VOLUME 101, ISSUE NO. 3 | STUDENT-RUN SINCE 1916 | RICETHRESHER.ORG | WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 2016
Dash and dine Forced smile Can the ‘happiest students’ ranking be unhealthy?
see Ops p. 6 Finding dorayaki A film writer searches Houston for an elusive pastry
see A&E p. 9 Twelve angry men The case for and against Rice joining the Big 12
see Sports p. 11
Joe Biden to visit campus next week Yasna Haghdoost and Drew Keller
Editor in Chief and News Editor
Vice President of the United States Joe Biden will visit Rice University next week, Rice’s Office of Public Affairs confirmed. The exact time and location of the event have not been finalized. Biden will participate in an event on the national Cancer Moonshot initiative he leads to accelerate cancer research, according to an anonymous source familiar with the plans. The source also said the event will be jointly hosted by the Baker Institute and MD Anderson. In 2015, Biden had called for the creation of the Moonshot initative in order to increase resources dedicated to cancer and to bring together disparate cancer researchers. President Barack Obama announced the creation of the initiative in his 2016 State of the Union Address, and placed Biden at the helm. Biden convened a Cancer Moonshot Taskforce in February, bringing together federal agencies and allocating over $1 billion to the effort. Biden’s expected visit marks the second high-level member of the Obama administration this year. Last April, Secretary of State John Kerry discussed the role of religion in world politics and diplomacy at the Stude Concert Hall. This event was also hosted by the Baker Institute.
Joe Biden
Housing and Dining to roll out Saturday dinner, extended dining hours and grab-and-go breakfast
shicong zhou/thresher
Amber Tong News Editor
Three pilot programs for meal service, namely Saturday dinner, a later dinner option on weekdays and graband-go breakfast are coming to Seibel, South and North serveries respectively, according to Housing and Dining Senior Business Director David McDonald. He said he hopes the projects will respond to various student needs, ranging from financial constraints, time restrictions and scheduling conflicts. The new Saturday dinner service will be available beginning Sept. 17 from 5 p.m. until 7 p.m. in Seibel and students may pay with tetra points or any unused guest swipes. McDonald said this new option ties into the larger conversation about low-income students’ experience at Rice. “Saturday dinner is purposefully not there because the idea was that students would go beyond the hedges Saturday night,” McDonald said. “But now we are in a different situation. We’re in an age where not everybody has enough capital to be able to go beyond the hedges.”
McDonald said he is coordinating with the dean’s office, the Student Association and residential colleges to finalize details such as pricing and menu. He said he does not want to detract people from student groups offering dinner at their Saturday night events, but thinks accessibility is an important consideration that trumps smaller concerns. Starting on Sept. 6, Mondays through Thursdays, a menu modelled on the dinner of the same day will be offered from 7:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m at the South servery annex. Students may use their evening meal swipe if they have a meal plan and haven’t swiped at another servery, or tetra points to pay for the meal. According to McDonald, this new option will cater to athletes who have practice or students who have classes during normal dinner times. “We hear it anecdotally, but we also feel like we need to respond to students’ needs when we can operationally,” McDonald said. “This is one of those times that we feel like we are going to try and see how it goes.”
SA Vice President Hannah Todd, who worked with H&D to bring the changes, said her ideas originated from the responses to a survey she sent out to Wiess College in fall 2015, when she was a senator. “A common theme was frustration with the meal plan’s rigidity and I saw real potential for a project,” Todd, a junior, said. “From there, [H&D] and I on behalf of the SA produced a survey for all students that reflected similar sentiments. To summarize a long answer, yes, this was something students wanted.” Todd said the future of these programs will depend on students’ reaction to them. “I am not positive about the complete timeline for the project but I do know that if the late dinners or Saturday night dinners are not being used, these options will be removed,” Todd said. “Regarding plans for other serveries, I think that it really all hinges on what happens at Seibel and South in their associated pilots.” A separate experiment with grab-and-go breakfast items came out of the observation that the
reason students don’t eat breakfast is that they don’t have enough time in the morning, according to McDonald. “One of the things that we hear about the most from students is why do we have to pay for breakfast when I don’t eat breakfast?” McDonald said. “Then it occurred to us that maybe we are just serving the wrong breakfast.” The new menu will retain most ingredients currently being offered and alternate between various premade items like breakfast tacos, sandwiches and biscuits. McDonald said he hopes more students will eat breakfast after the introduction of these new options. “People just don’t see the time value of sitting down for breakfast,” McDonald said. “We’ve just gotten to the point in our culture that it is ‘fuel.’ But it’s got to be very easily accessible to all.” The goal is to offer take-out breakfast in all serveries by Oct. 1, McDonald said. He added that all the pilots will be offered throughout the semester and H&D will make adjustments next year based on the outcome.
Trump candidacy divides campus GOP Elana Margosis Thresher Staff
The Rice University College Republicans will decide at their first meeting of the year on Sept. 8 whether to endorse Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. The Rice College Republicans chapter is part of a larger Texas and national Federations of College Republicans, both of which have endorsed Trump. College Republicans President Jake Blumencranz said conservative students are divided on the candidates, but Trump does not seem to have much support. “I have seen more [students] against Trump than for him, but we will all find out this week in the coming vote,” Blumencranz, a Brown College junior, said.
Former College Republicans President and current board member Sam Herrera said the decision could be contentious either way. “[W]e want to be very careful, because we are against alienating anyone in our club,” Herrera, a Duncan College senior, said. “We’re open to all viewpoints, and taking a stance one way or another could very well do that.” In addition to Trump supporters on campus, some conservative Rice students are considering casting their votes for the Libertarian Party candidate and two-term governor of New Mexico, Gary Johnson, though many students are still undecided. This phenomenon is not limited to Rice: Young voters across the country are hesitant to support the Republican candidate. A recent ABC News/Washington Post
poll found that Trump is polling at less than 25 percent among voters under 30. Robert Stein, a professor of political science, attributes Trump’s poor polling numbers among young voters in part to millennials’ weak party loyalties. “I suspect the incidence of young conservatives not voting for Trump, at Rice and elsewhere, is largely due to the candidate himself and weak partisan ties young voters have for either party,” he said. Stein said third-party candidate Gary Johnson was likely to gain from this disconnect. “[Young conservatives] rely on their evaluation of the candidates’ conservative values, leaving Trump short and someone like Gary Johnson closer to these voters’ values,” Stein said.
Trump voters One Trump supporter is College Republicans Vice President Kyle Sheehan. Sheehan, a Lovett College junior, describes himself as fiscally conservative and a noninterventionist on foreign policy. Sheehan prefers Trump’s stances on foreign policy to those of Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton’s. “He’s more noninterventionist than Clinton in a lot of ways,” Sheehan said. “He was always skeptical of intervention in Iraq.” Trump has repeatedly claimed to have opposed the invasion of Iraq, though PolitiFact, a nonpartisan fact-checking organization, rates Trump’s claims of early opposition to the Iraq War ‘mostly false’ and says that Trump did not oppose the war until after it had started. 0see GOP, page 4
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Wednesday, September 7, 2016
the Rice Thresher
Design-AThon
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Brown College sophomores Patricia Thai, left, and Jonathan Pan, center, demonstrate their device at the conclusion of Rice’s first Design-A-Thon, a three-day event in which student teams worked to create assistive devices for adults and children with disabilities. Pan and Thai worked with Brown sophomore Sonia Mulayath, Brown junior Ryan Parks and University of Texas Medical Branch student Laura Kim to create the AFORD, or Ankle Foot Orthosis Retention Device.
HackRice competition moved to fall Maurice Frediere Thresher Staff
The sixth annual HackRice will for the first time be held in the fall to help students’ career prospects. HackRice is a 36-hour hackathon where teams of no more than five compete to develop the best software-based project. The event has seen yearly growth, reaching 390 competitors in the spring 2016 competition. Prudhvi Boyapalli, the committee chair of HackRice, explained the reasoning behind switching the event from spring to fall, articulating that it would allow students to interact with potential employers. “We moved it to the fall to line up with recruiting season,” Boyapalli, a Duncan College junior, said. “Since HackRice is one way companies can interact with students, we wanted to make it more beneficial by having it at the same time as when they do most of their recruiting on campus.” Facebook, IBM, Schlumberger, Two Sigma and PROS are among the companies expected to attend the event and network with competitors, Boyapalli said. Sponsoring the event entails providing workshops and mentoring, sponsoring awards and providing project assistance. Duncan College sophomore Zachary Gramstad competed in HackRice last year where he
worked on a crowdsourced food delivery project with four teammates. He plans on competing again this year despite the change but expressed reservations about the effect it could have on freshman participants. “It is nice to have it earlier because then companies are still interested in discussing internship opportunities,” Gramstad said. “The biggest negative I see is that it could be somewhat alienating for freshmen to have the hackathon so early. I couldn’t have done anything worthwhile if HackRice had been in the fall last year, and so I probably wouldn’t have attempted to participate.” Boyapalli said he does not expect the timing change to negatively impact attendance. “This year we’re expecting 400-500 [competitors],” Boyapalli said. “We [typically] have a lot more people who apply than we can accept so we’re not concerned with a low attendance.” Applications are taken from around the country but all Rice students are guaranteed entry to the competition. HackRice reimburses travel expenses for visiting hackers to allow the best competitors to travel to Rice for the event. HackRice will also move from the Rice Memorial Center to the Jones Business School this year because of scheduling issues at the RMC. The Jones Business School will let HackRice accommodate more competitors than the RMC did. HackRice will take place from Oct. 14-16.
NEWS IN BRIEF
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Moody Center for the Arts opening date announced for February Emily Abdow, Assistant News Editor The opening ceremony for Rice University’s Moody Center for the Arts is set for Feb. 24, according to Executive Director Allison Weaver. The Center, which cost a total of $30 million to create, was supported by a $20 million grant from the Moody Foundation in addition to the the Brown Foundation and others. Open to the public, the center will focus on providing a space for integrating the arts, sciences and humanities. Architect Michael Maltzan designed the 50,000-square-foot center to include an “interdisciplinary maker lab” with resources such as wood and metal shops, prototyping areas, audiovisual editing booths and a technology lending library. In addition, the center will house an art gallery, black-box theater, experimental perfor-
mance gallery and a cafe. According to Weaver, Mona Hatoum will be the Moody Center’s first artist-in-residence. Hatoum is a Palestinian artist whose art, including sculpture, installation and performance video, is on exhibition at London’s Tate Modern. During her residency at the Moody Center, she will work on her first major United States exhibition in 20 years. In a Rice News story, Rice University President David Leebron said the Moody Center represents Rice’s commitment to the arts. “We are today equally proud of our dedication to and success in the arts and humanities [as engineering and science],” Leebron said. “[Arts] contribute in essential ways to every education and every intellectual endeavor.”
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East-West Tea looks to expand on campus Megan Gordon For The Thresher
East-West Tea launched last semester, but the student-run company has already made a splash on the Rice campus. Through a partnership with the Hoot and other organizations, the business, which prepares and sells boba tea, sold a total of 4,400 units last semester, according to general manager Dillon Chai. “Boba,” or “bubble tea,” is a tea-based beverage containing tapioca pearls. East-West currently offers six flavors of the drink: Thai, milk, oreo, jasmine, taro and Vietnamese Coffee. Though East-West is not as immediately focused on developing new flavors, Chai noted that developing a fruit-flavored beverage is next on the list. Chai, a Baker College senior, said the size of the company has more than doubled since its public launch last February. The company began with five founding members and now employs a total of 13, including five new hires. “It’s been so much fun watching people with the same passion of entrepreneurship and just making good tea come together,” he said. The founding members began creating their recipes in the Martel College kitchen. Now, the company makes batches of boba in kitchen of Sammy’s in the Rice Memorial Center.
It’s been so much fun watching people with the same passion come together. Dillon Chai East-West General Manager
Much of last year was spent tweaking recipes and gauging student interest. The entrepreneurs spent time interacting with potential customers, offering samples and seeking out student feedback on their teas. Iris Gau, a Duncan College sophomore, attended one of EastWest’s tasting events last semester. “It’s cool to know people that are a part of [East-West],” Gau said. “It makes you realize that anyone can think of an idea and make it happen.” Moving forward, East-West hopes to distribute even more widely. East-West is currently a registered LLC, though not supported by the Student Center like Coffeehouse, the Hoot and Rice Bikes, and sells in the Hoot on Tuesdays and Sundays beginning at 9 p.m. They also cater additional events around campus. “Our main goal is to make our tea more available to the students of Rice, whether that’s through servery tasting events or eventually selling directly to the customer,” Chai said. Chai said the business hopes to continue expanding its reach. “For the upcoming semester we just really want to increase our presence on campus, whether that’s catering Rice sporting events, supplying the afternoon club sales, or offering taste tests in the servery,” Chai said. Through it all, Chai said, East-West is still changing and evolving. “We are such a young organization that we truly have the opportunity to take it wherever we want to go,” Chai said. “East-West Tea is a blank canvas right now, and it’s up to us to decide how we fit within the Rice landscape.”
sixuan pan/thresher
Make it happen!
The McMurtry Innovation and Creativity Kitchen, first proposed in November 2014 as part of the Rice Education of the Future initiative, is a Housing and Dining project aimed at giving students a space to collaborate on interdisciplinary projects. The space is currently open for use to interested students on a case-by-case basis.
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Wednesday, September 7, 2016
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0GOP
“I’m interested in the long term,” TurnerJones said. “If someone [liberal] gets in office and is able to sway the Supreme Court, that’s detrimental to our nation as a whole.”
FROM PAGE 1 Sheehan is also in favor of Trump’s stance on immigration and increased border security. “I’m open to some immigration reform, but with the qualification that there should be no pathway to citizenship,” Sheehan said. “I also believe there should be some kind of fine or penalty associated [with] getting legal status.” Sheehan said he is very likely to vote for Trump, despite his frequent controversial statements. “At this point, I’ve come to ignore Trump’s little squabbles with people, so the little day to day stuff doesn’t sway me much anymore,” Sheehan said. “It would have to take something criminal or a meltdown in the debates or some kind of large financial impropriety, something extreme.” Matt Terrill, who identifies himself as a socially and economically conservative, also supports Trump. While Trump was not his first choice — he originally supported Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio — Terrill said that Trump understands conservatism. “I think he understands one of the basic principles of my view of conservatism: Whatever you earn, you get to keep as far as taxes go, and if you fail then that’s too bad,” Terrill, a Sid Richardson College sophomore, said. “Having a safety net for society is important, but I think he understands that the safety net isn’t supposed to be a hammock.” Terrill said he expects that Trump will work to balance the budget chiefly by reducing spending on Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. “I hope that the entitlement programs are cut drastically and we get the federal budget under control,” Terrill said. “I’m really big on having the biggest and most badass military, but even if we have to cut the military some, [that’s OK]. Whatever we have to do, because we’re going to have to pay for it.” Juliette Turner-Jones, a conservative Duncan freshman, said she is likely to vote for Trump in November because she believes he will appoint justices to the Supreme Court with a conservative view of the Constitution.
Third-party option Blumencranz said he is leaning towards supporting Gary Johnson, and opposes the College Republicans potentially endorsing Trump. “I will be advocating for the club to not endorse Trump, not only due to the fact that I personally object to his candidacy, but also that I find him to stand against some of the very foundations and principles that RUCR advocates for,” Blumencranz said. Nick Leisle, a Duncan junior who identifies as a libertarian, plans to vote for Gary Johnson in November. Leisle said although the odds are stacked against Johnson, he does not believe a vote for a third-party candidate is wasted. “A wasted vote is voting for someone you don’t believe in,” Leisle said. “I hope my vote [for Johnson] indicates that neither of the candidates from the major parties represent me as a person.” Gary Dreyer, a Hanszen College sophomore who describes himself as a social centrist and a fiscal and foreign policy conservative, also plans to vote for Johnson. Dreyer, who previously voted and campaigned for Marco Rubio, said Trump’s lack of commitment to free trade, as well as comments not in full support of NATO, pushed him to support the libertarian candidate. “There are two issues where I cannot negotiate,” Dreyer said. “The first is free trade. I will not vote for anyone who openly supports protectionism. The other one, I will not vote for anyone who openly disparages the NATO alliance and says the United States should withdraw from it. Given that, I cannot possibly vote for Donald Trump.” ‘Deal breaker’ Jacob Behling, a Duncan junior who previously supported Rubio, said he does not support either major party. “I can’t see myself voting for Hillary, and I can’t see myself voting for Trump,” Behling said. “I’m looking to go into oil and gas, and I know that some of Hillary’s [environmental]
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policies would hurt the industry.” Behling said he is considering voting for Gary Johnson, but does not believe he can win. Jacobi Lockett, the College Republicans secretary, who identifies as a social and fiscal conservative, is also unsure of who she will cast a ballot for in November. “I’m one of the Never Trumpers,” Lockett, a Martel College senior, said. “I’m going to vote. I don’t like the thought of voting for Donald Trump because I think that’s kind of irresponsible, but I certainly won’t be voting for Hillary Clinton. I also don’t like the thought of voting third party, because that’s kind of throwing your vote away.” Herrera describes himself as socially moderate and fiscally conservative. He voted for Rubio in the primaries, but is undecided about the general election. He said he does not believe Trump is qualified to be president. “Being president of the United States is definitely something that requires political experience,” Herrera said. “Running the country is
not like running a company. And if we’re being objective, he hasn’t done a stellar job running his company. I don’t think he has the credentials for [the presidency]. It’s a huge gamble, and what’s at stake is the country.” Herrera also questioned Trump’s proposed economic policies. “His anti-free trade stances are a huge turnoff for me,” Herrera said. “Wanting to take out NAFTA, the TPP, his whole economic protectionism is not conservative at all.” Herrera criticized Trump’s comments about the Hispanic community. “The deal breaker for me was his attacks against the Hispanic community in the U.S.,” Herrera said. “I’m Hispanic, and I understand [that] it’s rhetoric and that he’s appealing to his base, but it really does spread hate and xenophobia, things that for me are extremely perverse.” The College Republicans’ first meeting and endorsement vote will be held at 8:30 p.m. on Sept. 8 in Sewall 303.
Rice-Baylor program changes requirements
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Posters from the Center for Civic Leadership call for students to help register Houston voters. The Rice Young Democrats are supporting Democratic Party candidate Hillary Clinton, while the College Republicans have yet to decide whether to endorse Republican candidate Donald Trump.
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Baylor Clinic, a facility of Baylor Medical school, stands near campus in the Texas Medical Center. The requirements of students in the Rice Baylor Medical Scholars Program, in which high school students are admitted to both Rice and Baylor, have been changed for the class of 2020 admitted students.
Jaecey Parham Thresher Staff
The Rice Baylor Medical Scholars Program, which combines admission to Rice with admission to Baylor Medical School after graduation if they fulfill certain requirements, typically accepts six students each academic year. Though nine freshmen were admitted this year, those students will now be under altered requirements than previous classes. The program no longer requires Rice-Baylor students who matriculated in 2016 and later to take two semesters of physics nor are they required to take an organic chemistry lab credit. However, biochemistry is now mandatory. Rice-Baylor’s most recent admits also face a change in MCAT score requirements. According to Navya Kumar, a Rice-Baylor scholar and Hanszen College sophomore, the class of 2020 is required to obtain a score of 502 as opposed to the class of 2019’s required 500. Kumar said the change could be stemmed from the recent revamp in MCAT test format; however, it is not hindering. “Knowing the caliber of students chosen, especially for the 2020 cohort, I doubt the higher MCAT score will be an issue,” Kumar said.
This is not the first time Rice-Baylor requirements have been altered in recent years. Beginning with the class of 2018, Rice-Baylor scholars were required to take the MCAT while at Rice. One Rice-Baylor student, who asked to remain anonymous since their Baylor admission is not yet confirmed, said they believe that specific change was made in an effort to counteract risks of poor performance once students are in medical school. “Rumors say Rice-Baylor students were performing worse at Baylor compared to regular admission students to Baylor,” the student said. “To maintain high performance and rigor, the program added [the] MCAT to make sure the students admitted through the program were of the same caliber as regular-admit students.” According to Kumar, the most most recent changes for the class of 2020 are beneficial. “I think the new requirements are pretty reflective of what medical schools now want from students, so in that way I am a fan,” Kumar said. Kumar said the changes may be geared towards preparing students to take the MCAT. “There’s a reason Rice-Baylor has been around for some 25 years,” Kumar said. “Rice really prepares students for Baylor and these new requirements reflect that.”
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6 Saturday dinner option small step to inclusivity In the coming weeks, Rice University Housing and Dining will be introducing a Saturday night dinner option for students who wish to dine on campus (see p. 1). Going off campus for Saturday night dinners is a long-standing tradition for many, with students generally being encouraged to go “beyond the hedges” and explore the city of Houston. However, we may sometimes forget that this is just one of many aspects of social life at Rice that requires a certain degree of economic privilege. Last week, the Thresher reported that low-income students at Rice face barriers to accessing various opportunities such as student life and extracurriculars, according to a recent survey conducted by the Student Association. Given this context, we applaud H&D for taking tangible measures to address an aspect of student life that many may take for granted, but that some may find financially inaccessible. While H&D has still not finalized details on the pricing, payment and food options available for Saturday night dinners, it is critical that the potential for this opportunity to reduce barriers to accessibility are fully maximized. Currently, a single meal at the servery costs $8, so if students have to pay that amount for a Saturday dinner using their 50 tetra points, that allows for only six such meals a semester. Thus, we encourage H&D to look into lowering the price of Saturday meals, and possibly offset the decreased price by reducing the amount or variety of the food that is served at the time. We hope that this is only the beginning of ongoing concrete changes in our community to ensure that the Rice experience is increasingly more inclusive to students from all backgrounds. Unsigned editorials represent the majority opinion of the Thresher editorial staff. All other opinion pieces represent solely the opinion of the piece’s author.
Errata In the Thresher’s Aug. 31 issue, Stephen Hannan wrote “What’s Hip Right Now,” not Walden Pemantle.
Shoot for the moon, not inside the hedges This coming Sept. 12 marks more than five decades since President John F. Kennedy stood in the center of Rice Stadium and argued for his vision of landing an American on the moon and returning him safely back to Earth, a vision requiring an unprecedented level of selfless devotion and service. Even though the nation fulfilled JFK’s aspirations, his words represent more than reaching our nearest satellite because they continue to echo throughout the ages, both present and future. In the midst of some of the darkest of times, JFK challenged the entire human species to resist the urge to “look behind” and reach higher and further than it had ever done. As students here at Rice, it is more imperative than ever before for us to heed this same message. In delivering his iconic speech on our campus, JFK solidified and gave power to Rice’s mission to provide “contributions to the betterment of our world ... [and] produce leaders across the spectrum of human endeavor.” He trusted Rice to create a better future in all aspects of life around us. In some sense, Rice’s academic reputation and culture of care fulfill much of this mission and continue to do so. Scientific research across
campus consistently pushes the boundaries of human knowledge, professors teach us technical and communication skills to enact change, and our peers provide us diverse perspectives that strengthen our empathy and foster kinship rather than conflict. However, this same academic prowess and culture of care sometimes translates into us striving towards attaining the best grades, landing the most prestigious internships, garnering the most leadership positions, caring more about our campus and peers than others in general, and otherwise spending time on shortterm goals that best serve our individual selves. Such goals are important but fall short of the standards of Rice’s mission and are also beneath the aspirations we all should hold and frequently reflect upon. As the world outside the hedges deals with critical issues such as climate change or socioeconomic tensions among countless others, and strives to further push the boundaries in areas such as space, economics, and global peace, we cannot become complacent and hesitate to engage these matters until some ill-defined date in the future long after graduation. Instead, let us “do the[se] other things ... not because they are easy, but because they are hard,
An exercise in one of my classes illustrated what having the happiest students means. We anonymously ranked how satisfied we were with certain aspects of our lives and viewed the overall data. While the scores skewed slightly higher than average for our age group, few felt “extremely satisfied” and many felt either “extremely dissatisfied” or “somewhat dissatisfied.” This is what the Princeton Review’s ranking really reflects: Rice’s students are the happiest on average. However, advertising it as the “happiest students” misleads you to think every Rice student is happier than any student at another school. The misadvertisement of this statistic played a large part in my decision to come here two years ago, and it made my initial transition far more difficult and isolating than it should have been. I grew up in Mississippi feeling out of place and unaccepted by the majority of people around me. When applying to college, I knew two things: I wanted out, and to be happy. At Rice, I realized I still wasn’t happy but thought everyone around me was, making freshman year especially difficult. Yes, I was happier at Rice than I had been at home, but I hardly felt like one of the happiest students in the country. Rice losing the happiest students
opinions Mitch Mackowiak* Editor
Yasna Haghdoost* Editor in Chief
sports Andrew Grottkau Editor
Anita Alem* Managing Editor
arts & entertainment Lenna Mendoza Editor Walden Pemantle Editor
Juan Saldana Business Manager news Drew Keller* Editor Amber Tong* Editor Emily Abdow Asst. Editor
design Justin Park Director Samantha Ding News Designer photo Sirui Zhou Editor
Rushi Bhalan
is a Baker College sophomore
‘Happiest’ ranking isolates unhappy students ranking signaled that not everyone at Rice was constantly happy. For the first time, I felt like I wasn’t alone. I worry about the pressure this ranking puts on students who, like me, struggle with their mental health. According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, one in four college students have a mental illness, 80 percent feel overwhelmed and 50 percent have been so anxious they’ve struggled in school. Putting too much weight on this ranking has consequences for students. The administration’s perception of having the happiest students in the country has led to a counseling center ill-equipped to handle chronic and serious mental health issues that tries to force students out when it doesn’t know what to do with them, even if doing so would cause more harm than good. I was nearly forced to take the last two weeks of my freshman year off, though I was eventually allowed to stay. When I explained why returning home would do more harm than good, the counselors insisted that I was mistaken and that this was the best option. For students, the ranking creates an environment where mental health isn’t discussed, leaving students isolated and alone. We can’t take a happiest students ranking as an excuse to ignore mental health.
Thirsty for publicity, the freshman class gets baked before Dis-O.
STAFF
because [these] goal[s] will serve to ... measure the best of our energies and skills.” Let us focus less on gaining the most academic or material advantages in life and instead focus more on helping those around us that have little to none. Let us initiate and collaborate on projects that promise to better not just our campus but also all that lies outside it. Let us contemplate on the societal legacies we hope to leave both as individuals and as a collective student population, and let us not hesitate to pursue them. Let us aim higher, dream bigger, do greater, and do all this even in the face of failure or external expectations. Let us have the courage to take moonshots.
copy Jasmine Lin Editor Julianne Wey Editor backpage Riley Robertson Editor business operations Shannon Klein Ads Manager Sean Kelley Distribution Manager online Charlie Paul Editor Alex Kim Editor *Editorial Board member
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.
The SA’s new Wellbeing Committee will fortunately emphasize mental wellbeing, but we can’t rely solely on the SA. We must destigmatize mental health ourselves. To students who feel isolated and alone, like I once did and still do feel on occasion: you aren’t alone. Seek help when you need it. Though the counseling center wasn’t a fit for me, it exists to provide support. If your mental health interferes with your classes, let your professors know. Finally, don’t be afraid to drop extracurriculars or classes in favor of mental health. It is not a sign of weakness but an act of strength to put your mental health first in an environment that often doesn’t encourage it.
Alex Bergin-Newman is a Wiess College junior
cartoon by jennifer fu
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 The Thresher is a member of the ACP, TIPA and CMBAM © Copyright 2016
arts
ENTERTAINMENT
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Glass Animals Stagnates on ‘HOW TO BE A HUMAN BEING’ courtesy glass animals
Oxford English rockers pose to promote their new album, ‘How to Be a Human Being.’ The album builds on the sound of Glass Animal’s debut, ‘Zaba,’ featuring smooth synths, heavy percussion and absurdist lyrics.
Ali Wilt
For the Thresher
After embarking on an extensive festival tour, Oxford indie rock band Glass Animals has released “How to Be a Human Being,” the follow up to 2014’s quirky “Zaba.” While their previous album turned some heads, their sophomore album gives them the chance to make a mark with a new, more developed sound. But did we actually get anything new? “How to Be a Human Being” begins with the percussive “Life Itself,” an ode to selfreflection and inflated ego. The shifting synth and mumbled, absurdist lyrics create a sense of paranoia and unease, themes that continue throughout “How to Be a Human Being.” “Youth” picks up the pace with smooth, rhythmic phrasing and an almost danceable beat, a combination rarely heard on this new release. Glass Animals may have produced a more coherent sound on this album when compared to “Zaba’s” eclecticism; however, the R&B tinged, heavily percussive beats on almost every track quickly pull “How to Be a Human Being” into a zone of monotony. “Pork Soda,” a track only memorable for the repeated line “Pineapples are in my head,” evokes ideas of spontaneity but sounds hypocritically calculated. Likewise, “Mama’s Gun” almost builds to a new frenetic sound but ends with the same snaking melody of other tracks. The most absurd point in the album comes with the track “Premade Sandwiches,” a 30-second clip about trends. Although it’s a welcome break from the tedium in previous tracks, it contributes little to the listener’s understanding of “How to be a Human Being.” Each song on the 11-track concept album is supposed to reflect the personality of a figure on the album artwork (each inspired by true stories
THE WEEKLY SCENE The editors’ picks for this week’s best events. Time to explore the wonderful world of Houston.
lead singer Dave Bayley heard while on tour), but rarely do we get a difference in style or attitude. Some songs shine through the haze; closer track “Agnes” backs off of the layered synth and prominent beat to focus on the lyrics about lost love. Glass Animals’ struggles partially stem from weak lyrics. “How to Be a Human Being” continues the trend of nonsensical lyrics from “Zaba,” but rarely does it ever produce the intended visceral reaction. Instead, the listener is forced to sift through overproduced distortion to even hear the mumbled lyrics. Repetitive verses and choruses are best used in moderation, but Glass Animals chooses to use this technique on almost every song. One stunning exception is on “Mama’s Gun,” with its repeated line “In the summer silence I was getting violent,” reminding us of the album’s paranoia. As Glass Animals has grown in popularity it has begun to mimic the sound of similar bands, like Alt-J and Phantogram. This could possibly be due to more mainstream production value (producer Paul Epworth is known for working with Adele), but it could also be a ploy to draw a larger fan base. “How to Be a Human Being” has greatly benefitted from its considerable draw on music streaming services like Spotify, where the band has over 3 million monthly listeners. But has this push to mainstream accessibility dulled Glass Animal’s sensibilities? “Zaba” created experimental textures for audiences to delve into, but “How to be a Human Being” seems more concerned with radio plays than innovation.
Top Tracks ‘Youth’ ‘Mama’s Gun’
courtesy glass animals
Glass Animals’ sophomore album ‘How to Be a Human Being’ was released Aug. 26. The people on the cover each represent a track on the album.
FIFTH ANNUAL APOCALYPSEBALL:
VICE SQUAD
Houston arts organization FrenetiCore is hosting an apocalyptic ball complete with themed food, drink, dance performances and live music. Costumes are encouraged, especially around this year’s “Mad Max” theme. General tickets are $25, VIP are $50 with an all-night open bar. Saturday 8 p.m. to 1 a.m.
Be safe if you go to this one. Vice Squad isn’t clear on exactly what happens at its shows, but it appears to be a combination of improv comedy and intoxication (of both the actors and the audience). Tickets are $5 but the location can only be found by calling 585-420VICE, which might give you a sense of what kind of event this is. The show starts at 11:30 p.m. on Friday.
MAD MAX EDITION
THE PILOT ON NAVIGATION 5102 NAVIGATION BLVD freneticore.net/events/1476
BETA THEATER LOCATION AVAILABLE ON REQUEST BETATHEATER.COM
3DPRK This week marks the opening of Slovenian artist Matjaz Tancic’s exhibit, “3DPRK.” As the name suggests, “3DPRK” is a series of 3D photographs of the people and places of notoriously closed-off North Korea. The exhibit will run through February, is free to the public and open all days except Monday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
THE ASIA TEXAS SOCIETY CENTER 1370 SOUTHMORE BLVD ASIASOCIETY.ORG
TRACES OF
LOST FACTS In collaboration with Rice’s Department of Visual and Dramatic Arts, Rice Cinema presents two nights of the short films of David K. Ross, Thursday, Sept. 8 and Friday, Sept. 9. Ross’s work explores how architecture and infrastructure mould a society’s sense of culture. Both screenings begin at 5:30 p.m. and the Friday screening will be followed by a Q&A.
RICE CINEMA 6100 MAIN ST ARTS.RICE.EDU
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A&E
Wednesday, September 7, 2016
the Rice Thresher
WHAT’S HIP RIGHT NOW TECH:
GoSun stove
WEBSITE: Bandcamp
by stephen hannan
ART:
The Orange Show
EXHIBIT:
United We Stand, United We Signed
courtesy bandcamp courtesy gosunstove.com
In a phrase: Entirely sun-powered oven Where to find it: gosunstove.com Launched on Kickstarter in September 2013, the GoSun Stove is a cooking machine that relies solely on solar power to heat food. The oven uses parabolic reflectors and a vacuum tube to quickly reach temperatures up to 550 degrees Fahrenheit and is purportedly capable of thoroughly cooking a meal in 20 minutes. The company boasts a lightweight product with a dead-simple operation method — no need to futz around with charcoal or gas. Though the up-front cost is a little higher than comparable portable grills, at $279 for the sport model. But if can’t afford that, you could at least lobby Outdoor Adventure Center to get one. The omission of emissions is better in the long term for our pockets and the planet.
In a phrase: Website for musical artists to sell their stuff Where to find it: bandcamp.com As Netflix was to Blockbuster, Bandcamp aspires to be to iTunes. The platform allows musicians to sell digital and physical media directly to the public at whatever price they choose, cutting out the middle man of the music industry and paying relatively small transaction fees. The site allows music downloads in a wide variety of formats, including lossless formats like FLAC and provides tools for bands to start moving their merch. Albums can also be streamed, allowing you to sample the goods before buying, unlike iTunes’s policy of only previewing snippets. For listeners, Bandcamp can serve as a groovy resource to discover up-and-coming or independent artists with tools like radio shows, daily news updates and a discover feature.
courtesy jonathan beitler
In a phrase: Architectural masterpiece, public folk-art installation Where to find it: 2401 Munger St., Houston, Texas Mail carrier Jeff McKissack worked nearly 25 years on an amusement park in a lot across from his house he hoped one day would rival Disneyland. The theme was oranges, with undertones of fortitude, racism and feminism. What remains is a fascinating relic. The grounds contain a maze of bizarre, intricate, propagandistic displays, all built by McKissack. Delving into the history of this anthropological phenomenon and the mind of its creator proves a fun afternoon. While the Orange Show consists of recycled building materials and a healthy dose of delusion, it subsists on money — $10 donations are recommended.
courtesy houston press
In a phrase: 9/11 Memorial Exhibit Where to find it: National Museum of Funeral History This Sept. 11 marks the 15th anniversary of the 2001 terrorist attacks which claimed the lives of nearly 3,000 and affected countless more. Houston’s own National Museum of Funeral History offers an engaging option for remembrance. The museum is expanding its Fallen Heroes Tribute exhibit from September to December and includes never-before-seen memorial books from across North American funeral homes put out in the days following the attacks. Visitors have the opportunity to archive their own experiences, empathize with others through their stories and learn about victims on a personal level. The exhibit is open seven days a week and entry is $10 per guest.
Wednesday, September 7, 2016
Covering grounds: A two-part series on Houston’s coffee scene WALDEN PEMANTLE A&E Editor
Another week in and we’re still on the grind (pun intended). With campus descending into a swamp-like state I think it’s more urgent than ever for students to keep their heads above water by getting off campus to study. This week’s column features a few more food-oriented options to explore. All can still be conducive to studying, but are more renowned for their refreshments than their subdued atmosphere.
Siphon — 701 W. Alabama Held by many as Houston’s best coffee shop, what distinguishes Siphon is the method behind its coffee. Siphon uses (You guessed it!) siphons placed over halogen burners to create a more aromatic brew. The espresso drinks, brewed the traditional way, are also top notch. Only a 10-minute walk from the metro, Siphon is an excellent destination for a rewarding study session.
A&E
the Rice Thresher
gourmet CORNER
FINDING DORAYAKI: A film writer’s quest for an elusive pastry Ryan Lee
Thresher Staff
Last month, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston featured “Sweet Bean,” a film directed by Naomi Kawase about a dorayaki shopkeeper and his two unlikely friends. To those in the know, dorayaki is a treat best associated with its mascot, a blue robot cat. But if that fails to ring a bell, imagine an ice cream sandwich where you replace the wafer for a pancake-like batter and then the filling for red bean paste. The combination is a textural balance of gentle and wholesome, and incidentally the same words that describe Kawase’s film. If the promise of moviegoing is immersion, then films about food already deliver by stirring the primordial sense of appetite. Who in our childhood selves did not dream of frolicking about the chocolate river of Willy Wonka’s factory? How long before we catch ourselves drooling over Jon Favreau’s Cuban sandwiches in “Chef ”? It’s a classic Pavlovian trick. However, the longer format of film also means that the material a food movie serves has to hit more notes than an episode of “Giada at Home.” Like any good food movie, “Sweet Bean” indulges in the procedure of preparing the titular centerpiece. The shopkeeper, Sentaro, and a septuagenarian woman named Tokue form the partnership that runs the dorayaki hole-in-the-wall. Red beans by themselves are bitter, and the ensuing montage showcases the painstaking care required to coax the sweetness out of them. The process takes the entire day, and at any step the beans could lose their flavor or burn and turn to bitterness without experienced hands. The
extent of detail in this sequence speaks to the keen eye of the director. Throughout the film, Kawase balances the blander details of dorayaki making with the fast-pace elements of restaurant management. Her secret ingredient, giving and taking information, rewards her with sincere thoughtfulness. The subdued Sentaro carries the baggage of self-pity, but is so indebted to his work that it never surfaces to more than worldweariness. The grandmother-type Tokue reveals her history while always remaining one step ahead of what she lets on. Even Wakana, an estranged and precocious high school girl, adds a supporting role to the film in mediating the differences between Sentaro and Tokue, betraying a buried potential for childlike whimsy. Although self-contained, “Sweet Bean” is bigger on the inside.
Kuwase reminds us of the sweet aftertaste of life that is nothing but universal.
My faithful yardstick for measuring the quality of a film is the length of time it sticks around in my thoughts after I leave the theater. Suffice to say that “Sweet Bean” has inspired in me a little quest. I grew up
watching the dorayaki promotions featuring the aforementioned blue-robot-cat for as long as I can remember. From that I developed a distinct impression of what a dorayaki would taste like, despite only having their cartoon representations to go by. The last time I did eat one was too young to have an experienced palate, but enough to remember the first bite. And it was pure bliss. Since then, the dorayaki store has closed and here I was, on a quest to find dorayaki in Houston. A readymade dorayaki I grabbed at H Mart, although smaller than I remembered, tasted fine. But why then was I still searching? “Dorayaki in Houston” yielded no results, so I went through all the menus of the top Japanese restaurants listed on Yelp, keeping my eye on the dessert sections. 80 restaurants later, I had a single, tentative hit: Osaka Japanese Steakhouse. The warning signs were there. Listed on the menu was a descriptive if literal “red bean pancake,” and when I asked the staff, they blurted, “dorawhaa—?” And maybe it came from my extensive preparation, but I could only feign surprise when alas, the waitress interrupted our meal to apologize and ask if I would like something else from the menu. The hunt for the red and sweet operated on the same rules of probability as witnessing a glass unshatter. And I’m not talking about dorayaki anymore. What sweet bean can ever materialize to rival the rose-tinted, nostalgiacoated figment of my memory? Returning to “Sweet Bean,” I think Kuwase reminds us of the sweet aftertaste of life that is nothing but universal, and it is no coincidence the main characters span the length of three generations. Let me know if you have a more successful experience at Osaka’s, but I know I can never eat my pancake and have it too.
THAI GOURMET
Common Bond — 1706 Westheimer
6324 Richmond Ave. Must order: beef panang curry
I rarely go to Common Bond for the coffee, seeing as it’s situated down the street from my usual cafe, Agora. However, Common Bond’s main draw has never been its coffee, but rather the heavenly baked goods it offers. From the crusty baguettes to rich fruit tarts and cheesecakes, Common Bond’s bakery is the epitome of “expensive but worth it.” In the cooler months, check out the coffeeshop’s sunny deck. If you can avoid the massive crowd in the morning, it’s a charming place to work while you enjoy Common Bond’s many treats.
FOREIGN CORRESPONDENTS 4721 N Main St. Must order: crispy fried herbs, spicy shrimp, stir fried pumpkin, sticky rice
KANOMWAN 736 1/2 Telephone Rd. Must order: fish cakes, stir-fried chicken or shrimp with chili paste and cashew nuts
VIENG THAI
Bosta —1801 Binz Located in the Museum District, Bosta is certainly a worthy entry into Houston’s growing coffee and wine scene. During the day, Bosta’s industrial chic dining room is a great place to write an essay. As the cocktail crowd comes in, you can use the comprehensive wine list as an ultimate reward for finishing that paper.
Blacksmith — 1801 Westheimer If you can’t get enough of Bosta, you might want to check out its sister restaurant, Blacksmith. Blacksmith shares Bosta’s laid-back aesthetic but is generally more bustling. At peak hours, the noise does make it tough to work, and outlets can be scarce, but Blacksmith’s excellent brunch menu, especially the house biscuits, makes it well worth a visit.
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illustrations by jennifer fu
6929 Long Point Rd. Must order: lime salad with grilled beef, hot basil fried rice
Exploring the diversity of Houston’s Thai restaurants Lauren Heller For the Thresher
While Rice Village has several Thai restaurants that serve the usual pad thai and curries, I decided to explore what the rest of Houston has to offer off Richmond Avenue, and in East End, Spring Branch and the Heights. Although none of my top four choices are as close as Rice Village, they all provide unique specialties that you just can’t get elsewhere. Thai Gourmet is the ultimate spot for curry; of their curries, their beef panang is my favorite for several reasons. Its tender beef, creamy texture and delicate balance of peanut butter and spice are a mouthwatering combination. You can choose from five different spice levels: not hot, mild, medium, hot or Thai hot. For you spice lovers, be careful — the menu warns that if you order hot or Thai hot and it is too spicy they won’t give you a refund. It seems like the rest of Houston is also clued in to how tasty this place is: Be prepared to wait for an hour if
you come at the peak time on a Saturday night. Kanomwan is the closest of the four to Rice, but is a bit of a hidden gem and is often overlooked. The centerpiece of their menu is the fishcakes, satisfyingly spongy patties wellseasoned with herbs and spices. The sauce that comes with these cakes at Kanomwan complements them well by striking a balance between hot and sweet. Cool cucumbers and nuts add to the textures of the dish. For those who like bolder flavors, I recommend the stir-fried chicken or shrimp with chili paste and cashew nuts. Kanomwan is one of the cheapest options on this list and is also BYOB, if you weren’t already sold on trying it. Vieng Thai is another casual spot that executes both familiar and unique Thai dishes well. The lime salad with grilled beef is not a salad in the traditional sense. Instead of lettuce, beef, red onions, lime juice and fresh herbs make up the body of the salad. The hot basil fried rice is a refreshing change from typical fried rice with its extra kick of spice and aromatic basil leaves mixed
throughout. Along with Kanomwan, Vieng Thai is among the cheapest options on this list and is also BYOB. Foreign Correspondents is the most distinctive Thai restaurant out of the list. Part of the Treadsack restaurant group, a management company that has had huge success opening restaurants around Houston, Foreign Correspondents serves a number of northern Thai dishes that are much harder to find among local Thai joints. The staff recommend ordering a sampling of small plates to share among the table (yes, it’s one of those trendy restaurants). Highlights include the individual balls of sticky rice, which along with the crispy fried herb balls, are a welcome excuse to eat with your hands. What I found most surprising was that the plates themselves are light and fresh, but together they make for a very filling and satisfying meal. The next time you get a craving for Thai food, consider expanding beyond the hedges and exploring a new area of Houston for a different experience.
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courtesy wku herald
Senior quarterback Tyler Stehling looks to throw the ball during Thursday night’s season opener against the Western Kentucky University Hilltoppers. The Owls lost the game 46-14 after falling behind 30-7 at halftime. Stehling finished his first career start with 22 completions in 37 attempts, throwing for 183 yards and two interceptions as the Rice offense mustered just 288 yards on the night.
Football routed in opening game loss to WKU Aniket Tolpadi Thresher Staff
Led by 517 passing yards from junior quarterback Mike White, reigning Conference USA champion Western Kentucky University torched the Rice football team in the opening game of the season for both teams. The Owls gave up points almost as soon as the game began. After receiving the opening kickoff, Rice was forced to punt. Unfortunately, however, the kick never happened. On fourth down, the snap sailed over sophomore punter Jack Fox’s head, resulting in a safety and a 2-0 Hilltoppers lead. While the Owls were able to force a turnover and a punt on the next two defensive possessions, Western Kentucky’s passing game awoke over the next few drives. The Hilltoppers scored two touchdowns in each of the first two quarters and took a 30-7 lead into halftime. There were many issues that plagued the Owls in this game. For instance, the team committed seven pre-snap penalties and had a total of six dropped passes, both of which hindered their offense. Defensively, the team did not tackle particularly well in the secondary and had a difficult time covering some of Western Kentucky’s receivers. Both of these issues were exacerbated by an inability to get to the quarterback.
While Rice has much respect for Western Kentucky, a common theme among most players was the belief that they beat themselves in this contest. Senior quarterback Tyler Stehling said the offensive penalties were too much for the team to overcome. “We had a penalty, we had a false start, we kept shooting ourselves in the foot and we can’t win that way,” Stehling said. Redshirt senior cornerback J.T. Blasingame listed several things that his team, specifically the defense, needed to work on heading into the week. “[That’s] not how we wanted to start as a defense,” Blasingame said. “From the secondary, we lost eye discipline, didn’t tackle like we wanted to and we have to fix a lot of things. We beat ourselves on a lot of those coverages.” What had to be very disappointing for the Owls was just how similar this performance looked to so many of the ones from their disappointing season last year. Like last year, the Owls ran an offense predicated on running the ball, stretching the field horizontally, and gaining yards after the catch. Unfortunately, the running game mustered only 3.2 yards a carry over 33 attempts. The team’s playmakers failed to make things happen with the ball in space, as the team gained just 4.9 yards per passing attempt. Last year, the Owls
had a defense that showed promise in small stretches but was extremely susceptible to giving up huge, game-changing plays. That again was the case in this game, as Western Kentucky had six different players with receptions of 20 yards or more.
I’m disappointed in how we played this evening. We didn’t get into any rhythm offensively. David Bailiff
Football Head Coach
After the game, head coach David Bailiff said he was frustrated with the way the team performed. “I’m disappointed in how we played this evening,” Bailiff said. “We didn’t get into
any rhythm offensively. Even defensively, we played hard, but when you don’t play with the technique or the fundamentals we work on in practice, things happen to you. We’ve got a lot of work to do. We don’t have that toughness that I like to have as a football team.” Moving forward, the team will face off against the United States Military Academy, which won its opening game against Temple 28-13. Stylistically, the Black Knights could not be any more different of an opponent from Western Kentucky: While the Hilltoppers ran a spread offense and beat the Owls throwing the ball down the field, Army runs a triple option offense in which they will rarely throw the ball at all. According to Bailiff, Army’s offense will be difficult to stop and the Owls will have to play well to earn a victory. “It takes great discipline and it takes great energy to stop the triple option,” Bailiff said. When the two teams matched up last year, they produced an epic matchup in which the Owls pulled out a 38-31 victory, with the game-winning touchdown pass coming with just 24 seconds on the clock. The hope is that this year’s game will be equally compelling. The Owls will look for their first win of the season on Saturday, Sept. 10 at 11 a.m. against the Army Black Knights in West Point, New York.
Wednesday, September 7 2016
SPORTS
the Rice Thresher
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The Fifth Quarter vs. The Final Kauntdown: Rice in the Big 12 Rice and Big 12 a perfect match Rice is not ready for the Big 12 In what has come as a shock to many, including myself, Rice finds itself as one of the final 11 universities under consideration for Big 12 expansion. The Big 12 Conference, which ironically has 10 teams, has expressed interest in expanding to 12 or 14 teams, and Rice could be one of the newest members of the conference. I have heard arguments as to why we should not join, and the concerns are legitimate: We do not have the fan support, we will have to deal with losing seasons, et cetera. Although Rice may not be immediately ready to compete in the Big 12 for most sports, we, as a student body, should hope to receive an offer to rejoin our former Southwest Conference counterparts. When considering conference realignment, it is important to remember that it all comes down to one thing: money. The Big 12 currently has a 13year television deal worth $2.6 billion, equivalent to $200 million per year. Conference USA, on the other hand, will receive $2.8 million in television money this year. That is an obvious incentive for Rice to join. There is no doubt that Rice would earn even more revenue from ticket sales when we host perennial powerhouses like University of Texas, Austin and the University of Oklahoma. Furthermore, joining the Big 12 would increase Rice’s name recognition nation-wide in both athletic and academic circles, welcome news for students and the administration alike. Yes, Rice’s sports teams would struggle for the first few years as they adjust to the heightened level of competition. But joining a superior conference will bring name recognition, which will bring fan support, which will bring in new recruits, which will in turn produce wins. It would be a lengthy, turbulent process, but it would be worth it. But should the Big 12 want Rice? At the surface, it may appear Rice does not have much to offer the Big 12. If we joined, we would be the smallest school in the conference by a significant margin. Our football games rarely have more than 20,000 fans in attendance, and we have a relatively apathetic student body regarding sports. However, we do have a good deal of attributes that the Big 12 should find attractive. First, we would have the second-largest endowment in the Big 12, second only to UT. While endowment isn’t necessarily a perfect indicator of a school’s wealth, it should demonstrate to the Big 12 that we have the financial ability to sustain programs in the conference.
Further, we have appropriate facilities. We have a recently renovated football stadium capable of holding huge Big 12 caliber crowds, a beautiful baseball stadium that would be the third-largest in the Big 12, a new soccer stadium and a recently renovated basketball arena. The infrastructure is already in place. Our academic reputation should be another draw. The other so-called “Power Five” conferences — the Big 10, Southeastern Conference, Pac 12 and Atlantic Coast Conference — each have a top-tier private research university as a member institution. The Big 12 does not. If invited to the Big 12, Rice would bring a level of academic prestige that the conference should find attractive. Whether or not an athletic conference truly cares about academics is debateable, but they do claim to care. In fact, the Big 12 claims on their website that “performance in the classroom is just as important as accolades on the field when looking at the student-athlete.” Lastly, we would bring the Houston market to the conference. When Texas A&M University left for the SEC a few years ago, the Big 12 lost its grip on the nation’s fourth-largest city. By adding Rice, the Big 12 could claim purview over the city and establish bases of operation here. Other schools in the conference could improve their recruiting ground in Houston as a result, and money from the television deal would increase in turn. With the success of the University of Houston’s football program in recent years, however, the Big 12 may find the nearby Cougars a more attractive option to corner the Houston market. Regardless, the Big 12 should seriously consider adding Rice, and Rice should jump at the chance to accept an offer should it be given. The benefits of joining the Big 12 far outweigh the negatives from Rice’s perspective, and adding Rice would only bring positive value to the Big 12 conference.
Evan Neustater
is a McMurtry College senior and former Thresher Sports Editor
For the first time in years, Rice sports are in the national spotlight. The Big 12 Conference is looking to add two more schools, and Rice is one of 11 universities being considered for membership. I can understand why followers of Rice Athletics are excited. The Big 12 is one of the five best college athletic leagues in the nation. Our university has a real chance to join a marquee college athletic conference and compete against the likes of the University of Oklahoma and the University of Texas, Austin on a yearly basis. A move would likely ignite fan support and national attention for the athletic program and the university as a whole. Unfortunately, I’m writing to say that Rice does not belong in the Big 12. It’s not that Rice should not want to be in the Big 12; it’s that the Big 12 should not want Rice. The Big 12 has stated five main attributes it looks for in a potential member. Those five, according to Board Chair David Boren, are athletic prowess, fan base, media market, integrity and academic standards. There is no doubt that Rice checks off at least two of those items: integrity and academic standards. A strong argument can be made that Rice checks off athletic prowess, given its always-strong baseball program, football bowl appearances, improving basketball program and recent conference championships in sports such as tennis, soccer, golf, cross country, track and swimming. But fan base and media market? Those are far more questionable. Among Thresher writers, athletes and fans alike, one of the most frequently used words to describe Rice students’ attitude toward sports is “apathetic.” That alone is not a good sign. But couple that with the fact that Rice has only 6,000 students — it is the second smallest Division I school — and it is clear that only a small fraction of a small number of students are actively supporting the athletic program. The fan base is growing. Season ticket sales have increased in virtually every sport over the past few years according to the athletic department. The Rice Rally Club, reborn in recent years, operates with the goal of increasing student attendance at athletic events. These new developments are encouraging, but a school looking to join a major conference should not need to make such great efforts to expand its fan base. Market is inherently related to fan base. At first glance, Rice would appear to meet the requirement regarding the media market. Houston is the fourth-largest city in the nation and is an un-
tapped market for Power Five conferences. Unfortunately, however, Rice does not bring the Houston market. It brings a small fraction of the city’s supporters. This week, 71,016 fans attended the University of Houston’s 33-23 victory over Oklahoma University at NRG Stadium. Last season, Rice’s most attended home game, a victory over Army, had just over 24,000 fans. The University of Houston’s sports program is vastly more popular than Rice’s. Even if Rice joins the Big 12, it would take time to establish a city-wide fan base, and that fan base will come only if the teams — mainly the football and basketball teams — succeed. Immediate success is far from guaranteed. Every major conference has bottom feeders, and Rice would certainly struggle in its first few years in the Big 12. Earlier this week, Kansas University football fans stormed the field after the Jayhawks earned their first win in two years. Kansas competes in the Big 12 and has a football team that is worse than Rice’s, so merely being a member of the Big 12 does not ensure strong athletic teams. If Rice does not adapt well to the new conference, it could simply be what it was for most of its time in the Southwest Conference: a major conference school with a lower-tier athletic program. This is not to say, however, that Rice should not want to join the Big 12. Being in the league increases national exposure and floods revenue to the school thanks to television deals, ticket sales and sponsorships. Rice, however, is not good enough for the Big 12. The best route for the school is to move up toward a major conference gradually. Rice could potentially join the Mountain West Conference or American Athletic Conference depending on the results of Big 12 expansion. It would be a good fit in either of these leagues, both of which would be improvements compared to Conference USA. But the Big 12? Sorry Rice, not yet.
Andrew Grottkau
is a McMurtry College sophomore and Thresher Sports Editor
Mikesky finds groove in new home Craig Broadman For the Thresher
As a 16-year-old high school standout, senior captain Leah Mikesky committed to play volleyball at Florida State University. Six years later, she is finishing her college career at Rice. A natural-born athlete, Mikesky starred in tennis and track as a high schooler while earning academic all-state selections in volleyball and basketball. When she left Schulenburg, Texas, a small town of just under 3,000 people, to attend Florida State, Mikesky had no idea that her journey would bring her back just 95 miles from her home town at Rice. Mikesky’s career at Florida State came to an end shortly after the beginning of her sophomore year. She said her experience as a Seminole was underwhelming and that Florida State was not the right fit for her. “I decided I wanted to do pre-med and there was nobody [at FSU] that did that as an athlete,” Mikesky said. “I got redshirted my freshman year, then I broke my foot. I didn’t really get along with the coaches that well, so it just made a lot of sense to come [to Rice].” As excited as Mikesky was to transfer back to her home state, she would learn that it would be no easy task to integrate herself into the team halfway through her sophomore year. Mikesky said she had no time to learn anything about her new school. “I didn’t even think about the fact that I was coming to a new school,” Mikesky said. “I rolled up on Greenbriar Sunday night before classes started, got my bags out and started walking to [Sid Richardson College]. I was thinking, ‘I don’t know anyone! I don’t know what I’m doing here!’” Despite receiving no orientation and knowing only a handful of people, Mikesky was happy in her new home. The team accepted her, and the coaching staff welcomed her warmly. According to Mikesky, the team’s “Big Sister” program, which assigns a veteran team member to help
mentor a new team member, helped her adjust to life at Rice. “[Sophomore Stephanie Mendivil] is actually way younger than me, but she turned out to be my big sister because we were both in Sid,” Mikesky said. “She helped me a ton, introduced me to her friends, and walked with me to practice every day. We got really close and we’re still really close.” Inserted into the starting lineup, the Owls star has averaged over 3.5 kills per set over her career at Rice, earning an assortment of awards including All-Conference Second Team honors her sophomore year and First Team honors her junior year. However, according to Mikesky, none of these accolades would top the exhilarating feeling of defeating No. 22 Western Kentucky University in the 2015 season, undefeated in conference games at the time. “My favorite volleyball memory was last year when we beat Western Kentucky at home,” Mikesky said. “We knew it was going to be a tight game. The year before, we had played them in Kentucky and lost in five sets. This year, they came here and it was the exact same situation, but we beat them 16-14 in five at our place.” That would be Western Kentucky’s only conference loss of the year, and Mikesky recorded a double-double with 21 kills and 16 digs in defeating this conference powerhouse. Unfortunately, the Owls would not get another shot to beat the Hilltoppers on a higher stage, getting knocked out of the conference tournament in the first round against Southern Mississippi. According to Mikesky, this season, the team is ready to go to its first NCAA tournament since 2009, and she has extra responsibilities as captain. “This team is a lot more mentally ready to win than in past years,” Mikesky said. “As co-captains [with junior Madison McDaniel], our goal is to get the team as energized and as ready as possible while trying to be supportive of the whole team.” As a team leader and top performer, Mikesky can make the difference in the Owls’ quest to return to the NCAA tournament.
Shooting to kill
courtesy leah mikesky
Senior Leah Mikesky goes for the kill against Houston Baptist University during last week’s home victory over the Huskies. Mikesky, one of the team captains, is hoping to lead the team back to the NCAA tournament this year.
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BACKPAGE
Wednesday, September 7, 2016
the Rice Thresher
How to Drop your Screw Ah yes, Screw-Yer-Roommate. It’s that time of year again for everyone to don a costume — probably one that resembles an object in a pair of phallic/yonic symbols — and hit the RMC in search of their counterpart. You’re in the Grand Hall, in a quietly desperate search for your one true screw when all of a sudden, you lock eyes with someone across the room. They’re beautiful, and your mind begins racing on how to pretend that your costume is the match to theirs. No, that would never work; their actual partner would eventually find you. You sigh, imagine what could have been for one more fleeting moment, and continue the search for your actual date. It feels hopeless, and you start to wonder if your roommate even found someone for you at all or if they just told you to go the RMC wearing only a leotard and duct tape for funzies. You leisurely start making your way to the door when, suddenly, you spot them. You’ve definitely found your match, and … well … let’s just say your roommate has taken the event very literally: They’ve totally screwed you. You immediately decide that it’s time to abort the mission, and now you’re frantically thinking about how. Well, fret not. These subtle, tasteful evacuation tactics that will have you out of there faster than you can say “rusticated.”
I’ll meet you guys at ________. I’ve got to hit the bathroom. While this one is simple and effective, we feel that it lacks ingenuity and style. See more sophisticated techniques below.
I don’t care where we go to dinner, but I’m on a raw, gluten-free, vegan diet this week. This one is nice because it allows you to instantly shoot down any restaurant suggestions that anyone makes for the rest of the night. Eventually, the group will get tired of it and will (hopefully) make an attempt to leave you behind. But if someone else in your group is also eating raw, gluten-free or vegan, you’ve just locked yourself in for a full night of conversation over a topic that you know nothing about.
My temple is doing a special event tonight. Do you guys mind if we all stop by on the way to dinner? If you’ve never seen a goat sacrifice, you’ve really got to come. Did I mention that I’m a Satanist? We’ll concede that this approach is uncharted territory. We’ve never seen or heard of it actually being executed, but we’re pretty sure it would work.
You know, I think this is going really well. Do you want to FaceTime my parents? This maneuver is strictly for high-rollers. On the one hand, there’s a pretty good chance that you’ll scare your date off as intended. But on the other hand, if they’re into you then you’ve just worked yourself into quite a bind. Now mom and dad will undoubtedly be asking about “that nice [boy/girl] that you went on that date with,” for years to come, since “you know we always liked [him/her].”
Excuse me a moment, my hemorrhoids are flaring up. Remember, KISS: Keep it simple, stupid.
I’ve got a Spec’s coupon that expires in 20 minutes. You must understand. This line has a lot going for it. For starters, most college students will have no trouble recognizing the gravity of a situation like this. On top of that, you pave the way for skipping a drab evening of small talk and in its wake you now have the option to go drink. Who knows, maybe after some straw-ber-itas you will suddenly feel like giving your screw date a text after all.
Hey, did I tell you guys that I work ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ for the Rice Thresher?
Of course we all know that Screw-Yer-Roommate is all about meeting new people and having fun, so hopefully you won’t feel the need to employ any of these strategies. Come to think of it, we hope that you have never chosen to enact any advice that you got from the Backpage. But if you do need to put our pointers into action this Friday, feel free to use any of these lines verbatim. You can also use them as a springboard for coming up with your own shallow lies. Have fun, and happy Screwin’! (The Backpage denies any liability for any physical, mental, emotional or other harm caused by you to yourself or others as a result of any of the techniques listed here.)
The Backpage is satire and written by Riley Robertson. This week, Ben Ruben and Jake Reinhart contributed. For comments or questions, please email thresher@rice.edu.
CLASSIFIEDS WANTED TEACH FOR TESTMASTERS! Dynamic and Energetic teachers wanted. Starting pay rate is $20 to $32 per hour. Flexible schedules. We provide all training, all training is paid, and we pay for travel. Email your resume to jobs@ testmasters.com. RICE ALUM HIRING TUTORS for Middle & High School Math, Natural & Social Science, Foreign Language, Humanities, and SAT/ACT prep. Reliable transportation required. Pay is based upon variety of factors. Contact 832-4288330 and email resume to siyengar777@gmail. com ST THOMAS UNIVERSITY Garage aparment furnished - approximately 400 sq. ft. All utilities, Internet & basic cable. No pets, no smoking. $750/month; deposit of $500. AVAILABLE NOW. One-year lease - references. Barbara: 713-906-5970
RIVER OAKS FAMILY seeks part-time live-in babysitter (female, graduate student) for three children ages 5, 7, and 8. Compensation arragnement is housing in separate 2BR basement apartment (furnished, utilities paid, access to laundry) in exchange for approximately 15 hours per week of babysitting and homework help, on weekday evenings and weekends. Occasional travel if candidate is interested. To apply, please submit resume and indication of interest of chaz@arnoldfam.net WE ARE LOOKING for a Rice student, preferably female, to tutor our granddaughter. She’s in the sixth grade. Needs help with math, science, english, etc. From one to two hours a day, preferably 4 to 6 p.m. We will pay $12.50 and hour. We live within walking or biking distance from Rice. Please respond to dmcham@ aol.com
$12/HR-WEEKDAY AFTERNOONS Rice Prof. seeks responsible student with own car to pick up kids from school & drive them to activities. Please contact heinken@rice.edu
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