 looking for their first bowl appearance. Charlotte scored just 17.5 points per game last year, good for just 119th out of 128 NCAA teams. While the defense was slightly better, it still gave up 417 yards per game. The Rice defense will have a chance to break out in this game.

PREDICTION: Rice 31, UTEP 28

Saturday, November 26 @ TBA

at Stanford

Rice will close the regular season against one of college football’s best teams. Stanford features one of the top players in the NCAA in junior running back Christian McCaffrey.

McCaffrey broke the NCAA record for all-purpose yards last year and was nominated for the Heisman Trophy last season. If all goes well, the Cardinal will be in contention for a national title this season. A victory by Rice would be an all-time great upset, but it will not happen.

Stanford has too much talent.

PREDICTION: Stanford 66, Rice 17

PREDICTED FINAL RECORD: 6-6, BOWL ELIGIBLE

12

BACKPAGE

Wednesday, August 31 2016

the Rice Thresher

tweets We at the Backpage were doing our usual first-week-of-the-semester scroll through @RiceUniversity’s summer sort some was there that appears it know, don’t who you of those For when we came across something … troubling. an to appeal an with image lewd a featured tweet The account. official university’s the on breach of security case. the on unknown “horny boy.” We’ve decided to sic our investigative reporter Jack Page

If there’s one thing that I’ve learned from my years going undercover in the streets, it’s to always watch your back. And guess what: the internet is no exception. I mean really, first we have the US voters data leak, then JPMorgan, EBay and MySpace all have their user data hacked, then the North Koreans go after Sony, and now even the got damn Rice Twitter account gets hacked … Jesus. I miss the good old days where we could just hunt down the bad guys and throw ‘em in jail. But the times, they are-a-changin’, and it’s my job to find the answers.

My first thought was to go to the source. I pulled some strings back at HQ and found out that the Rice University Twitter account is maintained from an office in the RMC. I visited the office as soon as I could after the incident, looking for a clue. It turns out that the administration just sticks an intern on the Twitter account for the summer. The bastards get away with it by calling it “leadership experience.” Anyway, when I get there the intern is frozen, curled into a ball under her desk. I tried to reason with her, to figure out what she knows, but she was too shaken up by the whole thing to give me anything of use. I was back to square one.

What’s a rogue detective with rugged good looks supposed to do when he’s got a hot case and no leads? Go to Pub to wash away his problems, of course. The scene at Pub was pretty typical for a Wednesday afternoon: A couple of upperclassmen seated at the bar, a few stragglers from the lunch rush finishing up their meals, and a group of MBAs getting rowdy over some rounds of flip cup. I asked the bartender if he had heard anything about the Tweet. After serving me some partially frozen chicken wings, he told me that he didn’t have any solid leads but that I should talk to the usual suspects: Leebron, SJP, and ballpit kid. I knew right away that SJP could be ruled out. This hack was way too fun to be tied to them. That leaves Leebron and ballpit kid. I thanked the barkeep and left him a healthy tip. If there’s one thing I’ve learned in my 12 years of service, it’s that you should always tip the bartender.

I thought about ballpit kid, and there were a lot of signs pointing towards him. He has the technical know-how for a heist like this, and he’s demonstrated an affinity for the bizarre in the past. The only thing that I couldn’t piece together a motive. Plus, that guy is almost certainly onto bigger and better things now.

That leaves Leebron. Think about it, if Leebron could destroy the credibility of the Rice University official Twitter account, then literally tens of followers would migrate from following @RiceUniversity to following @davidleebron for all of their news, updates, #ThrowbackThursdays, and, of course, ice bucket challenges. The increased ad revenue from the new followers could then be diverted to an offshore account, clean as a whistle. The only problem is that our fearless leader Leebron almost certainly lacks the technical skill to pull this off on his own. No, he’s need outside help, probably from the computer science department. But who? Luay Nakhleh, the infamous COMP 182 professor, fits the bill. He certainly has the firepower for this, and we know he has ties to various mobs. The perfect crime. A follower-hungry president, seduced by the allure of internet fame and power, teams up with an unassuming computer geek who knows how to get things done.

While I’m yet to get any hard evidence to support my hypothesis, my gut tells me I’m onto something here. And if there’s one thing that I’ve learned in my 15 years of being a badass detective, it’s that you should always trust your gut.

It’s imperative that this duo is stopped before they continue their cyber crime rampage. I mean think about it; if they can hack Twitter, there’s no telling what else they’re capable of. They could hack into their precious ranking sites to fraudulently claim meaningless titles like “happiest students” or “#1 for interactions among diverse backgrounds.” Or, more locally, they could hack into the registrar’s office and make it so that all students have to take a mandatory class on something pointless, or they could force a cap on credit hours against the students’ will. They could even get into the Thresher server and work to silence the people’s voices. Luckily, the Backpage consulted the Clinton family on how to setup our own private servers, so our section should be safe.

In the meantime, be careful out there everybody. The e-world is more immense and scary than you can know, especially with crooks like these terrible two running around. Hopefully this investigative piece will deter the criminals long enough to give RUPD enough time to send out a warning message, then send a follow-up message correcting the grammatical errors of the first message, and then bring the two culprits to justice. Until then, this is Jack Page signing off.

CASE NO. 1

On the Case: The “Horny Boy” Tweet

ED

OR

NS CE

CENS

ORED

Jack Page

The Backpage is satire and written by Riley Robertson. For comments or questions, please email thirsty@rice.edu.

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