The Rice Thresher | Wednesday, September 14, 2016

Election

Registered to vote? The voter registration deadline in Texas is Oct. 11.

2016

The CCL will be holding a drive to register students (see p. 3).

VOLUME 101, ISSUE NO. 4 | STUDENT-RUN SINCE 1916 | RICETHRESHER.ORG | WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2016

turning a new leaf Jieya Wen reflects on gaining eco-awareness at Rice

see Ops p. 5 fantastic fall fashion Catch up with trends from pleather to linens

see A&E p. 6 Three little bears Previewing key players in the Rice-Baylor showdown

see Sports p. 10

SA creates deputy positions Amber Tong News Editor

The Student Association Senate passed Amendments #3 and #4 to create the appointed positions of deputy treasurer and deputy parliamentarian on Monday. The deputy treasurer will assist the treasurer on financial tasks such as the Blanket Tax, Initiative Fund and SA bookkeeping, according to parliamentarian Annabelle McIntire-Gavlick.

“The treasurer is a huge position,” McIntire-Gavlick said. “It’s incredibly complex — there’s a lot going on. So the Deputy Treasurer is really there to alleviate some of the work [the Treasurer] will have to do. They as the deputy will learn a lot of the ropes and then hopefully actually become the treasurer the next year.”

According to SA President Griffin Thomas, the Deputy Treasurer application will be open to all students, except for seniors. To assume the role, the selected candidate must be recommended by the Treasurer and approved by both the President and the Senate.

Per an amendment introduced

by Hanszen College president Kenny Grozsman, the Deputy Treasurer will be a non-voting ex-officio member of the Blanket Tax Committee instead of a voting at-large member.

Thomas said that as the treasurer’s responsibilities have expanded in recent years, there is a growing need for people to support the management of student funds.

“We really want to make sure that we are getting good people into the position,” Thomas said.

“We’re not trying to endorse a 0see DEPUTY, page 2

hope zhou/thresher

Freaks, geeks and Leebz

Clockwise from top left: Brown College junior Caleb Suresh, Will Rice College sophomore Samuel Saldinger and date, Sid Richardson College junior Sameer Allahabadi and Hanszen College sophomore Sonal Pai, Wiess College freshman Zac Odermatt and University of Houston student Kailey Nelson participate in Rice Program Council’s annual Screw-Yer-Roommate event.

College GOP rejects Trump endorsement Elana Margosis Thresher Staff

The Rice University College Republicans voted by a 2-to-1 margin Thursday night to not endorse Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump after over an hour of internal debate. The decision was not without controversy: Several Trump supporters walked out in protest, and the club received backlash online from Republicans outside of Rice.

College Republicans President Jake Blumencranz said he was pleased with the outcome and hoped to start working to elect Republican candidates in congressional and state races.

“I’m happy with the way the vote came out,” Blumencranz, a Brown College junior, said. “Now we can move forward with what we really want to do, which is get

everyone down-ballot elected and advocate for those [candidates].”

The meeting drew approximately 35 students and a diverse selection of political opinions. Many of the pro-endorsement members discussed the future of the Supreme Court as a reason to support Trump.

The seat of late Justice Antonin Scalia has remained vacant since Scalia’s death in February, and it is likely the next president will appoint additional members due to the age of several current justices.

Jed Greenberg, a Jones College sophomore, argued that the issue of the Supreme Court makes it worth voting for Trump, even if some do not agree with him on other issues.

“A good Supreme Court will uphold pro-life values, push back regulatory overreach and will generally be in line with conservatism,” Greenberg said. “If you look at the justices that Donald Trump has

floated, they are generally establishment Republican justices with strong conservative track records.”

Now we can move forward with what we really want to do.

Jake Blumencranz RUCR President

Others held concerns about Trump’s values.

Phillip Hedayatnia, a Brown

freshman who describes himself as a moderate, said he had worked as a journalist for a year and spent the summer covering the Trump and Clinton campaigns. Hedayatnia said he was concerned about many of Trump’s supporters.

“When I traveled with the Trump campaign, I saw exactly the people that the Democrats have been saying the Republicans are for years,” Hedayatnia said. “I saw racists. I saw sexists. I saw crazies.

I saw people who were nuts, out of their minds, supporting this man.”

Hedayatnia said he is concerned about the implications of this support if Trump won.

“I worry that [if] Donald Trump gets elected and has a cult around him, then no matter if he is good or bad [it] will stick with him through elections,” he said. “I believe that is how demagoguery happens.”

0see RUCR, page 4

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NEWS

0DEPUTY FROM PAGE 1 candidate for the future, we’re just trying to have the best blanket tax system in the current time.”

Whether experience as the deputy treasurer will help someone in running for treasurer is ultimately up to the voting student body, Thomas said. He said the SA will not show preferential treatment towards any candidate and that the new position is just a potential part of a leadership ladder.

“It is to say that experience on whatever level is important when you’re running for a position and being able to demonstrate you can confidently fulfill the roles in that position is important,” Thomas said. “We see that senators typically run for external vice president, that committee chairs appointed by the SA will typically run for internal vice president and that’s the general progression.”

McMurtry College President Madhuri Venkateswar voted against the resolution.

She said she believes the addition of another position is at best a stop-gap solution and will not solve the SA’s problems.

“In terms of managing people and managing roles and responsibilities, I want an institutional solution,” she said.

“I don’t think adding another body means adding productivity and efficiency to the process.”

At the same meeting, the Senate also created the position of deputy parliamentarian. The deputy parliamentarian will be responsible for assisting the parliamentarian while learning about the SA constitution and administrative procedures.

In addition, the Senate approved McMurtry sophomore Antonia Iyer as the director of government relations. Iyer is tasked with monitoring discussions concerning higher education at national and state levels and communicating student voices to policy makers when necessary.

the Rice Thresher

Wednesday, September 14, 2016

Paper plates only temporary fix, H&D says

anthea lyu/thresher

Three serveries temporarily supplied paper instead of ceramic plates last weekend in the aftermath of a dishwasher breakdown at West Servery.

Housing and Dining is testing a different type of sanitizer to address the issue, which happens most frequently at West Servery.

Lizzie Bjork

For the Thresher

Contrary to some students’ belief, last weekend’s switch to exclusively paper plates in some serveries was not a pilot for eliminating ceramic dishes on weekends. Instead, the dishwashing machines in West Servery broke and could not be repaired until Tuesday, which led other serveries such as North and Seibel to switch to paper, according to Housing and Dining Senior Business Director David McDonald.

Because the dishwashers at Rice use a hightemperature sanitation cycle, sometimes there are issues with washing dishes when the system cannot reach a certain threshold that the Houston Health and Safety code requires.

Due to the relatively small size of its water tank and the high number of diners, West Servery encounters the problem most frequently.

“This is just the business model we’re living with,” McDonald said. “We just haven’t come up with a better way.”

Due to the frequent backlog of dishes in West

Servery, H&D has begun to discuss the possibility of switching to a chemical sanitizer in cases where the high-temperature system cannot keep up. This week, they tested a low-temperature sanitizer with chlorine, McDonald said.

McMurtry College Environmental Committee co-head Ben Johnson said that for students who are concerned about the environment, the best thing to do is return dishes promptly and remember to recycle their paper plates.

This story has been condensed for print. Read the full article at ricethresher.org.

wednesday, September 14, 2016

NEWS

the Rice Thresher

3

NEWS IN BRIEF

by Emily Abdow, Assistant News Editor

Rice shoots ahead in US News ranks

Student Association introduces resolution supporting security cameras The Student Association introduced Resolution #2 on Student Feedback on the Policy for Implementation of Security Cameras on Campus on Monday. The resolution affirms the SA’s support of camera implementation but also notes student concerns collected from an survey sent out by the Student Association in August.

Concerns about implementation include possible privacy breaches, a loss of cultural liberty at colleges, the use of footage by organizations such as University Court and Student Judicial Programs, the future misinterpretation of the policy and the cybersecurity of the footage.

Specific recommendations made by the SA include defining the term “common spaces” including a residential college commons that should be subject to higher scrutiny before implementation of cameras.

Additional recommendations include establishing a more organized process for reviewing recordings than the current “randomly review[ing],” defining when cameras can be viewed in “real time,” elaborating on repercussions for violating the policy and stating that the Chief of Police and Security Systems

RANKINGS & RICE The U.S. News and World Report released the 2017 version of its well-known rankings on Tuesday.

#5

Undergraduate teaching

#6

Best colleges for veterans

#7

Biomedical engineering

#14

Best values schools

#15

National universities

#18

Undergraduate engineering

#19

Most innovative schools

+5 (change from 2016) +8 -3 0

+3 0

Not previously listed

Manager consult with residential college government on camera placement.

The SA resolution also contains a preamble regarding the mutual trust between all stakeholders and lists priorities for the policy including effectiveness, privacy, transparency, security, continuity, specificity and accountability.

Hanszen College President Kenny Groszman, who introduced the resolution along with four other members of the SA, said that he and his fellow committee members met with President Kevin Kirby, Dean of Undergraduates John Hutchinson and Rice University Police Department Chief Johnny Whitehead on Friday to discuss the SA recommendations.

“It was a really productive meeting,” Groszman, a senior, said. “They verbally agreed to make a lot of changes to reflect our opinion.”

He said the resolution will continue to be discussed and amended in the next two weeks.

“The spirit of the policy is not only to keep the campus safe but also to foster this trusting relationship between administration, the students and RUPD that is fundamental to the way Rice works,” Groszman said.

Rice discovers Earth’s carbon origins Rice researchers may have solved the mystery of how the carbon in our bodies arrived on Earth: through a collision with an embryonic planet 4.4 billion years ago.

A current popular theory involves relatively volatile elements including carbon compounds arriving through meteorites and comets over 100 million years after the formation of the solar system, but there is no known meteorite that could account for the ratio of these elements on Earth’s surface.

In searching for another theory, Rice petrologist Rajdeep Dasgupta and his team considered the composition of the Earth’s core. The researchers utilized Dasgupta’s lab, which has the ability to reproduce the high pressures and high temperatures existing 250 miles below the Earth’s surface.

Following experimentation and modeling, the researchers hypothesized that an embryonic planet with a silicon-rich core collided with Earth. According to Dasgupta, that planet was absorbed; its core combined with Earth’s and its carbon-rich mantle mixed with Earth’s.

Dasgupta said further research is necessary to account for the presence of other volatile elements, but this scenario is promising in providing an explanation for the presence of carbon and sulfur on Earth.

CCL strives to increase student engagement at the polls Sept. 27

Oct. 1 and 8

Oct. 11

Oct. 19

National Voter Registration Day

Volunteers with Neighborhood Centers

Deadline to register in Texas

CCL and Political Science department host debate viewing

Huizi Yu

For the Thresher

As the last day to register to vote in Texas in the fall election approaches, the Center of Civic Leadership is working on increasing voter engagement. According to assistant director for programs and partnerships Morgan Kinney, the CCL’s focus is not only on encouraging students to vote themselves, but also to mobilize other students and citizens in the greater Houston area by the Oct. 11 deadline.

“Our goal with the CCL voter engagement efforts is to compile election involvement opportunities so that students can more easily get involved.” Kinney said.

Together with the American Association of University Women, the CCL co-hosted the Voter Deputy Registrar training last weekend, which equipped 47 students, faculty, staff and community members to become Harris County deputy registrars, who can then help others register for voting. The two groups are also partnering to host the National Voter Registration Day in the near future.

Morgan said the CCL also believes that Rice students can have a broader impact through working with local organizations.

She said that currently, residents of Texas are not fully represented in elections.

“From my perspective, effective voting would mean that our votes accurately represent the views of our entire population,” Kinney said. “Currently, in Texas, this is not necessarily the case.”

According to Kinney, research shows that in Texas, people of minority races and ethnicities are voting at rates drastically lower than their white neighbors; it is predicted that if the growing minority populations in Texas were to vote as frequently as the Anglo populations, Texas would become a swing state.

The country’s elected leadership is a reflection of the values of voters, so going out to the polls is one way to express that.

Neethi Nayak AAUW Chapter President

“This indicates many of our neighbors’ voices are not necessarily being heard in our

local and national elections,” Kinney said.

In an effort to encourage voting in the wider community, the CCL is bringing in Volunteers with Neighborhood Centers, an organization that aims to canvas low-voting neighborhoods and fellow Houstonians to vote. The CCL is also offering opportunities to volunteer with Mi Familia Vota and participate in election day poll research with political science professor Robert Stein. In conjunction with the political science department, the CCL will host watch parties for both the third presidential debate and the election itself with the political science department.

AAUW, which is collaborating with the CCL in the voter registration efforts, is a national organization with a long history, but has only recently started a chapter at Rice. Its founder Neethi Nayak said that the most effective way to mobilize students is to make them know that their decision will affect their lives, that the person in the office will play a role in how their country is perceived and what happens to them daily.

“The country’s elected leadership is a reflection of the values of voters, so going out to the polls is one way to express that,” Nayak, a Martel College senior, said. “If you are able to vote, and don’t, any criticism you have of policy can’t be accounted for because an opinion wasn’t voiced on the ballot.

Rice students are definitely becoming more engaged with this election and I hope that we’ll see a great turnout during early voting and on election day.”

Nov. 8 Election

Rice Democrats officers have been trained to become voter registrars for Harris County and are planning to start a month of voter registration drives in the Rice Memorial Center, according to president David Cirillo.

He said this presidential race is special because the guiding principle of America is at stake.

“While every election is intrinsically important, this presidential race is inherently different,“ Cirillo said. “So while many now assume Hillary [Clinton] will win, I implore activity and voting consciousness now through November; there are two different visions of America at risk, one of inclusivity and one of exclusive, nativist hatred.”

Rice College Republicans president Jake Blumencranz said students should vote to have their voices heard in all levels of government, especially given the presidential election and Houston’s historically limited voter participation.

“I think that due to the fact that it is a presidential election year as well as the fact that Houston has very low turn outs for elections it is more important than ever to vote for who you believe will best advocate for you and your values, especially down ballot,” Blumencranz said.

Despite their busy schedules, Kinney said she hopes Rice students will find some way to engage in the coming months. She said any students who want more specific information on voter registration should visit the CCL website.

4

NEWS

Wednesday, September 14, 2016

the Rice Thresher

NASA leader expresses Mars exploration hopes Kristen Hickey For the Thresher

Dava Newman, deputy administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, spoke on “NASA’s Journey to Mars and Beyond,” in a lecture hosted by the Rice Space Institute on Sept. 7. Newman addressed a full crowd after a reception in Duncan Hall.

The lecture was a continuation of the Houston Spaceport Frontier Lecture series that started in 2011, and sought to draw Rice students and the community into a conversation about space.

Newman began the lecture by discussing NASA’s current projects, but the focus quickly shifted to how NASA aims to meet U.S. President Barack Obama’s charge to get boots on Mars by the mid-2030s.

“We do have a plan,” Newman said. “We are charged by the president to send humans out, first to Earth-moon orbit and then to Mars, and hopefully we can sustain this and keep the momentum going.”

According to Newman, NASA must design a multitude of new solutions before Mars comes within reach. The agency is working to advance technologies for habitation structures, humanoid robots and early descent landing, among other challenges.

Newman stressed that the U.S. is not — and should not — be alone on Mars. NASA works with 120 nations around the world, in addition to private corporations such as SpaceX.

“Exploration is global,” Newman said. “We’re all in this together. We’re all dependent upon each other.”

According to Newman, this spirit of cooperation is not limited to international scientists. Newman discussed the role of the humanities in space exploration, encouraging students to get involved regardless of their academic focus.

Newman outlined STEAMD, an extension of the common STEM acronym to include arts and design that represents NASA’s new emphasis in space exploration. “[We want to] bring in the arts,” Newman said. “We need you. We need the storytellers.”

John Cook, a recently retired NASA engineer who was instrumental in the creation of the International Space Station, was also part of the lecture audience on Wednesday night. He recalled Apollo 11’s lunar landing in 1969, saying the moon should not be abandoned yet.

“The moon is an excellent dress rehearsal for Mars,” Cook said. “Let me put it in perspective. The moon is about 250 thousand miles away. The minimum distance to Mars in the 2030s is 35 million miles away, so you don’t want to be winging it on Mars. You want to practice it on the moon.”

First-year anthropology graduate student Melanie Ford is studying horticulture projects in space, such as NASA’s Vegetable Production System program. With the discovery of water on Mars and NASA’s ability to create oxygen from the carbon dioxide-rich

atmosphere, Ford said she is excited for the future of exploration.

Speakers like Dava Newman really make an impact on the audience and contribute immensely to the prestige of our university in the space industry.

Andrew Gatherer Students for the Exploration and Development of Space

“These are all things that really bridge the extraterrestrial and terrestrial worlds,” Ford said. “We’re remaking a world of our own, and I’m interested to see how these

anthropocentric narratives get reconstructed in outer space.”

Brown College junior Andrew Gatherer attended the lecture as a member of Rice’s chapter of Students for the Exploration and Development of Space, a new group on campus that aims to connect students interested in space.

“The focus of SEDS is to bring together students who are passionate about everything from the growing commercial space program to exobiology,” Gatherer said.

“We come together to discuss current events and space policy, not simply the technical basis of space exploration.”

RSI Director David Alexander was responsible for Newman’s appearance and has been instrumental in providing Rice students with these space-related opportunities, according to Gatherer.

“Speakers like Dava Newman have the power to really make an impact on the audience, and they contribute immensely to the prestige of our university in the space industry,” Gatherer said.

The RSI plans to continue the series with monthly lectures throughout the rest of the academic year. The lectures are free and open to the public.

Past speakers for the lecture series have dealt with topics including space settlement, the search for life in the universe, and the economics of commercial spaceflight. Since the program’s launch, several speakers have addressed the prospect of a Mars mission.

0RUCR FROM PAGE 1 The chapter’s decision drew criticism online from organizers working for Students For Trump, a national organization unaffiliated with the Trump campaign.

Josh Gremillion, the organization’s national social media director, said in an email to the Thresher that leaders of chapters that do not support Trump should resign.

“There is no reason why they should not be supporting our Republican nominee,” Gremillion, a freshman at the University of Houston, said. “If the leader of the chapter refuses to endorse Trump, they need to resign because they are not doing their job by [not] backing the Republican nominee.”

Gremillion said the group is essentially supporting the Democratic nominee.

If the leader of the chapter refuses to endorse Trump, they need to resign because they are not doing their job by not backing the Republican nominee.

Josh Gremillion Students for Trump

violet li/thresher

The Rice College Republicans decided in a 2-to-1 vote against endorsing Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump after a heated debate. The decision incited criticism from some other Republican student groups in Texas, though many Rice students expressed support.

“It is unacceptable — by them not backing Mr. Trump, they are backing the most corrupt human being on the face of the earth — Hillary Clinton,” he said. “It blows my mind how people can be so ignorant.”

The club, which was founded in 2013, joined a growing list of College Republican chapters that have declined to endorse Trump, including those at the University of Houston, Cornell University, Princeton University and Harvard University.

Some have offered a sharp rebuke of the candidate, including the Harvard chapter, which received national attention and strong condemnation from Trump supporters after posting a statement declining to endorse the Republican candidate for the first time since the club’s 1888 founding.

While several non-Rice students made negative comments and reviews on RUCR’s Facebook page following the vote, the reaction to the Rice club’s decision appeared more restrained.

5 Deputy treasurer position creates leadership pipeline While the Student Association’s decision to create the appointed position of deputy treasurer and deputy parliamentarian (see p. 1) may seem inconsequential, it raises questions about the nature of elected versus appointed positions. The treasurer is elected because students place trust in an individual who is responsible for distributing their funds. Introducing an appointed deputy position with vague responsibilities of “assisting” the treasurer dilutes the power students have in choosing who handles these important decisions.

That seniors are not permitted to hold this position indicates this position may be the first step in a pipeline to becoming treasurer. Though this may be useful for grooming competent candidates, it also reinforces hierarchies that can stifle collaborative environments and create barriers for students who may realize their passion for a particular position later than others.

The latter students often end up deciding they have fallen so far behind in the existing hierarchies that they can never reach their leadership goals. The SA treasurer has an unreasonable amount of responsibilities, as we stated previously when Rice Video Productions failed to be properly reviewed. If an assistant is necessary to lessen the burden, the entire student body should make the decision of whether to create this position, appointed or elected, as part of the next general election.

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 last week’s Sept. 7 issue, the article “RiceBaylor program changes requirements” stated that six students are typically accepted into the Rice-Baylor program each year. In reality, six to 15 students have been accepted each year since the program’s initiation in 1990. With recent changes, students in the program must obtain an MCAT score of 501, not 502 as stated incorrectly in the same article.

Life at Rice can give gift of eco-awareness Fall of 2016 marks my fourth year in Houston.

To me, becoming a senior international student does not only mean being able to laugh at John Oliver’s jokes about Donald Trump or start singing “The Duck Song” as soon as I saw grapes in the servery, but most importantly, being a lot more conscious about sustainability and the environment. College has been the best opportunity for me to learn to be green from the people around me.

The beginning of college demonstrated to me the availability of energy rather than the lack of it. I remember being amazed by all buildings on campus that were lit 24 hours, frozen by the overpowered AC in Herzstein Amphitheater and thrilled by the unlimited amount of food in the servery that does not require you to finish one plate to get another. When I saw the low oil price on the billboard while driving on the massive and extensive freeways in Houston, I thought, “Maybe this is what an ultimate developed country should be — convenient, comfortable and powered by easily accessible energy.”

Yet as I adjusted to this whole new sense of convenience, I noticed my friends going out of their way to avoid it. I first noticed my coding partner’s persistence in reusing paper cups. When she gets a paper cup, she uses it throughout the day even when going to Coffeehouse. And she keeps that cup in her backpack whenever it is empty. I still recall, after we finished our final project demo and feeling relaxed and accomplished, she suddenly realized something and biked back to ask the teaching assistant for the paper cup she left at the site. I was confused and amused by her effort, pondering how much change one paper cup can do, not lying in the landfill.

Luckily, she is not the only one around me conscious about the environment. As I started to pay more attention to my lunch conversations, I learned more about the damage we had done

to our Earth when my friends talked about their environmental studies classes. I realized my roommate, a chemical engineer, developed a genuine resentment toward the energy industry because they keep contaminating our environment despite being aware of the threat many years ago. Furthermore, once my conversation with a friend who just pulled an all-nighter steered toward whether Fondren turns off the heater for less popular hours, and she actually emailed sustainability@rice.edu to ask about it.

The list goes on.

Maybe this is what a developed country should be — convenient, comfortable and powered by easily accessible energy.

In fact, as I composed this list and asked my friends for more examples, one of them said that “the reiteration of knowledge or collective grumbling about how things aren’t as good as they could or should be” is how we make people aware of the environmental issues.

I was made aware that way. When my hometown Shanghai’s air pollution was featured once again in the news, and when

I just experienced the warmest winter in my life, I connected the dots of our daily energy consumption to these dramatic changes in our environment. I started recycling my water bottles and packing cardboard seriously. I started finishing my plate of food even when there was more to get in the servery. I also joined the rant on how the servery should not switch to paper plates during the weekend, and how the disposable utensils and plates should be compostable. With these efforts I compromise the convenience that so amazed me when I first got here, but they assure me a little more that I am contributing to this collective effort to harm our environment less.

As a senior, I often think about what I would have done differently if I were a freshman again. Aside from actually making an effort to get a lower purity score, I really would have wanted to take the opportunity to learn more about sustainability than I have: taking an environmental science class, participating in the Green Dorm Initiative or even joining solar decathlon. I would like to devote more action toward sustainability. My college experience so far has given me the awareness of the environmental issue. I hope yours will empower you to make a green change too.

Jieya Wen

is a Martel College senior

Letter to the Editor: Listen carefully To the Editor: Kyle Sheehan calls himself “fiscally conservative” and “a non-interventionist.”

But Donald Trump has called for a huge increase in military spending in the tens of billions of dollars. And he said he would do that by cutting the safety net. Trump repeatedly said that he supports the use of torture against “our enemies.” And he has boasted that he would “do what it takes” to wipe out ISIS. Do torture and “do what it takes” sound non-interventionist?

Listen carefully to what this candidate is saying.

cartoon by jennifer fu

Rice’s Big 12.

Maurice Wolfthal

STAFF Yasna Haghdoost* Editor in Chief Anita Alem* Managing Editor Juan Saldana Business Manager news Drew Keller* Editor Amber Tong* Editor Emily Abdow Asst. Editor

opinions Mitch Mackowiak* Editor sports Andrew Grottkau Editor arts & entertainment Lenna Mendoza Editor Walden Pemantle Editor design Justin Park Director Samantha Ding News Designer Katrina Cherk Sports Designer Christina Tan A&E Designer Jennifer Fu Illustrator photo Sirui Zhou Editor

copy Jasmine Lin Editor Julianne Wey Editor backpage Riley Robertson Editor business operations Shannon Klein Ads Manager Sydney Garrett Advertising Production 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.

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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NARCOS: Season 2 disappoints Anna Ta

For the Thresher

FALL SEMESTER FASHION TRENDS

courtesy thu nguyen

Sid Richardson College junior Julia Ng models culottes. The airy wide-legged pants are ideal for Houston’s heat, while covering most of the leg for comfort in the cold or rain.

Thu Nguyen Thresher Staff

New York Fashion Week is underway as I write, but for those of you who aren’t familiar, NYFW showcases the next season’s collections, in this case, spring and summer for 2017. It’s still the peak of our summer here in Houston though, so let’s rewind and go over some current summer trends perfect for our thousand percent humidity and for the upcoming fall and winter seasons.

LINEN EVERYTHING Linen button-downs, linen shorts, linen tank tops, linen linen linen. If you’re not familiar with the fabric, it’s a sturdy cotton, so you know it can handle the dorm washing machines. No-stretch, very wrinkle-able for that “worn-in” vibe and quite affordable from Uniqlo, linens are excellent items to hunt for in sales racks. These pieces are quite airy, letting you stay fairly cool and feel like you’re wearing pajamas. Wear the button-downs by themselves or opened over a T-shirt, tank top or camisole.

Start introducing some linen to your closet if you’re looking to transition from a high school/ college vibe to a relaxed adult-ing feel.

SHORT-SLEEVED BUTTON-DOWNS There are a lot of guys sporting these, and I love it. Though not the same as a rolled up, long-sleeved button-down, these are still flattering in almost every situation and are even better for the weather here. Pair with chino shorts or pants, joggers or jeans. I’m

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

hesitant to say they’re pair-able with dress pants, and they are definitely not to be paired with gym shorts — not that I’m trying to tell you how to live your life. I’m just giving my suggestions.

(P)LEATHER SNEAKERS AND ANKLE BOOTS If there’s one new trend that stands out on campus this semester, it’s the Superstar/ Stan Smith Adidas trend. It seems like one in every three people on campus owns a pair and, if you take out the fact that white shoes are naturally going to be tough to take care of, they’re the new most versatile shoe since Damn Daniels (aka Vans). It’s not that ankle boots are new but that heels are going out of trend — the lower the heel, the better.

All of these shoes are also stylish substitutes for rainboots (if your shoes are real leather, please waterproof them). Although they’re not as effective at keeping you dry, they’re a good alternative if you’re not a fan of the height, chunkiness or price of rainboots.

CULOTTES While many short girls fear these widelegged pants, I think they’re a trend that everyone can get on. Not only are they more comfortable than the linen pants mentioned above, they’re perfect for covering your legs without being as constricting as leggings or jeans. If you’re looking for a more structured fit, Everlane, Gap and Loft offer a good selection of ankle cropped, slim hip and thigh and straight leg fit, perfect to wear with those white sneakers or ankle boots.

WINDOW LEFT OPEN Touring for her newly released collection, “Window Left Open,” poet Jennifer Grotz is coming for a reading at Brazos Bookstore. Grotz’s poetry explores self discovery through escape, isolation and desire. The reading will start at 7 p.m. and is free to the public.

Brazos Bookstore 2421 Bissonnet St. Brazosbookstore.com

BOMBER JACKETS The winters in Houston aren’t really winters.

They’re more like autumns with three days of actual winter that inevitably send the city into a panic. Although wool coats are nice, they’re probably unnecessary and a hassle to haul around once you’ve made it inside a building. Bombers, on the other hand, are a perfect alternative for warmth, convenience and style. Throw a bomber over your T-shirt and sweats for an elevated athleisure look, with jeans and a sweater for the good ol’ collegiate look or with chinos and a button-down for chic streetvibes. Mix it up with oxfords or those Adidas NMDs you treated yourself to. All bombers are game, even the olive green ones, but I’m warning you now that olive green bombers are saturating the streets.

JOGGERS When joggers came into the American fashion scene about two years ago, I was fundamentally opposed. I swore to never jump on the bandwagon and scoffed at anyone who tried to defend the positive impact joggers had on the style scene. Today, I stand corrected, and have fully converted to support the joggers movement. They’re comfortable, and, depending on the fabric they’re made of, they can be dressed up or down. That’s right — you can wear joggers to your next poster presentation or late-night Fondy sessions.

If you’re wondering where you might start looking for any of the above, check out the Weekly Scene for details on an on-campus back-to-school clothing sale.

ALOK VAID-MENON More free poetry? And free dinner?

Heck yeah. The Rice Queer Resource Center, in conjunction with numerous sponsors, is hosting queer poet Alok Vaid-Menon this Saturday in the McMurtry College commons. A free dinner will be served at 6 p.m. followed by a reading from Vaid-Menon at 7 p.m.

McMurtry Commons 1605 Rice Blvd. facebook.com/riceqrc

Don’t let the golf sweaters and that dad bod fool you — Pablo Escobar is back and has plenty to rage about in the second season of “Narcos,” released by Netflix on Sept. 2. Unfortunately, the show seems to have let itself go as much as Escobar has.

The season starts slowly, with Escobar in hiding after his jailbreak and several groups in Medellin looking to either take him or his empire. A few promising early moments suggest this season will follow season one in intensity, but each time, the pace inevitably slows back down. With few exceptions, the little action this season has seems detached.

As Pablo’s “sicarios” (hired assassins) carry out his threats against mostly innocent citizens while he sips beer poolside, the action becomes more horrifying than thrilling. These anticlimactic moments are typical for the season as a whole, even leading up to the finale.

Although the lack of action is understandable, considering Escobar spends the season playing patty cake with his kids, the situation is aggravated by a muddled, disjointed story line. The season starts off with the clear premise of various groups looking to tear away a piece of his empire, while the cops and the government do everything in their power to keep things under control and get Escobar off the streets.

However, with so many different groups and interests at play, all are rather neglected and underdeveloped in the writing. As interests coincide and diverge and new players enter, “Narcos” loses the clear narrative that made the first season so appealing.

While the new characters should inspire some likability (or loathing), they mostly produce indifference. The viewers have only a surface view of each of the characters without being given reason to get attached or the opportunity to explore their emotional depth. But, that’s not to say there are no interesting new characters.

Judy Moncada returns to play a widow seeking vengeance, and Limon and Maritza are introduced as childhood friends who find themselves entangled in the drug war.

Though they could have been developed more, they do stimulate interesting story lines. The best character of the season is Agent Javier Pena, brilliantly acted by Jose Pascal. Agent Steve Murphy takes a backseat this season, and the writing turns to Pena’s turmoil over Escobar’s freedom and the woes of bureaucracy.

While Netflix original series have attained a reputation of binge-worthiness, the new season of “Narcos” unfortunately does not live up to it. The brilliant, characterdriven writing of “Orange is the New Black” and “Sense8” and the fascinating political scheming of “House of Cards” are missing from this new installment. Even the entertaining carnage and tactical brilliance of Pablo Escobar so characteristic in season one are lacking. However, third and fourth seasons have been confirmed, so hopefully this season is the exception and Netflix will once again produce greatness worthy of “The King of Cocaine.”

6100: MAIN

BIKE FEST

Is your wardrobe already wearing thin? 6100: Main, Rice’s biggest fashion blog, is hosting a clothing sale this Thursday at 7 p.m. in the McMurtry College Commons.

Customers are encouraged to buy, sell and trade, meaning great deals and a good home for your old duds.

Whether you’re a bike fanatic, or just an aspiring pedaller, the fourth annual HTX Bike Fest could be right up your alley. The festival features over 50 vendors, live music, and a number of bike demos. The festival will run from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and while admission is free, a $5 donation is suggested.

McMurtry Commons 1605 Rice Blvd. facebook.com/6100main

Market Square Park 301 Milam St. htxbikefest.com

Wednesday, September 14, 2016

WHAT’S HIP RIGHT NOW TECH:

Fairphone

A&E

the Rice Thresher

MUSIC:

Magnificent Pretty Boy Song Cycle

7

by elisabeth kalomeris

ACCESSORIES: LuMee

TRAVEL: FLIGHT

courtesy howstuffworks

In a phrase: This one’s pretty selfexplanatory Where to find it: Airports, the troposphere

courtesy fairphone

In a phrase: Responsibly made smartphone Where to find it: fairphone.com With the lackluster reception of Apple’s new iPhone 7, many “What’s Hip” readers are likely looking for a different cell phone upgrade.

Maybe the omission of a headphone jack has finally convinced you to actually give a shit about child labor, tax evasion and planned obsolescence. Maybe you just didn’t like the design. Either way, it’s great you’re in the market for a new phone. There are plenty of suitable Android and Windows phones on the market, but a real standout is the Fairphone. Founded in Amsterdam in 2010, Fairphone labels itself a “social enterprise business” with the goal of reconnecting customers with how products are made. The company boasts a transparent, fair-trade supply chain, environmentally friendly manufacturing, and modular easyto-repair parts. Now on its second iteration, the Fairphone is a cheaper and more ethical alternative to other high-end smartphones, and you can still feel like you’re part of a cult with over 100,000 Fairphone units sold.

courtesy smithsonian

In a phrase: Concert based on artist Henry Ray Clark Where to find it: The Menil Collection, Sept. 23 and Sept. 24 Magnificent Pretty Boy is part visuals, part music and part redemption. The eponymous production is a showcase of Houston artist Henry Ray Clark, who died in 2006.

The Houston Grand Opera commissioned Chicago-based surrealist-folk group Grant Wallace Band to write and compose music based on Clark’s life. The performance accompanies Menil exhibit “As Essential As Dreams: Self-Taught Art from the Collection of Stephanie and John Smither,” featuring works by Clark. Early in life, the young artist and oft-described “street hustler” found his aptitude for drawing in prison. He produced otherworldly works behind bars and once said, “I am never imprisoned as long as I can draw.” Admission is free.

courtesy jamaya moore

In a phrase: Professional lighting phone case for your selfies Where to find it: lumee.com Now even you can take the perfect selfie.

The LuMee has LED lights lining the front of the case. It’s also rechargeable, so it’ll be one more gadget that’ll run out of battery when you need it, but hopefully not before you get those sweet Insta pics. The best feature on the phone case is the dimmer, so you can get some mood lighting for your front-facing camera. If you’re not yet comfortable with your vanity, feel free to tell your friends it makes a great flashlight. On the other hand, adults will complain about millennials no matter what, so just go for it and take a good photo for once. The cases are currently made for iPhone and Samsung Galaxy phones, with more models in the works. The only downside is that it won’t fit your Fairphone — yet.

Unless you’re living under a rock and have a severe dearth of CHBE friends, you’re aware the oil industry is in a rut.

The anomalously low price of fuel has manifested itself at gas stations since February, but airfares have only caught up in the last few months. Though it’s hard for our oil-dependent acquaintances to think positively, you can do some bluesky thinking on a 747 for mad cheap.

The oversupply influences domestic and international flights on all airlines.

Round-trip fares from Houston in October include Minneapolis, Chicago, Los Angeles and Orlando for $71-$89; destinations in Latin America like Cancun, San Jose and Bogota for $200-$300; many Eurasian cities such as Istanbul, Dublin, Athens, Budapest and Kiev for around $600; and Lagos and Nairobi for under $700. Check travel destinations you’re interested in and dates that work for you. Just remember that cheap travel, like beauty and youth, is ever-fleeting.

8

A&E

Wednesday, September 14, 2016

the Rice Thresher

Yoyo’s delivers high-class hot dogs Franklin Shen For The Thresher

Allow me to preface this review by saying that I don’t like hot dogs. I find the taste of the sausage as bland as an episode of “This Old House,” the texture as slimy and spongy as, well, a sea sponge, and more often than not, the sausage is cooked to a point where the casing is scorched more than the town of Pompeii. On top of generally poorly executing the meat, we Americans tend to prefer our buns as doughy and bland as possible. That said, I do try to have an unbiased mind whenever I try out a new restaurant, food truck, burger joint, landfill, etc. So, if I eat something radically amazing that shatters my every preconceived notion of that foodstuff, I will realize that it IS possible to do that item justice.

And that is the case with Yoyo’s Hot Dogs.

Now, yes, I realize it is the highest-rated food destination on Yelp and, yes, I realize that 245 people could not possibly have been all wrong (or could they? Maybe I should take a statistics class), but, as a hotdog skeptic, I did not believe. Well, now I do. And where shall I start?

Location is key for any on-campus college student, and Yoyo’s location on Morningside Drive in Rice Village, just a stone’s throw away from Torchy’s, is prime. However, because Yoyo’s has limited seating, has an umbrella for a roof, and is a little cart with a stove on it, prepare to eat standing up, in the nearby parking garage or on the curb. Price is a huge plus: If you pay in cash, a single hot dog is $5. If you pay by credit, it’s a couple cents more. Sizing is also adequate. I was fairly satisfied by my single hot dog meal, although people who desire to “bulk up” may want to order two.

Now for the taste breakdown. Yoyo only serves one kind of hot dog, but ingredients work as harmoniously as the Boston

Symphony Orchestra. The cream cheese on the bun is especially ingenious. Not only does it provide an extra layer of smoothness to the hot dog, but it also complements the kick of the sriracha quite well. The sriracha in turn works well with the honey mayo, curry ketchup and mustard to create an umami bomb, a mouth coating flavor usually reserved for more sophisticate genres of food.

The sauces selected by Yoyo’s elevate the humble hot dog to incredible heights — they are the stars of the dish.

As a hot dog skeptic, I did not believe. Well, now I do.

However, while the cream cheese, sriracha, mayo, ketchup and mustard elevate the sausage, the fried onions diminish some of the hot dog’s glory. They provide a new and interesting texture that contrasts with the soft bun and chewy hot dog, but are undoubtedly store-bought. It’s a shame really, since all the homemade sauces were so thoughtfully made. The taste of the fried onions sticks out from among the symphony like an outof-tune trombone. I was also disappointed that Yoyo’s does not toast the hot dog bun.

Toasting a bun not only adds more texture to the meal, it also helps bring out whatever char may be on the hot dog itself.

Although I do have a few quibbles with what I was served, overall, my experience was enjoyable. The mistakes made were tiny in the grand scheme of things. Will I be a repeat customer? Oh, absolutely, most definitely, yes.

illustration by jennifer fu

THE EVOLUTION OF AN ARTIST: Digesting Kendrick Lamar’s discography in one day Ali Wilt

For The Thresher

Last week, I attempted a massive undertaking: listening to every Kendrick Lamar album ever released. To tell you the truth, I originally wasn’t a huge Kendrick fan.

Sure, I could sing along to “Swimming Pools,” but I had never listened to a full album.

Lamar, then called K-Dot, began releasing music at 16. His age is evident in 2005’s “Hub City Threat: Minor of the Year,” with clear ’90s rap influence recycled from Biggie and Tupac and immature lyrics about guns and girls, like the line “Big truck five girls at a time” on the track “Put That On Something.”

Listening to the first mixtape, I kept laughing at how old he tries to sound, clearly lowering his voice. I was also surprised at the obvious lyrical sampling on the tape, heard on his rendition of “Drop It Like It’s Hot,” with the word “hot” replaced with similar rhymes.

There’s no better way to say it: K-Dot’s first mixtape was bad.

Where his first mixtape was a genuine attempt to sound tough, “Backseat Freestyle” mocks Lamar’s young confidence.

At this point, I was nervous. Would all of his albums be this childish? K-Dot’s early style reminds me of high school rappers who’d tell everyone to “peek their mixtape on Soundcloud.” His next two mixtapes, “C4” and “Training Day,” continue in largely the same fashion as his first release, but hints of Kendrick’s budding spirituality appear throughout. The most interesting part of these mixtapes occurs when another rapper interviews him and reveals his thoughtfulness.

Kendrick’s first studio album, “Section.80,” gives the listener a glimpse of the talent he’s known for today. Instead of trying to imitate the flow of earlier rappers, Lamar heats up with lines about racism and guilt over his newfound success. Although these themes mark his transition from wannabe rapper to hip-hop icon, Lamar is still a young man, and young men love to brag. The crudest part of the album is in “Hol’ Up,” where he describes hooking up with a stewardess while other passengers look on. Kendrick’s last mixtape, “Overly

Dedicated,” runs like “Section.80” with more maturity.

Listening to over 50 mediocre songs numbed my mind, but I pushed through.

Luckily, I was rewarded with 2013’s “Good Kid, m.A.A.d City.” “Good Kid” chronicles Kendrick’s life in Compton, California, the infamously crime-ridden city that’s been the subject of hip-hop since N.W.A. came straight outta it. “Good Kid” has breakthrough hits like “Swimming Pools” and my personal jam “Backseat Freestyle.” Where his first mixtape was a genuine attempt to sound tough, “Backseat Freestyle” mocks Lamar’s young confidence, seen when he raps “All my life I wanted money and power/Respect my might or die from lead shower.”

Finally, I made it to what will likely be Kendrick’s crowning achievement. “To Pimp a Butterfly” amazes both lyrically and musically — the jazz backing on most tracks brings a live warmth to the album. Lyrics about institutionalized racism can reach a larger audience, educating those who may be unacquainted. My favorite track “i” begins with happiness and self-expression, but ends with Kendrick delivering a speech about the use of the n-word in the black community.

The single version of “i” notably lacks the speech at the end, which caused people to worry Kendrick softened his content. This innovative concept album builds around a poem that is revealed line by line every few tracks. It all leads up to moving closer “Mortal Man,” as he recites the poem to Tupac Shakur.

They even have a conversation about how today’s issues surrounding poverty are far from new.

Nearing the end, I had one album left: 2016’s “untitled unmastered.” Surprisingly, this album was a slight letdown; I couldn’t appreciate the slow jams, and some sequences made me uncomfortable (e.g., the spoken word opener that repeats “Baby, come here”).

However, I can see how it would be appealing to other listeners. “Untitled 8”’s grooving bass line was the standout track.

After listening to over 90 songs, I’m definitely taking a break from Kendrick Lamar for a while. But I’m excited to see what he has planned, and I will give all future albums the listens they deserve.

Notable Tracks ‘Swimming Pools’ ‘Backseat Freestyle’ ‘i’ ‘Mortal Man’ ‘untitled 8’

9

courtesy army athletics

Senior tight end Connor Cella sprints to the end zone during the first quarter of the Owls’ 31-14 loss to Army Saturday afternoon. Cella caught a 64 yard touchdown pass from senior quarterback Tyler Stehling during the first minute of the game to put Rice on top 7-0, but the Owls mustered only seven more points in the remainder of the game as the Black Knights’ cruised to the 17-point victory.

Tragedy overshadows game as Owls fall to 0-2 Aniket Tolpadi Thresher Staff

Led by 107 rushing yards and three touchdowns from sophomore running back Andy Davidson, the Army triple option offense proved to be too much for the Rice University football team as the Black Knights handed the Owls their second loss of the season with a 31-14 victory. In retrospect, however, the game feels meaningless, as sophomore Army cornerback Brandon Jackson, who started the game for the Black Knights, died in a car crash hours after the game concluded.

During the game, the Owls received the opening kickoff and struck quickly. Senior quarterback Tyler Stehling connected with senior tight end Connor Cella on a 64-yard touchdown on a post route, giving the Owls a 7-0 lead just one minute into the game.

Unfortunately for the Owls, that would be their only score of the first half. Army’s defense allowed the Rice offense to cross midfield just once more in the remainder of the half. On the other side of the ball, Army reached the end zone three times in their first four possessions, using an effective rushing attack to head into halftime up 21-7. Although the Owls would cut the deficit in half on sophomore running back Austin Walter’s 37yard touchdown run in the third quarter, the Black Knights ensured that they would get

no closer by finishing the game off with 10 unanswered points.

The Owls were outgained in total yardage 414-289, lost the turnover battle 2-0 and earned just 12 first downs the entire game.

Most notably, however, they were unable to control the clock, maintain drives or get their defense off the field. Army possessed the ball for 40 minutes of the game, running their triple option offense nearly to perfection.

Army’s a good team [and] they came to play and we didn’t.

Connor Cella

Senior Tight End

Senior linebacker Emmanuel Ellerbee said he was disappointed with the way the team performed in the tough loss.

“They played better than us,” Ellerbee said. “Army’s a disciplined team, and they played more disciplined than us. We just didn’t play as well as we should’ve played.

We as a team have to be better, have to be more accountable.”

Cella said the offense, which sputtered aside from two big plays in the game, needed to perform better.

“Army’s a good team [and] they came to play and we didn’t,” Cella said. “Offensively, we didn’t have a good week of practice, and you could see it on the field. At some times it looked like we didn’t know what we were doing.”

Given that the Owls were able to beat Army at home last year on a last-minute touchdown, this result represented a step backwards. According to head coach David Bailiff, the team has been unable to execute during their first two games of the season.

“We came here and expected to win,” Bailiff said. “They won those battles that we need to win to beat an option team.

Offensively we’re just way too inconsistent.

There’s times out there when we should be having big plays. You’ve got to become consistent, [be] able to move the chains.”

After losing two road games to open the season, the Owls will now shift their attention to No. 21 Baylor University, who they will host this week in their home opener. Although the Bears’ football program has been rocked by a sexual assault scandal that is under NCAA investigation and has cost former head coach Art Briles his job, they remain a formidable component. The Owls will have their hands full against a team that beat them 70-17 just a year ago.

The Owls’ football players, however, are more concerned with improving their preparation and execution than they are with any particular opponent at the moment.

Ellerbee, for instance, said the team needs to be more attentive to its coaches and prepare more thoroughly for its games. “[We need to] pull up our shirts, and we need to work,” Ellerbee said. “[As] players, we need to play. Coaches will need to coach.

[Our] coaches have had success before — they won the conference championship in 2013. As players, we talk too much. It’s got to be about the action, and not about the talk.”

Time is ticking for the Owls to right the ship. Though their full-time Conference USA schedule will not open until next week, the upcoming game against Baylor has them staring squarely in the face of an 0-3 start to the season. Though there are many games to be played, a 0-3 start would greatly damage the Owls’ effort to reach the six wins they need to return to a bowl game this season.

After the game, however, tragedy struck.

According to USA Today, Army’s Brandon Jackson was killed in a single car crash across the Hudson River from the West Point campus at around 2 a.m. Police are currently investigating the incident.

In the realm of football, Rice will look for its first win of the season during its home opener against No. 21 Baylor on Sept. 16 at 7 p.m. at home in Rice Stadium.

10 SPORTS

Wednesday, September 14, 2016

the Rice Thresher

Sailing club: Where skippers captain Flying Juniors Andrew Grottkau Sports Editor

While many Rice students are recovering from sleepless Friday nights, members of the Rice Club Sailing Team spend their Saturday mornings cutting through the water, racing boats out of Lakewood Yacht Club.

Founded in 1963, the team competes in regattas throughout the year against schools such as the Oklahoma State University and t h e Uni-

illustration by jennifer fu

versity of Colorado, Boulder. According to club president Amy Fox, the Rice club sailing team is one of the most close-knit groups on campus.

There are definitely people on the team who are more competitionfocused, but I am more a fan of just getting out there and sailing.

Amy Fox

Club Sailing President

“Not many people know we are a club sport,” Fox said. “We’re a family and a community. Everyone likes to be out on the water together.”

The group practices at a location about 45 minutes away from Rice’s campus. Team members sail in Flying Juniors, the same 13-foot long boats used by college and high school sailing programs across the country.

On each boat,

there are two team members. One person, the skipper, is the equivalent of the captain of the boat. She or he controls the boat and directs the other person, the crew, throughout the race. The crew is an assistant to the skipper, helping to sail the boat according to the skipper’s instructions. Club member Kevin Li said that his goal this year is to train to become a skipper.

“Skipper is the harder position,” Li said.

“I want to work to learn how to take on the more authoritative role.”

One of the major factors in sailing is wind.

On a day with little wind, boats go slowly and races run at relatively leisurely paces. Fox recounted the story of a day with little wind during which competitors swam to other teams’ boats and tried to tip them over instead of racing. On a windy day, however, boats often capsize and sailors are thrown overboard.

Despite the threat of taking a swim, Li said he prefers competing on the extremely windy days over the ones with little wind.

“It’s really fun at first when there’s a lot of wind,” Li said. “When there’s a lot of wind, the boat tends to keel close to the water. You can even have water come into the boat; it’s really cool.”

The club is always looking for new members. The main way the organization gains new members is through the club fair and by word of mouth. At the beginning of the year, over 20 people came to the first practice, but Fox said she expects that fewer club members to show up as classes become more rigorous.

Before joining the sailing club at Rice, Fox had not sailed in more than five years.

Li had never sailed in his life before joining the team. According to Fox, sailing is a perfect sport for people who are looking to try something new.

“You learn pretty quickly,” Fox said.

“Once you get the hang of it, it’s super fun to get out on the water and it’s very relaxing.”

This weekend, the Rice sailing club will compete in its first regatta of the year. The club will travel to face Texas A&M University, Galveston in the races. Despite the upcoming competition, Fox said the sailing club is as much about winning as it is about fun.

“There are definitely people on the team who are more competition-focused, but I am more of a fan of just getting out there and sailing,” Fox said.

When there’s a lot of wind, the boat tends to keel close to the water.

You can even have water come into the boat; it’s really cool.

Kevin Li

Club Sailin Member

Li echoed Fox’s sentiment. He said the sailing club is a great way for him to escape the rigor of classes and homework.

“After all the stress of the week, most people feel like the water calms them,” Li said.

“It’s a really enjoyable experience.”

After competing this weekend, the sailing club will host its first regatta on the weekend of Oct. 1. Schools from as far away as Colorado will come to compete in the races.

Any student wishing to support the club can drive to Lakewood Yacht Club to watch the competition.

Keys to Rice-Baylor Craig Broadman & Madison Buzzard Thresher Staff

On Friday night, Rice Stadium will be rocking. In Rice’s first home game of the season, the Owls will take on No. 21 Baylor University in a primetime game on ESPN. Baylor brings one of the nation’s best offenses into the game, but Rice is hoping its attack can match the Bears point for point. The following six players — three Owls and three Bears-will lead their respective teams into the Friday night showdown.

RICE UNIVERSITY Senior running back Darik Dillard: Dillard, a 5-foot-10, 215-pound senior from San Antonio, is the lead running back for the Owls. Following in the footsteps of his older brother, former Rice wide receiver Jarett Dillard (Baker ’09), Dillard delivered an inspired performance during his junior season. Along with a team-leading 698 rushing yards, Dillard added five touchdowns in 2015 to back up a career-high 11 touchdowns during his 2014 campaign.

College football pundits regard Dillard as a premier running back. In fact, Athlon Sports selected Darik as Preseason All-Conference USA. Yet, Dillard’s accomplishments extend far beyond the gridiron. He is on the Wuerffel Trophy watch list, which recognizes athletes who best combine community service with academic and athletic achievement. Additionally, he is a nominee for the AFCA Good Works Team, a team that honors players for their community service. As a three-time member of the Conference USA Commissioner’s Honor Roll, Dillard is a true student-athlete.

The 2016 season has started slowly for Dillard, though he started to heat up in the game this past Saturday against Army. He ran for 52 yards on eight carries, leading all Rice running backs in yardage. He also finished on the receiving end of a five-yard completion from senior quarterback Tyler Stehling. Dillard will likely play a substantial role in carrying the ball against Baylor as the Owls look to dominate the time of possession to keep Baylor’s offense off of the field.

Senior linebacker Alex Lyons: One common adage has long existed in

sports, notably the game of football: Defense wins championships. If Rice is to compete for the Conference USA championship in 2016, senior Alex Lyons will have to anchor an improved defense from 2015. Standing at 6 feet 1 inch and 225 pounds, Lyons has been a consistent presence in an often vulnerable Owls defense. Last year alone, Alex registered 77 tackles, 13 tackles for loss, 1.5 sacks and four passes defended.

Lyons’ dominant junior campaign has catapulted him toward the top of Conference USA. He is both a consensus preseason All-Conference USA choice and a Preseason All-Texas College choice by Dave Campbell’s Texas Football website.

Like Dillard, Lyons is a stellar studentathlete. He is a three-time All ConferenceUSA honor roll member and a leader both on and off the field for the Owls.

Lyons has continued to find his way to the ballcarrier at the beginning of his 2016 campaign, registering 17 tackles and one pass defensed in just two games this year. Against Baylor, Lyons will have to lead a disciplined and aggressive defense. The star linebacker looks to deliver a few crushing blows to the celebrated Baylor offense.

Senior tight end Connor Cella As former Rice quarterback Driphus Jackson electrified the crowd during his senior season in 2015, he relied heavily upon nowsenior tight end Connor Cella. During his junior season in 2015, Connor garnered a career-high 209 receiving yards while tying his career-best in receptions with 13. Additionally, Cella demonstrated big-play ability with a 60-yard catch-and-run during a regular season game against the University of North Texas.

Like Dillard, Cella is a preseason All-Conference USA selection. Additionally, Cella is on the Mackey Award list, which recognizes the most outstanding tight end in the nation. His nomination is no surprise, considering he was added to the midseason Mackey Award list in 2015. The experts are in agreement: Cella is one of the premier tight ends in college football.

Though he struggled to find a connection with Stehling against Western Kentucky University, Cella started the game strong against Army. Stehling found Cella on a 64-yard 0see Players, page 11

Trojan War

sean chu/thresher

Senior Leah Mikesky stretches to hit the ball over the block during Rice’s 3-1 loss to the University of Southern California on Saturday. The Owls hosted the Rice Adidas Invite over the weekend and went 1-2 in the tournament.

Wednesday, September 14, 2016

0PLAYERS from page 10 touchdown pass in the first quarter, which started to get the offense rolling. Cella said the touchdown was the high point of the game against Army.

“It felt great,” Cella said. “I’ve been waiting for something to happen like that since I got here.”

BAYLOR UNIVERSITY Senior quarterback Seth Russell Quarterback Seth Russell threw for 424 yards and six touchdowns in his first two games of the season, a 55-7 win against Northwestern State University and a 40-3 win versus Southern Methodist University. Russell, a senior from Garland, Texas, is attempting to build off his 2015 season, during which he was limited to just seven games due to a neck injury.

Prior to the injury, the signal caller had captured the starter’s role after spending two seasons backing up star quarterback Bryce Petty, who led the program to back to back Big 12 titles. Russell earned tremendous respect in his brief stint by throwing for 2,104 yards and 29 touchdowns with just six interceptions. Despite his truncated season, Russell was named an honorable mention AllBig 12 team member by league coaches and a semifinalist for the Davey O’Brien Trophy, awarded to college football’s top quarterback. He was also an early candidate for the Heisman Trophy after his strong start to the year.

Last year, when Russell and the nation’s number one ranked offense played Rice, he played only three quarters but still threw for 277 yards and six touchdowns in a 70-17 win.

Senior running back Shock Linwood The Baylor Bears consistently rank as one of the top rushing teams in the country, and senior Shock Linwood is one of the main reasons. A 5-foot-9, 200-pound running back from Linden, Texas, Linwood is on pace to break numerous school records, including all-time rushing yardage and rushing touchdowns.

SPORTS

the Rice Thresher After a breakout in 2013, in which the rookie rushed for a Bears freshman record of 881 yards, Linwood was named to the freshman All-American first team.

As a sophomore, Linwood started 12 games and played in all 13, accumulating 1,342 all-purpose yards and scoring 16 touchdowns while being named first string All-Big 12 by league coaches.

The star running back was enjoying his most productive season last year, rushing nearly 111 yards per game, when he broke his right foot in the first half of the regular season finale against Texas and was forced to miss the Russell Athletic Bowl.

After rehab, Linwood has two games under his belt. He rushed for 10.8 yards per carry against Northwestern State in the first and accumulated 63 yards on 18 carries and one reception against SMU in the second.

Last year, when the Owls took on Baylor, he ran for 158 yards and one touchdown on 16 carries.

Junior linebacker Taylor Young Baylor’s defense took a hit this season as several key players moved on after the school’s sexual assault scandal; however, junior Taylor Young will look to anchor the defense as a weakside linebacker.

From DeSoto, Texas, Young broke onto the scene in 2014 by registering 92 tackles and earning the Big 12 Defensive Newcomer of the Year award.

His rookie season was highlighted by a 15 tackle, one interception performance against No. 7 Michigan State University in the Cotton Bowl. Despite the 42-41 loss, Young was named the game’s Defensive MVP. Last season, the linebacker started 12 of 13 games, averaging 1.12 tackles for loss and totaling 80 tackles (60 solo, 13.5 for loss) while being named honorable mention All-Big 12 by league coaches. Young’s ability to rush the passer (21 pressures) and stop the run were on display when Baylor played the Owls last season, when the 5-foot-10, 225- pounder recorded one sack and four total tackles in the win.

Young is looking to continue this level of production this season. So far, he has registered eight tackles including three tackles for loss and one sack.

MATCH UP by the numbers

Rush Yards per Game

Pass Yards per Game

Rush Yards Allowed per Game

Pass Yards Allowed per Game

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BACKPAGE

Wednesday, September 14, 2016

the Rice Thresher

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7 Things You’ll Be Shocked to See at Sid ’80s!

(And You’ll Wish You Could Forget)

Now Buzzing

1. A lot of spandex Leg warmers, neon jackets, shoulder pads, big hair … all hallmarks of ’80s parties. However spandex is by far the most widespread (wide-stretched?) attire one will find this Saturday. Maybe you’re into that, maybe you’re not. Either way, you’d better be prepared.

2. EMS handing out Red Bull in place of water I know what you’re thinking, “That seems incredibly unsafe! Wasted people who have already sweat through their parents’ old ski jackets hours ago need to be drinking water, not sugar and caffeine!” Well, on any other night you might be right.

But even the medical world feels compelled to make a special case for this magical occasion, and we at the Backpage applaud them for that.

Conspiracy Theorists Claim Leebron Has a Body Double, #LeebronsBodyDouble Trending on Twitter

3. Whole swaths of people dancing through the trauma of the career fair earlier this week Still in their “business casual” suits and pant suits, these people have some serious grooving to do. You can see in their eyes the fear, uncertainty and intense aggression that career planning tends to cultivate, and you can feel their pent-up bad vibes melting away into the sweaty, funk-infused air. Truly a beautiful release to behold.

4. Joe Biden stopping by to rock the mic on a-ha’s “Take On Me” We estimate a 65 percent chance of this one happening. We can confirm that Vice President Biden will be on campus near the time of the party, and something in our gut tells us that he won’t be able to resist rocking out ’80s style with a bunch of undergrads. But can you really blame him? Who wouldn’t take the chance to relive their glory days, given the chance?

5. People playing the Donkey Kong arcade game in real life by rolling empty keg shells down the stairs and jumping over them

When You Realize that College Isn’t Like Hogwarts, As Told by ‘The Office’

Turns out it’s just a coincidence that this game was released in the ’80s. Sidizens have been known to play this game on any given weekend, including this one. In any case, we would definitely recommend jumping in if you can. The current high score is 4 minutes and 20 seconds from ground floor to seventh, held by “DLB.”

6. The ghost of former Rice President Norman Hackerman You’ve felt that spooky, eerie energy all night long. Maybe it’s the Frio Lite, the low-grade blow your roommate scored, or Alphaville’s “Forever Young” on repeat at the pregame. Or, just maybe, you’re feeling the energy our old leader President Hackerman joining in the celebrating one of the greatest decades mankind has ever known.

7. Someone from your chem class acting as Wooderson from Dazed and Confused You’re tempted to tell this person that Dazed and Confused was actually set in 1976, but he’s killing it, so you just roll with it. When he asks you if you have shared the homework with him yet and you have to say no, he musters a cool, “It’d be a lot cooler if you did.”

5 New Ways You Can Use Your School Newspaper

The Backpage is satire and written by Riley Robertson, and this week Simon Chan contributed. For comments or questions, please email thresher@rice.edu.

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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 apartment 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

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 LOOKING FOR a Rice Undergraduate Upperclassman/Graduate student with a concentration in either English or Psychology to tutor high school senior on weekends. $30 per hour.

Please contact Liza Heintz at (713) 822-5121 or lizaheintz@mac.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

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

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