The Rice Thresher | Wednesday, April 3, 2019

VOLUME 103, ISSUE NO. 24 | STUDENT-RUN SINCE 1916 | RICETHRESHER.ORG | WEDNESDAY, APRIL 3, 2019

B BE IK E

ER

GSA wins two races, but controversy clouds results ANDREW GROTTKAU EDITOR-IN-CHIEF The Graduate Student Association claimed first place in both the alumni and women’s Beer Bike races, while McMurtry College took first in the men’s Beer Run, according to official results posted by the Rice Program Council.

However, the results of the men’s and women’s races came into question as Jones challenged penalties against the pit crew during the women’s race and RPC’s reported split times indicated that a McMurtry men’s runner ran his one-third mile split in just over 20 seconds.

ALUMNI RACE Festivities began under ominous gray clouds, but the alumni race proceeded on bikes despite the threat of rain. The GSA raced out to an early lead and did not relinquish it, winning the alumni race for the second time. The only other time GSA won the race was in 2016, a Beer Run. Mary Natoli, a biker on the GSA women’s team, said watching the alumni race was thrilling.

“It was so exciting,” Natoli said. “Most of us know the whole team; they’re all our friends. It got us even more motivated to win so we could have a GSA sweep.”

WOMEN’S RACE The possibility of a sweep moved closer to reality after GSA won the women’s race. Natoli said she was

extremely proud to be part of the first GSA women’s team to win Beer Bike. The GSA women came close to victory in both 2017 and 2018, according to Natoli.

“We would not have won without our amazing chug team and pit crew putting out an extremely solid race and getting no penalties across the board,” Natoli said.

“I am just so happy that everything came together this year for a flawless race from the GSA.” On the track, however, there appeared to be a different victor. Jones College dominated from start to finish on the track, finishing first by a margin of nearly 30 seconds. But 70 seconds worth of pit interference penalties on Jones, compared to zero seconds of penalties for the GSA, pushed Jones into fourth place.

SEE BEER BIKE PAGE 10

Rice rideshare app catches on

Pence visit sparks protests

ELLA FELDMAN FEATURES EDITOR

CHRISTINA TAN A&E EDITOR

“People who designed the rice carpool website, i love you <3” That sentence started a recent post in the Facebook group Rice Missed Encounters, which received 135 likes and 14 comments. “[After] years of having to sift through the [Uber] spreadsheet and repeatedly scroll on end to find my name only to see I’ll be riding alone,” the anonymous admirer went on, “I’ve finally found organizational peace.”

The website in question is carpool. riceapps.org, or Carpool, a project out of Rice Apps — which Diksha Gupta, a Lovett College sophomore and one of the Carpool team leads, described as a subset of the Rice computer science club dedicated to facilitating student-developed web applications. Gupta said her team was ecstatic when they saw the post.

“Our entire team was very surprised by how much people liked our app,” Gupta said. “We got [the post], and we were all so happy.”

Carpool’s mission is to facilitate ride sharing among Rice students to and from George Bush Intercontinental Airport and William P. Hobby Airport in an attempt to replace a shared Google spreadsheet and Facebook group that was used for a similar purpose before. Students create accounts with their NetIDs on the web app, which can be accessed using the link

on any device, then either create rides or search for them by entering a specific location and date.

“We saw that there was a need for a different way to schedule carpools,” Myra Ramdenbourg, a Will Rice College sophomore and another Carpool team lead, said. “There was just the Google spreadsheet, and it’s a little disorganized.

You can easily delete someone’s inputs into the spreadsheet, so we thought there should be a secure website to organize the way people go to and from places.”

The idea for a ridesharing app was originally conceived under different team leads who they graduated last year. Gupta and Ramdenbourg took on the project’s leadership roles for this academic year, with an assigned team of five other undergraduate students and one graduate student.

Josie Garza, a Baker College sophomore who joined the Carpool team this year, said inheriting the project from a previous team was challenging at times.

“We were working with a lot of old code,” Garza said. “And I think that was really difficult because we had to figure out what other people were saying and deal with a lot of bugs that we probably wouldn’t have created ourselves.”

Despite those issues, Garza said she loved working on the website — especially working on adapting it to be compatible with a variety of devices. She also said she loved working with other programmers.

SEE CARPOOL PAGE 6

properly executing their protest, such as not being allowed to rent audio equipment for the Central Quad. She said that a prior Student protesters will organize in the approval by the campus events manager Central Quad when Vice President Mike was overturned a few hours later at the Pence speaks at the Baker Institute on Friday, request of the Secret Service and Rice’s crisis according to a press release by a coalition of management team.

“Unfortunately we will have to deny the student organizations including Rice Left request for the audio system for this event,” and Rice Young Democrats.

The protests will follow a series of Quirante said the email read. “We had a walkthrough today campus-wide initiatives with the Secret Service challenging Pence’s and White House and upcoming visit to the they have denied any James A. Baker III “It wasn’t difficult use of audio systems Institute for Public Policy or voice amplifying to discuss Venezuela’s to build off people’s tools including current political energy since there megaphones. This will situation, including a were so many people be the precedent for petition, flyers and a who were fired up the day for any groups poster-making event. immediately.” participating in the PROTESTS protest area.”

Sunee Kate Quirante Sunee Kate Quirante Quirante said that said Rice Left was the first LOVETT COLLEGE JUNIOR she and her fellow student group to begin organizers had no intention organizing. According to Quirante, Baker to disrupt the event and feel their right to Institute postdoctoral fellow Kenny Evans protest has been encroached upon, since reached out to the group right after the visit voice amplifying equipment is necessary. was announced last Thursday.

The organizers released a press statement, “We had to mobilize pretty quickly as we which includes the support of 11 campus were only given a week’s notice,” Quirante, organizations, underlining Pence’s policies a Lovett junior, said. “However, it wasn’t and values that the coalition disagrees with, difficult to build off people’s energy since such as his stance on LGBTQ communities. It there were so many people who were fired up also says that the coalition’s intention is “not immediately upon hearing the news.” to silence necessary dialogue on the current Quirante said that she and her fellow humanitarian crisis in Venezuela.” organizers have faced roadblocks to SEE PENCE PAGE 3

THE RICE THRESHER

2 • WEDNESDAY, APRIL 3, 2019

NEWS 17 beds still open at Hanszen SAVANNAH KUCHAR SENIOR REPORTER Room draw at Hanszen College ended with 17 open beds and not one student involuntarily kicked off campus.

Nikhita Gangla is the chief justice at Hanszen, where her duties include running room draw. She said that she thinks the quality of Hanszen rooms are to blame for all of the openings.

According to Gangla, if the rooms stay unoccupied by current students, the beds will either go to people from other colleges or to extra new students. Gangla said that neither option is ideal.

“People from other colleges, for very obvious reasons, dilute the culture of Hanszen, and you don’t really want too much of that happening,” Gangla said. “For new students, you think about the logistical nightmares that it brings on to the O-Week coords for one. And then also as a CJ, that’s scary to think about, 17 extra freshmen.”

Gangla said that the result of this room draw is evidence of the need for a new Hanszen building as soon as possible.

“At this point in time, all we can do is beg people to stay on campus,” Gangla said.

“But people aren’t going to respond to you begging to them because they knew that the rooms at Hanszen aren’t what they wanted.”

Students living at Hanszen have the option of a room in either Old Section or New Section. According to Gangla, students do not want to stay in Old Section because of the communal bathrooms.

“The only rooms without big problems right now are the doubles in Old Section, though no one wants to live in a double in Old Section with the communal bathroom the moment they’re beyond freshman, sophomore year,” Gangla said.

Gangla said that even though New Section offers private bathrooms, these rooms have their own problems that discourage students from living there.

“New Section has its own host of problems,” Gangla said. “The reason why those suites aren’t desirable either, even though the set-up is a little bit better, is because those rooms just [have] so many things wrong with them. The plumbing, the SEE HANSZEN PAGE 4

N THE RADAR GLOBAL HEALTH WEEK April 1 - April 7

Global Health Week presents daily global health-themed activities throughout the week including photo campaigns, card making for pediatric cancer patients, a global health trivia night at Pub, a documentary screening of Bending the Arc and a global health art showcase.

NOCTURNAL: AFTER DARK April 4 @ 9:30 p.m. // Willy’s Pub

The Nocturnals will sing acapella covers of hits from Lizzo, Rihanna and others at Pub this Thursday.

RONDELET

April 5 @ 9 p.m. // Museum of Natural Science Join Rice’s annual homecoming dance at the Houston Museum of Natural Science this Friday. Transportation will be provided to and from the event, with buses departing and arriving at the Sallyport at Lovett Hall. Parking will also be available at the venue.

BIKE & BEATS CONCERT + CLOTHING SWAP April 6 @ 5:30 p.m.

Come for a bike ride at 5:30 p.m., followed by live music, refreshments, a photo booth, and a clothing swap at 6:30 p.m. This event is a part of Sustainability Month 2019.

LANCE ARMSTRONG AT HANSZEN April 9 @ 7 p.m. // Hanszen Lower Commons

Hanszen’s residential buildings have not been updated in over 50 years. Recently, problems such as an exploding toilet and a collapsed ceiling have occurred in Hanszen rooms. courtesy rice university

No-holds-barred “fireside chat” with Lance Armstrong, a worldfamous American cyclist.

infographic by sumin hwang

NEWS

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 3, 2019 • 3

heard AR

UNDcampus

WILL RICE WILL RALLY

BRANDON CHOW Will Rice College Sophomore

My main goal was to rally and make it to the races, but somehow I ended up participating in the actual race in what felt like the longest sprint ever...

Reflecting on Beer Bike expectations versus reality

MCM WIN

CAROLYN DALY McMurtry College Sophomore

GO MUUUUUUURT!!!!

After McMurtry College’s first Beer Bike win

RUN FORREST RUN

LAURA FAGBEMI Hanszen College Freshman

Hanszen men won their Mock Bike and everyone was so excited, but I feel like [the Beer Run] threw everything off.

On Hanszen’s Beer Run team LEE HSIEH Brown College Senior

SENTI SENIOR

It’s very poetic in my situation and in a lot of senior situations, because our very first Beer Bike was a Beer Run, and now that the very last race was a Beer Run, it was a very wholesome conclusion to my college experience at Rice.

Reflecting on the conclusion of his college career infographic by sydney garrett

FROM PAGE 1

PENCE

Catherine Clack, director of the Office of Multicultural Affairs, said that she is helping the student groups be proactive about their values and providing materials and lunch for students at the protest.

“Students are not protesting [Pence’s] right to speak on campus,” Clack said. “It’s about [Pence] and the fact that his values, policies and actions are antithetical to the values of our community, and are, in fact, hateful and harmful to members of our community.”

According to Quirante, the demonstration will include student speakers and informational booths and will be held before, during and after Pence’s speech from 12 - 2 p.m. At time of print, over 100 people indicated they were “Going” on Facebook.

“We want this to be an opportunity for Rice students to express their discontent with the vice president and his ideologies,” Quirante said. “Different groups intend to tackle this in different ways, and showcasing the diversity of dissenting voices is key to our protest.”

In addition to the protest, Quirante said that a Diversity Facilitator Talk will be held concurrently in the Multicultural Center and Rice Left will host a later event specifically about Venezuela. Before the protests, the student groups will also host a postermaking session sponsored by the Office of Multicultural Affairs.

PETITION Unlike the protest, a petition started by J Peterson calls for the administration to

“withdraw their invitation as a show of their commitment to the voices and concerns of their own community.”

Peterson, a Baker College senior, said they gathered a total of 660 signatures from students, alumni, faculty and staff after removing inappropriate responses.

“A majority of the responses were from current students,” Peterson said. “I sent the results as well as anonymized additional statements to [former] Ambassador [and current Director of the Baker Institute Edward] Djerejian and President [David] Leebron [Sunday] morning.”

According to Djerejian, the vice president’s office contacted the Baker Institute directly to determine if Rice would host Pence for a speech on U.S. policy toward Venezuela.

Peterson said that they hope to receive a response from administration.

“I want Rice students to understand that our school administration has an obligation to the wellbeing of the Rice community, or so they claim in their lengthy emails,” Peterson said. “Inviting Pence runs counter to that obligation since he has constantly pushed for the dehumanization of LGBTQ people along with other minority groups. This type of figure should not be given the privilege and validation of speaking at Rice, especially at the cost of ostracizing our minority students.”

Flyers protesting American intervention in Venezuela were posted by unknown individuals, reading: “Hands off Venezuela.

Firmly oppose American imperialism” in red text. The unauthorized flyers on the RMC door were removed within an hour, but some remained in the courtyard.

NEWS IN BRIEF Rice Environmental Society pilots sustainability month RISHAB RAMAPRIYAN ASST NEWS EDITOR Rice Environmental Society launched Sustainability Month, an initiative to promote environmental awareness at Rice that began this past week.

Sustainability Month features four different themed weeks with specific events and activities planned by Eco-Reps, RES and other student organizations.

According to RES President Kathy Yu, RES and other organizations have planned multiple environment themedweeks in the past, such as Green Week, but RES wanted to create a unified front for environmental change at Rice.

RES member Jordin Metz, a chemistry doctoral student, said that he devised the idea for Sustainability Month with the Ley Student Center and worked with RES to pilot a few environmentallythemed events in the Rice Memorial Center last semester. Metz and RES planned the Sustainability Month this semester to continue the efforts towards sustainability-based education.

“There’s a great team planning Sustainability Month and I think we will draw people to the diverse range of events,” Metz said. “It’s always difficult to get people to make a change in their lives, but I’m hoping that this month combined with the passion of Rice students to change the world will drive our community to see that our everyday choices matter.”

Sustainability Month officially launched during Rice’s VegFest event, hosted by Rice Vegan Society, on March 24. The first themed week was Green Willy

FREE SPEECH Members of the Student Association’s Freedom of Speech working group, formed last year, hold differing opinions on Pence’s upcoming visit.

The group created a letter that states that Rice should refrain from disinvitation but maintain the right to “condemn the proliferation of ideas destructive to Rice’s community values.”

Working group member Maurice Frediere said that he believes students have a duty to speak out against Pence in solidarity with the LGBTQ community at Rice.

“I think he should certainly be allowed to speak at the Baker Institute, but that doesn’t mean that it’s a good idea,” Frediere, a Duncan College senior, said. “I’m afraid he’ll use the gravitas of Jim Baker and the credibility of the Baker Institute and Rice to lend credence to his policies.”

Working group member Juliette Turner said that she believes Pence should be welcomed to campus.

“He is not speaking on the controversial ideas referred to by students who are supporting the protest,” Turner, a Duncan College junior, said. “He is visiting to address foreign policy, as any and every vice president should be invited and encouraged to do.”

Turner, also chairwoman of the Rice Republicans, said that she supports student protests as she believes it is an American right.

“The right to peacefully protest, in a way that does not interfere with the event, should be maintained,” Turner said.

Week, during which college EcoReps worked with their residential colleges to promote the use of recyclable cups and TerraCycle solo cup.

This week, Pledge Week, is focused on encouraging students to make sustainability pledges online. Students who make pledges can track their progress with other members of the Rice community and prizes will be awarded at the end of the month. The pledges include eating more plant-based meals, reducing single-use items and using alternate transportation.

“The aim is to get people to change their habits over the course of this month and to see how easy it is to be more sustainable, and hopefully continue these good habits past the end of the month,” Metz said.

Next week is Events Week, which features diverse events put on by the organizations partnering with RES for sustainability week. The featured events include a clothing swap and beach cleanup, as well as talks and discussions such as “What is Fair Trade?”

The final week in Sustainability Month is Accountability Week, during which events will be held to celebrate the results of pledge and offering additional daily challenges.

Yu said she hopes that Sustainability Month makes the sustainability efforts on Rice campus more visible and help the Rice community form at least on green habit that they can continue.

“People cannot live without the planet, and we want to make it easy and natural for Rice students to help take care of it.”

Posters were placed by unknown individuals in front of the Rice Memorial Center Chapel. Similar posters inside the RMC and on the RMC doors were taken down within an hour of being placed.

charlene pan / thresher

NEWS

4 • WEDNESDAY, APRIL 3, 2019

Senate passes resolution calling for African studies major EMILY ABDOW EDITOR-IN-CHIEF The Student Association Senate voted unanimously to pass a resolution supporting improvement of the African studies minor and the creation of an African studies major.

Zubaidat Agboola, co-chair of the SA Senate’s African Presence in Academia Initiative Committee, said the resolution resulted from students finding themselves unable to graduate with the minor due to a lack of course offerings.

“We thought that was unacceptable, especially from Rice, to want to declare a minor and not be able to pursue it from factors that were out of your control,” Agboola, a Wiess College sophomore, said.

Associate Dean of the School of Humanities Lora Wildenthal said an African and African American studies initiative, which could include the development of a new minor or major, “is well underway.” According to Wildenthal, discussions began at the end of fall semester and have included two meetings of all relevant faculty as well as a proposal that is part of both the School of Humanities strategic plan and budget recently proposed to the administration.

“Dean [Kathleen] Canning has fully taken this initiative on as a major priority of the School of Humanities,” Wildenthal said.

“At this point, we must await the outcome of the budget proposal for the entire School of Humanities. It will then be the relevant faculty who, when they know what resources will be available, must decide the form they would like this effort to take.”

According to the resolution, Columbia University, Yale University, Pomona College,

Wesleyan University and Dartmouth College are peer institutions with a major focusing on African studies.

Some people were deterred from applying to Rice or left Rice to do an African American major elsewhere since Rice didn’t have it.

Zubaidat Agboola INITIATIVE COMMITTEE CO-CHAIR “I feel like Rice is so behind in the fact that it doesn’t have a major because every other peer institution has a major. The discussion of whether to have a major or not should have been answered in the ‘60s when they had all the civil rights issues,” Axel Ntamatungiro, a Duncan College sophomore, said. “So I don’t know why Rice is behind half a century for that.”

The SA Senate also passed a bill on Monday to charter the African Presence in Academia Task Force, which will be chaired by Agboola and Ntamatungiro. Anna Margaret Clyburn, co-sponsor of both pieces of legislation, said the task force will push for the Center for Language and Intercultural Communication to offer indigenous language courses and for the university’s speaker series to include speakers on Africa.

Agboola said faculty advised their committee of the importance of demonstrating student interest to the administration.

However, Agboola said this interest might be stifled by the lack of visibility of the African studies minor — the committee found just about half of the respondents on the Survey of All Students knew the minor existed.

“Some people were deterred from applying to Rice [and at least one] left Rice to do an African American major elsewhere since Rice didn’t have it,” Agboola said. “Even if there wasn’t interest, it would be a nice gesture of the administration to show that it holistically supports the education of everything.”

Agboola said she would like to see Rice hire faculty whose focus is specifically on the African studies major and minor rather than increasing the demand on faculty who are already based in other departments.

The Student Association voted unanimously to approve a resolution supporting the creation of an African studies major and the improvement of the existing African studies minor. olivia daneker / thresher

Executive order signed to protect free speech CAMERON WALLACE SENIOR REPORTER President Donald Trump signed an executive order in late March that stated that American universities, including Rice, must do more to protect free speech on their campuses.

The executive order mandates that universities take steps to ensure that students’ freedom of speech rights under the constitution are protected or risk losing federal funding. It also increases universities’ loan data reporting requirements and mandates the production of a report exploring the options for federal risk sharing of student loan debt.

The order was introduced at the Conservative Political Action Committee, where Trump cited the beating of conservative activist Hayden Williams last month at the University of California, Berkeley as evidence for the necessity of the order, which he signed March 21.

Robert Stein, the Lena Gohlman Fox professor of political science, said that while Rice will likely not be affected by the order as a result of its freedom of expression policy, it is still possible that speech is regularly suppressed on campus due to cultural factors.

“The absence of overt efforts to stymie expression of unpopular opinions does not mean those students and others at Rice who hold opinions not widely shared are comfortable expressing these opinions,” Stein said. “This is not limited to conservatives; I suspect many students of color and gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender persons have long felt a need to self-censor themselves at Rice. Enforcement by edict will not ensure free expression, it requires the community’s support and a consensus of tolerance, a condition that may be on the wane in the U.S.” According to Rice Director of News & Media Relations Doug Miller, the history of speakers that Rice has hosted on campus reflects a long-standing commitment to free speech.

THE EXECUTIVE ORDER 1

Mandates universities take steps to “promote free inquiry” at the risk of losing federal funding

2

Requires universities to report program-level outcomes and loan data to the College Scorecard

3

Requires the production of a report exploring options for federal risk sharing of student-loan debt

“Witness the fact that, in this academic year alone, the Baker Institute will host appearances by former President Barack Obama and Vice President Mike Pence,” Miller said. “That’s a reflection of a culture that not only talks about diverse opinions, but also listens to them. And that’s what freedom of speech is all about.”

Members of the Academic Freedom Working Group, which wrote a letter outlining Rice’s commitment to open expression that was endorsed by the SA Senate last year, had mixed reactions to the order.

According to working group member Maurice Frediere, while freedom of expression is of the utmost importance, the executive order is primarily partisan and will actually result in an increase in speech suppression.

“This executive order is both ineffectual and has nothing to do with protecting freedom of speech,” Frediere, a Duncan College senior, said. “This executive order is just an egregious example of conservative grievance politics and the president’s leveraging of the right’s broader disdain for generally progressive institutions of higher education. If anything, this executive order will stifle freedom of speech by making universities weary of supporting true debate for fear of

Clyburn, the Martel College president, said some peer institutions offered an African studies major despite only having a few students in the program.

“The numbers are not super high at other places and yet those opportunities still exist,” Clyburn, a sophomore, said.

Co-sponsor Dara Okeremi said the committee found that the Rice African Student Association and Black Student Association are currently the main ways students learn about African events, lectures and courses at Rice.

“The burden should not only be placed on students for students to feel included,” Okeremi, freshman and McMurtry College senator, said.

being sanctioned by an executive branch that only cares about freedom of speech insofar as it relates to political advantage.”

Former working group member James Altschul (Hanszen College ‘18) said that the executive order has the potential to be an effective strategy for promoting free expression on college campuses, but it will depend on implementation.

“The ultimate goal has to be developing a culture of conversation and civil disagreement and no executive order is a substitute for that,” Altschul said. “I don’t think it will affect things very much at Rice in the lives of the average student.

But I hope that it will expedite the [Rice] administration’s official statement in support of our legislation.”

The executive order legitimizes the notion that college campuses do not currently support free speech, according to Mahdi Fariss.

“Freedom of expression, as far as we can tell to this point, is a good thing, if not always in the short run then in the long run,” Fariss, a McMurtry College senior, said. “The [executive order] actually does nothing to further the efforts of administrators working tirelessly to ensure that even the most controversial views have the right to be aired and debated.”

FROM PAGE 2

HANSZEN

water, the bugs, the noise, it’s just a whole mess. Nothing works there. I’ve personally never lived in New Section, but people who live there hate it.”

Bharathi Selvan, a junior at Hanszen, said she lived in New Section during her first two years at Rice and that the problems with the rooms led to her moving off campus this and next year.

“Freshman year, I had a huge leak in my room and I had to move [to another room in Hanszen], and it was a really scary process just not knowing what was inside the walls,” Selvan said. “Then even sophomore year, I lived in New Section again and there was still a lot of mold that was making me have a postnasal drip every day. It was just not worth paying more than I needed to for something that made me sick.”

According to Gangla, there is a double reserved for athletes, three quads and a triple all still unoccupied.

“We’re looking to fill 14 [beds] right now,” Gangla, a sophomore, said. “We’re trying to get people in the quads and the triple. The athlete room is probably just going to go to more freshman next year and that’s not a big deal.”

On March 23, two days after Hanszen room draw concluded, Gangla sent an email notifying the college about the available rooms and asking people currently moving off campus to consider staying on to fill these beds. But Gangla said that so far this has not led to any claimed rooms.

“I had people reach out to me about the triple,” Gangla said. “Then they asked what the set-up was, and I said, ‘It’s one big room’ and they were like ‘Oh never mind, we don’t want to live there anymore.’”

Felix Desimoni, a freshman at Hanszen, said that he and his roommates chose to move off campus because of the quality of the rooms available to them at Hanszen.

“We chose because [of] the quality of life we get here versus the price we pay,” Desimoni said. “It was so much greater to go off campus.”

Rice Housing & Dining responded to this news by saying that they do not oversee these vacancies.

THE RICE THRESHER

5 • WEDNESDAY, APRIL 3, 2019

Join the conversation

OPINION

The Thresher publishes op-eds from students, faculty, and the wider Rice community. Submit yours today!

Email thresher-ops@rice.edu

STAFF EDITORIAL

2019 & Hanszen still sucks

This year, Hanszen College’s room draw ended with 17 unclaimed beds. It’s been wellestablished that Hanszen’s housing facilities are in dire need of upgrades, but so far Rice’s administration has largely turned a blind eye to the housing discrepancies that threaten to sully the perceived equality of the residential college system. This should be the last straw.

Rice needs to make a concrete, meaningful and tangible pledge to construct a new residential building for Hanszen.

Besides the obvious issue of charging Hanszen students the same price for housing as other Rice students for what are clearly unequal facilities, Hanszen’s dilapidated housing is eroding its college culture. When so many upperclassmen move off-campus, participation in on-campus events declines dramatically and incoming freshmen are unable to learn from older students’ wealth

of knowledge and experience. The point of Rice’s residential college system is to foster a communal spirit among a smaller group of students. If these students move away, the very foundation of the system is in jeopardy.

Hanszen hasn’t received a new residential building since 1957, the longest drought of any residential college. Its “New Section” was constructed at the same time, and in the exact same fashion as Will Rice’s old New Dorm, which according to Rice’s own website was “falling apart and crumbly with asbestos” when it was torn down in 2009.

That was a decade ago. Hanszen’s New Section is still crumbling, and its walls are likely just as full of asbestos. This is no longer a viable living option for Rice students. It’s time to tear it down.

Editorial board member Christina Tan, H&D intern, recused herself from this editorial.

cartoon by dalia gulca

Correction Last week’s Beer Bike insert listed only three of the seven campus-wide Beer Bike coordinators. The full list includes Bonnie Wang, Ozioma Ozor-Ilo, Su Chen Teh, Connor Rasmussen, and executive liaison Joyce Moon in addition to Rebecca Artall, Enoch Peng, Raiha Abbas and staff advisor Ryan Morgado. The Thresher regrets the error.

OP-ED

PENCE EVENT NEARS ENDORSEMENT REMEMBER PEOPLE OF VENEZUELA This Friday, will Rice President David Leebron pose for a photo with the vice president of the United States, or will he stand outside with his students? Leebron has articulated a broad set of Rice’s values, but Mike Pence’s record contrasts sharply with that set of values. To be clear, Pence has the right to speak on campus. However, in this event, Pence will be speaking to an inviteonly crowd and may pose for photo ops with donors and administrators afterwards.

Pence should have the opportunity to speak, but the structure of this event comes close to an endorsement — an endorsement that goes against the values of diversity and inclusion for which Rice has so long and rightfully advocated. Rhetoric not backed by action is meaningless. In a February email to the student body, Leebron touted his commitment to diversity.

“We treasure our diversity in all its dimensions and welcome all members of our community,” Leebron wrote. “We will work to assure that our [Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals] students and other immigrants are able to pursue the full range of opportunities offered at Rice and beyond.”

As governor of Indiana, Pence hasn’t exactly treasured diversity. He illegally attempted to cut off federal aid to Syrian war refugees and issued an executive order blocking Syrian refugees from settling in Indiana, according to NPR and Rolling Stone.

Pence has called DACA “unconstitutional” and attacked a federal judge who ruled otherwise as “another West Coast judge”, according to the Hill and Politico.

Leebron, on the other hand, touted his commitment to diversity in an email to the student body in August 2017.

“We will treat students, faculty and staff of every race, nationality, religion, ethnicity, gender identity, sexuality and ability status with respect and appreciation,” Leebron wrote.

As a congressman, Pence backed the redirection of federal funds meant for HIV

and AIDS treatment toward gay conversion camps, according to the New York Times.

He also claimed on the floor of the House that gay marriage would lead to “societal collapse.” The Times also reported that his wife currently teaches at a school that bars openly gay teachers and students. That’s not appreciation, and that’s not respect.

In that same August 2017 email, Leebron took a staunch stance against hate.

“We cannot control events outside our campus, and we ought to be especially concerned when demonstrations of hate and acts of violence spill into our communities and campuses. What we must do is to stand by our values and express our concern and empathy to others who are affected,” he said.

Pence isn’t interested in that. In response to President Donald Trump’s infamous comments claiming that the white nationalist and Neo-Nazi riot in Charlottesville, Virginia included “some very fine people,” Politico reported that Pence said, “I stand by the President, and I stand by those words.”

To quote Leebron, “Holding diversity as a core value requires that we constantly engage in thoughtful examination of the impact of our practices on all members of our community.”

Leebron — have you thoughtfully examined the impact of granting Pence a friendly audience purged of the voices of those affected by the actions of the administration he serves? Will you back your rhetoric with your actions? Rice University Young Democrats will be outside with our allies from across campus, and we hope to see you there.

LILA GREINER WILL RICE COLLEGE FRESHMAN

MOSES GLICKMAN MARTEL COLLEGE FRESHMAN

Since the announcement of Mike necessarily have to deliver that message Pence’s visit, many students have from Rice’s campus — many students are expressed valid concerns about the vice uncomfortable with his presence here for president’s extremely misguided and good reason — but if we do feel compelled hurtful views and policies on LGBTQ rights to protest, we should feel a similar need to and other issues. I share these concerns analyze the message Pence delivers.

If we are to champion justice as a and believe that we should be doing everything possible to call out and refuse campus, it shouldn’t stop at our borders. We bigotry and hate, especially on issues that shouldn’t let someone else’s bigotry stop directly threaten members of our Rice, us from learning important information about the situation in Venezuela. In my Houston and other communities. experience, the U.S. However, my concern still represents hope is that we are not having for many Venezuelans, conversations on the the majority of whom extremely precarious How are we oppose the current situation in Venezuela government and its — the topic the vice supplementing gross human rights president will discuss this conversation abuses, among a on Friday — and my about Pence’s myriad of other question is this: How hurtful policies problems, according are we supplementing to Reuters and Human this conversation about with constructive Rights Watch.

Pence’s hurtful policies conversations about I fear that the with constructive America’s plan to way we talk about conversations about help Venezuelans?

Venezuela could America’s plans to help become American-centric, using the U.S.’ Venezuelans?

As a Rice student with most of my family past failures in Latin America to justify still in Venezuela, I have watched my loved a hands-off approach to the Venezuelan ones and many others face severe danger. I crisis. Now is not the time to avoid difficult am concerned that the Rice community, in and complicated political conversations its desire to denounce Pence’s bigoted and that could result in proactive policy harmful views, has neglected to consider solutions, whether internal or external to the problem at hand. Protesting Pence’s Venezuela. I don’t doubt that the groups presence on our campus can only be organizing the protests are willing to helpful when we create a more constructive present information on Venezuela (as they already seem to be planning) and conversation about Venezuela.

While I fervently disagree with Pence that students are willing to listen. I just on many issues, I’m conflicted between ask that protesters will keep the people of that and the fact that he is in a position of Venezuela in mind. power, and as such, I need to know what ALEJANDRA actions he and the Trump administration GUTIERREZ intend to take to support Venezuelans. In MCMURTRY COLLEGE SENIOR other words, I oppose the messenger just as many Rice students do, but I also need to hear the message from someone who can directly affect the outcome. Pence doesn’t

STAFF Emily Abdow* & Andrew Grottkau* Editors-in-Chief NEWS Anna Ta* Editor Rishab Ramapriyan Asst. Editor Amy Qin Asst. Editor FEATURES Ella Feldman Editor Ivanka Perez Asst. Editor SPORTS Michael Byrnes* Editor Madison Buzzard Asst. Editor OPINION Eric Stone* Editor

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT Christina Tan* Editor & Designer Katelyn Landry Asst. Editor BACKPAGE Simona Matovic Editor & Designer PHOTO Charlene Pan Editor Sirui Zhou Editor COPY Vi Burgess Editor Bhavya Gopinath Editor ONLINE Ryan Green Digital Content Editor Charlie Paul Web Editor Nick McMillan Video Editor

DESIGN Sydney Garrett Director Sumin Hwang News Designer Jennifer Fu Features Designer Tina Liu Sports Designer Dalia Gulca Opinions Designer Esther Tang Illustrator BUSINESS OPERATIONS Mai Ton Social Media/Marketing Manager Isabella Gandara Distribution Manager Karoline Sun Business Manager Prad Biswas Advertising Manager

*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.

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THE RICE THRESHER

6 • WEDNESDAY, APRIL 3, 2019

FEATURES

Spring Breakers

The Thresher takes a closer look at three spring break experiences.

See more at ricethresher.org

Josie Garza Baker ‘21

Angela Hwang Jones ‘21 Diksha Gupta Lovett ‘21 Gerald Wang Sid Rich ‘22

C

CARPOOL FROM PAGE 1

arpool: Student-engineered car sharing app takes off

“It was just really fulfilling,” Garza said.

“I got to learn a lot of new skills and learn from other people as well.”

For Gupta and Ramdenbourg, one of the most challenging aspects of making Carpool was going from being team members to becoming leads themselves.

“I think we both were struggling with imposter syndrome a lot at first,” Gupta said. “We both were just unsure, and not confident. We doubted ourselves a lot, and I’m really glad I had [Ramdenbourg] for this entire process so we could validate each other.”

Despite those initial doubts, Gupta, Ramdenbourg and their team worked through to a launch on March 5. As of April 1, they’ve had 583 users, 550 of whom joined within two days of the launch. They’ve had 132 rides created, and 88 of those have been successfully completed.

Valentina Camacho, a Baker sophomore, took part in one of those rides earlier this month on her way to George Bush Intercontinental Airport for spring break.

“The app makes it much easier [than the spreadsheet] to navigate through the posted rides,” Camacho said. “I like how it displays contact information of the people

Lin said he hopes students will eventually that signed up to ride with you, and it’s all so nice to the eye. I don’t think I’ll go back to switch over entirely from the spreadsheet to the app, adding that this might mean getting the spreadsheet.”

User experience has been a large focus of rid of the spreadsheet entirely.

“There’s definitely an element of hitting the Carpool team this year.

“When I took over as team lead, one a critical mass of users so that everyone can find matches for their of the biggest rides,” he explained. realizations was Ramdenbourg like, this app is not said the team has just code. We want This is not something received a lot of to make it useful,” positive feedback like Gupta said. “That you can really learn in Camacho’s and Lin’s, really opened up your [computer science] as well as improvement my perspective and classes. suggestions from users. changed my goals “Right now, we’re essentially.”

Myra Ramdenbourg working on improving Harrison Lin it,” she said. “We want (Brown ‘18) and WILL RICE COLLEGE SOPHOMORE to fix bugs that we Nicole Mitchell (Brown ‘18) created the original spreadsheet didn’t fix before and just make it a website in order to save people money, reduce that we can use for a really long time even emissions and let students meet each other after we graduate.”

This longevity is especially important according to Lin. He said he’s thrilled to see students work to the Carpool team, Ramdenbourg said, because they are the first application from on a webapp with the same purpose.

“The app is wonderful,” Lin said. “Lots Rice Apps to have a significant user base.

“Other apps have been launched of clever and thoughtful elements, like having really clearly labeled cards for rides but nobody really uses them,” she said.

“We’re kind of like the guinea pigs in the with huge font for the ride date.”

organization, so that’s really exciting.”

Garza, Gupta and Ramdenbourg all said they plan to continue working on projects with Rice Apps. Right now, the club is working on a website to facilitate space reservations at residential colleges and a web platform for the student run business The Hoot, Ramdenbourg said. Although they’ll be moving on to other projects, Gupta said Rice Apps will be creating a team in charge of maintaining and updating all active apps.

“Being able to have real world experience in creating apps is really cool,” Ramdenbourg said. “This is not something you can really learn in your classes.”

For Gupta, her work at Rice Apps has confirmed her interest in coding. Specifically, she said that seeing students at Carpool’s launch party get so excited about the website was an extremely valuable moment.

“The fact that people were excited about our app without any incentive was one of my favorite moments,” she said. “In my mission to be a [computer science] major, I think that moment really confirmed that I really do like this major. Because when I create something, and when people use what I create, that feeling is amazing.”

The Sorting Hat: A closer look at residential college selection IVANKA PEREZ ASST FEATURES EDITOR

Although the residential college system is one of the most prominent aspects of life at Rice, the process of sorting students into colleges remains shrouded in mystery. Is it a computer program? A sorting hat? Fate?

The real answer more closely resembles The Wizard of Oz. There is one woman behind the green curtain, and her name is Wendi Schoffstall.

Schoffstall, a manager in the dean of undergraduates’ office, is the sole person in charge of sorting students into residential colleges. After June 1 — the deadline for new students to submit required forms — Schoffstall begins sorting, a process that takes her entire focus for up to a month. “[Schoffstall] doesn’t go on holiday,” Dean of Undergraduates Bridget Gorman said. “Everyone [in the office leaves] her alone because she’s working through all of this.”

As many Rice students know, residential college sorting is somewhat random, but not entirely — it’s a process known as stratified random sorting.

Schoffstall first takes into consideration any college requests, then randomly sorts the remainder of

the students before making any other only knows static data such as gender, ethnicity, school of study and what high necessary adjustments.

Before the initial random sorting, school or city a student comes from. Still, Schoffstall accounts for legacies and she does her best to ensure there is no students with disabilities. Students majority of any grouping based on the whose siblings or parents have attended information given.

Contrary to popular belief, Schoffstall Rice can submit a request to opt into or out of their relative’s college. does not intentionally put certain students — such as international Additionally, Schoffstall receives a list of students or athletes — together in students whose colleges have been preone college. The initial random assigned by the Disability Resource sorting causes this to happen Center based on their needs. organically, Schoffstall said.

Once Schoffstall has allocated “When you have an incoming colleges to those students, she class that’s a thousand people, manually assigns colleges at you have more than 11 random to the rest. In order to architecture students,” she ensure the sorting is completely said. “So when I go and I random, she makes the distribute the students, process blind by covering more often than not, the students’ names. there’s [at Then, she goes least two] at back and each college.” c o r r e c t s Part of this any random redistribution process clusters that have formed in includes ensuring that every the colleges. student has a slot at a “If the blind assignment put college. Colleges have to 75 percent women in [a certain] reserve a certain number college, I have to go back through of beds for incoming and kind of move them around,” freshmen before knowing Schoffstall said. the size of the incoming However, she has limited information about students. She illustration by esther tang class. Because of this,

part of Schoffstall’s job is to shift students around based on the number of beds allotted to freshmen. Luckily, because of the ebb and flow of current Rice students — transfer students and those who study abroad — Schoffstall said things work out in the end.

“Usually, it unwrinkles itself pretty beautifully and we don’t have to do a lot of shifting,” she said.

Even though the job may seem tedious at times, both Gorman and Schoffstall said they wouldn’t want the college sorting process to be automated. According to Gorman, using a software to sort would just make the process more complicated.

In moments of crisis, Gorman said it is useful to have someone who knows the process inside and out.

“It benefits us greatly that [Schoffstall] is deeply familiar with how this is all operating because she can operate quick,” said Gorman said.

Moreover, Schoffstall and Gorman wouldn’t want to take the human element out of the sorting process.

“I think there’s something magical about just doing the placement of it,” Schoffstall said.

One person sorting every current Rice student into his or her college. If that’s not as magical as The Wizard of Oz, then what is?

FEATURES

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 3, 2019 • 7

Emmett Bertram Duncan ‘21 Lingyin Wu Martel ‘20 Myra Ramdenbourg Will Rice ‘21 Katherine Ngo Graduate Student

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Very concentrated type of coffee Natural logarithm I spend all of this at Coffeehouse The _____ level in Coffeehouse is so high that I’m always amazed that people can study there __S, popular Korean boy band Does not support Common masculine pronoun Prefix meaning two Syrup option at Coffeehouse Word of disapproval Shakespearean cry of woe The ones you fight in a war The city of angels With 1 Across, student art and performance at Coffeehouse

Answers will be posted on ricethresher.org.

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ELECs graduate with a BS__ d egree Like Cambridge or Main Like Coffeehouse or the Hoot New dairy alternative at Coffeehouse A latte with hazelnut and vanilla would basically be a Nutty Bee with _____ Italian ____ can be ordered at Coffeehouse Assessment, abbr.

Sad coffee option Beams of sunlight Shopper’s site Lennon’s widow The UK will leave this during Brexit Mrs. partner

difference

YOU WANT TO MAKE A

IN PEOPLE’S LIVES.

yours

WE WANT TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN TEACHERS

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CO-TEACHERS

OPERATIONS

LEADERS

CHANGEMAKERS

We’re IDEA Public Schools, and we’re hiring people just like you. People who are driven to innovate and collaborate to change education for the better. People who don’t settle for the status quo.

People who have high expectations for themselves and thrive in a high-growth, high-reward environment. And most importantly, people who are united in the belief that every child has the potential to succeed in college and in life. By 2022, we’ll serve 100,000 students at 173 schools across

regions. As we grow, you grow – at IDEA, your professional potential is limitless.

Explore your future at ideapublicshools.org/careers.

Join our community at fb.com/IDEACareers.

THE RICE THRESHER

8 • WEDNESDAY, APRIL 3, 2019

ARTS&ENTERTAINMENT

Ali Wong: Milk & Money Tour Our writer saw comedian Ali Wong on her Houston tour stop. Wong talked sexuality and being a mother.

See more on ricethresher.org

STUDENT ART

‘Inside’ transforms Inferno into an intimate womb MOSES GLICKMAN THRESHER STAFF

yi luo / thresher

Sid Richardson College senior Melisa Pekiyi and McMurtry College senior Esther Tang look up into the folds of “Inside,” Inferno Gallery’s latest installation.

Across the Sewall courtyard, “Inside,” a piece by architecture student Belle Carroll, appears deeply surreal, interrupting the brick and metal grating of the exterior wall with an emanation of pink light. Stepping past the threshold of the Inferno Gallery and through a gaping opening that runs almost ceiling to floor places the viewer in a softly lit, organically shaped chamber of gauze. A speaker continuously plays poems and selections from “Bridges,” a musical composition by Carroll herself.

The artificial womb of “Inside” is tiny, contemplative and almost cozy — a fitting depiction of what Carroll called “an intimate space … a shared human experience, [albeit] one we have no memory of.” Yet Carroll’s vision is large and audacious. “[I created] this environment with the fluid material of pink gauze [to] symbolize the beauty and violence that revolves around the female body,” Carroll, a Lovett College senior, said.

“I dedicated this work to my aunt, who showed me the struggles of being a woman in a very patriarchal society.

My subject is the womb, because we are very much reduced to that as a symbol of our humanity.”

The poems, many of which contain deeply raw subject matter, are continuously read out in a steady, feminine voice from a hidden speaker.

The gentle intonation creates a bracing juxtaposition between fiery content and the calming tones of an audiobook.

According to Carroll, each poem deals with the body and how the body is

perceived over a lifetime. Indeed, one poem is titled “the art of growing” by Rupi Kaur. Carroll explained that she admires the universality of Kaur’s work.

“She’s very young, very bright,” Carroll said. “Her work’s all accessible: its vocabulary, its intonation … It transcends several generations. I know grandmothers who read her.”

Kaur authors every poem featured in the exhibit, save one original composition by Carroll. Written for the exhibition, the poem serves as an introduction to Inside, discussing and spatially analyzing the womb.

As a multimedia experience, “Inside” seems to overflow the 10-by-10-foot confines of the Inferno. Despite the notoriously cramped nature of what was once called the Matchbox, Carroll was enthusiastic about the opportunity to showcase her exhibit there. However, she does not envision the path of “Inside” ending at the Inferno.

“The space is very much what you make of it,” Carroll said. “This is a work in progress. I’d like to develop the artwork over the next couple of years to hit on parts of feminism that I didn’t get the chance to in this work.”

Regarding the future of “Inside,” Carroll made clear that no plans were set in stone.

“Other architecture students have suggested that I should enlargen the space, make it more of a tunnel to have the spacial process of entering,” Carroll said. “It’s very much an open process.”

Regardless of what the future holds for “Inside,” the piece is showing at the Inferno Gallery in Sewall Hall until April 14 and is very much worth the trip. To schedule a visit, email infernoartgallery@gmail.com.

FASHION

Rondelet looks: Dressing up on a budget KATELYN LANDRY ASST A&E EDITOR

Rondelet is this weekend and since you’re already coughing up 20 bucks for each ticket, here are some ways to spare your wallet from further damage in the name of your totally cute outfit.

I am perpetually broke so trust in this list, because I only included shops that I would personally visit in order to not break the bank: THRIFT SHOPS The Cottage Shop is a resale boutique in Montrose owned and operated by The Women’s Home, so 100% of proceeds contribute to supporting women and their families. They have 25% off all boutique, regular and vintage clothing Thursday - Saturday, so stop by before

this Friday night to take advantage of this discount.

Buffalo Exchange is a campus favorite for a reason. Stop into the Montrose shop for some unique apparel, shoes and jewelry that are sure to make you stand out. In my experience, their dresses usually go for $10 - $30.

Don’t be afraid of going to Goodwill for dress shopping. There are usually some hidden treasures among the ’80s prom dresses and corduroy jumpsuits that are just begging to be found. The price range at Goodwill is likely the cheapest among all of the thrift stores listed here.

Flamingos Vintage Pound sells genuine vintage clothing — you guessed it — by the pound. Stop by on your way to Trader Joe’s on South Shepherd Dr. and find some one-of-a-kind pieces for your

Rondelet ensemble. Prices are usually about $10 - $20 for non-specialty items.

VIVA FRIDA!

MARGARET ATWOOD

Since you’re already coughing up 20 bucks for each ticket, here are some ways to spare your wallet from further damage.

Pavement Houston Clothing is another Montrose resale hotspot. This shop has contracts with popular retailers including Zara and Free People, so the clothes are slightly more expensive than your traditional thrift store (usually

between $10 - $50) but they are also relatively ‘newer.’

FAST FASHION Forever 21 may be infamous for its cheesy slogans that are slapped onto polyester jackets, but it also has a huge collection of relatively inexpensive maxi dresses that you can definitely pass off as a prom dress. You can get to Forever 21 at the Galleria Mall or with a short ride on the Metro Rail to Main Street Square.

Cotton On is one of the least expensive retail chains in the Galleria Mall and is perfect if you’re looking for a more casual, effortless Rondelet look.

H&M hardly ever fails with its wide selection of formal and casual pieces for prices under $50 for the most part.

Definitely check out the clearance rack before anything else.

THE WEEKLY SCENE

CYPHER: ENTER THE CIRCLE Join BASYK as they host their first campus-wide dance showcase Friday, April 5 at 7 p.m. Admission is free.

BASYK will be joined by Rice Owls Dance Team, Rice Bhangra, Rice Dance Theater and more campus dance organizations.

RMC Grand Hall

Celebrate the life and legacy of Frida Kahlo at Discovery Green Saturday, April 6 from 2 - 10 p.m. and Sunday, April 7 from 11 a.m. - 7 p.m. This event is free and will feature local musicians, performance artists and a wide range of merchant and food vendors.

Discovery Green 1500 McKinney St.

Author of bestselling novel The Handmaid’s Tale Margaret Atwood will speak at Jones Hall this Friday, April 5 at 7:30 p.m. Atwood will discuss a wide range of issues including literature, political engagement, her creative process and more. Tickets start at $35.

Jones Hall for the Performing Arts 615 Louisiana St.

SECRET WALLS Watch teams of international artists compete to design murals in 90 minutes at the Historic Market Square Houston Saturday, April 6 at 8 p.m. Get there early to grab food from Niko Niko’s and Baby’s Burgers Houston food truck. Don’t miss this feat of speed and talent!

Historic Market Square Houston 301 Milam St.

ARTS&ENTERTAINMENT

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 3, 2019 • 9

MUSIC

‘WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP’ shows Billie Eilish’s emerging talent in full force

CHRISTINA TAN A&E EDITOR

WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP Genre: Pop, electro-pop Album length: 42 minutes Release date: March 29 Where to listen: Spotify, Apple Music

Slurping noises introduce pop artist Billie Eilish’s new and first album, WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO? Giggles are accompanied by Eilish stating “I have taken out my Invisalign, and … this is the album.” Weird ASMR or Eilish having fun — the 14 second introduction sets the tone for the rest of Eilish’s album. Brooding and weird at times, the 14-track album carries an underlying taunting tone that shows Eilish is here to have fun.

Eilish’s meteoric rise to the top of the pop scene began with her platinum single, “Ocean Eyes,” which captured the hearts of a young fan base looking for an artist that resonates with them. Since then, the 17-year-old has seen massive success for her subsequent EP and singles, with over 35 million monthly listeners on Spotify alone.

WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, Eilish’s first studio album, shows tremendous growth in the artist’s style and direction. Released March 29, the album features experimental

tracks with heavy bass, dark topics and Eilish’s signature crooning voice. After its introduction, the album kicks off with the bass-heavy “bad guy,” which features Eilish almost-chanting over a fast paced beat. Here, Eilish does not hold back in her lyricism, singing “I’m that bad type / Make your mama sad type / Make your girlfriend mad tight / Might seduce your dad type,” lyrics that might make older listeners cringe or feel uncomfortable.

But Eilish doesn’t care, and this shows throughout the album. Her disinterest in the listener’s expectations continues with “xanny,” where her characteristic voice is intentionally tarnished through heavy bass and vibrato. To her credit, Eilish condemns the widespread use of Xanax, a prescription drug used for anxiety, in this track (“Don’t give me a Xanny, now or ever”).

But the experimentation with her voice and incorporation of intense bass show that Eilish wants to move beyond her pastel, indie pop roots.

This disregard for the formula that catapulted her into fame is both a benefit and detriment on the album. While Eilish has a no-holds-barred attitude in her lyricism and style, that same attitude does not extend to her vocals — with the exception of “wish you were gay” and “when the party’s over,” back-to-back throaty ballads in the middle of the album. Beyond these tracks, the album features mostly restrained vocals from Eilish, a letdown for longtime fans who originally liked Eilish for her strong voice.

In substitution for her voice, Eilish brings in a slew of experimental styles that push the boundaries of her defined genre, pop. In “bury a friend,” background music

Billie Eilish performs at South by Southwest 2018.

and sound effects make the track sound like something from a horror flick — but in a compelling, startling way. In “8,” the majority of the vocals are pitch-shifted, resulting in a child-like Eilish voice. And in “my strange addiction,” Eilish samples a scene from her favorite show, The Office, where Michael Scott mentions a character named “Billy.”

Outside of the album’s musicality, Eilish plays on one of her biggest strengths: her intense fanbase. In addition to the traditional album, Eilish also included a “Spotify album experience,” where listeners can watch visuals associated with the tracks inside Spotify. These visuals range from pastel,

christina tan / thresher

colorful and weird (as seen with “bad guy”) to recordings of Eilish performing in front of crowds (“wish you were gay”). To top it off, Eilish also created a physical “Instagram museum” in Los Angeles — collaborating with Spotify, Eilish decorated rooms to represent tracks in rooms with different temperatures and colors.

Eilish knows her crowd very well, which means her groundbreaking, experimental album is intentionally so — she knows that her fans won’t fault her for having a little fun.

WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO? can be found on all major streaming platforms.

THE TEA ON THE

Boba is one of the great loves of Rice students. Grabbing boba is a solid way to catch up with friends, meet someone on a date or take a break from life at Rice.

We hoped to take a more scientific (note: none of us are exactly D3…) approach to evaluating these shops; do with this information as you will.

MILK TEA

milk tea with boba

passion fruit green tea with lychee jelly/aloe

kung fu tea

Kung Fu Milk Tea with bubbles

Passion Fruit Green Tea with aloe jelly

Mango Slush

Price: 3 Taste: 3.5 Aesthetic: 2.13 Overall score: 8.63

2518 rice blvd

teahouse

#1 Teahouse Cream Tea with tapioca

Passion Fruit Green Tea with lychee gelatin

Fresh Grapefruit Green Tea

Price: 4 Taste: 3.18 Aesthetic: 2.38 Overall score: 9.56

5135 w. alabama st.

Pearl Milk Tea

QQ Passion Fruit Green Tea with aloe

Milk Foam Green Tea

Price: 3 Taste: 4.38 Aesthetic: 3.75 Overall score: 11.13

9889 bellaire blvd

Classic Pearl Black Milk Tea

Mango & Passion Fruit Green Tea with lychee jelly

Kiwi Fruit Tea with aiyu jelly

Price: 4 Taste: 4 Aesthetic: 2.75 Overall score: 10.75

9888 bellaire blvd

Roasted Oolong Milk Tea with pearls

Passion Fruit Royal Tea with lychee coconut

Elegant Rose Aloe

Price: 4.5 Taste: 3.25 Aesthetic: 3.13 Overall score: 10.88

boba type 3224 yoakum blvd

gong cha

sharetea

t4 - tea for u

specialty drink

scores (categories out of 5)

Baker College senior Julia Wang - From San Jose, California, and has been drinking boba since probably middle school. Not a fan of milk tea but really appreciates a strong tea flavor in fruit-flavored teas.

Kung Fu Tea - A solid choice not too far from campus, but not our absolute favorite because their milk tea is made with milk powder.

Baker senior Catherine Kirby - From Dallas, Texas, has read a book about tea and can tell you a lot of random facts about it. Spent a lot of time drinking tea when living in Korea; always on a quest for the best milk-tea in brave defiance of her lactose intolerance! Is dating one of the founders of East-West Tea.

Teahouse - A ton of options, it’s the closest to Rice, and their fresh grapefruit tea was our favorite out of everything we tried.

Hanszen College senior Leya Mohsin - From Dublin, Ohio, and consumed very little boba before Rice. Would now consider herself a casual drinker of boba but is still a coffee person at heart. The only one of us willing to accept her lactose intolerance but was bullied into drinking milk tea for this piece.

Brown College senior Claire Luo - From North Potomac, Maryland / Chengdu, China, where she grew up around traditional teahouses. A Keeper of Coffee at Rice Coffeehouse and honestly prefers coffee over boba on most occasions (but is easily convinced to accompany friends on boba runs). ** Note: all four of us have some level of lactose intolerance. Lactaids were widely available for consumption.

Gong Cha - A lot of quali-tea special-teas going on at all times, so feel free to branch out. Also, it’s very crowded, but our drinks came out super quickly. The boba was far and away the best-tasting of all the shops — a good chewiness and light sweetness.

Sharetea - A good place to work, with its big tables and big drinks. However, we didn’t get sticker labels on our cups, meaning we couldn’t verify the level of sweetness in our drinks.

T4 - Tea For U - A lot of flavors to choose from, but make sure you choose wisely because the flavors are strong. Also, has distinctly unappealing decor — white, bulbous lamps hanging from the ceiling that resemble snot or perhaps other bodily fluids. illustration by esther tang

THE RICE THRESHER

10 • WEDNESDAY, APRIL 3, 2019

SPORTS BARBER SHOP TALK: FOOTBALL

Football shouldn’t practice on Beer Bike Beer Bike is arguably the most important social event on the Rice calendar. Students call it the best day of the year or even Christmas. From the early wake-up to the Martel sundeck to the water balloon fight to the races, it is a day of celebration and a journey outside of the normal obligations of being a college student.

For the past two years, however, the Rice football team has held practice on the morning of Beer Bike, robbing the studentathletes of the opportunity to enjoy one of Rice’s preeminent traditions. Though the practice ends before the races, much of Beer Bike’s excitement is derived from the pre-race celebration, which the studentathletes cannot attend. This year, with the exception of spring break, spring practices have been held on Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays. It does not seem impossible to move the Beer Bike practice to either Friday or Sunday.

This is a fairly new phenomenon.

Former head coach David Bailiff allowed players to attend Beer Bike festivities, while current head coach Mike Bloomgren has not in his first two years at the helm.

It is inarguable that there is some divide between most student-athletes and nonstudent-athletes. Depending on the sport, student-athletes cannot participate in many O-Week activities, and because of the time commitment to their respective sports (anywhere between 20 and 40 hours per week), some student-athletes are unable to join clubs or participate in residential college events and culture.

Preventing the football team from attending Beer Bike adds to the divide.

According to two football players who were granted anonymity, not being able to experience Beer Bike makes them feel less connected to their residential college and the general student body.

Additionally, according to those same players, football players who live on campus get very little sleep the night before Beer Bike (and their practice) due to the rest of the students getting up as early as 2 a.m. to start the festivities.

It is important to note that football is not the only team that does not get to attend Beer Bike. This year, members of the men’s tennis and baseball teams did not get to enjoy the event because they had competitions. When a team is in season, it is reasonable that they might have to miss Beer Bike. However, football is not in season. Yes, they have practices three times per week in anticipation of the spring intrasquad game, but the team’s next competitive in-season game is in roughly five months.

Wouldn’t the football staff want their players to be happier and feel like they are at least somewhat connected to the rest of the student body? Rice’s undergraduate population is around 4,000 students. It is not a large state school where studentathletes are a tiny percentage of the population. Student-athletes here are an integral part of the Rice community.

It is crucial that they are given every opportunity to feel like they belong. There’s a simple fix for the football staff: next year, do not schedule practice on the day of Beer Bike. Don’t strengthen the divide between the two groups of students. Do the right thing and let your players enjoy one of the best days of the year.

ERIC BARBER SENIOR WRITER WILL RICE SOPHOMORE

charlene pan / thresher

Biker Allie Gonzalez, a Jones junior, rides down the bike track’s second straightaway during the women’s bike race on Saturday. The Jones women’s team finished in first place on the track. However, the Graduate Student Association ultimately won the women’s race after 70 seconds of pit penalties were assessed to Jones, according to the official results posted by the Rice Program Council.

FROM PAGE 1

BEER BIKE

Jones Beer Bike coordinator Hannah Park said she has reached out to RPC to ask about the penalties, which she believes are incorrect. She said contacted campuswide coordinators Rebecca Artall and Enoch Peng, and they told her that the pit violations were most likely assessed because of false starts or people in the pit crossing lane lines.

“After seeing the posted results, many Jonesians were infuriated because we clearly won the race without any penalties,” Park, a junior, said. “We are still unsure on what we did wrong. We’re currently waiting until Thursday at the latest to see what the judge’s sheet says.”

Furthering the confusion about penalties, the Lovett College women’s bike team was given 10 seconds for pit violations. Lovett did not have a women’s team, according to race announcer Jake Reinhart.

Natoli said she was extremely impressed with Jones’ performance even though they ultimately did not win.

“I know how strong our team was, and for them to be even stronger, that’s just incredibly impressive,” Natoli said. “I have to hand it to them. Jones women should be feared.”

Duncan finished second in the final standings, the highest ever finish for the college. Junior Sophia Jefferson and senior Caroline Cobb, the Duncan captains, said they weren’t surprised by their success.

“People said that we overperformed, but we just performed,” Jefferson said.

“We knew that we were good. People just underestimated us.”

MEN’S RACE The McMurtry men’s team ultimately finished first on the track by 59 seconds over second place Will Rice College, according to the results posted by RPC. However, McMurtry’s sixth runner is listed as having run a 22.28 second split, which would have required him to run over 50 miles per hour.

Usain Bolt, the fastest man in the world, has reached a peak speed of 28 miles per hour in the 100 meter sprint.

After 40 seconds of penalties were assessed to McMurtry and none to Will Rice, McMurtry won the men’s race by 19 seconds, according to RPC. Will Rice runner Christopher Walters said there is no way the results posted by RPC are correct.

“The splits have us a minute apart when we actually finished just a few seconds apart,” Walters said. “So with penalties it should be a Will Rice win by 30 seconds.”

Walters said he thinks someone may have accidentally added a split of 22.28 seconds when it should have been a full minute longer. RPC declined to comment in time for print on this potential error.

Minutes before the women’s race, raindrops began to fall. The drops eventually intensified into a drizzle, but the conditions were never bad enough that the women’s race had to shift to a Beer Run. The men were not as lucky. Due to the drizzle, the track became too wet for Beer Bike, necessitating a run instead, according to campuswide coordinators Peng and Artall.

“The call was made when the men starting warming up; the rain started to pick up at the same time, and the track got too slippery so it was switched to a run,” Peng and Artall said via email. “Because we had worked out how we wanted to approach a Beer Run earlier in the week, we followed the plan we had set out: [Emcees] announced multiple times, and we informed the college coordinators that their runners needed to come [to] the track if they weren’t already there.”

Jones captain Will Yarinsky, whose bike team was picked to finish in the top five by his fellow captains in the Captains’ Beer Bike poll, said it was extremely disappointing to shift to a Beer Run given the amount of training his team put in throughout the year.

“If it’s a Beer Run, it’s kind of a fluke,” Yarinsky said. “We want to give the guys who have been putting in a lot of training all year the opportunity to run if they want … We

didn’t worry about training [for Beer Run], it’s not something we focus on.”

Patrick Kelly, a runner for the McMurtry men’s team, said he only learned the race would be a run when it was announced over the loudspeaker at the track.

“There were probably, I don’t know, five minutes between us knowing and the race starting,” Kelly, a senior, said.

Kelly said his team finalized its running order after the race had already started.

“When they announced the race was happening, we had some issues figuring out who was actually on the run roster because the run roster was different from the bike roster,” Kelly said. “We were figuring out who was on the roster, who could run and what order we were trying to run even as the first two runners were running.”

Despite the accelerated planning process, McMurtry finished first. The college led almost wire-to-wire, taking the lead after on the second runner and maintaining the advantage for the remainder of the race. Taka Mollenkamp, McMurtry’s second runner, said he knew his college had a great chance to win after he finished his laps with the lead.

“I was confident in all my runners after me that they were fast,” Mollenkamp said.

He said when McMurtry crossed the finish line, it was hard to contain his excitement.

“I was jumping up and down celebrating with all of my teammates and saying congratulations all around,” Mollenkamp said. “It felt amazing because it was the first win for McMurtry in a Beer Bike or a run.”

McMurtry hosted its first-ever victory party in the evening following the race, spraying champagne in a fourth floor hallway to celebrate the men’s team. Mollenkamp said he hopes the first-place finish will motivate future McMurtry teams to repeat this success.

“I think it gives a lot of hope and confidence to all of the McMurtry racers,” Mollenkamp said. “Next year and onwards, it’s no longer a dream that you can’t accomplish. It shows McMurtry can win a Beer Bike too.”

SPORTS

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 3, 2019 • 11

A GOLFER’S JOURNEY ACROSS THE POND Jake Benson

courtesy rice athletics

Sophomore golfer Jake Benson follows through after an iron shot during one of the golf team’s practices last September. Though Rice’s golf team has struggled as a whole this season, with no top-5 finishes and just four top-10 placings in its nine tournaments this season, Benson has played at a career-best level. Last fall, Benson set personal records in low single-round score (67), low 54-hole score (208), and highest tournament finish (T-9th). This winter, he added another top-10 finish to his resume, again tying for ninth in February’s All-American Intercollegiate.

ERIC BARBER SENIOR WRITER

Sophomore golfer Jake Benson first picked up a club when he was five years old. Hailing from Nottingham, England, Benson gained experience playing in the British Isles, where the sport originated.

Before coming to Rice, he attended the Open Championship — the oldest golf tournament in the world — seven times, visiting some of the world’s finest courses, such as St. Andrews and Royal Birkdale Golf Club. Growing up, Benson says that he took inspiration from one of Europe’s best-ever golfers.

“Sergio Garcia is the one for sure,” Benson said. “He shows passion and emotion. His drive to achieve was a big factor in my [playing] progression.”

Benson said he first knew he wanted to play college golf in the United States around the beginning of high school.

According to Benson, more and more golfers from the United Kingdom have been coming to the U.S. to play at the collegiate level because of the high-level competition available.

While many coaches recruited Benson, Rice head coach Justin Emil was the first to see him play at the British Boys Amateur Championship —

and ultimately won the competition for arrived at Rice, but that he has settled in his signature to commit to the school. well since then.

“It took him about a semester to get According to Benson, Rice’s academics and Emil’s interest made his choice easy. his feet under him here because you can “Coach Emil sent me an email soon imagine the adventure of going to school after that [tournament] and just showed thousands of miles away,” Emil said. his interest,” Benson said. “He was very “But he’s improved his confidence as a complimentary of me and he seemed player over the last year and a half. He’s kind of verified that very nice and sort of by playing really well stood out from the in some really good rest of the coaches.” tournaments and Benson said that It’s not very flashy, but posting some really his consistency great finishes.” stands out as a I keep the ball in play Even with strength in his game. a lot of the time. I’m Benson’s success, the “It’s not very pretty accurate off the have struggled flashy, but I keep tee. [That’s] probably the Owls this year. Benson the ball in play a lot said that even though of the time,” Benson strong part of my game. matches haven’t said. “I’m pretty Jake Benson gone their way this accurate off of the season, Rice can still tee. Just keeping it SOPHOMORE GOLFER turn it around with in play in course management is probably the strong part two tournaments left to play.

“Even if we just improved by one or of my game.”

Now in his second year with the two shots per round each [player], that Owls, Benson has lowered his scoring can be a massive difference in college average from 75.6 to 73.1 to lead the team golf with the team format,” Benson for the year. He has two top-10 and four said. “So I say it’s only small changes top-20 finishes this season. Emil said that we need to make and I’m sure we that coming from across the pond was can improve massively upon the results a barrier to Benson’s success when he we’ve had.

Despite the Owls’ record, they have gone up against some of the best competition in the country, including No.1-ranked Oklahoma State University and OSU’s Matthew Wolff, the No. 1 golfer in the country. Benson said he learned from Wolff when he saw him play.

“We were on the range, and I stopped my warmup and watched Wolff for a bit just to learn something from him and see what he’s doing differently [from] everyone else that makes him so good,” Benson said.

Benson said he has ambitions of playing professionally. Two seniors from last year’s team, Mitchell Meissner and Mario Carmona, are currently playing on the PGA Tour Latinoamérica, one of the developmental tours for professional golfers. According to Emil, Benson’s potential is sky-high.

“I think that he could be a top-ranked player in Division I college golf,” Emil said. “As he continues to build confidence and clean up some things about his game, he could definitely be one of the best golfers to ever play at Rice.”

The Owls’ next tournament comes April 15, when they host the Bayou City Collegiate Classic at Golfcrest Country Club. The next week, they will compete in the Conference USA Championships.

Women’s tennis prepares for C-USA showdown MADISON BUZZARD ASST SPORTS EDITOR

Women’s tennis will look to build on its 9-2 home record in two matches against Florida-based opponents at George R. Brown Tennis Center this weekend. Rice will battle the University of South Florida on Friday afternoon and then challenge Conference USA rival Florida International University on Sunday morning.

Rice has yet to face a C-USA team this season. Overall, the Owls are 10-7 in dual matches, but six of those seven losses came against opponents nationally ranked in the top 50. Most recently, Rice fell to No. 49 Princeton University 5-2 before it defeated The College of William & Mary 6-1.

Freshman Anastasia Smirnova said playing against No. 9 University of Texas,

Austin, No. 12 Kansas University and No. 18 Louisiana State University gave her a measuring stick for success.

“If we don’t compete against the best teams, we can’t really know at which level we are,” Smirnova, a McMurtry College freshman, said.

Two weeks ago, Smirnova was honored as the C-USA Player of the Week after winning four consecutive singles matches.

According to Rice head coach Elizabeth Schmidt, inexperience can be a gift.

“I think our team has done a good job after every match of going back and seeing what we’ve done well, and what areas we can improve in,” Schmidt said.

“As a young team, they are always open to getting feedback and getting better as individuals and as a group ... Not just looking at the results, but looking at our discipline, every day, I have seen a ton

of growth in this team over the season. I think everything is coming together at a good time.”

In partner play, Rice has shone, winning the doubles point in 13 of 17 matches.

Schmidt said her team has focused on building its camaraderie — playing card games in hotel lobbies during trips — and punishing opponents at the net.

“We have improved a ton [in doubles],” Schmidt said. “It’s something we have worked on in the fall and the spring and it’s something that has been a solid point for us. We have been training on that and being open to being more aggressive. It’s something that can be even stronger.”

The duo of Smirnova and junior Priya Niezgoda has a doubles record of 16-5 this season. But Smirnova said Rice needs its students to come out this weekend to build the intensity.

“[Students] don’t realize how important it is to have people cheer for you,” Smirnova said. “As a university, we need to have this mindset of, here we have basketball playing, we have tennis playing, we have football playing, [so] we will go and support them. Students at Rice can do better ... When you have people cheer for you, not only your teammates but also your classmates, professors and your friends coming and cheering for you, it definitely helps your mental game.”

When the Owls host the C-USA Championships in three weeks, support could help Rice lift the trophy for the fifth time in six years, according to freshman Victoria Smirnova.

“Fans can help us with their energy to bring the title back home,” Victoria Smirnova said.

BACKPAGE

12 • WEDNESDAY, APRIL 3, 2019

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TEAM BACCHUS/ DIONYSUS ODDS: 69 to 1

Bacchanalia is on Saturday, so why not bring along the mythological deity that inspires it all? He’s got everything: agriculture, wine, fertility … Bacchus is even known to bring ecstasy — interpret as you wish. Plus, Brown is basically off campus, which means the public will already be your second date if you start hanging out with this ancient god a day early.

With March Madness finishing up, only one team will emerge victorious. Similarly, only one date can win your heart for Rondelet this Friday. Luckily, there are plenty of interesting potential suitors in town this week that can sweep you off your feet and all the way to the dance floor of the Museum of Natural Science.

TEAM VINCENT VAN GOGH ODDS: 37 to 1

TEAM MIKE PENCE

You can pick up your hot date right in the Museum District! Van Gogh is in Houston for a few months at the Museum of Fine Arts. He doesn’t immediately leave a great first impression, but his post-impression is sure to be strong. Vince may only have one ear, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t a fantastic listener! If he comes out on top of the Date Bracket, he’ll make sure Rondelet is a Starry Night.

TEAM LUCY THE AUSTRALOPITHECUS ODDS: 3.2 million to 1 ODDS: 48 to 1 Pence is a controversial pick, but he’s sure to draw a lot of attention as your date if protests don’t block his arrival. The vice president is delivering remarks about Venezuela at the Baker Institute earlier in the day. In other words, he feels strongly about intervening in affairs down south. Things are sure to heat up with Pence since he has no interest in combating climate change.

Rondelet is at the Houston Museum of Natural Science, so who better to bring than the most famous early hominin of all time? Lucy’s six-year U.S. tour that began back in 2007 was organized by the Houston Museum of Natural Science, so she’s no stranger to the venue. Being a 3.2 million-year-old skeleton makes this older woman a boning expert.

Not to mention, Lucy was named after the Beatles’ “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds,” so you know that a date with her would be a trip.

The Backpage is satire, written by Simona Mat Madness and designed by Simoghna van Matovic. For comments or questions, please email JamesJoyceLovesFarts@rice.edu

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