VOLUME 102, ISSUE NO. 11 | STUDENT-RUN SINCE 1916 | RICETHRESHER.ORG | WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2017
SAD REACTS ONLY Technology companies don’t deserve idolization
TRIED AND KTRU KTRU offers outlet for nontraditional radio music
COME HERE OFTEN? Students share why they attended Rice football’s homecoming game
SEE OPINION P. 5
SEE SPOTLIGHT P. 6
SEE SPORTS P. 11
Crunching numbers The proposed plan would include waived tuition in taxable income, reduce tax brackets from seven to four, increase the standard deduction from $6,350 to $12,000 and get rid of personal exemptions.
SPOTLIGHT
GOP tax plan raises graduate student concerns
Here’s how it breaks down*: Total Income: Standard Deduction: Personal Exemptions: Taxable Income: Annual Tax Owed:
Current Tax Plan $31,732 $6,350 $4,050 $21,332 $2,775
POSSIBLE ANNUAL TAX INCREASES BY DEPARTMENT
Rice courses available for free on Coursera and EdX
House Tax Plan $76,632 $12,000 $0 $64,632 $10,404
LAVINA KALWANI THRESHER STAFF / LLK1@RICE.EDU
$7,629 increase
Rice hopped on the online course bandwagon a few years ago, and the courses continue to be popular today. Massive open online courses (called MOOCs) were drawing in hundreds of thousands of students eager to access courses for free. The Rice administration began posting calls for professors to teach these online courses.
annual tax under current tax plan annual tax under proposed House tax plan
12,000 10,000 8,000 6,000 4,000 2,000 0
BIOC +$7,629
ENGL +$7,142
PSYCH +$7,166
BIOE +$7,617
BUSI +$7,327
*Calculated using a $30,000 stipend, typical of a graduate student in biochemistry at Rice. Total income includes $1,732 health insurance stipend provided by Rice and $44,900 full tuition waiver provided to many graduate students ($43,220 for graduate students in business). Calculation assumes single household with no dependents. Actual numbers vary, as students often receive external funding in addition to their stipends. All stipend and tuition information taken from graduate departments at Rice and cashier pricing. infographic by christina tan
RISHAB RAMAPRIYAN THRESHER STAFF / RR41@RICE.EDU
The Republican Party’s proposed tax plan threatens graduate students and university endowments, according to statements made by the American Council on Education and Association of American Universities and supported by Rice University. The House’s proposed tax plan, H.R. 1, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, would repeal previous provisions that excluded tuition waivers and tuition exemptions from taxable income for graduate students, according to the ACE. Chance Tarver, an electrical and computer engineering graduate student, said he would lose his ability to live just off his stipend. “If this bill passes, I may have to
quit pursuing my degree whenever it goes into effect,” Tarver said. “I will no longer be able to live off of my stipend since I will be taxed as if my income was double what it actually is.”
My standard of living would fall to the federal poverty line effectively. Chris Ellison Graduate Student Chris Ellison, a history graduate student, said that he would not be able to financially support himself if he had to pay income tax on tuition waivers.
“I might be keeping half of what I make now,” Ellison said. “My standard of living would fall to the federal poverty line effectively.” Erik Weaver, a physics and astronomy graduate student, said he is against classifying tuition waivers as taxable income because it is money that he never gets to see. “Given Rice’s fairly high tuition, this increases the amount of taxes a Rice graduate student would pay by almost a factor of five,” Weaver said. “To me, this is especially unfair, since the tuition that we pay is provided either by working for the university or by research grants.” George Zodrow, professor of economics and Public Finance Scholar at the Baker Institute, said the bill would hamper highereducation advancement.
“The House proposals go in the opposite direction [of advancing higher-education], curtailing several education credits, eliminating the deductions for student loan interest and the exemption of certain employerfunded tuition payments, and making tuition waivers taxable to graduate students,” Zodrow said. Katherine Shoemaker, a statistics graduate student, said she left a well-paying job to pursue graduate studies, but her decision would have much been harder if she had known about this tax bill. “I have to believe that Rice would do something about it, perhaps reducing tuition to nearzero rates for students working for the university, or something along those lines,” Shoemaker said. “If this does go through, the best case
A [massive open online course] is really for someone who’s interested and self-motivated in learning a topic. Scott Rixner Computer Science Professor “Back in 2012, MOOCs had a lot of hype as being one of the next great sources of educational breaks or educational opportunities,” Scott Rixner, a Rice professor who teaches online computer science courses via Coursera, said. “I think Rice felt that it was important to at least explore what was going on and be involved at least a little bit before they made some decisions about whether or not they should have greater involvement in this or not.”
GOP CONT. ON PAGE 4
COURSES CONT. ON PAGE 6
NEWS
Survey of All Students shows student support for LEAP proposal CAMERON WALLACE ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR / CFW2@RICE.EDU
A majority of students support the the Student Association’s Lifetime Enrichment Activities Program proposal to replace the Lifetime Physical Achievement Program requirement, according to the results of the 2017 Survey of All Students. The data presented at the SA meeting on Monday along with the introduction of the LEAP legislation showed that the 92 percent of the student body that answered the question supported the proposal by a margin of 63.09 to 31.19 percent. “I wasn’t surprised that so many students supported it,” SA President Justin Onwenu said. “Supporting it does not restrict students at all. It does the opposite; it gives them more freedom, so even if this passed, it would not hurt people who like the LPAP.”
The data were also broken down by college. Most colleges had over 50 percent approval, with the exception of Baker College, where SA Senator John Michael Austin sent a mass email opposing the proposal and the creation process earlier in the semester. Baker had 42.7 percent approval, 15.5 percent less than the next lowest college. Austin, a junior, said the questions on the SAS were not an accurate portrayal of student interests, because they did not allow for alternate viewpoints. “The questions on the SAS didn’t include the explicit option of maintaining the LPAP requirement while also creating these new classes, which I would have liked to have seen and is something Baker supports,” Austin said. If enacted, the proposal would expand the LPAP requirement to include a broader range of cours-
es. Opponents of the program have said that it would take away from the health education aspect of LPAP, while supporters have said that the program would contribute to Rice’s academic excellence. Onwenu said he was somewhat surprised by so much controversy. At the end of Monday’s Senate, Senator Ariana Engles interrupted the motion to adjourn, stating that she was unable to voice her opinion during regular meeting time. “I hope that [the executive team], as a team of fine individuals representing the entire Rice student body, consider this data as well, and then try to accurately reflect what the student body feels,” Engles, a Lovett College sophomore, said. Senate will vote on the proposal next week. If it passes, the Committee on Undergraduate Education will refine it and the Faculty Senate will decide on its implementation.
SAS RESULTS FOR LEAP SID
SID RICHARDSON VOTED MOST IN FAVOR BAKER VOTED MOST AGAINST
75%
OVERALL 63%
THIRD OPTION ‘OTHER’ IS NOT INCLUDED IN GRAPH BAKER
BAKER
50%
43%
OVERALL 31%
SID 19%
VOTED FOR
VOTED AGAINST infographic by sydney garrett