The Rice Thresher | Wednesday, January 15, 2019

VOLUME 103, ISSUE NO. 14 | STUDENT-RUN SINCE 1916 | RICETHRESHER.ORG | WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 16, 2019

Chief justices to crack down on crawls SAMMI JOHNSON THRESHER STAFF

As government shutdown drags on, Rice community weighs in on the border ELLA FELDMAN ASST FEATURES EDITOR

María Sanchez described her hometown as a little dull.

“It’s a boring town,” Sanchez, a Martel College junior, said, “but I really like living there.”

Sanchez is from McAllen, a city in southern Texas that borders the Rio Grande. Of the city’s estimated 142,696 residents, 85.2 percent are of “Hispanic or Latino origin,” according to the latest U.S. Census. And according to Sanchez, McAllen is “really safe.”

This is why, Sanchez said, she was angry when she heard that President Donald Trump visited her city and read the subsequent news coverage.

“I never thought that McAllen would be in the news,” Sanchez said, “and it sucks that it’s in the news for something really negative.”

Trump visited McAllen on Jan. 10 to discuss alleged criminal activity from illegal immigrants — an issue he called “a crisis of the heart, and a crisis of the soul” in a recent address to the nation — and his proposed solution: a border wall, for the building of which he is demanding more than $5 billion.

A political gridlock between Senate Democrats and the White House regarding this funding prompted a partial government shutdown that began Dec. 22, now 25 days ago, and is ongoing.

“We’re pretty pissed right now,” Sanchez said about the residents of McAllen.

SEE WALL PAGE 6

illustration by esther tang

Changes come to caregiving amidst concerns AMY QIN ASST NEWS EDITOR

The Wellbeing Center is placing additional regulations on the caregiving program, according to an email obtained by the Thresher sent by Si Qi Tong, a campuswide caregiver. These changes come amidst contradictory reports from Rice Emergency Medical Services (REMS), the Wellbeing Center and the caregiving program over whether REMS withdrew their support of the program.

REMS Withdrawal?

REMS director Lisa Basgall notified campuswide caregivers Tong and Leah Ramkelawan that REMS was withdrawing from the caregiver program due to concerns with the caregiving program, according to an email sent out by Tong to head caregivers at each college in September.

“Lisa from REMS has notified us about severe deficiencies in how we are training and recording the names of the caregivers for the year,” Tong said in the

email, which was sent after a meeting of college head caregivers. “Essentially, there are informal trainings going on with names being added to the caregiver list outside of official trainings. This is

Anyone should be able to give care if they know how to give care, regardless of an official status.

Ashton Duke DUNCAN COLLEGE SENIOR unacceptable to us and to her. Because of this, she has voiced her concerns to Dean of Undergraduates Bridget Gorman and has withdrawn further REMS support at our trainings.”

Tong said REMS’ withdrawal means that caregiver trainings at residential colleges will no longer have a REMS member in attendance.

“The only difference between previous trainings and those for this semester is that currently, there will not be a REMS member present to help field any questions that students may have,” Tong, a Sid Richardson College junior, said in an email on Tuesday. “The trainings are still the same high quality as they have always been, and tailored for each college.”

However, Basgall said via email on Tuesday that REMS had never withdrawn from the program, citing scheduling issues for its lack of presence at caregiver trainings last semester.

“REMS has not withdrawn from the caregiving program,” Bascall said.

“Occasionally in the last year or two when classes were scheduled on short notice, it was hard to find a REMS volunteer to attend the class. In fact, REMS is scheduled to attend classes scheduled for January.”

Agnes Ho, the director of the Wellbeing Center, who oversees the caregiving program, also said that REMS had not withdrawn from the program.

SEE CAREGIVING PAGE 4

Crawl stop hosts will now be responsible for transports that occur at their stops as part of a campus-wide effort to better regulate crawls, according to multiple chief justices.

Chief justices will also refuse to register events with underage hard alcohol consumption, students must fill out a form before hosting a crawl stop or face a fine, according to Hanszen College Chief Justice Frank Frankovsky. This rule is a shift from when event registration involving hard alcohol was a gray area, according to Duncan College Chief Justice Cole Crawford.

“Hard alcohol is chiefly used to save money and offer diversity in drink options,” Hanszen College Chief Justice Frank Frankovsky said. “But I would say that hard alcohol crawls are considered a high risk event, because if you have eight stops, you’re basically drinking eight hard alcohol beverages in however long your crawl stops last. So it can get really, really messy.”

If someone is intent on having hard alcohol, this talk may not change their attitude, but it may encourage them to be safer while hosting.

McKinzie Chambers SID RICHARDSON CHIEF JUSTICE While the talks were aimed to reinforce alcohol safety on campus, Frankovsky said he vocalized a concern to the administration and the other chief justices that the new rules could incentivize some students to lie about what drinks they will be serving at an event in order to successfully register their parties.

Hanszen freshman Syed Shams said the new rules appear to be more focused on protecting the university’s image than student safety.

“I get this is permanent and it’s trying to be pro-safety, but this seems really antitransport,” Shams said. “This doesn’t seem like really informed, well-meaning people making these policies up; these seem like people who are trying to save face for the university, making new policies so people won’t get transported.”

Crawford said that while not every host will be given the same punishment, all hosts are expected to take a more active role by avoiding double serving and distributing alcohol to alreadyintoxicated students.

“This is really because every single alcohol issue we’ve had at Duncan, and pretty much across campus, has been because of crawls,” Crawford, a Duncan senior, said. “You guys have been on crawls, I’ve been on crawls and it’s very rare to have a stop that is not hard alcohol, honestly. In order for us to bring back crawls to Duncan, we need to have a campus-wide plan, and we’ve already been talking about this.”

SEE ALCOHOL PAGE 4

THE RICE THRESHER

2 • WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 16, 2019

NEWS

Intro language courses to no longer carry DI credit SAVANNAH KUCHAR THRESHER STAFF

Students who take introductory-level language courses will no longer receive Distribution I credit for these classes beginning in May 2019.

This change comes after the accrediting body for schools in Texas recommended that the School of Humanities remove DI credit for first-year courses, according to Lecturer Hélade Santos, the director of language instruction at Rice’s Center for Languages and Intercultural Communication (CLIC).

Documents from the accrediting body, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, state that the recommendation is

based on the reasoning that introductory foreign language courses are skill courses rather than pure humanities courses, so they do not fall into the category of a DI course.

Lecturer Luziris Pineda Turi, the associate director of the CLIC, said that she is not worried about a drastic loss in enrollment because the introductory-level language classes have survived a lack of DI credit in the past. According to Turi, these classes did not start carrying DI credit until 2015.

“I’ve been here since 2010, so I was here pre-DI, I was here when we got DI and I’m here when we’re getting DI taken away,” Pineda Turi said. “All the languages that exist now have existed since then, so they

distribution language enrollment* *Percentages calculated from most recent data on Schedule Planner Distribution

Major Requirement

Free Elective

52.6%

56.1% 37.5% 6.4%

2.7%

first-year korean i

55.5%

44.5%

44.7%

0%

first-year french i

first-year spanish i

70% 33%

44% 22%

55%

30%

30.9% 13.8%

0% first-year russian ii

first-year hindi i

first-year russian ii infographic by sumin hwang

survived not having DI, getting DI and I’m positive that they will survive [now]. I think that [for] Rice students, their motivation can partially be DI, but I think for the most part it’s a personal interest in being a global citizen.”

Santos said the CLIC has been devising ways to overcome the fact that students might be discouraged to take first-year courses without the incentive of DI credit.

“We’ve been trying to brainstorm different ideas to approach the students,” Santos said. “First of all, [we will] provide the information that if they continue studying the language, they can have DI in the second-year courses, and also trying to convince them of the importance of studying a foreign language for their professional and their personal life, beyond just having the DI credit.”

Santos said one of the proposed solutions is beginning a promotional academic series where students would share their experiences from studying a foreign language.

Pineda Turi said that the number of students affected might not be significant, with many students entering with some previous knowledge of a language, thus bypassing the introductory course and going direclty into the upper level courses that still carry DI credit.

“I wouldn’t underestimate the number of freshmen that actually place higher, particularly in Spanish and some of the more commonly taught languages,” Pineda Turi said. “There’s also heritage speakers of Chinese and Hindi and they often don’t even start at the first level because they have some background knowledge of the language.”

However, Lecturer Jessica Morones, a Spanish lecturer who taught the introductory-level courses in the fall semester, said that removing DI credit will impact enrollment in language departments classes because these courses will lose the students whose only motivation to enroll was fulfilling their distribution requirement.

“Having DI is positive because maybe those students who were not motivated intrinsically, maybe they were motivated because it was a requirement, they will learn about the language and they start loving the language,” Morones said.

Santos, who teaches Portuguese, said that it is possible that the change will have more of an impact on the smaller languages.

“We don’t have that benefit of some of the students coming with some level of some knowledge,” Santos said.

Brianna Lee, a Hanszen freshman, said she was planning to take an introductory French class to fulfill her DI credit next semester. With this recent change, however, she said that she is less likely to include a language in her schedule, even though she has an interest in the subject material of the class.

“Especially for STEM people like me, I don’t like writing papers and stuff, and that’s more the reason why I wanted to take a language course for my DI credit,” Lee said. “But if I can’t do that now, I actually have to take humanities courses, so that means I don’t have any time to take French.”

Marcus Thompson, a sports management major, said that prior to finding out about this change, he was planning on taking an introductory Spanish class next semester to fulfill one of his DI requirements.

“I don’t want to take Spanish anymore,” Thompson, a freshman at Hanszen College, said. “I was going to take it because I took Spanish in high school, so I figured if I took the intro [class],[it would] be an easy way to get DI credit.”

Santos and Pineda Turi both said that they feel that ultimately, most of their students want to be in their classes.

“Our courses have very good evaluations, our instructors have very good evaluations, so they also have a very good experience every time they come to CLIC,” Santos said. “So I think that also encourages the students to come to study a language.”

NEWS

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 16, 2019 • 3

SA introduces resolution opposing Title IX changes CAMERON WALLACE SENIOR WRITER

from “a preponderance of evidence” to “clear and convincing” in order to convict.

“The language of this is written very much The Student Association Senate in response to why we felt the changes were introduced a resolution to submit a public proposed in the first place,” Morin said. letter to the Federal Register expressing “Not only do we disagree with the moral and Rice undergraduates’ opposition to the ethical parts of it, but in particular, to try Department of Education’s proposed Title IX and catch the attention of the Department of Education, a lot of what we wrote in this was changes at the SA meeting on Monday.

The resolution is open to campus-wide talking about why from a legal perspective discussion for two weeks before it goes to a these changes actually don’t make sense.”

The changes to the Title IX guidelines, vote on the last day of the public comment period for the proposed Title IX regulations, now called regulations, were proposed at Jan. 28, according to SA President Ariana the end of November, with only a two-month comment period, making it difficult for Engles.

“The comment period closes on Jan. 28 students to organize a response, according to 11:59 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, 11 p.m. Sid Richardson President Sara Meadow.

“By educating people on the proposed Central Standard Time, and Senate is 9 p.m.,” Engles said. “We’re cutting it close, but if changes and the comment process, we want it gets voted down or discussion continues to encourage and empower people to have too long, we can still at least send it to our their voices heard by the [Department of elected officials. At the very least, we have Education],” Meadow said. “Given that the that discussion and we have that awareness.” public only has 60 days to comment on these changes, the timing of How the changes the release makes it very would affect Rice is difficult for students to impossible to say, since educate themselves on the final version of the the changes and learn proposal is unclear, A lot of what we wrote how to navigate the and what is included in this was talking confusing commenting now is highly vague, process.” according to Director about why from a Some of the of the Office of Sexual legal perspective these proposed changes Violence Prevention changes actually don’t include relaxing sexual and Title IX Support make sense. assault reporting Cathryn Councill. requirements for a “If [the regulations] Taylor Morin number of university are approved, there personnel, requiring will be many people BROWN COLLEGE PRESIDENT universities to include at Rice involved in making adjustments in order to follow any a cross-examination of the accuser in their new guidelines,” Councill said. “No matter investigation of reported incidents and what regulations we must follow, there will be limiting Title IX protection to immediate options for reporting interpersonal violence educational environments, among others.

Last Wednesday, Engles, Students and our office will continue to be committed to supporting students who experience Transforming Rice Into a Violence-Free interpersonal violence and empowering them Environment (STRIVE) and the Office of Sexual Violence Prevention and Title with options and resources.”

According to Brown College President IX Support organized the “Your Voice, Taylor Morin, the letter included in the Your Comment” event, where students resolution primarily critiques three aspects met with staff from the Office of Sexual of the proposed regulations: the cross- Assault, the STRIVE executive team and examination requirement, the geographical Rice Director of Government Relations limiting of Title IX coverage and the shift in the Nathan Cook to learn and discuss the standard of evidence in Title IX proceedings proposed changes, according to Engles.

charlene pan / thresher

Student Association President Ariana Engles and Nia Prince, Director of Government Relations for the SA, present how to comment to the Federal Register on the proposed Title IX regulations.

“While we didn’t have a huge attendance, we’re working with the STRIVE executive team to implement a more effective collegeby-college approach that will hopefully encourage as many students as possible to learn about the changes and comment,” Engles said.

According to STRIVE liaison Daisy Gray, an increased burden of proof placed on accusers by the proposed regulations would result in the accuser’s assuming an unfair share of risk.

“When it’s a civil system, both students theoretically have something to lose,” Gray said. “The surviving student believes their education will be severely impacted if they have to stay on campus with their abuser, whereas the accused will lose some opportunities if they are found in violation of the sexual misconduct policy.

The clear and convincing evidence standard puts a higher burden of evidence on the surviving student, thereby making their access to education more difficult than the responding student’s.”

According to Engles, many of the proposed regulations, like the cross-examination requirement, will cause trauma to the accuser without making the process more equitable.

“Cross-examination brings so much extra complexity to what you have to go through,” Engles said. “In many ways, these regulations will provide extra clarity where there wasn’t clarity before, but they will also reduce the autonomy of the institution to really fit to its needs.”

However, Engles said that others may view the structural clarity offered by these changes as a boon, ensuring greater fairness in Title IX proceedings, so frank and widespread discussion of the resolution will be crucial.

“This is something that is politically charged, which means that people will have a variety of different opinions on it,” Engles said. “Some people at Rice will probably think that cross-examination is something we needed a long time ago, and other people might think that this is the worst idea they’ve ever heard. We want to hear that; we want to know that.”

new year, new sa initiatives The Rice Student Association introduced five new working groups and task forces at the first Senate of the semester on Monday.

visual and dramatic arts working group

texas student government coalition task force

- Create plan to expand financial accessibility for first generation and low-income students

- Assess current state of the VADA department through comparison to peer institutions

- The Fall 2018 Texas Student Government Coalition elected the Rice SA as the deputy director

- Group will focus on twelve areas including academic preparation before Rice, food insecurity and course accessibility

- Create set of recommendations to eliminate barriers to success for VADA students

- As deputy director, the Rice SA is responsible for tasks including writing legislation that the Coalition will support in the Texas Legislature

financial accessibility working group

innovation hub idea collection task force - Collect ideas on how to make the Midtown Innovation Hub more accessible to Rice students through student focus groups, meetings with stakeholders and research on U.S. innovation districts

low-income and first generation task force - Address challenges that new low-income and first generation students face - Collaborate with the Dean of Undergraduates, student leaders and relevant administrators to find solutions to these challenges infographic by sumin hwang

NEWS

4 • WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 16, 2019

Colleges host alcohol Associate dean pushes for more humanities PAAs talks to clarify policies RISHAB RAMAPRIYAN ASST NEWS EDITOR In response to a lack of humanities students in the Peer Academic Advising (PAA) program, Associate Dean of Humanities Lora Wildenthal has urged all humanities students to complete the Year-Long, O-Week and Head PAA position applications, which were due on Monday.

Wildenthal sent an email to all humanities undergraduates last Wednesday to explain the situation.

“Our PAA program is a very good thing overall,” Wildenthal wrote in the email.

“But it has not been serving first-year humanities students as well as it serves other new Rice students.”

Wildenthal said that there were no humanities majors or minors as PAAs at Duncan, Lovett, McMurtry and Sid Richardson Colleges during O-Week 2018.

Hanszen, Lovett and Martel Colleges have not had a humanities student as Head PAA for the past four years.

“Numerous students recall their sinking feeling of ‘Did I choose the wrong school?’ as they sat in their college commons during O-Week choosing courses and felt like they were the only ones there interested in the humanities,” Wildenthal said. “After O-Week, they realized that wasn’t the case, but why put new students through that?”

English and Political Science major Erika Schumacher, former O-Week coordinator and current Head PAA at Duncan College, said the problem lies in the underrepresentation of humanities majors in the applicant pools for PAA and O-Week advisor positions.

“The immediate actors that can affect this are the Office of Academic Advising, Head PAAs and O-Week Coordinators,” Schumacher said. “All three are doing their best with what we have, which sometimes is a limited applicant pool and a generation of incoming students that have by and large been convinced that pursuing the humanities is not a good use of their time.”

According to Schumacher, O-Week PAAs, who are selected by the Office of Academic Advising, are not always a diverse representation of all academic disciplines.

Additionally, Schumacher said that O-Week PAAs are in charge of academic planning sessions, so even if coordinators choose advisors who are PAAs, the O-Week PAAs may not put them to use.

“I personally think that there are cases, particularly in the last few years, where the OAA could have done a better job picking

FROM PAGE 1

CAREGIVING

“REMS has not withdrawn from the caregiver program and it has never stopped working with caregivers at public parties,” Ho said. “We’ve implemented some changes for the future, including agreeing that REMS should get a two-week notice to plan the training sessions.”

In an email Tuesday, Ramkelawan said that discussions for REMS to rejoin the caregiving program are currently underway.

“We are still in contact with [REMS], and it is very possible that they may join the program again,” Ramkelawan, a Duncan College senior, said.

Changes to Caregiving Starting this year, all caregivers at events must be confirmed a week in advance, according to Tong’s September email.

Furthermore, all caregiver trainings must be attended by Tong, Ramkelawan or a staff member from the Wellbeing Center.

These new practices were developed in collaboration with the Wellbeing Center, which oversees the caregiving program, Tong said.

Emma Reford, a socials committee head at Baker College last year, said that the socials committee at Baker was careful to cross-check the names of officially trained

a more well-rounded team, but of course I’m sure there were other things taken into account,” Schumacher said.

Schumacher said that as a Head PAA and former O-Week coordinator, she has experienced the challenge of balancing representation of all majors in advisors and PAAs with appointing advisors and PAAs to meet the actual demand from new students.

“The new student-to-advisor ratio is about 2:1, so if you are trying to make a crosssection of your college, and you have 10 humanities new students, being generous, you can aim for like four to five humanities major advisors and there are about 16 different majors offered by the School of Humanities,” Schumacher said.

Wildenthal said that having a broad set of humanities PAAs is important due to the great variety of subjects in the School of Humanities.

“Because the humanities curriculum is not very centralized, even if you have say a HIST major talking to you, that student might not know anything to say about specifics of VADA,” Wildenthal said. “It’s better to have larger numbers of people in the room, with a broader range of experiences.”

According to Wildenthal, the School of Humanities implemented two academic information sessions on the Monday of O-Week, but she has heard from students that they feel alone later in the week.

“It’s on the Wednesday and Thursday that students recall not having anyone in the room who knew any faculty in HUM departments very well, knew of very many courses or had ideas about how to prioritize activities in HUM or how research projects could work in HUM,” Wildenthal said. “That is when they recall that they were one of very few at the HUM Divisional Advisor table, and really felt alone.”

Wildenthal said that in addition to urging greater numbers of humanities students to apply for PAA positions, Rice can work on keeping track of new students’ academic preferences from their applications in greater detail, as well as allowing for longer advising time in O-Week.

Schumacher said that the dearth of Humanities PAAs during O-Week may add to the pressures on new students to stay away from the humanities.

“The lack of Humanities PAAs, particularly during O-Week, is an issue that makes new students interested in the humanities less likely to express and accurately pursue their interests,” Schumacher said.

caregivers with those who had signed up for events. However, she said there were issues with standardization and communication.

“In theory, the caregiving program is a great idea and helps to further a culture of care,” Reford, a junior, said. “However, in practice at public parties, it is perhaps impractical to expect students, who are most likely only in it for the service hours, to be expected to have that much responsibility.”

Reford suggested the familiar nature of the caregiving program renders it more suitable for college events than public parties.

“The caregiving program might be more applicable to smaller college events, like college Beer Bike events or Spirit Fridays (Fridays in the Quad) because this is a more intimate environment with fewer people, lower risk and stronger relationships between those present,” Reford said.

Ashton Duke, a former head caregiver at Baker, said he is hosting an informal caregiver training at Duncan this Thursday to address what he considered deficiencies in the program, particularly its prioritization of certifying a large number of caregivers over teaching people how to give care.

“Event registration shouldn’t be the only reason people go through the training,” Duke, a Duncan College senior, said. “Anyone should be able to give care if they know how to give care, regardless of an official status.”

ALCOHOL FROM PAGE 1

Following the alcohol talk at Duncan on Jan. 9 and 10, the temporary ban on alcohol-related events at the college was lifted via an email from the Duncan magisters before the Will Rice College public party, Risky Business, on Jan. 11.

However, Crawford said a ban on crawl stops at Duncan will remain in place until there is a campus-wide, concrete initiative in place in order to make crawls safer.

“We were talking about it with the presidents and the CJs, and we thought [the talks] would be a really good way of setting a unified front at the beginning of the semester and really establishing what the situation was moving forward,” Crawford said. “Not that there was any alcohol policy changes, but changes in how the CJ role is understood. We just wanted to make sure that everyone was on the same page moving forward.”

Duncan held separate talks: one for freshmen and sophomores and one for juniors and seniors. Hanszen and Sid Rich also had talks during syllabus week that were mandatory for underage students.

The talks were prompted by concerns raised by the administration and some college adult teams over the increase in student transports last semester and an apparent lack of a culture of care on campus, according to McKinzie Chambers, chief justice at Sid Rich.

“This job is based on trust, both in the college’s honesty and in the CJ’s ability to do their job,” Chambers, a Sid Rich junior, said. “I trust [Sid students] to register their events honestly, consider the safety of themselves and their friends and take responsibility for their actions. Lastly, if someone is intent on having hard alcohol, this talk may not change their attitude, but it may encourage them to be safer while hosting.”

A student looks on during a recent alcohol talk, held last week at some residential colleges.

The talks addressed the alcohol policy and focused on safety at crawls in particular, which chief justices said often featured a high prevalence of hard alcohol and were therefore more likely to result in students being transported by Emergency Medical Services.

alp yakici / thresher

NEWS IN BRIEF Student Health Services reports 11 flu cases since winter break RISHAB RAMAPRIYAN ASST NEWS EDITOR A total of 11 flu cases have been reported this semester to Rice University Student Health Services as of Tuesday afternoon according to Dr. Jessica McKelvey, director of Student Health Services.

McKelvey said that out of the 11 cases thus far, nine patients had not received flu shots. The two other patients, who had been vaccinated, showed milder symptoms, according to McKelvey.

Last year, 40 cases of influenza had had been reported in total in Jan. 2018, and 30 of those patients had not gotten vaccinated, according to McKelvey.

Student Health Services sent a university-wide email last week stating that students are reporting to Health Services with cases of the flu.

Students can obtain flu shots, specifically the quadrivalent vaccine, which protects against four different influenza virus strains, at Student Health Services for $17. McKelvey said that Student Health Services received a new shipment of flu vaccines Tuesday morning. Students on the Aetna Student Health Plan will be reimbursed, and many other insurance policies will also reimburse the cost of the vaccine, according to the email.

“Don’t postpone getting your flu shot,” McKelvey said. “It takes two weeks for the vaccine to become

effective, so it’s important for students to be vaccinated promptly.”

In Feb. 2018, the Student Association passed a resolution on vaccine accessibility that advocated for free year-round flu vaccinations at the health center and flu vaccinations at residential colleges, but neither of those measures have been instituted, according to Student Health Services.

The school-wide email also listed the proper protocol for washing hands and stressed that sick students should not go to class or dining areas.

“Contact the senior operations manager for your servery to make arrangements for your meals to be delivered so you don’t spread germs in public dining areas,” McKelvey wrote in the email. “Influenza viruses are often spread when an infected person coughs or sneezes near a susceptible person.”

illustration by esther tang

THE RICE THRESHER

5 • WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 16, 2019

OPINION STAFF EDITORIAL

OP-ED

Caregiving must be reformed

Title IX: We must speak up

The caregiving program serves as is completely eliminated after freshman year; a key component of Rice’s culture of the result is that after freshman year, very few care, designating students responsible people continue caregiving.

This constant turnover creates another for ensuring the safety of their peers at events with alcohol and preventing acute problem: a lack of institutional knowledge intoxication. The perceived weaknesses in within the caregiving program that helps the program (see p. 1), therefore, are highly prevent the program from improving.

We propose that colleges shift away concerning. We believe that a cultural from awarding service and structural shift is hours for caregiving necessary to improve the and instead implement quality of the program. a system that offers In its current state, There is no reason rewards for caregivers the caregiving program freshmen should be regardless of year. There relies upon freshmen in is no reason freshmen need of service hours the only ones with should be the only ones to fill slots. The service incentives to work with incentives to work hour system at most as caregivers. as caregivers. It leaves colleges is structured such that freshmen must complete a certain event planners desperately searching for number of volunteer hours in order to earn caregivers in the final hours before an event points for housing the following year. After and can force people into no-win situations: their freshman year, no student is required to either canceling events or lying on caregiving complete any hours. Because of this system, forms. The form of the incentive — a wage most caregivers sign up for the job aiming or some other benefit — is best left to the only to complete the required number of colleges. One thing is clear: something this hours — they rarely have an intrinsic desire important to Rice’s culture of care cannot be to uphold the culture of care. This motivation left to freshmen alone.

On Nov. 29, 2018, the Department of examined how we both address sexual and provide resources Education released proposed regulations misconduct that would replace Obama-era guidelines on for survivors who are members of our the enforcement of Title IX and reshape how community. In 2017, at the urging of schools handle cases of sexual misconduct. students, Rice created a required freshman As mandated by law, the proposed course, Critical Thinking in Sexuality, which regulations will not take effect until the according to the Office of Sexual Violence public has had 60 days to comment. This Prevention and Title IX Support, is designed comment period will end Jan. 28. As Rice to “address the dynamics of sexual and students and community members with a domestic violence, consent, the norms longstanding commitment to preventing that perpetrate violence in our society, and sexual misconduct, we have a responsibility bystander intervention.” Over our last four to provide our individual comments in the years at Rice, we have noted a remarkable Federal Register regarding these proposed increase in the visibility of resources available to survivors; however, despite that Title IX changes.

Title IX, a civil rights act established in progress, we recognize that as a university 1972, prohibits discrimination on the basis of and as greater community, we still have a sex at any educational institution receiving lot of work ahead of us. Commenting on the federal funding, including federal financial proposed Title IX changes is one of the many aid. Among its notable impacts, Title IX ways we can continue to move forward.

While we urge students to comment has ensured that women have equal access to education, athletics and employment on the draft rule, we recognize we do not opportunities. Due to increasing concerns yet know exactly how Rice will be affected that sexual assault and misconduct prevented by this proposal. Not only is Rice a private institution and equal access to education, therefore not subject the Department of to the same level of Education began to apply compliance as public Title IX to these incidents It’s not a hyperbole universities, but also in the 1980s. Courts have the Department of since held that Title IX to say that Title Education will not obliges schools to address IX has changed formally adopt any reported cases of sexual this country by policy changes until assault and harassment. after the closure of the It’s not a hyperbole to say protecting the civil comment period. It is that Title IX has changed rights of millions of also important for all this country by protecting individuals as they students to note that the civil rights of millions seek equal access to for the time being, no of individuals as they seek Rice Title IX policies equal access to education education programs. have changed and programs.

The Department of Education’s students should continue to report instances proposal aims to reshape the way in which of sexual misconduct. However, students institutions of higher education, such as should be aware of the gravity of this Rice, handle cases of sexual harassment proposal and understand that these changes and assault. Among other changes, the draft could have dire implications for the safety of regulation redefines sexual harassment, our peers, family members and friends at allows the respondent to cross-examine the other colleges and universities.

The Department of Education’s comment reporting individual and alters the reporting structure for survivors — if survivors do not period provides a direct avenue for Rice initially disclose to a Title IX coordinator, students to voice their opinions on this the university is not responsible for important issue. You can add your voice addressing the case. It’s On Us and other to the debate by attending college-specific sexual misconduct prevention groups have comment sessions hosted by college largely denounced these changes as making governments and liaisons from Students Transforming Rice Into A Violence-Free campuses less safe for survivors.

Sexual assault and misconduct among Environment (STRIVE) over the next two undergraduate students continues to weeks, or you can submit a comment be a problem across the United States, directly at the Federal Register’s website. and universities are often responsible Speak up on behalf of yourself, your fellow for determining how to handle reports of Rice students, your peers across the country misconduct and adjudicate allegations. and future generations — we have until Jan. The Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network 28 to make our voices heard.

Students can submit comments at (RAINN) reports that nationally, 23.1 percent of female and 5.4 percent of male http://bit.do/thresher. undergraduates experience rape or sexual assault, and these figures do not account for TAYLOR MORIN the many survivors who never report. Rice BROWN COLLEGE SENIOR is not immune — the 2015 Rice University ARIANA ENGLES Survey of Unwanted Sexual Experiences LOVETT COLLEGE JUNIOR MEADOW revealed that 310 women (24.2 percent) SARA SID RICH COLLEGE SENIOR and 87 men (7.4 percent) had an unwanted ELIZA MARTIN sexual experience at Rice.

BAKER COLLEGE SENIOR In recent years, Rice has critically

OP-ED

Monologues positive on balance

For many years, the Rice Women’s Resource Center (RWRC) has staged an annual production of Eve Ensler’s 1996 episodic play, The Vagina Monologues. While many find the show to be both empowering and illuminating, in recent years the production has provoked criticism from intersectional feminists. As directors of the RWRC, we believe it is our responsibility to address critiques of the show, discuss our decision to continue our production and detail how we hope to address the important issues being raised.

However, as expressed in an op-ed

by Brooke English and J Peterson last year, that empowerment may leave many members of the feminist community feeling marginalized by the idea that womanhood and having a vagina are equivalent, and that the show defines and constricts the conception of womanhood. Because of the rather homogenous identities of Ensler’s original interviewees and the lack of stories representing diverse groups of women, the Monologues have a tendency to portray a typecast version of these experiences.

In addition to concerns about the lack of inclusivity and intersectionality in the play, certain monologues can breed high levels of discomfort, garnering perspectives on their content as problematic, politically incorrect perpetrators of stereotypes — even by our own coordinating team. Monologues such as those that detail the rape of a woman in Afghanistan under Taliban rule,

a positive portrayal of statutory rape and a transgender woman who only feels validated in her gender after reassignment surgery are inherently troublesome.

The fact of the matter remains, however, that these are not creations of Ensler’s imagination but the real and lived experiences of the women interviewed. The purpose of sharing these experiences is not to hold them up as perfect renderings of all women’s experiences, but rather to use a few true experiences to spark real conversations about the complexity of lived womanhood.

While we are aware of and acknowledge the critiques of the play, we reject the notion that the answer is to stop producing the show.

This year, Rice’s production of The Vagina Monologues will be embedded within a week of events celebrating the diverse experiences of womanhood, examining issues of inclusion within the show and beyond and advocating for awareness of intersectional challenges in gender-based violence. We encourage anyone and everyone to attend the show and the preceding events, discuss these issues and reach out to us if they have any concerns about the production.

This op-ed has been condensed for print.

Read the full op-ed at RiceThresher.org

MACKENZIE KUBIK CHLOE WILSON DIRECTORS, RICE WOMEN’S RESOURCE CENTER

Correction

The print version of the article titled “Duncan considering lifting alcohol ban” in the Jan. 9 edition of the Thresher incorrectly stated that all six EMS transports from Duncan last semester were freshmen. The students transported were not all freshmen. We regret the error.

STAFF Andrew Grottkau* & Emily Abdow* Editors in Chief

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT Christina Tan* Editor & Designer

NEWS Anna Ta* Editor Rishab Ramapriyan Asst. Editor Amy Qin Asst. Editor

BACKPAGE Simona Matovic Editor & Designer

SPOTLIGHT Elizabeth Rasich* Editor Ella Feldman Asst. Editor SPORTS Michael Byrnes* Editor Madison Buzzard Asst. Editor OPINIONS Eric Stone* Editor

PHOTO Charlene Pan Editor Sirui Zhou Editor

DESIGN Sydney Garrett Director Sumin Hwang News Designer Jennifer Fu Features Designer Tina Liu Sports Designer Dalia Gulca Opinions Designer Esther Tang Illustrator

COPY Vi Burgess Editor Bhavya Gopinath Editor

BUSINESS OPERATIONS Shannon Klein Business Director Mai Ton Social Media/Marketing Manager Isabella Gandara Distribution Manager Karoline Sun Special Projects

ONLINE Ryan Green Digital Content Editor Charlie Paul Web Editor Nick McMillan Video Editor

*Editorial Board member

The Rice Thresher, the official student newspaper at Rice University since 1916, is published each Wednesday during the school year, except during examination periods and holidays, by the students of Rice University.

Letters to the Editor must be received by 5 p.m. the Friday prior to publication and must be signed, including college and year if the writer is a Rice student. The Thresher reserves the rights to edit letters for content and length and to place letters on its website.

Editorial and business offices are located on the second floor of the Ley Student Center: 6100 Main St., MS-524 Houston, TX 77005-1892 Phone (713) 348-4801 Email: thresher@rice.edu Website: www.ricethresher.org The Thresher is a member of the ACP, TIPA, CMA, and CMBAM. © Copyright 2019

THE RICE THRESHER

6 • WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 16, 2019

FEATURES jones senior alex hwang wins prestigious

CHURCHILL SCHOLARSHIP I was really lucky that I found a super, super good mentor, the type of mentor that would literally do anything for you — they’ll answer your emails at midnight for you and they’ll help you learn and grow and push you.

ELIZABETH RASICH FEATURES EDITOR

Alex Hwang found out he had won the Churchill Scholarship — full funding to spend a year at the University of Cambridge doing nothing but physics research — while crouched under a desk next to a pool in Hawaii. “[The executive director of the Churchill Foundation] was like, ‘Well, no one’s ever done that before,’” Hwang, a Jones College senior, said.

Hwang will live at Churchill College, a residential college that houses both graduate and undergraduate students.

In fact, Rice’s residential college system is based on Cambridge’s.

“Just like Rice, each [college] has its own traditions,” Hwang said. “I think there are a lot of colleges at Cambridge that are like Will Rice — they’re really old and have all these traditions. I think ones like Churchill, like mine, are more like McMurtry or Martel — more modern, [fewer] traditions, but still really nice.”

As part of the application, Hwang proposed a year-long research project

for his Master of Philosophy in Physics degree. His speciality is two-dimensional materials, which are layers of material only one-atom thick.

“When they’re that thin, there’s a lot of interesting physics that happens,” Hwang said.

He uses both of his majors, physics and electrical engineering, in his research.

“I started off as Elec, but in order to actually understand that and engineer that, you need physics, too,” Hwang said. “It’s almost like this landscape where you’re trying to engineer; it’s completely governed by new and interesting physics.”

Layering gold discs on the material allows researchers to generate quasi particles, which are half-light and halfelectron. The applications for such particles are wide-ranging. Hwang named a few areas that excited him, including using light to kill cancer, or light powered nanobots.

He’s looking forward to the chance to work with a group of nanophotonics researchers at Cambridge who are particularly famous in the field. The fact that he’s spending a year on research not tied to a Ph.D. is also a unique opportunity.

“[I can] maybe even pursue some more risky research ideas that if I was in a Ph.D. I wouldn’t pursue because there’s more pressure,” Hwang said.

After hearing that Hwang won the Churchill Scholarship, one might reasonably assume he is one of those mythological students who can somehow do groundbreaking research, be president of three clubs, get straight As and have a vibrant social life, all at the same time.

Even though he’s double-majoring, Hwang said he’s not that great at both electrical engineering and physics. Because his main area of research combines elements of each, he said he is much better at the intersection of the two rather than either one alone.

“If people asked me about the origins of the universe or something like that, I’m not very clear,” Hwang said. “On the other hand, if people asked me can you build me this computer, I wouldn’t be very good.”

He focuses primarily on his research, but also spends some time on science outreach to middle school and high school students.

“I’ve mostly learned to just go deep instead of spreading myself too thin,” Hwang said. “I don’t try to be a superhuman. I’ve

sort of learned as a senior now that it doesn’t really work.”

When he’s not in the lab, he likes to play basketball.

“I’ve sort of gotten worse over the years, but that’s one of my favorite things to do,” Hwang said.

Hwang attributes a lot of his success to Gururaj Naik, an electrical engineering professor, and Chloe Doiron, an applied physics Ph.D. student, who work with him on his research. He’s been working with Naik since he was a sophomore.

“I was really lucky that I found a super, super good mentor, the type of mentor that would literally do anything for you — they’ll answer your emails at midnight for you and they’ll help you learn and grow and push you,” Hwang said. “That’s clearly been the most important thing for me.”

Naik said that Hwang has always been highly motivated.

“Over time, I have seen him evolving from a curious, enthusiastic, less confident researcher into a creative, productive and confident researcher,” Naik said.

This article has been condensed for print. Read more on ricethresher.org.

Rice students, professors react to shutdown WALL

FROM PAGE 1

McAllen, in the eyes of students Madeline Kay West, a sophomore at Jones College, is also from McAllen. Her family lives in the part of the city located in the Rio Grande Valley. This area is commonly referred to by McAllen locals as “the Valley.”

Like Sanchez, Kay West described her home of McAllen as having a safe, smalltown vibe.

“With any city there’s areas where it’s predominantly safe and there’s other areas where, you know, you don’t really want to go there,” she said. “But for the most part it’s safe. I go out at like one in the morning with my friends.”

Kay West added that her whole life, she has never seen drugs in McAllen.

In his recent speech on immigration, President Trump referred to the Mexican border as “a pipeline for vast quantities of illegal drugs.”

“That’s also a result of where I’m from,” she said. “I’m lucky to be from a relatively safe part of McAllen.”

Gabriel Gomide, a McMurtry College senior, lived in a city in the Valley called Mission, right next to McAllen, for 10 years. He said his house was a 15-minute drive from the border.

“It really shows how close we are to Mexico,” Gomide said, adding that he

feels relationships across the border are the Rio Grande. “A wall is really not the more positive than the president has said. effective way to protect our border.”

Gomide, Kay West and Sanchez all “There’s lots of people with different immigration statuses and I think the said they’ve encountered undocumented relationship with Mexico in general is people in their city, but have never seen not what I think the public discourse is them as threat. They all said they’re against Trump’s wall. showing right now.”

“I think he should be focused on Both Gomide and Kay West said members of their communities stand on changing immigration policy to make it easier for people to both sides of the come here legally,” border wall debate, Sanchez said, but they feel the “rather than build majority are against this wall that I don’t the president’s I never thought McAllen think is going to proposal. Gomide would be in the news change anything.” added that most and it sucks that it’s in of the people Politics & numbers supporting the the news for something Tony Payan, wall work in law really negative. director of the enforcement.

Mexico Center at the Sanchez, who Baker Institute for does not live in the Maria Sanchez Public Policy, said Valley, said the few Martel College junior he felt like the nine people in McAllen minutes he spent who do support the watching President wall are concentrated Trump speak to the nation on Jan. 8 were in the wealthy Rio Grande Valley.

Jim Darling, the mayor of McAllen, a waste of time. During the speech, the told the Texas Standard that although President cited various statistics about the U.S. does need border security, a wall illegal immigration, including that 90 doesn’t make sense — especially since percent of heroin in the U.S. flows in from the southern border and that every the Rio Grande acts as a natural one.

“We know where our border is and day, thousands of illegal immigrants try we have one,” Darling said, referring to to cross the border.

“The President’s numbers were incomplete, misleading or outright wrong,” Payan said, referring to statistics President Trump presented about immigrants. “They’re not accurate by nearly any stretch of the imagination.”

Payan, an expert on the U.S.-Mexico border, said all the numbers that relate to the border are “going in the right direction,” or moving towards more border security and less criminal activity.

He said the number of unauthorized residents in the United States is going down, seizures of marijuana being smuggled across the border are down and the number of Mexican citizens crossing the border without papers is at its lowest point since the very early 1970s. In contrast, President Trump said the number of immigrant children being smuggled into the country has undergone a “dramatic increase.”

Because these numbers are waning, Payan said a border wall is a “dumb border.” He said he’d like to see money used instead for what he called a “smart border,” which would include an investment in technology only in areas along the border that have been identified as significantly prone to illegal migration.

Payan said he thinks the president’s characterization of illegal immigration as a crisis is beneficial to him because it SEE WALL PAGE 7

FEATURES

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 16, 2019 • 7

PARTY PATROL:

RISKY BUSINESS categories:

FOOD & DRINK

ATMOSPHERE

A+

jones senior

amy g.

B

Nothing says get your groove on like a crowded room and a disco ball.

Eactly what you’d expect from a public party: long lines for pizza that runs out and party sized bags of chips.

A-

art director

sydney g.

B+

Do you love Will Rice? Do you love Mo Bamba? Then you’ll love Risky Business.

B+

mcmurtry sophomore

athena h.

My boyfriend ate four pieces of pizza, and I ate four crusts of pizza, so it was pretty okay.

A

Lots of pizza, which is always good enough for me!

The party was boppin’ and the lights were a cool touch.

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WALL FROM PAGE 6 draws attention away from other aspects of his tenure, such as the ongoing investigation into his administration’s alleged ties to Russia.

“He’s got the incentive to make the border the boogeyman to distract from his personal troubles,” Payan said.

How the shutdown affects Texas On Jan. 12, the current government shutdown became the longest in U.S. history, beating the previous record of 21 days set by a shutdown under the Clinton administration in 1995-96.

“I think it’s gonna go longer than we think,” Lena Gohlman Fox Professor of Political Science Robert Stein said. “And I think it’s gonna do damage.”

Stein, an urban politics and public policy expert, said the most obvious effect the shutdown has had on Houston is in regards to NASA. “Right off the bat, you have a lot of people not getting a paycheck, obviously, but also not doing work,” he said. “There’s the scientific effect, which is hard to assess in terms of dayto-day, but will only get worse as the shutdown gets longer.”

The shutdown also affects federal courts and Stein said closed courts and canceled hearings will contribute to already-present backlog in Texas immigration courts.

He also said the shutdown’s effects on the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Agriculture, the National Park Service and the Transportation Security Administration have all had negative consequences for the state. On Jan. 13, George Bush Intercontinental Airport closed the security checkpoint at Terminal B due to staffing shortages. Southwest Texas’ Big Bend National Park discontinued visitor services due to the shutdown.

As far as Rice, Stein said a potential longterm effect of the shutdown is alienating

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MUSIC & DANCING

INTANGIBLES

A

C-

The dress code made it easy to know how to dress for success — however risky you want your business to be.

Could it have hurt to play something from the top 40s?

B-

Meme Bamba, I mean Mo Bamba, played at least two times. Which was two times too many.

This was a really classic, wholesome(?) public, and I’m really senti

D

The music was high-key awful until the last 30 minutes, then it was fantastic.

ACROSS 1 Famous female interpreter of Lewis and Clark 8 Famous female Underground Railroad rescuer 9 Units of measurement for current 12 _____ Dworkin, radical feminist famous for criticism of pornography 14 Bout ender in boxing 17 Rosalind Franklin is famous for her X-ray crystallography of this molecule 18 Clumsy 20 UK medical service 21 Maid or nanny in China (outdated) 24 With 26 Across, the youngest Nobel laureate 26 With 24 Across, Pakistani activist for female education

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AB

The dress code is great, nothing says great fashion like a button up, underwear and tube socks.

OVERALL

B+

Solid public party, and a great way to start off the semester.

B+

Everybody was wearing the exact same thing. (Oh wait, that’s every Rice public.)

B+ Although it’s not the best party on campus, I’m still gonna go every year.

Crossword by Carolina Hatanpaa For the Thresher

Elizabeth Cady _______, famous suffragette Assets under management (abbr.)

Border Patrol parent org.

Org. for doctors-to-be Georgia (abbr.)

Indefinite article Prolific female talk show host, _____ DeGeneres Chicago airport code Wangari _______, first African woman to receive Nobel peace prize and founder of the Green Belt Movement “Illmatic” rapper Frida _____, famous female Mexican artist Secular Franciscan Order (abbr.)

Fifty percent ___ Kanata, “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” character Predecessor to carte or mode Title before a woman’s name free of reference to marital status Group to help drinkers

Answers will be posted on ricethresher.org and on the Thresher Facebook page.

international students through aggravating heated discussion about immigration. He speculated this could lead to a decline in the number of foreign students applying to universities in the country.

The president has hinted at the possibility of declaring a national emergency, which would allow him to reallocate government funding to whatever he sees fit. Stein said that one of the avenues Trump could take would be to move funding from the Emergency Operations at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers towards funding for the wall. This would include disaster relief money, which has been critical in post-Harvey recovery.

But Stein said he doesn’t think the president will declare a national emergency because he would likely face various court cases, and that would conflict with other interests.

“I don’t think the president cares so much about the policy,” Stein said. “He cares about getting reelected in 2020.”

An unintended consequence There’s another faculty member at the Baker Institute Mexico Center whose work relates to the border — just not in the way one might think. Scott Egan, an assistant biosciences professor and faculty scholar at the Mexico Center, found that a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border would put over 100 endangered species living near the border at risk.

Egan’s lab, which studies evolution in natural populations, published a public policy brief through the Baker Institute addressing this impact. They found that border walls decrease or eliminate movement between populations on either side of the wall, which can lead to reductions in genetic variation within a species. They also found that walls have been shown to increase the phenomenon of inbreeding.

“This is not good for any species and [is] especially dangerous for endangered species with low numbers of individuals within populations,” Egan said.

Apply NOW to be a 2019 - 2020 O-Week Diversity Facilitator!

Applications and information online at http://oma.rice.edu/diversityfacilitators/ or scan

Contact Amna Ali (ama16@rice.edu) or Lindsay Josephs (ltj1@rice.edu) if you have questions.

Application deadline: 5 p.m. Friday, January 25th.

The Rice Office of Multicultural Affairs • oma.rice.edu

THE RICE THRESHER

8 • WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 16, 2019

ARTS&ENTERTAINMENT ESPRESSO YOURSELF ART OPENING

Lovett College senior Suzanne Zeller discusses her visual art work (now on display at Coffeehouse). Zeller’s work is a part of Espresso Yourself’s spring art showing, which also includes visual art by Baker College sophomore Chelsey Wen and Duncan College junior Jennifer Fu, as well as video art by McMurtry College senior Ashton Drake and music by Jones College junior Shotaro Abe.

“

We figured Sunday night would be a nice chill time when nobody had class. Espresso Yourself performances will be Sundays for the rest of this semester.”

Elliot Butterworth KEEPER OF COFFEE

alp yakici / thresher

LIFESTYLE

Bullet journaling: a way to start managing your stress NAOMI WENTZ SENIOR WRITER

Many people pledge to become better versions of themselves for the new year.

While these New Year’s resolutions can take an endless number of forms, a lot of these promises fall along the lines of being more organized and procrastinating less.

Journaling has seen a huge rise in popularity over the past several years — this versatile hobby can be used as a way to stay on top of the countless tasks that plague lives as the year progresses.

Of course, there are other reasons to journal besides just arranging your life. Many individuals use it as a way to relax, which is most apparent when using journaling to make the items on a growing to-do list manageable.

Journaling can also help you take a break from technology in general, even if it’s just for a few minutes a day. Screens invade our daily lives almost nonstop, and most activities are digitized in some way or another. Actually putting a pencil or pen to paper allows the user to separate themselves from often stressinducing devices.

Even better, journaling is a relatively easy hobby to adopt because there are almost

no rules or restrictions. To get started, all you need is some type of notebook and a pen or pencil. Pens are better because they stand out more on white paper, but it is also important to make sure the ink doesn’t bleed onto multiple pages underneath.

Using a set of pens in different colors allows for more variety in the notebook’s contents.

Notebooks that are grid-lined or unlined are best because they allow more freedom when making doodles or designs. Additionally, some use supplies such as a ruler (for making tables, graphs and calendars), washi tape (decorative tape) and stickers (for personalizing your notebook).

While some decide to adopt their own journaling style, the style most often used is bullet journaling. To start a bullet journal, designate the first page as a table of contents.

On the next page, draw 12 miniature calendars for all 12 months of the year, numbering each day and indicating days of the week. Continue the journal in the following pages by creating more calendars. The calendar for a single month should take up an entire page and the following page should be a calendar of a single week within that month. Each weekly calendar should be followed by daily to-do lists that take up one page (resulting in seven

THE WEEKLY SCENE

BUSINESS & PLEASURE Join former Rice photography lecturer Paul Hester on Thursday from 6 - 8 p.m. for the opening of “Business & Pleasure: Fifty Years of Photographs

by Paul Hester.” The event is free and will be held in the Rice Media Center.

Rice Media Center

LUCAS JOHNSON The Moody Gallery (not the one on campus) will host a reception for “Selected Paintings & Drawings,” a collection of works by Lucas Johnson.

The event is Saturday from 5 - 7 p.m., with a gallery talk at 5 p.m.

Moody Gallery 2815 Colquitt St.

illustration by marlena fleck

to-do lists following a one-week calendar).

It’s recommended that you create a key for the activities and action items you put in your calendars and place it at the beginning of your journal to indicate completed tasks, canceled events and very important to-do list items.

That being said, bullet journals don’t have to be restricted to tracking classes and assignments. Many choose to track their mood, diet, exercise or sleep over the course of a week or month to learn more about themselves and find ways to refine their life.

Journaling may seem like just another task to be added to the growing list of activities and responsibilities that can accompany the new year. However, the purpose of journaling isn’t to add more stress to a busy life — it’s to provide more control to the journaler so that they are empowered to accomplish everything they need to for the coming days, weeks and months. Even if your journal fails to follow the somewhat-rigid structure of a classic bullet journal, your efforts will still bring you closer to your New Year’s goal.

CHERYL DONEGAN: GRLZ + VEILS

KOREAN CULTURE NIGHT

Head to Contemporary Arts Museum Houston on Friday from 6:30 - 9 p.m. to explore its newest exhibit, Cheryl Donegan’s “GRLZ + VEILS.” The selection will include paintings, videos, unstretched fabric and a collection of clothing.

Admission is always free.

Watch masked singers compete for a prize, eat jaeyook bokum, participate in a Korean beauty booth and more at Rice’s 2019 Korean Culture Night. The event will be held Saturday from 7 - 9:30 p.m. Tickets are $8 pre-sale and $10 at the door.

Contemporary Arts Museum Houston 5216 Montrose Blvd.

RMC Grand Hall

ARTS&ENTERTAINMENT FOOD

Food halls, street coming nearby CHRISTINA TAN A&E EDITOR

A Rice Village food hall, downtown food hall and a Bellaire Boulevard food street will join the ranks of Houston’s expansive culinary scene, bringing both nationwide favorites like boba shop Chatime and locally-sourced food stalls within a 10-mile radius of campus.

RICE VILLAGE FOOD HALL According to Paper City Magazine, the company behind New Orleans-based St. Roch Market will replace the currently abandoned Rice Village Arcade property with a brand-new food hall. A newer concept to the restaurant scene, food halls combine the well-known communal aspect of food courts with an emphasis on local, artisanal shops and markets.

Such halls match increasing consumer expectations of fresh, locally-sourced food while reducing costs for restaurants who might otherwise struggle to maintain fullfledged spaces.

With a 4.5/5.0 rating on Yelp, St. Roch Market is beloved in New Orleans. It features cuisines like cold-pressed juices, Haitian street food and New Orleans seafood.

St. Roch Market’s press contact Luciana Salame said that the company was not ready to give more details on the Houston project, but will increase communication when development begins. Due to an ongoing lawsuit about the St. Roch Market name, Will Donaldson, a company owner, told Eater Houston that the Rice Village market will not bear the same name. The unnamed food hall will join the likes of Finn Hall, mentioned recently as a Houston highlight in the New York Times’ “52 Places to Visit in 2019.”

DOWNTOWN FOOD HALL Too impatient to wait for a Rice Village installment? Another 35,000 square foot food hall named Understory will take residence in the downtown tunnels, according to Eater Houston. The hall will include a full-service restaurant, seven food stalls and a cocktail bar. Designed by architect Michael Hsu (responsible for Uchi and Local Foods), the hall will also include a large “gathering place” staircase connecting the street with the downtown tunnel system.

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 16, 2019 • 9 FOOD

A barista’s guide to Houston coffee shops SYDNEY GARRETT ART DIRECTOR

FAVORITES Blacksmith (2.4 miles away) 1018 Westheimer Road Retrospect Coffee Bar (2.7 miles away) 3709 La Branch St. Inversion Coffee & Art (3.0 miles away) 1953 Montrose Blvd.

A 2nd Cup (6.1 miles away) 1111 East 11th St. Hello, Coffee Plebeians of Rice University.

How’s it going? Are your classes off to an okay start? Be honest — how many Nutty Bees have you bought so far this semester?

If your tetra is gone, and you’re tired of the dead-eyed stares you get on Fondy 6th, maybe it’s time to venture off campus for some sweet, fresh study grinds. I know we all love the ~vibes~ at Chaüs, but sometimes (only sometimes) it’s worthwhile to get your fix outside of the hedges. As a maker (and keeper) of coffee, I hope to provide you with a unique look at some of the best (and worst) coffee shops around Houston.

AGORA As a lifelong pessimist, I’ll start this list off with one of my least favorite shops in the city. Agora is a bar and coffee shop combo — but also they have belly dancers sometimes?

I find myself here when literally every other coffee shop I enjoy more is closed (Agora closes at 2 a.m.) and when I can’t bring myself to go to Fondren. The lighting is depressingly minimal, the tables are weirdly low and the $5 minimum on credit card charges means that your trip to Agora might not be as pleasant as you might hope.

A 2ND CUP You will have to drive at least 15 minutes to get to A 2nd Cup, but it’s probably worth it.

The tables are aplenty, the space is large and the cause is good. A 2nd Cup will donate all of its profits to support survivors of human trafficking, according to its website. Sip good coffee, study biochemistry and feel really good about yourself, too.

BLACKSMITH Blacksmith is small, and while you may be hard-pressed to find a good spot in the space, the quality of coffee makes up for it. They also have biscuits. Really, really good biscuits. Bring your parents or a date to Blacksmith, and they’ll be impressed by your coffee snobbery. Plus, the baristas are so trendy that they put Coffeehouse KOCs to shame.

CATALINA COFFEE I’m not sure if Catalina has a motto, but if they did, it would probably be “disconnect to connect.” Catalina has no visible, accessible outlets and no wifi, which might be a dealbreaker for some of the less dataendowed among us. But, they do have delicious iced tea and beautiful wooden benches. Roll up to Catalina with a good book or a great friend and ball out.

INVERSION COFFEE & ART Inversion was my absolute favorite coffee shop for a long time. Bright and airy, it’s connected to an art gallery that’s open over the weekend. Parking can be a disaster, but finding a spot to park your booty is much easier because there are tons of seats (and tons of outlets). They have interesting specialty drinks, like the honey badger and toaster latte. Plus, they serve gelato!

SIPHON COFFEE To be fair to all of you diligent, ethical Thresher readers, I might be slightly biased* against Siphon, because I went all the time during the summer of 2017 while I was studying for the MCAT. So my memories of it are tinged with sadness and Erik Erikson’s theory of psychosocial development.

However, putting all of that aside, seats are really hard to come by and the drinks are pretty pricey, but the food is good and so are the baristas.

*This is an article written about coffee by a member of the Chaüs Fäm. Go to Yelp if you want an unbiased review.

CAMPESINO COFFEE HOUSE Campesino is located inside of an antique, repurposed house, which means that there are lots of nooks and crannies where you can hide while you’re sobbing into your textbook of choice. The food is good and the drinks are interesting. Some baristas are better than others, so you’re never really sure what kind of coffee experience you’ll have. Campesino can get a little stuffy if you’re planning on camping out there for a while, so wear lots of layers.

RETROSPECT COFFEE BAR I. Love. Retrospect. And you will love Retrospect too! It’s an outdoor coffee shop, so stay away if it’s getting a little sweaty or humid outside. However, if you’re willing to brave the heat (or enjoy a beautiful day), you’ll be rewarded with paninis, crêpes and Café de Olla (Mexican coffee). All very good things.

MORNINGSTAR Morningstar is tucked away in a random little strip mall a ways away from campus.

They have super interesting matcha drinks and vegan donuts that are a crowd Sydneypleaser. This unfortunately won’t be the spot for you if you’re a night owl. Morningstar closes at 3 p.m. every day, but the early bird gets the worm anyways, right? Plus, (you didn’t hear it from me) the baristas there are pretty cute.

RICE COFFEEHOUSE Coffeehouse? I haven’t heard of her! I’ve been informed that I need to be unbiased in this article, but I honestly love Coffeehouse a lot so I’m not sure that I can do that for you. If you don’t want to leave campus, because, let’s face it, sometimes you don’t, you have a great coffee shop right in your very own stomping grounds. Deal with the intense lines, random music and avoiding eye contact with everyone you’ve ever known in your life, and have a fun time while you do it.

PLAY IN A DAY

Brown College freshman Mia Jones and Wiess College sophomore Jacob Liang act as a couple subject to the romantic manipulation of a fortune teller, played by Lovett College freshman Josiah Jones. This play was written by Jones College senior Emily Abdow and directed

by Martel College senior Jake Reinhart. Like all plays part of Play in a Day, it was written between 8 p.m. Friday and 7 a.m. Saturday.

Disclosure: Abdow is the editor-in-chief of the Thresher.

BELLAIRE FOOD STREET A food street will arrive on Bellaire Boulevard as part of a Chinatown expansion, according to Eater Houston.

The street will feature nine eateries, seven of which have already been confirmed. All nine will be open by summer 2019, with some opening before then. The street, which is essentially a long, horizontal plaza, will include well-known boba chain Chatime, South Korean coffee chain Tom N Toms Coffee and Beard Papa’s cream puff chain. It will also include a local Houston fast-casual style restaurant, Wai Station.

A rendering of the proposed Rice Village food hall. The food hall will replace the Rice Village Arcade property.

courtesy trademark property

channing wang / thresher

THE RICE THRESHER

10 • WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 16, 2019

SPORTS

Nine-time Texas state champion Rice Rugby turns 50 MICHAEL BYRNES

Toungate said that most people on Rice’s team have little to no rugby experience when they show up as freshmen.

“We have three guys on the team currently Just two years after Rice started charging tuition and five years after Doc C first graced that had experience before coming to the university’s hallowed halls, Stewart Morris college,” Toungate said. “I came in knowing Jr. (‘71) arrived on campus as a transfer from nothing about rugby. I got recruited out of the University of Virginia. The year was 1968, O-Week by the former captain; I had a love of and Morris soon discovered that there was no contact sports and rugby was the thing to do.”

To bring the new players up to speed, rugby club yet extant at his new school.

Now, 50 years later, the Rice University Botha said he, as well as the assistant coaches Rugby Club is celebrating its half-centennial and veteran players, have to start by teaching on campus. In the interim period, the team the basics. “[We start] literally from: this is a ball, this has piled up accolades, winning nine Texas Championships since 1989 and finishing No. is how you catch, this is how you pass,” Botha 9 in the country in 2000, according to the said. “We like to start pretty slowly, because rugby’s a tough sport and we want to make club’s website.

Faculty associate Jabus Roberts has been sure everyone’s safe, so we spend a lot of time with the team for 36 years. He’s a nuclear going over the safest way to do things on the physicist by trade but a rugby scholar at heart. rugby field.”

After establishing the fundamentals, Though he hasn’t played the game himself in a while, his passion for the game still Botha said he likes to focus on skillwork. shines through in his wealth of knowledge According to him, the focus stems partially from his coaching for the game’s history. philosophy and partly out According to him, rugby of necessity. as we know it today “We always play can be traced back Seeing [the players] against teams where we’re almost 200 years to a outmuscled, size-wise,” few overzealous high- come back to the Botha said. “We can’t be schoolers. alumni game is a lot bigger and stronger than “In 1823, the only kids of fun. [Rice Rugby] them, [so] we want to be at Eton [a prestigious more skillful than them.”

English boarding school] is lifetime, and a lot Most of that training in rugby who could play of these guys stay takes place in practice, were soccer types who friends for years. where the coaches can were very fast,” Roberts instruct players, stop the said. “So this one boy Ed Brown game and make executive got upset, grabbed the FORMER HEAD COACH decisions. But according ball, ran it, knocked a guy and touched it down in the goal. And he to Botha, one of rugby’s most unique aspects was expelled from school. But [the students] is how much in-game decision-making is figured out [they] could devise a game that’s made by the players on the field.

“Rugby, unlike football, is continuous,” for everybody, and not just fast, agile kids. So Botha said. “So there’s time to think on they came up with rugby.”

Historically, rugby hasn’t been quite as the field, and the players have to make the popular in North America as in countries such decisions. It’s very important that you teach as England and Australia. And according them and train them to become decisionto Roberts, most of the historically good makers on the field, not just the rules.”

Most of the team’s matches take place in North American teams come from California and British Columbia, not Texas. However, Texas against teams like the University of according to head coach Mario Botha, the Houston, against whom Rice has an annual rivalry game. But according to former head landscape is changing quickly.

“I grew up in South Africa, and rugby’s a coach Ed Brown, who coached the team from way of life over there,” Botha said. “But the 1996 to 2007, the team sends two players to thing about rugby in Texas is that it’s growing New Zealand every year, and the whole team so much. Before, it wasn’t every school that visits Ireland every four years. Toungate, was playing rugby. Now, every school has who was one of the two players who visited a rugby program. It’s being played at high New Zealand last year, said he found the schools now, so schools like [Texas A&M experience both eye-opening and helpful. “[I was] able to learn that rugby has an University] and [the University of Texas, Austin are getting 20 [or] 30 players every year enormous international community [and] that have been playing rugby for three [or] that it’s practically a religion in some parts of the world,” Toungate said. “Being able to four years in high school.”

In contrast to the larger Texas schools, bring those experiences back and teach the team captain and McMurtry senior Lane team skills that I’ve learned is really cool.”

SPORTS EDITOR

courtesy bill arnold

Wiess sophomore Olu Fafowora runs upfield during the Rice University Rugby Club’s annual rivalry match against the University of Houston on Oct. 20, 2018. From Sept. to Feb., Rice plays games in a traditional rugby format of 15 players per team and two 40-minute halves. Later in the season, they play sevens rugby, with seven players per team and two seven-minute halves.

As its 50th anniversary rolls around, the team has a large and highly involved alumni base who keep in touch and return to Rice for the annual alumni game. According to Brown, the bonds formed between teammates during their time playing together are the centerpiece of the Rice rugby experience.

“Seeing [the players] come back to the alumni game is a lot of fun,” Brown said. “[Rice Rugby] is lifetime, and a lot of these guys stay friends for years. They’ll tell you that the best thing of their experiences at Rice was the rugby team. To be part of that is a big deal for me.”

Haet serves up some weekend Orlando magic SPENCER MOFFAT SENIOR WRITER

In their first match action of the 2019 season, the Rice women’s tennis team completed the Orlando Invitational this past weekend with a record of 16-16, including 12 wins and eight losses in singles matches.

In singles play, the Owls were led by sophomore Michaela Haet, who finished the weekend with an unbeaten record, culminating with a win in three sets against the University of Kansas’ Malkia Ngounoue. Head coach Elizabeth Schmidt said she attributed Haet’s strong performance to her work ethic.

“She’s an extremely hard worker and it was great to see the fruits of her labor come through,” Schmidt said.

At the invitational, the Owls faced two opponents in the top 25: No. 16-ranked Kansas and No. 18-ranked Texas Tech University, according to the preseason Oracle Intercollegiate Tennis Association Division I poll. Rice also faced North Carolina State University, which received several preseason top-25 votes but not enough to secure a ranking.

During the first day of play, the Owls took three victories in singles play and conceded three losses. Haet and Rice’s freshmen twins from Belgium, Victoria and Anastasia Smirnova, won both of their singles matches on the day. In doubles play on Friday, the Owls finished with zero wins, losing all four doubles matches.

Haet highlighted Saturday by notching her second consecutive win over a nationally ranked singles opponent,

defeating No. 23-ranked Anna Rogers of North Carolina State in straight sets. The Owls added another weekend win when No.111-ranked Alana Smith of NC State fell to Victoria Smirnova in a 6-7, 6-4, 6-4 match. On Saturday, three other Owls had victories against Wolfpack opponents as Anastasia Smirnova, Niezgoda and sophomore Linda Huang won.

As Saturday was more victorious for the Owls than Friday, Schmidt said she was impressed with the team’s ability to bounce back from some early losses.

“We had some moments as a group where we struggled early, but we found a way to fight through and turn some matches around,” Schmidt said.

Doubles play on Saturday proved to be better for the Owls, as they finished with two wins and two losses. Niezgoda and

Anastasia Smirnova won convincingly with a 6-0 win against a doubles pair from Texas Tech. Sophomore Anna Bowtell and senior Fernanda Astete also secured a doubles victory.

Those two teams would also win on Sunday against doubles pairs from North Carolina State. Overall, Rice was 4-8 in doubles matches.

The Owls’ first home match of 2019 will be a dual match against Lamar University on Friday at 2 p.m. Then, Rice travels to Waco, Texas to take on Baylor University. The Owls will face the Bears on Jan. 21 at 2 p.m. According to Schmidt, this team is looking forward to this week’s tough schedule.

“It’s a heavy load week for us,” Schmidt said. “But we are really excited about the challenges ahead of us.”

SPORTS

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 16, 2019 • 11 free throw line, which ranks second and first among Rice guards, respectively.

Grigsby’s 3-point shooting has improved each year with the Owls. In her first year at Rice, Grigsby shot 37 percent. She improved that to 40 percent her sophomore year and raised it a tick the year after that.

This year, her overall field goal percentage, points per game and assists per game are also all career-highs.

According to her, playing beside attackminded scorers such as Ogwumike and Iademarco has allowed her shooting ability to flourish.

“My teammates continue to put me in a position to get open shots and I feel it is my job to knock them down,” Grigsby said. “If I’m not, I just have to go get in some extra shots [in practice] so they can continue to depend on me when they set me up.”

SIXTH WOMAN OF THE YEAR:

LAUREN GRIGSBY

[Coming off the bench] gives me a chance to analyze the game and try to spot some of the opposing team’s weaknesses.

Lauren Grigsby SENIOR GUARD

juan deleon / courtesy rice athletics

Senior guard Lauren Grigsby brings the ball up the court during Rice’s 76-42 victory over the University of Texas, El Paso on Jan. 12 at Tudor Fieldhouse. Grigsby totaled seven points, five assists and four rebounds in a team-high 30 minutes of game action. It was the second game in a row that Rice won by more than 30 points; in their previous win, Grigsby contributed ten points and four rebounds.

MADISON BUZZARD ASST. SPORTS EDITOR

Lauren Grigsby, a senior guard on the women’s basketball team, begins nearly every game sitting on the bench, but she doesn’t mind at all. According to Grigsby, fulfilling her role as a player off the bench requires her to take on different responsibilities in each game.

“I personally like coming off the bench because it gives me a chance to analyze the game and try to spot some of the opposing team’s weaknesses,” Grigsby said. “Also, if my teammates or coaches see anything on the bench as well, they will mention it, and I’ll try to go into the game and implement it and hope to help the team in any way I can.”

Grigsby is a four-year member of the Owls and has played for Rice during the

entirety of Tina Langley’s tenure as head coach. This season, she is scoring 8.5 points per game and shooting a team-high 44 percent from 3-point range. Fellow senior and 3-point sharpshooter Nicole Iademarco said Grigsby’s excellence as a perimeter threat has opened up the floor for paint scorers like sophomore center Nancy Mulkey.

“Lauren is always great to play with,” Iademarco said. “She attacks the basket really hard and she does a lot of different things.”

Langley has chosen to start Grigsby in two games and has played her in all 16. According to Langley, possessing excellent scorers such as Iademarco, a forward and junior guard Erica Ogwumike force her to make difficult decisions in regards to starting lineups.

“Depth is a blessing,” Langley said.

“We have not been as deep as we are at this point in a long time. We have a lot of

players who can contribute. It gives each of them confidence; that is [if] they are not performing on that night, someone else has their back. It is the mark of championship teams to have depth.”

Currently, Rice stands at 13-3 and has claimed a victory in each of its first four Conference USA games. Grigsby’s performances have been mostly inspired with a few hiccups: on one hand, she has notched eight double-digit scoring games; on the other hand, she has been held scoreless in three games this season.

In each of Grigsby’s scoreless games, she played 10 minutes or fewer.

Grigsby has been given a career-high average of 20.6 minutes per game this season and has produced extremely efficient shooting numbers. In addition to shooting 44 percent from three-point range, Grigsby also shoots 51 percent from the field and 85 percent from the

During Grigsby’s freshman year and Langley’s first season as head coach, Rice finished a paltry 9-22.

After easily surpassing nine wins in each year since, including a Women’s Basketball Invitational championship and a Women’s National Invitation Tournament berth, Grigsby said her coach deserves heaps of praise.

“I’d say the biggest difference [between then and now] is the fact we can all help coach one another and hold each other accountable,” Grigsby said.

“When I first got here, Coach Langley was implementing all our [playcalling] systems, so no one could really help anyone because we were all learning it for the first time. Now our [four] seniors have all been around long enough to know what’s expected of us.”

Grigsby has scored 17 points combined in Rice’s two most recent conference games. According to her, as other teams attempt to lock down Iademarco, who just broke the Owls’ all time 3-point makes record, open shots will be available.

“I’d say my role [throughout the conference season] would be to continue to be a spark off the bench and bring as much energy as I can,” Grigsby said.

“Hopefully I can just help push my teammates to be the best they can be every day in practice.”

Rice cruises to blowout victory against UTEP ERIC BARBER SENIOR WRITER

The Rice women’s basketball team extended its win streak to six games on Saturday when it defeated the University of Texas, El Paso by a score of 76-42.

Coming off of a dominating performance against the University of Texas, San Antonio, the Owls dismantled UTEP in similar fashion. Rice led by double digits for the vast majority of the game.

Head coach Tina Langley said her team’s performance was exceptional. “[I am] happy to have another great team win,” Langley said. “I thought we came out with good focus and intensity.”

Sophomore center Nancy Mulkey got Rice out in front with a couple of quick buckets, an assist and a steal that led to a 3-pointer by junior guard Erica Ogwumike to put the Owls up 9-0 within the first couple of minutes. Rice never

trailed in the game. Langley said that her just trying to take the best shot available and it happened to be two 3-pointers,” team got out to a great start.

“The last two games, I [have] love[d] Iademarco said.

Iademarco hit four 3-pointers in total, the way that we’ve started the game and I think that just comes from the focus from and while she led all scorers with 15 the tip, and being ready to compete,” points, the Owls had a fairly balanced scoring attack, with Langley said. five players scoring UTEP got to within in double digits. In nine points towards addition to Iademarco, the end of the second It’s nice to win, but Rice shot the three quarter, but a pair what’s also great is ball well as a team, of 3-pointers from also learning in each doubling their season senior forward Nicole average with 12 Iademarco — including game what we can 3-pointers made. a last minute four- do better for the next Langley said she was point play — helped game. impressed with the Rice go into halftime team’s accurate longwith a 15-point lead. Erica Ogwumike distance shooting.

Iademarco said that JUNIOR GUARD “UTEP actually ending the quarter well guards the 3-point line really well was important to the team.

“We always want to start strong and statistically, and so we were prepared to finish strong in each quarter, but we’re be more inside out, but I feel like we did

a nice job of taking what they gave us,” Langley said.

With their win streak extended, Ogwumike said that she can feel the momentum starting to build up.

“I think we have a lot of momentum, which is nice,” Ogwumike said. “It’s nice to win, but what’s also great is also learning in each game what we can do better for the next game. And I think that’s why you’re seeing this momentum because each game I think we’re getting better and correcting the little mistakes from the last game.”

The win moves Rice to 13-3 overall and 4-0 in conference play. The Owls will have a weeklong break until their next game when they take on the University of North Texas at Tudor Fieldhouse next Saturday.

Their two subsequent opponents will be Middle Tennessee State University and the University of Alabama, Birmingham, who are a combined 28-6 this season.

BACKPAGE

12 • WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 16, 2019

Shutdown? Shut the Backpage up!

Even during the longest government shutdown in history, Rice is still up and running. Here’s what would happen if various institutions here on campus were to close their doors:

The SA: Without the SA, who would table issues to assign them to task forces in the near future? How would working groups assemble the task forces that eventually tackle the issues through collaboration with ANOTHER working group that tabled a similar issue two semesters ago? Who would we campaign for by changing our Facebook profile pictures?

Absolute chaos!

The CCD: If your major isn’t super popular, chances are that the CCD wasn’t a crucial resource for you in the first place. But absolutely everyone’s email inboxes would be severely lacking in excessive emojis and ~quirky~ subject lines. Undoubtedly, this #lit campus presence would be sorely missed.

The Rec: Shoot… A shutdown? You were totally gonna finally start working out again and making good on your New Year’s resolution…. Nooo….. Good thing it’s open and you’re definitely getting back on track.

Pub: Everyone in last semester’s salsa dancing LPAP has been waiting for Latin Pub Night. Their desperate anticipation is eclipsed only by that of government workers waiting for paychecks they’ve earned. If these dazzling dancers weren’t allowed to shine on Pub’s sticky floors this Friday, the number of times “Alexa, play Despacito” would be uttered in their own dorms would lead to a technological uprising. Amazon’s CEO is busy enough these days without an Alexa revolution.

Student Health Center: It would take you a while to realize that Student Health was actually shut down entirely.

They were never particularly responsive anyways and you could never get an appointment booked for a time that fit your schedule.

The Rice Thresher: How would you get your news? But maybe a temporary break this time of year wouldn’t be the worst thing for some sections. After all, it’s the one-year anniversary of the Backpage’s fifteen seconds of infamy on Fox.

The Backpage is satire, written and designed by Simona “I took Capitol Hill very literally” Matovic. For comments or questions, please email JamesJoyceLovesFarts@rice.edu

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