VOLUME 104, ISSUE NO. 5 | STUDENT-RUN SINCE 1916 | RICETHRESHER.ORG | WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2019
MOB LETS PRIDE FLY IN BAYLOR SHOW AMY QIN NEWS EDITOR
During halftime of the football game against Baylor University on Saturday, over 50 students and alumni from Rice and Baylor ran onto the football field bearing pride flags. The halftime show, organized by the Marching Owl Band, was a protest against Baylor’s discriminatory stance toward LGBTQ+ students, according to Chad Fisher, the public relations representative for the MOB. In late August, Baylor University President Linda Livingstone published a statement formally opposing premarital sex and homosexuality on the university official website. The statement came days before an LGBTQ+ student group, Gamma Alpha Upsilon, was denied their request for a charter, according to the Dallas Observer. “The university affirms the biblical understanding of sexuality as a gift from God,” its online statement reads. “Temptations to deviate from this norm include both heterosexual sex outside of marriage and homosexual behavior. It is thus expected that Baylor students will not participate in advocacy groups which promote understandings of sexuality that are contrary to biblical teaching.” During the halftime show, students carried eight different pride flags onto the field, representing the asexual, transgender, nonbinary, intersex, gay, lesbian, bisexual and pansexual communities and assembled into a formation spelling out the word P-R-I-D-E. In addition to Rice students and alumni, the participants also included four alumni from Baylor, according to Fisher, a Sid Richardson College senior. According to Izzie Karohl, who participated in the show, running onto the field was a liberating experience. “The Baylor folks booed when we asked them to reconsider their policy, but that’s as expected,” Karohl, a Will Rice College sophomore, said. “But the small cohort of Rice people were cheering. My [resident associates] were cheering. I think that’s all that really mattered to me.” According to Anna Conner, the vice president of Gamma Alpha Upsilon, reactions among Baylor students to the MOB’s halftime show have been mixed. “Dr. Livingstone, our president, was there to see it, which was amazing,” Conner, a senior at Baylor, said. “Mostly, people have been happy about it, but ... I’ve seen [others] complaining about it and booing during the performance under the pretense of them cheering for their sports team.” SEE MOB PAGE 3
katherine hui / THRESHER
Classes canceled belatedly after flooding, storms SAVANNAH KUCHAR ASST NEWS EDITOR
Tropical Depression Imelda hit Houston last week, bringing with it heavy rains and flash flood warnings starting Wednesday and reaching its peak on Thursday. Rice campus remained under normal operations up until midday Thursday. Rice’s Crisis Management Team announced that classes were canceled in a Rice Alert sent to the Rice community at 1:33 p.m. Thursday. Classes were then canceled on Friday as well, according to a Rice Alert sent at 10:35 p.m. on Thursday. In an email to President David Leebron, Dean of Undergraduates Bridget Gorman, Interim Provost Seiichi Matsuda and the Thresher, Drew Axelson, a Wiess College junior, said that he was frustrated with how the administration responded to the
storm and flood conditions. “The fact that Rice contradicted city officials and did not cancel classes until hours after the city of Houston said not to travel is ridiculous and unacceptable,” Axelson said in his email. “Rice loves to tout its recent research on climate change, flooding in Houston, and Hurricane Harvey, but sits back while streets in and around campus turn to rivers after 45 minutes of heavy rain.” Gorman said that the initial decision to not cancel classes was a result of an incorrect forecast and Imelda’s unpredictable nature. “We decided to proceed with normal operations as the information at hand at that point indicated that while rain was likely, the storm was expected to move away from the city and toward the north and east,” Gorman said. “However, the rain began to intensify after 10 a.m., and reports of flooding
across the Houston area began to appear. [The Crisis Management Team] made the decision to cancel classes and related activities at 1:30 p.m. given the now serious incidents of flooding on campus and across greater Houston.” Loren Goddard, a junior at Hanszen College, said that the university should have considered the effects on off-campus students and canceled classes sooner. “It might be difficult for the university to know how bad the rain is going to get, but as an [off-campus] student it would have definitely been nice to know [that classes would be canceled] before I got to campus so I wouldn’t have to worry about my safety on the way home,” Goddard said. Axelson said that his car flooded earlier this school year while sitting in West Lot 4 and with the conditions on Thursday, he was worried about this SEE IMELDA PAGE 2
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
Moody Center’s exhibit shoots for the stars ARELI NAVARRO MAGALLON THRESHER STAFF
Friday’s classes may have been belatedly canceled, but not even Tropical Depression Imelda could halt the launching of the Moody Center for the Arts’ latest exhibit: “Moon Shot.” Despite torrential downpour, the opening reception turned out a sizable crowd of visitors eager to partake in the Moody Center’s celebration of the 50th anniversary of the historic Apollo 11 moon landing. This show is, however, by no
means Rice University’s first contact with the moon. Houston’s nickname, Space City, exists in large part thanks to our university’s formative collaborations with NASA. “Moon Shot” greets visitors with a nod to Rice’s unique legacy by displaying an excerpt from John F. Kennedy’s stirring 1962 Rice Stadium speech. Here, the late president lauds Rice University, Houston and Texas in the same breath with his bold declaration. “No nation which expects to be the leader of other nations can expect to stay behind in the race for space.”
According to Alison Weaver, the Moody Center not only asserts Rice’s role within this historical context, but that of the arts as well. “We hope to add artists to the list of experts, and to complement these citywide events [that commemorate the moon landing anniversary] by exploring the impact of the moon landing on the visual and performing arts,” Weaver, executive director of the Moody Center, said. “Moon Shot” begins by framing the moon landing with a familiar historical slant. SEE MOON
SHOT PAGE 8