The Rice Thresher | Wednesday, November 16, 2016

VOLUME 101, ISSUE NO. 12 || WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2016 RICE UNIVERSITY WEEKLY NEWSPAPER

a tribe called quest

after the election

The classic hip-hop group’s comeback album smashes a long hiatus.

Students and faculty discuss moving forward following the election.

STUDENT-RUN SINCE 1916

see Ops p. 5

see A&E p. 6

RICETHRESHER.ORG

owls rally to 2-8 Quarterback Tyler Stehling leads Owls to their first C-USA win of the season.

see Sports p. 11

Hopes and fears: Campus reacts to Trump christina tan/thresher

Drew Keller News Editor

The morning after Donald Trump’s electoral victory, a palpable gloom had settled over Rice University’s campus.

Laughter was scarce; students gave their friends hugs and offered words of support. Some professors took time out of class to discuss the election, while some students described an immobilizing despondence as they tried to go about their daily routine.

Others who identify as conservatives or supported Trump, however, expressed more optimistic sentiments.

A Republican victory Rice University College Republicans

president Jake Blumencranz said the group, which voted to not endorse Trump’s candidacy in September, hoped Trump would appoint officials who would carry out conservative and Republican ideals.

“Like everyone else, we are surprised at the outcome of this election but we are not shocked that Trump’s message of change has resonated with much of the country,” Blumencranz, a Brown College junior, said. “Now that the election is over and Trump is in the White House, we must come together and unite as one party and one club.”

Will Rice College freshmen Patrick Kowalski and Madison Buzzard both voted for Trump, though they did not expect his Election Night victory.

MECH continues push for change at town hall Emily Abdow

Assistant News Editor

Mechanical engineering faculty and students discussed departmental weaknesses and ways to improve the undergraduate experience during the MECH Department Town Hall Meeting organized by the Rice MECH Advisory Board on Friday. The four key areas of focus were the classroom experience, research experience, organization of labs and job opportunities.

Laura Schaefer, the department chair of mechanical engineering, encouraged students to keep their comments constructive.

“I understand that there is probably a lot of frustration in this room, there might even be anger in this room, but please know that everyone in here is on your side of this,” Schaefer said.

“We want to have a better, stronger, more resilient, more student-serving department as well.”

Schaefer said one major change implemented by the department is that every undergraduate course is taught by a full-time faculty member.

“Those faculty members are making sacrifices,” Schaefer said.

“All our senior faculty are taking an overload. They are doing more work than the university requires of them to teach these classes.”

The department also added three new faculty members, Pedram Hassanzedah, Fred Higgs and Matthew Brake, but class size remains a concern among students. Brake, who recently served as an adjunct research assistant at the University of New Mexico, said Rice has made classes smaller through what he described as an unorthodox approach of offering several lectures for core courses such as Engineering Mechanics (MECH 211).

“What seems like it should be an easy solution, from the students’ perspective, would be to hire more faculty to share that work load,” Brake said. “But, the political aspect of it is that that’s a very challenging feat for the administration to accomplish.

Efforts such as these town halls go a long way to help build a case for us to grow the department and to have more full-time faculty available to teach.”

Andrew Gatherer, a member of the MECH Advisory Board, described the difficulties of getting funding directly 0see MECH, page 4

Buzzard, who described himself as a conservative favoring small government with strong national defense policies, said economic turmoil in Midwestern industry that he attributed to Obama administration policies played an important role in his vote.

“Rural voters are disenfranchised — people sort of mock that term — but people don’t generally understand,” Buzzard said. “I’m from southwest Missouri, and manufacturing and agriculture are part of the economy.

Those issues were prominent in how we vote in a rationally economic sense.”

Both Kowalski and Buzzard also expressed dislike for what they described as the corruption and establishment politics of Hillary

Clinton, as did Will Rice sophomore Hugh Grier, another Trump voter.

“She is a lying, cheating, boughtout criminal,” Grier said. “There are people in prison for doing what she did.

Electing a president that knowingly broke the law and openly lied to the American public would undermine everything this country stands for.”

However, both Grier and Buzzard said they supported all or most of the other Republican candidates over Trump during the primaries. They said they did not support Trump’s widely reported comments regarding women, nor did they identify with some of his more extreme supporters. Kowalski expressed a similar sentiment.

“Racists would vote for [Trump]

for all the wrong reasons: His policy means a lot less darker people within these borders, whether they be illegal immigrants or refugees,” Kowalski said.

“It doesn’t mean his policies are rooted in hate. I don’t think he won any sexist votes, though perhaps he won some pro-life votes. I’m pro-choice, and his policies on environmentalism bother me, but in every other respect he was the superior presidential candidate.”

Kowalski said he wore a pro-Trump hat featuring the words “Make America Great Again” around campus the day after the election.

“Honestly, I feel like it was social suicide and winning the lottery at the same time,” Kowalski said. “A lot of 0see REACTIONS, page 4

Campus organizes, shows solidarity in aftermath of presidential election Amber Tong News Editor

More than 150 students gathered around Willy’s Statue in a demonstration of solidarity within a day of Donald Trump’s confirmation as President-Elect. College presidents invited students to a midnight vigil organized by Lovett College sophomore Andrew Hadad.

“As a country we stand more divided than ever, but as a campus we will come together as one united force,” the email invitation read. “We have the ability to hold hands across divides.”

The vigil ended with a group hug that appeared on both student media site The College Fix and conservative outlet Breitbart. After the gathering, the Rice community responded to the election with initiatives to spur discussion and action plans.

Diversity initiatives The Office of Multicultural Affairs hosted a dialogue on Friday to address those who felt disillusioned or unsure of the future. For the rest of the semester, diversity facilitators will host weekly tables at their respective colleges to

engage students on their concerns, anxieties and questions, according to OMA director Catherine Clack.

In addition, the OMA is setting up tables in the Rice Memorial Center for students to write down their thoughts.

Clack said Rice is trying to ensure people have resources to heal.

“Some of us are so angry we can’t articulate our anger, and if you can’t

articulate your anger you can’t begin to tackle it and heal it,” Clack said.

Gabriela Balicas, a student diversity coordinator at the OMA, said it is important to validate people’s fears and pain, as they cannot move forward without properly grieving and healing.

“People are scared of harassment, 0see INITIATIVES, page 4

amber tong/thresher

About 20 students gathered in the academic quad on Friday to protest against climate change denial and discuss action under a Trump presidency.

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the Rice Thresher

Wednesday, November 16, 2016

Amid Rice’s rise to 15th in the nation in US News, students question methodology, usefulness of university rankings Amber Dai

Thresher Staff

When U.S. News & World Report released its 2017 National Universities Rankings, Rice University found itself four spots higher than the year before, rising from tied for No. 19 to tied for No. 15 with Cornell University, Vanderbilt University and the University of Notre Dame. Two factors led to Rice’s increase in the rankings: changes in the ranking methodology by U.S. News, in addition to institutional changes made by Rice.

U.S. News creates its ranking by calculating an overall score for each university based on multiple subscores in different weighted categories.

An article written by U.S. News analysts identified two main changes in the updated 2017 rankings. First, colleges were reclassified based on the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. This did not affect Rice, however, because Rice has stayed classified as a national university. The second change was in the class size component of the Faculty Resources ranking factor, which is weighted as 20 percent of a university’s overall score.

Before this year, the ratings included class size as two separate components: Classes with fewer than 20 students encompassed 30 percent of the faculty resources score and classes with more than 50 students were 10 percent. This year, U.S. News combined these two components of class size into one overall class size index measure, which comprises 40 percent of the faculty resources score. “This indicator is a more nuanced factor than in the past,” the website states.

According to data from the Office of the Registrar, 68.8 percent of Rice classes contain less than 20 students, and only 7.3 percent of classes enroll more than 50 students. As defined by U.S. News, a class is an organized course taken for credit, meeting at specific times in a classroom or similar setting. This percentage does not include discussions, labs, independent studies or research done for credit, and excludes students

auditing classes from total enrollment.

Additionally, institutional changes were a factor in Rice’s rise in the rankings, according to Associate Vice Provost Shiva Jaganathan and Vice President for Finance Kathy Collins. Jaganathan and Collins said initiatives included targeted efforts to increase alumni donations, improved freshman retention and six-year graduation rates that they attributed to Student Success Initiatives and a reduction in admissions rate due to an increasing applicant pool.

You can’t write convincing college essays if you want to go to a school only because it’s ranked highly.

Anna Seballos Jones College Freshman Rice has historically always ranked very well, according to U.S. News’ chief data strategist Robert Morse.

“Rice’s strongest ranking factors compared to other schools in its National Universities ranking category are its admissions data, such as SAT/ACT and class standing, faculty resources and alumni giving,” Morse said.

However, the utility of rankings has been a matter of debate both nationally and at Rice.

Wiess College sophomore Walker Grimes said he believes college rankings are not helpful in deciding what university to attend.

“I’m all about finding the right personal fit,” Grimes said. “What’s really good for one person might make someone else extremely unhappy.

This difference isn’t reflected in the college

rankings at all. While rankings shouldn’t be completely ignored, they are best used to examine larger trends which can help a student decide what actually is the best fit.”

While some believe college rankings are meaningless, the existence of the rankings themselves may perpetuate their own importance: Academic reputation encompasses 22.5 percent of the score assigned to a university through U.S. News’ methodology. This factor is based off the opinions of peer university officials and high school counselors. According to David Daniels, a Duncan College senior, this portion of the methodology is flawed. “[Academic reputation is] a good thing to consider,” Daniels said. “But it may be too high because the problem is that, of course, the colleges that have always been the best or always have the biggest names are going to come up the most.”

McMurtry College sophomore Saiesh Kalva said diversity is an important factor in college choice, but it is not included in the US News ranking.

“Diversity brings new perspectives and enhances the experience at Rice, or any campus, because it gives people the opportunity to think in ways they may never have before,” Kalva said.

Daniels also said he feels diversity is central and unique to a college experience, and should be included in the college ranking methodology.

“I’d say that diversity was one of the biggest factors for me choosing Rice as opposed to some of the other similarly ranked schools,” Daniels said. “It’s something that you’re not going to experience really until college and even maybe after, but it’s very useful to gain perspective from students all over the world.”

For Anna Seballos, a Jones College freshman, college rankings do not matter much.

“When I was choosing from the schools that I was admitted to, there were so many other factors that affected my decision that the rankings didn’t really affect my decision either,” Seballos said.

Seballos said rankings should not factor into a

high school senior’s college decision.

“I feel like you can’t write convincing college essays if you want to go to a school only because it’s ranked really highly or for the prestige, so rankings were never a big factor of my decision of where to apply,” Seballos said.

For others, rankings served as a starting point of research.

“Once I got a baseline that these are all good schools I might have a chance of going to then, I just took it completely sideways, ignored the rankings, and looked at which school I would be the happiest or would fit my personality,” Daniels.

Chris Munoz, the vice president of enrollment from the Office of Admissions, said the rankings are useful because they help increase applications to Rice.

“It is flattering and marginally helpful when any publication gives Rice a positive ranking,” Munoz said. “Most certainly, U.S. News is the most influential.”

Senior Director of News and Media Relations B.J. Almond said while rankings are something to consider, there are other more important factors in deciding where to attend college.

“When prospective students and others are pondering their academic goals and desired educational experience, college rankings might be helpful, but the rankings should be only one of many criteria that they investigate before making a decision,” Almond said.

Criteria & Weighting Graduation and retention rates: 22.5% Undergraduate academic reputation: 22.5% Faculty resources: 20% Student selectivity: 12.5% Financial resources: 10% Graduation rate performance: 7.5%

Wednesday, November 16, 2016

NEWS

the Rice Thresher

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Merlo seeks feedback on proposed social science reforms Meredith McCain Thresher Staff

Rice University’s School of Social Sciences recently proposed several changes, including an overhaul to the policy studies major, a new neuroscience major, changes to the pre-law program and a consolidation of quantitative social science coursework.

Dean of the School of Social Sciences Antonio Merlo has spearheaded the reforms and conducted open meetings with the Social Sciences Advisory Board members and other students in the social sciences to receive feedback.

Merlo said the difficulties with the current policy studies program include a lack of faculty oversight and a lumping together of types of policy.

The new “social policy analysis” major outlined by Merlo would include a required course on social policy analysis and a capstone portion, in addition to the choice of an area of focus: inequality, institutions or technical policy analysis.

“Many students at Rice are interested in social entrepreneurship and are considering pursuing careers in the nonprofit sector, so this will be a structured way of gearing a major towards them,” Merlo said. “This is our chance to create a new major that will really focus and channel the energies of students interested in certain areas towards their goals.”

Manika Daruka, a Lovett College sophomore who is considering a major in policy studies, said she was excited by the policy major reforms.

“I actually really like the changes proposed because I think it will add more structure, and I

hope that it will also allow our understanding of policy to really develop,” Daruka said. “Also, I like how Dr. Merlo is planning on expanding it to social policy, so it will apply to a variety of different work environments and not just the government.”

According to Merlo, the proposed neuroscience major would be housed in the School of Natural Sciences as opposed to the School of Social Sciences to better accommodate its curriculum. A student committee, NeuroX, is currently renegotiating the structure of the minor with cognitive science faculty, and they will decide whether to create a neuroscience major. Regardless, Merlo said the cognitive science major will still exist.

Olivia Aguilar, a cognitive sciences major and co-chair of the SSAB, said she would have been more inclined to major in neuroscience had it existed her freshman year.

“Cognitive sciences and neuroscience are very different, one being social science based and very interdisciplinary, and the other being very biologically and computationally based,” Aguilar, a Baker College senior, said. “This distinction naturally led to having two separate programs.”

An unstructured pre-law program at Rice led the Schools of Social Sciences and Humanities to team up and solve this issue.

One of the major pre-law reforms discussed by Merlo is the addition of a practicum pilot that will launch in the spring, allowing select students to take a course, then shadow a judge or lawyer.

Merlo said redesigned quantitative social science courses will deliver a wider breadth of information while also being higher quality.

Additions will include a computational course

anson tong/thresher

Dean of Social Sciences Antonio Merlo meets with students over an informal lunch at Lovett College to discuss changes and improvements to the department. on coding R, java and python, a course on survey design and implementation and a broader course on statistics for social sciences.

“The reorganizing of methods courses within the school is one area that I’m very excited about,” Merlo said. “It goes hand in hand with the overall initiative at the university level to focus on data science. This is a great opportunity to explore all the tools you need to study social sciences.”

According to Merlo, there has been positive feedback from all parties when discussing these reforms, which could signal a beneficial outcome.

“There’s equal excitement coming from my departments and from the students,” Merlo said.

“We want to give our students strong foundations in quantitative and qualitative research methods.”

Meghana Gaur, a Lovett sophomore and member of the SSAB, said she is satisfied with the proposed reforms and their potential to improve the social science program.

“The initiatives recognize the need to possess valuable quantitative analysis skills,” Gaur said. “Dr. Merlo and the SSAB are serious about improving the quality of the curriculum.”

Experience with class size varies widely by department Lizzie Bjork

Thresher Staff

According the U.S. News and World Report rankings, Rice boasts a student to faculty ratio of 6 to 1. However, for some students in introductory courses like Mechanics (PHYS 101), with more than 120 students enrolled in the course, this ratio can seem unimaginable.

Large introductory courses with more than 50 students are in fact a minority of course offerings: Just 7.3 percent of Rice classes have greater than 50 students, and these classes are split fairly evenly between the School of Engineering, the School of Social Sciences and the School of Natural Sciences. According to data supplied by the Office of Institutional Research, with the exception of engineering and social sciences, every other undergraduate school has an enrollment of fewer than 20 students in at least 50 percent of their courses.

According to Associate Vice President for Institutional Research and Analysis Shiva Jaganathan, the undergraduate student to faculty ratio reported in U.S. News is calculated by dividing the number of undergraduate students (full time equivalent) by the number of instructional faculty (full time equivalent) who teach undergraduates. The U.S. News and World Report then rates universities on the number of classes with fewer than 20 students and those with more than 50.

Office of Institutional Research Analyst Adele James said Rice has held fairly steady with 65 to 70 percent of classes having under 20 students in recent years. James said with regard to rankings, maximizing this percentage would result in higher U.S. News scores for ratings on class sizes.

According to Provost Marie Lynn Miranda, Rice is more focused on maximizing student experience rather than the percentage of classes under 20 students.

“If the 20th student is interested in the material or needs the class to graduate we should have those students in the class,” Miranda said.

Miranda said student-to-faculty ratios are more telling of research and advising opportunities, while class sizes instead reflect student demand.

Vice President of Finance Kathy Collins said each department has a budget for faculty and the number of faculty is continually discussed

between the provost and the deans. Miranda said demand in one year informs funding for the next, as funding and faculty cannot be adjusted instantly but annually.

Individual departments decide teaching assignments, class caps, how many sections to offer and which classes will be taught.

Dean of the School of Social Sciences Antonio Merlo said there are trade-offs between offering required upper-level courses, permitting interested students into introductory courses and ensuring majoring students are supported.

To determine this balance, department chairs consider the faculty members available, their strengths and the department’s needs.

As soon as you start increasing enrollment, you start diluting the individual experience.

Nicolas Shumway Dean, School of Humanities George Zodrow, director of undergraduate studies for the economics department, said large lecture classes can be difficult for eliciting feedback from the students.

“I teach a class that is usually 20 to 25 students and you can talk to the students, you can push on them a little bit to see how they’re learning,” Zodrow said. “With a really big class, you can’t really do that. You’re just lecturing. It’s all presentation, not too much interaction.”

Lovett College sophomore Meghana Gaur said she is enrolled in three economics classes, with about 40 to 60 students in each. Gaur said her class sizes have not posed a problem.

“You get to know your professors,” Gaur said.

“You feel you need to go to class because you’re developing a relationship with your professor.”

While 47 percent of social sciences classes have fewer than 20 students, 92 percent of humanities classes can say the same. The School of Humanities has guidelines requiring each class

to have five to 19 students; any classes outside these parameters require the dean’s approval.

“As soon as you start increasing enrollment, you start diluting the individual experience,” Dean of the School of Humanities Nicolas Shumway said. “And that, I think, is inimical to one of the things that Rice stands for.”

When classes fall below the five-student minimum, Shumway said, which happens with five to 10 classes per semester, the department chairs must prove the class fulfills a major requirement.

Duncan College freshman Anna Kulma said her Greek and Latin classes have fewer than eight students. She said the small classes make it easier to ask questions and allow one-on-one interactions with professors.

“You’d expect it to be kind of awkward, but it’s really relaxed and comfortable,” she said.

For Duncan sophomore Erika Schumacher, larger classes are harder for students to speak up.

“It’s easy for me to drift off and not feel accountable,” Schumacher said.

In the School of Natural Sciences, 5.7 percent of classes have more than 100 students, the highest percentage of any Rice schools.

According to chemistry department chair Matteo Pasquali, the department faces challenges such as limited space in labs and teaching chemical engineers, pre-medicine students and other natural sciences majors.

Pasquali said upper-level courses are typically capped at 20 to 30. For lower level courses, the department tries to cap enrollment below 50 students, with the exception of Organic Chemistry and General Chemistry.

The department also uses the flipped classroom model, in which students learn new material independently and spend class time in groups while the professor offers help.

“For a flipped classroom, you can still give the same personalized learning experience whether you have a class of 50 or 200,” Pasquali said.

Brown College freshman Dan Englund is enrolled in General Chemistry, which enrolls over a 100 students but also employs group work and a Socratic method of inquiry.

“I hesitate to call my interactions with Dr. [Lesa] Tran in this setting meaningful, but it does make me feel a little less anonymous when I have my questions answered in a small group setting,” he said.

Fall 2015

Undergraduate Class Sizes # OF STUDENTS 2-19

20-49

50-99

100+

Architecture

84.4% 20-49: 15.6%, 50-99: 0.0%, 100+: 0.0%

Engineering

35.7%

49.7% 50-99: 12.1%, 100+: 2.5%

Humanities

91.9% 20-49: 7.3%, 50-99: 0.4%, 100+: 0.4%

Music

90.4% 20-49: 7.9%, 50-99: 0.9%, 100+: 0.9%

Natural Sciences

56.6%

30.9% 50-99: 6.9%, 100+: 5.7%

Social Sciences

47.2%

38.6% 50-99: 8.7%, 100+: 5.5%

Dean of Undergraduates (FWIS, LPAP, etc.)

84.3% 20-49: 15.7%, 50-99: 0.0%, 100+: 0.0%

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0INITIATIVES FROM PAGE 1 losing people they love, getting physically beaten and this becoming normal,” Balicas said.

Balicas emphasized the importance of being an ally to other groups.

“Rice’s culture of care extends beyond the alcohol policy, I’d like to believe,” Balicas said.

“That involves taking care of the rest of the student body as much as you can.”

While she would like to engage Trump supporters in conversations, Balicas said their sense of alienation on campus makes it difficult.

“Most conservatives on campus feel like they are being prosecuted by the liberal community because the way people talk about conservatives on campus is as if they were the worst thing on earth,” Balicas said. “That makes it harder for them to have a constructive dialogue.”

Climate change rally On the same day, around 20 students attended an ad hoc meeting at the Willy’s Statue to reaffirm their commitment to addressing climate change and to gather ideas for making an impact.

Jones College senior Hasan Seede and Duncan College senior Ryan Pappal, who organized the rally, said they felt urged to action by Trump’s repeated misconceptions about climate change and the appointment of Myron Ebell, a climate change skeptic, to head his transition team at the Environmental Protection Agency.

“We don’t have another four years to wait for the next election to move on this issue, because this is urgent,” Seede said.

Pappal suggested writing letters to local representatives and reaching out to climate change deniers.

“We need to show it will be a smooth, slow transition where people embedded in fossil fuels we want to move away from are not going to be left behind,” Pappal said. “We’re not going to rapidly change their lives but slowly invest in renewable energy and causes that save energy.”

Wiess College senior Audrey Odwuor said college students are in the best position to because they will be most directly affected by the effects of global warming.

the Rice Thresher “It doesn’t end with our campus, we have to talk to people who don’t know, who aren’t educated, who are ignorant,” Odwuor said.

According to Pappal, students concerned about climate change are forming a new club called Texas Students for Climate Change Action.

Anthropology gathering Undergraduates, graduates and faculty members of the anthropology department came together on Monday for conversation, commiseration and community. Caring for custodial staff, working against everyday injustices and creating more nuanced discourse were among the topics discussed.

The goal of the gathering was to create an unstructured space for conversation, according to assistant professor Andrea Ballestero.

“It was really important to have a space to be together, to experience together what for many of us was a very traumatic event, even if not completely surprising,” Ballestero said.

Third-year graduate student Charlie Lotterman, who attended the event, said he appreciated the solidarity.

“These days my head is spinning in depressing thoughts, so it is inspiring and hopeful to come together with allies,” Lotterman said. “It reminds me the country is not the only community I belong to; I also have a strong community at Rice.”

Ballestero said she was pleased participants talked both about the immediate action and the longer term implications for scholarship, activism and the way in which they inhabit the world, rather than focusing on just political strategies or personal feelings.

Director of Undergraduate Studies and assistant professor Zoe Wool said together with some colleagues, she is planning a teach-in on Inauguration Day in January, which will be a mini conference where professors explain the implications of a Trump presidency from an academic perspective.

“I have been trying to encourage other people to turn Inauguration Day into a national higher ed day of action to help students figure out what exactly this presidency — and the policies that it might entail — might mean,” Wool said. “[We want] to look to [academia] to give us more informed, complex ways of understanding what has happened.”

0REACTIONS FROM PAGE 1 people have come up to me quietly on their own to compliment me for wearing it. I feel like Rice saw it as me wearing a swastika on my arm, which is completely and utterly absurd.”

Buzzard said he mostly receives negative reactions to being a Trump supporter on campus. “‘If you voted for Trump, you should burn in hell,’” Buzzard said. “I’ve heard that. I’ve heard, ‘If you voted for Donald Trump, you should kill yourself.’ I’ve heard, ‘How can you look your minority friends in the eye and tell them that you voted for Trump?’ That sort of language is not productive for conversation, not productive for policy, and it‘s not productive to unite America.”

Buzzard said he would welcome further dialogue with liberals, but for such conversations to occur, both sides need to listen to one another.

“How can I expand outside my bubble, if all I’m greeted with are comments like these ones, instead of genuinely asking, ‘Why would you vote for Trump?’ and just listening,” Buzzard said. “[Democrats] are not sitting down and putting aside their emotional attachment to the election, and just listening to why conservative voters voted conservative and why so many people decided to dismiss the statements that Trump said for the sake of all the other issues.”

Buzzard said he experienced few successful conversations about politics on Rice’s campus.

“The only people I’ve been able to discuss reasonably with have been a few people that already personally know me as a good person, because everyone else assumes I’m not,” Buzzard said. “That’s a very difficult thing. But I’ve moved past it, and that’s why I’m willing to talk, even though I’m going to receive horrible backlash.”

Duncan College freshman Juliette Turner, a Trump supporter who said she had predicted a Trump electoral victory with Clinton winning the popular vote, said she is saddened by the labeling, hurt and fear she sees on campus and in the country. She rejected the idea that Trump is homophobic, racist or sexist, saying he waved a rainbow flag at a rally and his campaign manager Kellyanne Conway is the first woman to lead a successful presidential campaign.

“The fear people have is based on uncertainty, rhetoric and beliefs that the GOP and Donald Trump is ‘insert label here,’” Turner said. “We live in America, my friends. We have checks and balances. Trump does not have a free check to implement any policies he wants.”

Like Buzzard, Turner said she hoped for increased dialogue across the partisan divide.

“I encourage everyone at Rice and around America to refrain from saying ‘person’ is ‘label,’” she said. “Let’s talk about actual policies.

When we do, we find that we have much more in common than we previously thought. I will proudly wear a safety pin for solidarity, right next to my Donald Trump pin.”

Anti-Trump students grieve David Cirillo, president of the Rice Young Democrats, expressed fear for the effect of a Trump presidency on the environment and minorities. He called for participation in local

0MECH FROM PAGE 1 to the MECH department. Gatherer said funds are sent to the school of Engineering, where the Dean of Engineering determines how to divide funds between departments.

“We have to stand together in response to the administration to ensure that sustainable, long lasting change is enacted,” Gatherer, a Brown College junior, said.

According to Preston Hill, a Duncan College senior, only 20 percent of MECH students participate in research, while seventy percent of MECH students who have searched for research have been unsuccessful.

Clark Zha, a Will Rice College junior and MECH student, suggested a standardized system where faculty provide information about how many students they are looking for and what skills are desirable, so students can apply. Zha also suggested a program where upperclassmen mentor freshmen and sophomores.

MECH students at the Town Hall voiced discontent with the current state of labs, citing that labs are often difficult to understand and are out of sync with the material learned in courses.

One popular solution was to give students the opportunity to rewrite labs for extra credit.

Colin Feng, a senior MECH student, said although he already finds many labs frustrating due to the lack of an interactive component, rewritten labs could spare students the additional frustration of trying to understand instructions.

“With students writing [the labs], who have

Wednesday, November 16, 2016 elections and non-governmental organizations.

“We need to fight back, to say we will not let you take away our rights without opposition,” Cirillo, a Sid Richardson College junior, said.

Vietnamese Student Association president Thu Nguyen said while Asian Americans may not directly feel the impact of the election, they must support other minorities.

“We need to fight with all of them, because in the end, eventually when it comes to something, that’s our fight, they will have our backs,” Nguyen, a Wiess College senior, said.

Nguyen said she has had difficult discussions with her parents, who voted for Trump in Texas primarily because of economic concerns.

“I’ve heard from one of my family members that [Islamophobia and sexism are] such a big part of American culture, it wouldn’t even matter if Trump was voted because it’s still embedded in American culture,” Nguyen said.

Brown freshman Phillip Hedayatnia is the editor in chief of RealPolitics, an online news and opinion media outlet with content written by college students nationwide. Hedayatnia, a selfdescribed centrist, said he was happy with the student body’s response to the election at Rice, where he said more people seemed willing to engage in conversation than at other universities.

I’ve heard, ‘If you voted for Trump, you should kill yourself.’

Madison Buzzard Will Rice College Freshman “The response at Rice was to say, ‘Let’s support the people in our community who feel marginalized and threatened, rather than getting all up in arms about the result of the election,’” Hedayatnia said. “I don’t believe that sort of protest is effective at all.”

Hedayatnia, who worked with the Gary Johnson, John Kasich and briefly Bernie Sanders campaigns this election cycle, said he disliked the election result personally but believes dialogue is key to moving forward.

“I have family I worry for, as somebody whose mother is Colombian and has a thick accent and I know how many people have said to her in the past, ‘Speak English,’” Hedayatnia said.

Jones College sophomore Pamela Ekechukwu said she has tried to understand why those in the Rust Belt were more inclined to vote for Trump, but people who immediately advocated for peace between both sides overlooked the concerns of students who feared a Trump presidency.

“A lot of people posted saying, ‘Make sure you keep an open mind, don’t try to block Trump supporters from your life,’ which was a very rational thing to do,” Ekechukwu said. “At the same time, I had issues with how people went about that because they were more concerned with order than equality.”

This article has been condensed for print. To read faculty reactions and more, go to ricethresher. org. News Editor Amber Tong and Assistant News Editor Emily Abdow contributed to this article. taken the lab and know what the lab manual wants, the revisions should be much clearer and more appropriate for future students,” Feng, a Duncan senior, said.

A second suggestion by Nicholas Sepulveda, a Weiss College junior, was to make labs more applicable to the real world and relate to the automotive and aeronautical sectors.

Justin Bernard, a Jones College junior, said labs could be used as an opportunity for MECH students to explore different career paths given the broad nature of the major.

When discussing the topic of careers, students raised the possibility of increasing the number of recruiters from companyies outside of oil and gas that come to Rice, citing Texas A&M, which has a career fair dedicated to mechanical engineers.

Dean of Engineering Ned Thomas said this difference is explained by Rice’s smaller size, with some companies choosing larger universities where they can conduct hundreds of interviews.

“You want engineers, go to Texas A&M,” Thomas said. “You want engineering leaders, you want people who are going to change your company, come to Rice.”

A solution Schaefer offered is publicizing opportunities such as the Asian American Engineering Conference, which is open to students of all backgrounds as a networking opportunity.

Moving forward, Schaefer said the MECH department will continue to discuss the classroom experience and undergraduate research, as well as work to increase the amount of faculty.

“I am enormously proud of the MECH undergraduates,” Schaefer said. “These students aren’t just complaining, but are working hard to bring about positive change.”

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Letters to the Editor: Election aftermath Momentum from election should push out apathy As the transition process for Donald Trump’s presidency continues to unfold, students have every right to express concern over important political issues, whether they relate to the environment, reproductive rights, the status of immigrants or affordable health care. The documented rise of hate crimes targeting various minority groups is also cause for serious concern.

It is thus unsurprising that students on campus have responded overwhelmingly with shock, grief and in some cases, anger (see p. 1).

Whether it is through a midnight vigil, hosting events raising awareness about a social issues, fundraising for nonprofits, marching in protest or perhaps just expressing frustration on social media, we must realize that everyone is processing this event differently, and that they deserve our empathy and respect.

To make matters more thorny, many of the current issues at stake feel deeply personal or emotionally charged for many — and rightfully so. Nonetheless, now is not the time to balk from engaging in dialogue with those whom we may vehemently disagree; we must strive for greater communication and understanding whenever we can.

These times can be especially trying for students who are a part of marginalized communities, as they may feel frustrated or angry at having to continually explain their struggles to those who do not share in them. It is at times like these where allies are crucial in alleviating that burden; those of us who have the ability or energy to speak up share a responsibility in promoting the rights of oppressed groups.

Be an ally not just in their moments of distress, but in the small conversations you have with those around you, where you have the power to shift mindsets and elevate the discourse.

We often hear that Rice students are as a whole apathetic, but this election has proven otherwise. As we see our community mobilize and rally in solidarity, we are reminded of perhaps the one positive outcome of Tuesday’s election results: We have been forced to acknowledge the many serious issues facing our society, issues that for many oppressed groups have always been a daily reality. Now the rest of us have to pay attention, too.

Errata

In last week’s Nov. 9 issue, the story “College masters recommend change to title, SA seeks student input” omitted the provost’s first name. Her full name is Marie Lynn Miranda, not Lynn Miranda.

In the same issue, the Thresher incorrectly reported Rice paid about $20,000 as a result of violating the Clean Air Act. The correct amount of fines is about $12,000.

ONLINE

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

Respect all ideas Build a culture of caring To the Editors,

To the Editors, The result of this week’s election has ramifications far beyond partisan politics.

Donald Trump’s stunning victory is a threat to civil rights, liberties and discourse, as well as to deeply shared values of inclusiveness and tolerance. Campuses and other communities across the country are already reporting increases in hateful speech and actions. We encourage the open and free exchange of ideas, even those outside the bounds of “political correctness.” We want to be a place where ideas from opposing perspectives can be engaged. We cannot, however, allow expressions of hate and intolerance to go unchallenged. Our campus, city and nation must remain places where all people feel safe and empowered.

We are dedicated to exposing and addressing injustice in all its forms via our research and teaching, and we will work to maintain an atmosphere of civility and respect for all in the months and years ahead. We look forward to working with others in pursuit of these fundamental principles.

The Rice sociology department faculty, postdoctoral fellows and graduate students

Last week, as students like myself struggled to cope with the outcome of the presidential election, one bright spot seemed to emerge in outpourings of emotional support that echoed throughout our campus. I was personally amazed by how quickly student leaders, Rice Health Advisors, A-Teams and random compassionate individuals mobilized to extend our culture of care to those fearing what the future might hold for them as women, people of color, religious minorities, queer individuals or simply human beings.

Still, as Wednesday night wore on, I became increasingly wary of certain narratives being offered about what the continued role of our culture of care should be moving forward. Too many times, in college emails and at “One Rice” events, voices repeated the sentiment that, if we just look past our differing beliefs and commit ourselves to shared values we have always held, we can go untouched by Tuesday’s events.

This flawed message only propagates an image of Rice as a bubble. It ignores the fact that Donald Trump’s election was not

some aberration, but rather, the result of prejudice and political disengagement that exist throughout this country and, yes, that exist at Rice. Our complacency will now only present greater challenges for our community unless we reject reactionism and build not only a culture of care, but also a culture of caring. We must ask ourselves: If we care, do we care enough to do the nuanced work of respecting our peers while still challenging harmful beliefs they hold? Do we care enough to have discussions about the experiences of marginalized students that rise above illinformed joking about political correctness, or to question the priorities our school projects with its ties to companies whose environmental abuses most significantly impact communities of color? Do we care enough to actually vote in every election between now and 2020? Moving forward, I believe we can show deeper commitment to each other by answering such questions with an emphatic “yes.”

Carly Frieders Brown College Class of 2020

Thoughts on liberalism and compassion

For many in our community, the results of Tuesday’s election came as a surprise. In the immediate wake of the election, it appears that President-elect Donald Trump’s victory came as a result of concerns about the effects of globalization and a dysfunctional culture in Washington, D.C., as well as fears about changing demographics and the place of women, Muslims, Hispanics, AfricanAmericans and others in modern American society.

We can and should have robust debates about some of the concerns that Trump and Trump’s supporters raise. A large portion of Americans, especially in the economically depressed Rust Belt, clearly feel disenfranchised and left behind by the political process. Trump was able to tap into a sense of deep frustration deserving of investigation, not demonization.

But in a liberal constitutional democracy, we must also recognize certain positions should not be respected and fall outside the realm of legitimate political discussion. While we need to be tolerant of reasonable differences in political beliefs, we need not tolerate positions that advocate racist, xenophobic and sexist behavior. These positions oppose the values of our democracy and our campus community.

The clear influence of these unacceptable positions in the current election has left many feeling deeply fearful for the future and safety of

Visit ricethresher. org/section/opinion to read Mahdi’s opinion on the masters’ title and David’s opinion on the election results.

opinions Mitch Mackowiak* Editor sports Andrew Grottkau Editor arts & entertainment Lenna Mendoza 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 Charlene Pan Asst. Editor

themselves, their friends and their family. Over the past week, students have reported an increase in harassment both on and off campus. On campus, students of color have heard individuals chant “Make American white again” and “Build a wall!”

Outside of Rice, female students and students of color have been sexually harassed and told to go back to where they are from. In the face of fear and insecurity, these students and others across the country would understandably vocalize their frustrations and fear through protest or other means.

Contrary to what many pundits have argued, these students are not privileged “crybabies.”

They are afraid and angry precisely because they lack the privilege that could protect them. They object to the outcome of this election not because they question the legitimacy of the process, but because they believe their fundamental rights and security have been threatened by its results.

I wish I could say everything will be okay, but we just don’t know for sure. All any of us can do is get involved, care for one another and show compassion.

In this situation, compassion may be harder to pursue than we would like. I think we are all tired. We are tired of understanding, tired of waiting, tired of living in fear. Whether you are on the left, right or center, the past eighteen months have been emotionally taxing and have weighed

heavily on everyone. In spite of this we must try to find compassion for those in our community.

Many who are fearful or still grieving the outcome of the election may not be ready to find this compassion for others, and that is okay.

We should remember that half a century ago, Martin Luther King Jr. inspired compassion not because those at the time necessarily felt it, but because he convinced those around him that compassion would heal them so much more than hatred and anger ever could. He encouraged civil disobedience in the face of injustice and oppression, but he did so with hope for the future.

In the coming days, weeks, and months, we must try to summon this capacity for compassion and start the process of healing with the understanding that history bends towards justice and slowly, too slowly, things will get better.

Griffin Thomas is the Student Association president and a Lovett College senior

Might I remind you that it was once ‘tradition’ for Rice University to exclusively serve white men and women, and to say that it always truly served women is generous.

For those who say it won’t be that bad: It’s great that you are able to say that. You’re wrong. It might not be that bad for you. But, it will be devastating to others.

Mahdi Ferris SA Senator and McMurtry College sophomore

David Cirillo Rice Young Democrats president and Sid Richardson College junior

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.

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

Editorial 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

6

A Tribe Called Quest returns with ‘We got it from Here’ Ali Wilt

For the Thresher

courtesy sarah welch

‘VERY PLEASANT TRANSIT CENTER’: A comforting image of the future Naomi Pringle For the Thresher

The transition from sheltered university life to the world outside is marked with considerable anxiety, as the first time many will feel that they don’t have a distinct next step, a plan for success. The fear surrounding this is something we at Rice tend to shove aside, but Sarah Welch, a Houston-based graphic novelist, attempts to bring this emotion to the forefront. In “Very Pleasant Transit Center,” the fourth installment of her comic book series “Endless Monsoon,” Welch captures this youthful state of uncertainty.

“Endless Monsoon” focuses on two female protagonists in their early 20s, living in an exaggerated version of the Gulf Coast. They grapple with the emotional and economic struggles of entering adulthood. Welch began creating graphic novels herself at the same age, influenced mainly by other women graphic novelists that she met in art school. She pulled from this influence and from the experiences of her friends as well as her own life in the making of “Very Pleasant Transit Center.”

Welch carefully frames each scene to depict in detail the mundane scenes of young adult life. The pacing is purposefully slow, lingering on the minute details of the protagonists’ experiences and delineating in captions specific sensory detail that visual media cannot caputre (the sense of smell, for example). For this reason, Welch is attracted to the graphic novel form, which allows her to deliberately influence the experience of the reader.

“It is similar to filmmaking,” Welch said. “I can take full control over both the aesthetics and the story itself.”

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

Welch’s relationship with her work is very much about controlling the final product. She controls her art’s creation from conception to production and even owns the Risograph on which the copies are printed. The narrative she imagines is very detailed and atypical, purposely subverting the expectation of a driving plot, of rising and falling action. The characters are trapped in a rut throughout the story, continually ending up where they began. Even within the series as a whole, the plot is nebulous, each installment standing more or less alone. In this installment, Welch focuses on existing in transitional space, neither here nor there. She depicts this in her portrayal of the characters’ lives and the literal space of the transit center.

The artist pulls from her own experience

‘Very Pleasant Transit Center’ confronts these feelings of hopelessness with a message of empowerment that is neither saccharine nor false. and that of friends in “Very Pleasant Transit Center.” Welch herself, who has a visual impairment and resultantly cannot drive, spends a lot of time at transit centers.

MOODY POP-UP ART SHOW In preparation for the opening of the Moody Center for the Arts, the first in a series of pop-up art events will take place on Friday evening, starting at 6 p.m., featuring student performances, sound art, a local DJ and more.

South Servery Field moody.rice.edu

“They all have very idyllic names, but none of them are very nice places to be,” Welch said.

“The name [Very Pleasant Transit Center] is an ironic joke about transit centers. But, it’s also about finding some kind of peace within a non-place. It’s about finding a way to make an unpleasant experience pleasant.”

Most of us at Rice are nearing the age of the characters in “Very Pleasant Transit Center.” The idea of entering the “real world” is met with a feeling of both excitement and trepidation. The threat of isolation is certainly frightening, of a world in which your closest friends are no longer just a few doors down.

“Very Pleasant Transit Center” manages at once to both stimulate and quell this fear. The protagonists experience this isolation, but their close friendship and shared vision for the future provide a redeeming solace.

“Their solidarity makes the aloneness less crushing,” Welch said.

We are technically adults, but we still haven’t fully experienced the tedium described in the book, the routine of adult daily life and adult obligations. We are aware of the threat of dormancy and stagnation even if it isn’t currently upon us. “Very Pleasant Transit Center” confronts these feelings of hopelessness with a message of empowerment that is neither saccharine nor false. Further, it doesn’t attempt to sum up the current sociopolitical zeitgeist into one overarching experience of youth. The work is relatable, specific in its scope and, despite the comic’s emphasis on life’s drudgery, each moment feels ephemeral and intimate.

Welch’s work can be read in Sewall 402 until Nov. 30 between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Thursday, and 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. on Saturday.

Famed ’90s avant-garde hip-hop group A Tribe Called Quest has just released “We got it from Here… Thank You 4 Your Service,” their first new album in almost 18 years. Tribe impressively incorporates jazz, hip-hop and futuristic production with their signature throwback R&B sound to create a style uniquely their own.

“We got it from Here” opens with “The Space Program,” a slightly surrealist call for unity that incorporates mentions of Che Guevara with Willy Wonka’s oompa loompas.

The track uses the mellow jazz-infused beats Tribe is known for, but contrasts it with the bombastic lyricism of Q-Tip, Tribe’s de facto leader. Tribe’s inventive play between members is highlighted in “Solid Wall of Sound,” with a sample of Elton John’s “Bennie and the Jets” acting as a chorus between Q-Tip’s and notable rapper Busta Rhyme’s traded lines.

Busta is just one of many impressive contributors that Tribe recruited for “We got it from Here.” Jack White, the front man of the White Stripes, acts as producer for “Solid Wall of Sound” and “Ego,” and adds his signature guitar licks to “Melatonin,” a track chronicling the struggle of everyday life and the desire to escape. Andre 3000 takes over on “Kids,” a plea to unify the black community. Contemporary favorites Kanye West and Kendrick Lamar make appearances on “The Killing Season” and “Conrad Tokyo” respectively, creating a stunning diversity seldom seen on new releases.

Although ‘We got it from Here’ boasts some of the best artists on the scene today, it can’t escape the repetitiveness creeping into the last half of the release.

Politics plays a large role on “We got it from Here,” just in time for the shocking events of last week’s presidential election.

“We the People” mocks Donald Trump’s racism with the hook, “All you Black Folks, you must go/All the Mexicans, you must go.”

Trump is name-dropped on album closer “The Donald,” referencing the fear many black Americans have for the mogul’s presidency.

The Black Lives Matter movement, though not directly referenced, figures prominently

ZINE FEST

FLEA STYLE

Zines epitomize DIY art — as small-scale, handcrafted and underground publications. The Lawndale Art Center will celebrate and feature zines and their creators on Saturday, Nov. 19 from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. Admission is free.

If you’re looking for a shopping fix, Flea Style is a biannual indoor marketplace which curates hundreds of vendors of everything from furniture to art to clothing. $5 entry, the marketplace will be open Saturday Nov. 19 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Lawndale Art Center 4912 Main St zinefesthouston.org

Silver Street Studios 2000 Edwards St fleastyle.com

0see QUEST, page 7

BREAKING POINT Rice Dance Theatre’s fall show features student and guest choreography with the theme “Breaking Point,” as well as a performance from another student dance group, BASYK. Shows run Nov. 1719 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $5.

Rice University Recreation Center recreation.rice.edu/rdt

Wednesday, November 16, 2016

0QUEST FROM PAGE 6 in tracks like “Black Spasmodic” and “The Killing Season,” with lines like “This lack of justice got us disgusted, look at our faces/Take a bow, this might be your last performance.”

Although “We got it from Here” boasts some of the best artists on the scene today, it can’t escape the repetitiveness creeping into the last half of the release. Beats become stale, shout-outs become overused. The Trinidadian accents that Busta Rhymes and late Tribe member Phife Dawg employ throughout the album cleverly reference their heritage, but the nasally exaggeration quickly becomes annoying after one verse. Tribe fans will be more than willing to overlook these slight missteps, but it could alienate new listeners.

A Tribe Called Quest has triumphantly returned from a long hiatus, and the group just announced they will release more new albums in the future. This new release will largely be seen as a bittersweet chapter in the group’s career, since prominent Tribe member Phife Dawg passed away this March from diabetes. With the group serving as a major influence on Kendrick Lamar’s “untitled unmastered,” as well as many other jazz-hip-hop recordings today, it will be interesting to see how Tribe retains their original sound while looking to hip-hop’s present and future.

courtesy billboard

Members of A Tribe Called Quest before their 18-year hiatus

A&E

the Rice Thresher

7

LUCY ETHIOPIAN RESTAURANT EMBRACES GROUP DINING EXPERIENCE Lauren Heller Thresher Staff

Lucy Ethiopian Restaurant and Lounge Address: 6800 Southwest Freeway Phone number: (713) 334-0000 Price range: $$ Website: lucyhouston.com

Recommended Dish Meat and veggies special entree, $39 Yellow lentils, spicy red lentils, green peas, cabbage, house salad, key wot, doro wot, beef tibs

lauren heller/thresher

Left to right: Injera, special entrees for the table including chicken, beef and lamb In one of the most diverse cities in the country, we have the unique opportunity to expand our cultural horizons by eating at a wide variety of authentic ethnic restaurants.

Coming from a suburb, I had not been exposed to several cuisines until I came to Rice, including Ethiopian food.

Lucy Ethiopian Restaurant and Lounge serves Ethiopian dishes in a colorful setting that includes a lounge (somewhat randomly placed) in the back of the restaurant. Lucy is a great spot for newcomers who are unfamiliar with the culture or food. First, they explain Ethiopian terms on the sides of the menu.

Although I went with a large group, none of us were very familiar with the dishes on the menu.

As a result, our server graciously ordered all the food for the table after taking into account our dietary restrictions and explained what was in each dish as it was served. I highly recommend going to Lucy in a group, both to maximize the amount of food you get to try and to order the special entrees.

My group started our meal with sambusas

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Conveniently located in the Texas Medical Center on the campus of The Woman’s Hospital of Texas near Rice University

7900 Fannin St., Suite 4000, Houston, TX 77054

and roasted red bell pepper hummus.

Sambusas are reminiscent of Indian samosas but are filled with onions, green peppers, lentils and beef. The sweet chili sauce provided a nice tang to balance the starchy sambusa.

The roasted red bell pepper hummus was a blend of chickpeas, tahini, roasted red peppers and garlic served with slices of toasted pita.

This appetizer outshone the sambusa with its creamy texture and richer flavor.

The next course consisted of the special entrees, which are large sampler platters big enough to feed a few people. There are several special entrees to choose from, are all served with injera. Injera is similar to a crepe but with a spongier texture. We were told to unroll the injera and tear it into pieces that we could use to grab bites of food from the platter and eat with our hands.

The meat and veggies combo platter consisted of yellow lentils, spicy red lentils, green peas, cabbage and house salad. You will not find pork on Lucy’s menu, but you will find chicken, beef and lamb. The meats were

all mixed with different ingredients including onions, jalapeños, tomatoes and garlic. One spice used for the beef called berbere — a blend of chili peppers, garlic, ginger, basil and other herbs — is a key ingredient of Ethiopian food. The lega tibs, or beef mixed with berbere sauce, was my favorite item in the special entrees, but it was a fun experience to sample the other meats.

We ended the feast with ice cream and baklava, which I did not expect to find in an Ethiopian restaurant. There were not many dessert options, so I would recommend ordering the baklava or finding a dessert place in nearby Hillcroft.

Lucy is a unique, relaxed restaurant for large groups, which is actually possible since it takes reservations. If you order the special entrees for the group to share instead of individual entrees, you can sample a wide variety of Ethiopian dishes at a reasonable price. Overall, it’s a great way to expand beyond the restaurants that would normally be in your comfort zone.

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A&E

Wednesday, November 16, 2016

the Rice Thresher

‘Trolls’ is an invigorating fairy tale about finding what makes you happy Madison Flavin For the Thresher

metinee ding/thresher

Architectronica tech team controls lights and music while partygoers dance below.

2016 has not been a jolly good time — more like angry, depressed and anxious. For some, happiness feels like a cruel, outdated joke. Within this context, Dreamworks’ “Trolls,” an animated adventure musical with Anna Kendrick and Justin Timberlake voicing the leads, seems like a strange choice for this point in the year. In a cinematic atmosphere increasingly in favor of the dark and gritty, “Trolls” celebrates those who choose happiness, no matter what life throws at them.

Once upon a time, the optimistic Trolls, led by King Peppy, fled their homes to seek refuge from the Bergens, for whom the ingestion of Trolls provides temporary happiness. Twenty years later, King Peppy’s daughter, the sunny Princess Poppy, throws a wild anniversary party, which attracts the attention of the Bergen Chef and results in the abduction of her eclectic friends.

Eager to rescue her friends and save her kingdom, Poppy turns to Branch, a Troll of drab colors who, for reasons unknown, has spent most of his life in a heavily fortified survival bunker. Opposites clash and attract as the duo risk everything to turn their world around .

The sugar-sweet Poppy and the bitterly paranoid Branch represent opposing ends of an optimism-pessimism spectrum. Beautiful voice work by Anna Kendrick and Justin Timberlake illustrate the complexities and contradictions of both characters, making them more fleshed out. Kendrick convincingly conveys Poppy’s somewhat-naive cheerfulness but also displays her painful process of realizing that, as Branch puts it, “the world isn’t all cupcakes and rainbows.” She finds the possibly psychotic side of Poppy’s happy-go-lucky attitude but doesn’t punish her for it, even when it looks like the character has lost hope. Timberlake steals the show as Branch, whose sarcasm masks a truly heartbreaking source of pain and paves the way for an emotionally moving journey of rediscovery.

His performance is fully invested in Branch’s trajectory, with those contagious spirits of belief, love and imagination driving curiosity about who the character really is.

With Timberlake also acting as songwriter

and executive music producer, “Trolls” contains a plethora of funky foot-movers that know how to create lasting smiles. Along with classics our parents grew up with, like Simon and Garfunkel’s “The Sound of Silence” and Lionel Ritchie’s “Hello,” the soundtrack includes original music

by Timberlake, Gwen Stefani and Ariana Grande.

Timberlake’s own song of the summer, “Can’t Stop the Feeling,” is one of those songs where every listen demands unapologetic dancing along. Cyndi Lauper’s “True Colors” becomes the film’s anthem, and said song’s greatest cover, in a ferociously tear-jerking centerpiece scene that easily ranks as one of the year’s greatest film moments.

In a cinematic atmosphere increasingly in favor of the dark and gritty, ‘Trolls’ celebrates those who choose happiness, no matter what life throws at them.

For its entire 90-minute running time, the film’s electric color palette explodes off the screen, creating a world that can’t be turned away from for fear of missing out on something wonderful.

The crisp 3-D, a surcharge well worth the price of admission, adds a tactile feel to the characters, which look like scrapbook felt creations come spectacularly to life. It’s as if the walls of the cinema have floated away, transporting the audience into the world of the Trolls.

While animated films may be made with children and families as the target audience “Trolls” is an animated film where even childless adults won’t want to come down from its heavenly happy spell.

courtesy collider

‘Into the Inferno’ tackles human fascination with fire Michael VerMeulen Thresher Staff

Werner Herzog is one of the most daring filmmakers of all time. From dragging a steamboat across a mountain to forging shooting permits to hypnotizing his actors, Herzog will seemingly do almost anything for the sake of his art. In his newest documentary “Into the Inferno,” which was recently released on Netflix, the now 74-yearold director demonstrates that he has not lost any of the ambition or nerve that made him famous.

Made in collaboration with volcanologist Clive Oppenheimer, Herzog’s “Into the Inferno” studies the belief systems that have formed around volcanoes rather than focusing on the volcanoes themselves. Herzog, while obviously fascinated with the great power of the volcanoes, cares more about the human relations to the fiery mountains.

Traveling across the world to Indonesia, Ethiopia, Iceland and — most shockingly — North Korea, the team of Herzog and Oppenheimer interview fascinating people. The most interesting, relevant subjects to the film’s greater topic were the interviewed Indonesian tribal chiefs who spoke about their tribes’ volcano-based religions.

Beliefs in spirits living within the volcano or an American Christlike figure who will one day emerge from the volcano are only some of the interesting tidbits from their findings. The world’s most heavily volcano populated nation, Indonesia retains these volcano-based belief systems despite the country’s predominantly Muslim identity.

Some of the film’s other greatest strengths were its stunning cinematography as well as

its inclusion of Herzog’s now-iconic voice as narration. Gorgeous shots of the three volcanoes in the world with visible magma are overlaid with operatic music to create a hauntingly beautiful effect. Combined with the poeticism of Herzog’s narration and the almost-madman intelligence pouring out from his voice, the documentary has moments that truly astound in their power. These moments simultaneously show both the beauty and destructive force of the planet, a remarkable visual feat that only Herzog seems to be able to pull off with such regularity.

There are segments of the documentary that don’t feel entirely necessary, though they are interesting and would certainly fit well in other documentaries. In their visit to Ethiopia, Oppenheimer and Herzog embark on an archeological dig of a 100,000-year-old hominid with an eccentric professor from the University of California, Berkeley. Few connections can be made between this portion of the film and the greater theme of volcanoes. The other portion of the film that does not feel completely cohesive is the North Korean segment. While Herzog and Oppenheimer do ask about the significance of a certain volcanic crater considered to be the traditional birthplace of the Korean people, much of this segment also highlights the propagandist image the North Korean government crafts. While the topic is fascinating it does not entirely fit.

Overall, “Into the Inferno” is another in a long line of compelling documentaries from Herzog. Though it does drift in focus, the exploration of volcanoes incredible power as well as their effect on different peoples makes this feature worthwhile.

9

Baseball prepares for historic trip to Cuba Michael Kidd Thresher Staff

Two pieces of exciting new apparel just arrived at Reckling Park in anticipation of Rice University baseball’s trip to Cuba on Nov. 23. Just last week, the team received customized Rice baseball caps with the American flag and Cuban flag intertwined and proudly stitched on the side. The team has also received new custom-made jerseys that will be worn once the squad touches down in Cuba.

Staying ever true to Rice, the jerseys read “Los Buhos” (translated to “The Owls”). Two cultures are set to collide over one common passion, as baseball is a key fixture not only to Rice University but also to Cuba.

The Owls will visit Cuba for 12 days, beginning on Nov. 23 and ending on Dec. 4; they will be the first college baseball team to do so since President Barack Obama helped restore diplomatic relations between the two countries. Rice will play multiple exhibition games against professional teams from the Cuban Baseball Federation. The games will serve as their fall exhibitions, tune-ups before the lull between fall ball and spring preseason preparation.

Rice will face some tough competition abroad. Recently, players who have transitioned from the Cuban Baseball Federation to Major League Baseball in the United States have seen great success.

While not all of their opponents will play at the level of major leaguers, the Owls are prepared to face stiff competition.

We’ve been told the competition will be strong and the games will be dynamic.

Brent Schwarz Sophomore Pitcher sean chu/thresher

Sophomore McKay Kyle looks to hit the ball during Rice’s sweep of the University of Texas, San Antonio on Senior Day Saturday. The win earned Rice the No. 6 seed in the Conference USA Tournament. The Owls will face Marshall University, a team they swept earlier this season, in the first round.

Volleyball hosting this weekend’s C-USA Tournament as No. 6 seed Craig Broadman Thresher Staff

The Rice Owls volleyball team (18-11, 10-4) finished its regular season on a high note, sweeping the University of Texas, San Antonio (19-7, 10-4) on Senior Day at Tudor Fieldhouse to avenge a defeat earlier in the season. Despite the victory, a Florida Atlantic University win dropped Rice University to the sixth seed in the upcoming Conference USA Volleyball Tournament, where it will play No. 3 Marshall University (22-7, 11-3) in the first round this Friday.

Although Rice swept Marshall earlier in the season, they certainly won’t be taking the game for granted. Last year, the Owls were eliminated by a University of Southern Mississippi squad they swept during the regular season. Junior captain Madison McDaniel said the team will not make the

same mistake again.

“After last year’s loss in the first round against Southern Miss, I learned to not look

I really think taking one game at a time is something our team as a whole must focus on.

Madison McDaniel Junior Captain ahead to future games, but instead focus on what’s in front of us at the time,” McDaniel

said. “I really think taking one game at a time is something our team as a whole must focus on.”

McDaniel has been an integral part of Rice’s success this year by anchoring the defense with a conference leading 19 doubledoubles (10.66 assists per set, 3.19 digs per set). Junior Portia Okafor leads the team with 1.28 blocks per set and freshman Lee Ann Cunningham leads the team with 4.3 digs per set while playing in every game during her rookie season.

The Owls also have plenty of firepower on offense. Senior Chelsea Harris has recorded a team high 3.45 kills per set, but according to McDaniel, senior captain Leah Mikesky has been the team’s most valuable player so far. “[Leah] is one of those players that consistently makes clutch plays when they need to be made,” McDaniel said.

0see VOLLEYBALL, page 10

The trip also has a unique “study abroad” element to it, as the Owls are required to participate in two separate 3-credit courses to be eligible for the trip. The two courses are spearheaded by associate professor of Caribbean and film studies Luis Duno-Gottberg. DunoGottberg has been taking his classes to Cuba for eight years, but he said this year’s class has been unique.

“I [pieced] together all my prior experiences of writing, researching and studying about Cuba and shape it a slightly different way,” Duno-Gottberg said. “I took elements of my regular [Cuban culture] class and combined it with the history of Cuban baseball.”

The first course, taught during this fall semester, is called Trends in Cuban Culture (SPPO 375). The second course is a combination of directed study abroad credit, a self-reflection journal from each player during the trip and 42 additional hours of instruction once players land in Cuba. Duno-Gottberg said he hopes the class has given students a better understanding of the history and culture of the nation.

“It is important they see how baseball, beyond the game itself, relates to issues of race relations, politics, the Cold War, migration, immigration and more,” Duno-Gottberg said.

0see BASEBALL, page 10

10 SPORTS

Wednesday, November 16, 2016

the Rice Thresher

The Final Kauntdown It’s time to get excited about men’s basketball

sean chu/thresher

Junior guard Shani Rainey puts up a jump shot during Rice’s 68-57 win over Prairie View A&M University. Rainey led the Owls with 20 points in the first regular season game of the year.

Women’s basketball stomps Prairie View 68-57 in opener Madison Buzzard Thresher Staff

One year removed from losing the first seven games of her Rice career, head coach Tina Langley and the Rice women’s basketball team started their 2016-17 campaign with a 68-57 victory over Prairie View A&M University.

Three Rice players scored in double figures. Junior guard Shani Rainey led the team with 20 points and added eight rebounds, senior forward Jasmine Goodwine scored 17 points and senior guard Maya Hawkins added 15 points including three 3-pointers.

Hawkins also led the team with eight assists and was second on the team with seven rebounds. According to Langley, Hawkins’ all-around effort was pivotal in the victory.

“Maya was a catalyst for our team with eight assists,” Langley said. “She is really tough, has a willingness to work hard and possesses tremendous leadership.”

Rice shot well from the field as a team, going 24-of-52 from the field (46 percent) and 8-of-22 from 3-point range (36 percent). The Owls also held Prairie View to shooting 23of-65 from the field (35 percent) and 1-of-9 from 3-point range (11 percent). Langley said she was pleased with her team’s effort and execution.

“I’m really proud for our team tonight,” Langley said. “They’ve been working incredibly hard. It’s a very selfless group of young women. They came out and really competed as a unit and got us our first win.”

The game started with defensive stops

by Rice on four consecutive possessions, including two steals, which resulted in a 5-0 lead a minute and a half into the game.

The Owls used the 3-point shot as a basis for early offense, with Goodwine, Rainey and Hawkins all connecting from downtown to outscore the Lady Panthers 21-15 in the first period.

Layups by Prairie View A&M’s senior guard Alexus Parker and freshman guard Dominique Newman cut the lead to 21-19 with 8:30 left in the second period. However, six team assists and two 3-pointers by Hawkins sparked a 17-5 Owls’ run to close the half with a 38-24 lead.

Rainey connected on two 3-point shots to expand Rice’s lead to 22 with 5:05 remaining in the third period. Prairie View A&M responded with a layup and 3-point shot from Parker to condense the lead to 14 and hold a 56-42 deficit on the scoreboard.

Prairie View A&M continued to cut into the Owls’ lead with a 13-6 run to start the fourth period behind three steals by senior guard Tori Carter. Rice’s offense failed to execute as it did in the first half, as the team shot only 3-of-11 from the field and 0-of-3 from 3-point range. Additionally, the Owls committed seven turnovers in the period, leading to seven points by Prairie View A&M. It took a three-and-a-half minute stretch of defensive intensity from Rice at the end of the game to close out the 11-point victory.

They’ve been working incredibly hard. It’s a very selfless group of young women.

Tina Langley Basketball Head Coach Langley said while she was disappointed in her team for committing 23 turnovers, the Owls are capable of improving their ball security.

“We have been blessed with a phenomenal scout team composed of some of the guy students on campus,” Langley said. “They are helping us learn how to deal with pressure and hang tough. We have been doing really well in practice and I think we will improve quickly.”

After starting all 31 games last year as a sophomore, Rainey also said she was confident in the team’s progress and potential moving forward.

“We have adapted to the coaching style and began to implement a culture that the coaches have encouraged,” Rainey said.

“Tonight showed us we are capable of winning and what it means to win. While it is a relief, we have to continue to move forward and keep working hard.”

I know it’s early, but wow — what Rice men’s basketball did to James Madison University on Sunday afternoon was nothing short of spectacular. The Owls faced a team that competed for its conference championship last year and absolutely obliterated it. In doing so, Rice validated the preseason hype surrounding the team and gave reason to believe it can compete for the Conference USA title.

One game will not define the Owls’ season, but it is certainly a positive sign.

Rice outscored the Dukes 46-40 in the first half; then, after the hosts climbed to within 63-59, the Owls went on a 31-11 run to close out the game and earn a 94-70 victory. Rice shot over 50 percent for the game and forced 25 turnovers while committing only 10.

On the surface, it is an impressive performance, but in context, it is even more encouraging. Last season, Rice’s men’s basketball team lost its first four games of the year. The Owls lost three of those games by 17 points or more, including a 26-point loss to a University of San Francisco team that finished the season just 15-15. This year, the team opened the season with a convincing win over a James Madison squad ranked in the top 150 (out of 351) of the preseason KenPom ratings, a popular metric of comparing college basketball teams. Even better? Rice currently ranks 108th in that metric at the time of publication. The Owls finished last season ranked 273rd. It’s way too early to make any fair judgments based on that ranking, but a 165 spot jump is hard to ignore.

Last season’s team relied heavily on freshmen such as guard Marcus Evans, guard Connor Cashaw and forward Marquez Letcher-Ellis to carry the load. This year, those players are more experienced and mature. This showed against James Madison, as the trio combined for just two turnovers (they combined for an average of more than six per game last season).

Additionally, the Owls added four freshmen who have the potential to contribute immediately. Redshirt freshman guard Chad Lott, freshman guard Ako Adams and freshman forwards Austin Meyer and Corey Douglas all played over 10 minutes in Sunday’s win. While they struggled for

0VOLLEYBALL from page 9 Rice will need to go through stiff competition if it wants to claim the championship at the end of the weekend.

The tournament features three teams with winning percentages above .750: Marshall, Southern Miss and reigning champion Western Kentucky University, which finished the season with 18 consecutive victories.

Head coach Genny Volpe, however, is unfazed by the competition. According to Volpe, who is in her 13th year at the helm, the team has the mental toughness to be competitive in the postseason.

“What excites me the most about this team is [its] resiliency,” Volpe said. “We have been through some ups and downs but they always come back strong.”

While Volpe said serving and passing are the biggest keys to winning, she said she believes the team doesn’t have to change anything to be successful.

“In all honesty, our team just needs to

0BASEBALL from page 9 The hours of instruction in Cuba will be mostly instructional but will also include an Old Havana tour, visits to the University of Havana, Museum of Fine Arts, the Museum of Revolution, the playas (beaches) and the U.S. Embassy.

Books on the syllabus for the class included “The Pride of Havana,” a critically acclaimed novel surrounding the history of Cuban baseball, and “Bitter Fruit,” an account of the CIA operation to overthrow the democratically elected leader of Guatemala, Jacobo Arbenz, in 1954. Required reading and online articles covered topics ranging from Marxism to wage labor to the study of Cuban art.

Sophomore pitcher Brent Schwarz said

the most part, the team no longer needs its freshmen to perform well day in and day out to win games. Rather, it can rely on the other six main contributors in its rotation when the freshmen falter.

There will be plenty of growing pains. It is, after all, a very young team. But it is also a very good team.

I know it’s far too soon to make any fair judgments about where the Owls will finish this year. This win, however, validates the preseason excitement surrounding the team.

There will be plenty of growing pains. It is, after all, a very young team. But, it is also a very good team. Conference USA looks like it will be extremely competitive this year.

The University of Alabama, Birmingham is the favorite to win the conference title. Middle Tennessee State University knocked off Michigan State University, a top 10 team for much of last season, in the NCAA Tournament last year. Old Dominion University, Marshall University and Western Kentucky University will make strong pushes to win the conference championship as well.

While the Owls are most likely at least a year away from being one of the top two or three teams in the league, there is little reason to argue they cannot win the conference title this year. And that is very exciting.

Andrew Grottkau

is a McMurtry College sophomore and Thresher Sports Editor

be themselves and I believe we can win a championship,” Volpe said. “I have believed that all along and I am excited to see them thrive.”

With just days before the tournament begins, the team is making final preparations for their fifth straight playoff appearance.

McDaniel said everybody is hoping to bring a championship back to Rice for the first time since 2009.

“I feel like at this point in the season, everyone is so inspired to play,” McDaniel said. “Winning is the only option and I can’t wait to see what we are capable of.”

This year, Rice is hosting the tournament, so Volpe said she expects a big crowd for Friday’s game against the Thundering Herd.

According to McDaniel, the team loves playing in front of the home crowd.

“Home court advantage is an awesome thing, and having energy from the crowd makes it even better,” McDaniel said.

Rice will play in the quarterfinals of the Conference USA Tournament on Friday, Nov. 18 at 5 p.m. in Tudor Fieldhouse against Marshall.

he has learned a significant amount about Cuban-American relations. “[Our class] has been introduced to a much more complex picture of not only CubanAmerican relations but also the U.S.’s role in Latin American history as a whole,” Schwarz said. “Our professors have provided an eye opening reality of just how [influential] Cuba is in regard to global history. ” Schwarz said he is looking forward to visiting a country rich in culture and bonding over the sport of baseball. He said he is excited to face elite competition from the talented Cuban Baseball Federation.

“It’s awesome that baseball is a pivotal piece of [their] rich culture, and we get to bond with Cuban players over that common passion,” Schwarz said. “We’ve been told the competition will be strong and the games will be dynamic. That’s good for us and good for baseball.”

Wednesday, November 16, 2016

the Rice Thresher

SPORTS

11

Football scores 22 straight points to beat Charlotte Andrew Grottkau Sports Editor

Down 21-0 in the first half to the University of North Carolina, Charlotte, it looked like the Rice University football team was headed to yet another blowout loss. This time, though, the Owls rallied. Rice scored the final 22 points of the game to claim a 22-21 victory over Charlotte for its first Conference USA win of the season.

After a Rice punt in the first quarter, Charlotte got on the board first with a 71-yard touchdown drive sparked by three runs of 10 yards or more. Off the ensuing kickoff, the Owls again punted and the 49ers put together another touchdown drive to go up 14-0, this time relying on the pass.

The locker room was one of joy. There was sheer energy, sheer jubilation to get that win.

David Bailiff Football Head Coach The score remained at a standstill until midway through the second quarter. On its second drive of the period, Rice faced second and six from its own 37. Freshman J.T. Granato, playing quarterback, threw a short pass that was intercepted by Charlotte senior defensive back Terrance Winchester. He returned the pick 41 yards for the 49ers’ third touchdown of the game.

Down three scores, the Rice offense finally awoke. On the next drive, senior quarterback Tyler Stehling found senior tight end Connor Cella for a 20-yard gain to set the Owls up on the Charlotte nine-yard line. The Owls settled

for a field goal, bringing the score to 21-3. A quick defensive stop and a short punt set Rice up at Charlotte’s 46 yard line to begin its next drive, and the Owls took advantage by scoring their first touchdown.

Despite the momentum, Rice trailed 21-10 at halftime. According to head coach David Bailiff, the team still believed it could win despite the deficit.

“If you were standing on the sidelines or in the locker room at halftime, it wasn’t a ‘Woe is us’ mentality,” Bailiff said. “It was, ‘Let’s go get this thing done.’ We just maintained a great attitude and had a will to win.”

In the second half, Rice continued to chip away at the 49ers’ lead. The Owls recovered a Charlotte fumble on a punt return, and Stehling immediately converted the turnover into a touchdown on a 17-yard run. A failed two-point conversion kept the score at 21-16 Charlotte.

The teams combined to punt on the next five drive before Rice took over with just over seven minutes remaining in the game. The Owls put together a 13-play drive, highlighted by two Stehling one-yard runs to first convert on fourth down and then score the go-ahead touchdown. The Owls’ defense preserved the win with a stop on fourth and nine on Charlotte’s ensuing possession.

According to Bailiff, the team was thrilled to earn the win.

“The locker room was one of joy,” Bailiff said. “There was sheer energy, sheer jubilation to get that win.”

Stehling earned a nomination for the Player of the Week Award from American Sports Net for his performance in the game. He led the Owls with 279 yards passing and one touchdown. Bailiff said he was proud of how Stehling performed in the win.

“That was Tyler Stehling’s most complete performance this season,” Bailiff said. “He played with so much grit.”

The Owls return home this week for their final home contest of the season against the University of Texas, El Paso. The teams will play at 11 a.m. at Rice Stadium.

courtesy rice athletics

Rice football earned its first C-USA win of the season with a 22-21 win over the University of North Carolina, Charlotte. Senior quarterback Tyler Stehling (10, above) led Rice with 279 passing yards.

12

BACKPAGE

Wednesday, November 16, 2016

the Rice Thresher

Bummed out about registration troubles? Sick and tired of navigating add/drop, special registrations, etc.? Still unable to shake that latent existential dread you’ve picked up ever since you started contemplating the absurdity of our existence?

We won’t be able to do much for your existential dread, but we may be able to ease some of your other worries. Try this fun course registration-themed board game with some friends to let off some steam and to put the “dro” back into “add/drop.”

The game is simple: You just got your schedule back, and you hardly got any classes. You need to schedule more hours to be a full-time student. Work your way through the map, and whatever player(s) finish with the most credit hours win! (Sure, you may be asking “Am I really a winner if I finish with the most hours?” In real life, no. But this isn’t real life, so shut up and play.)

All you need for this game is one six-sided die. To start, each player rolls the die twice and subtracts two from the sum of the two rolls. This determines each player’s initial number of credit hours they successfully registered for. Once everyone has their starting hours, players will take turns rolling the die, advancing that many places and reading the instructions of the tile they land on. Keep track of your hours, and remember … don’t forget your graduation requirements!

For added fun, this game can be easily adapted into a drinking game. Anytime a player gains or loses hours – including determining starting hours – they divide their new number of hours by two and drink for that many seconds. If you go this route, be sure to have extra Threshers on hand to use as coasters and in case of spills. No one likes a sticky floor.

OPEN LPAP

WAITLIST! One of the classes you need has no one on the waitlist. Sign up (+3 hrs) and roll again!

LAB NEEDED Roll again: 4, 5, or 6 and you got in the lab (+4 hrs). Otherwise, move back two spaces.

No new hours.

MAJOR REQ’D CLASS FULL!

+1 hr

Major required class is full. Roll again: an even number and you’re in the class (+3 hrs), an odd number and you must change majors. (Go back to START with half the hours you have now)

SPECIAL REGISTRATION SUCCESS! +3 hr and roll again

SCORED A COLLEGE COURSE!

+1 hr

CREDIT HOUR CAP

If you matriculated in 2016 or later and you have more than 17 hours, cut your hours in half and go back to START. If you matriculated before 2016, roll again and laugh.

RESEARCH/TA POSITION You get an unexpected email telling you about a research/TA position. +2 hrs

GET pre-REKT

Tally your scores and see who has the most hours!

CLERICAL ERROR +2 hrs

You just found out one of your required courses has a pre-req. Roll again: roll a 1 or 2 and you get both classes (+6 hrs), 3 or 4 and you only get the pre-req (+3 hrs), 5 or 6 and you get diddly squat.

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

CLASSIFIEDS WANTED

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

RICE ALUM WANTS TUTORING for python web scraping and simple data manipulation, 6 to 10 hrs/month. Can meet you on campus or nearby. Send infor about yourself and required price to olddogtx@hotmail.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 a variety of factors. Contact 832-428-8330 and email resume to siyengar777@gmail.com OLD SCHOOL TUTORING is looking for Rice students to fill open positions: Mandarin Chinese tutor and Math/Science tutors. Offers schedule flexibility and starting pay at $12.

Located across from Rice! Contact Bob Schmitt at OldschoolASC@gmail.com

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First copy free, second copy $5.

Cash, check or credit card payment must accompany your classified advertisement, which must be received by 12 p.m. on the Friday prior to publication.

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