The Rice Thresher | Wednesday, October 2, 2019

VOLUME 104, ISSUE NO. 6 | STUDENT-RUN SINCE 1916 | RICETHRESHER.ORG | WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 2, 2019

PAYING ATTENTION THRESHER OPINION PROMPTS APOLOGY FROM RICE ADMINISTRATION

photos by channing wang and priyansh lunia photo illustration by tina liu

RISHAB RAMAPRIYAN NEWS EDITOR

Content warning: The following article contains references to sexual assault.

After the Thresher published a Rice alumna’s anonymous opinion about the mishandling of her sexual assault case, students mobilized across campus to express their dissatisfaction through acts of vandalism and defacement, silent protests and petitions.

Dean of Undergraduates Bridget Gorman issued an initial statement through the Thresher, followed by an apology by Gorman and President David Leebron on Friday evening.

In the anonymous opinion, the alumna wrote that her assailant was found in violation of the Code of Student Conduct by Student Judicial Programs. She was informed that he would be suspended starting at the beginning of the spring 2019 semester and would be required to apply for readmission. However,her assailant was able to avoid his suspension by graduating early.

“He received a diploma, with all the rights and responsibilities that a degree from Rice confers,”

the alumna wrote in her opinion.

“When Rice handed him a degree, they handed him a certification that what he had done was fine.”

(Editor’s Note: The Thresher reached out to the alumna who wrote the anonymous opinion for comments. The Thresher granted the alumna continued anonymity in line with our policy of not identifying sexual assault survivors who wish to remain anonymous.)

The alumna said she was dismissed by administrators such as Alison Vogt, the associate dean of students, when she asked about the outcomes of her case and policies that led to his ability to graduate. The alumna said she sent emails to various administrators for clarification but received no response, leading her to then write the opinion.

“I really had to work to get into contact with anyone from the administration,” the alumna said. “But once my [opinion] was published, I was kind of immediately reached out to by a lot of different people.”

Vandalism and Defacement Around 1 a.m. on Sept. 26, a group of anonymous Rice students plastered the base of William Marsh Rice’s statue with cut-outs of the alumna’s opinion and painted posters with letters spelling “PAY ATTENTION.” Images of the statue were then posted by the instagram account @justiceforricesurvivors.

SEE PROTEST PAGE 3

IN THEIR OWN WORDS:

survivors’ stories of sexual assault at Rice on pages 8-9

Content warning: Pages 8-9 contain graphic references to sexual assault.

THE RICE THRESHER

2 • WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 2, 2019

NEWS

Public party attendances rise RACHEL CARLTON FOR THE THRESHER After students were turned away from public parties last year, students appear to be arriving earlier and in greater numbers to this year’s publics, according to Captain Clemente Rodriguez of the Rice University Police Department.

Rodriguez used to provide security at public parties in previous years when students would wait to show up.

“Parties used to start really picking up in attendance maybe about 11 or so, an hour after the party had started,” Rodriguez said.

According to Rodriguez, students are now bucking tradition in favor of arriving on time.

“I think this trend kind of started last year where students are attending the parties, they’re a little bit more well attended then we’ve seen traditionally and a lot of the students that are attending are showing up right at the beginning of the parties,” said Rodriguez.

According to Julia Robinson, a social chair at McMurtry College last year, the fallout from McMurtry’s Y2K party contributed to this year’s trend of people arriving earlier.

“I think we’re seeing the same pattern ever since [Y2K],” Robinson, a junior, said.

“Publics never used to fill up before 12 or 12:30 [a.m.], and now if you get there at 10:30 [p.m.] you have to wait in line for 45 minutes.”

Social chairs from colleges that have hosted public parties this year have noticed this change as well.

Martel College sophomore Caroline Courbois was a social chair for Martel’s Don’t Mess with Texas party. According to her, students showed at exactly 10 p.m.

“It got crowded very, very quickly, like right at 10,” Courbois said. “We have counters at the entrance and also at the exit so we can figure out how many are on the sundeck at a given time, more or less, and beyond that, it filled up really quickly.”

Capacity limits for publics are set by fire marshals for the safety of the students, according to Courbois.

“The capacity of the sundeck is 300 people,” Courbois said. “And that doesn’t have to do with how many people you can fit. [It has to do with] in case of an emergency, how long does it take to escape.”

Petre Freeman, the Student Center’s associate director for campus events, said that the capacity also depends on the physical space available.

“Each commons at all the residential colleges has a square footage based on the square footage of the furniture and the ratio of how many people can be there,” Freeman said.

According to Freeman, although there is a set capacity for public party spaces, it is ultimately up to the social chairs themselves to decide whether they want to stay at or below capacity.

“This year, Sid [Richardson College] kept their capacity numbers below what the capacity number is set to ensure that there was space to maneuver, space to move around, so this year there weren’t as many complaints about, at Sid ’80s, it being overcrowded because they kept it down,” Freeman said.

Lines are an inevitable part of popular publics due to the capacity limits, according to Ben Firullo, Lovett College’s social chair for Toastchella, their public party.

Publics never used to fill up before 12 or 12:30 [a.m.], and now if you get there at 10:30 [p.m.] you have to wait in line for 45 minutes.

Julia Robinson FORMER MCMURTRY SOCIAL CHAIR “[Toastchella] was such a popular party that we did have a line back up,” Firullo, a sophomore, said. “We actually hit capacity at 11:15 [p.m.], which was I think one of the earliest we’ve ever had.”

At the Don’t Mess With Texas party, the sundeck greatly exceeded capacity, according to Courbois.

“I’d say around 11 o’clock [at night] it became noticeably too full,” she said. “We had 800 people and they told us, this is too full, you need to do something about it. They

illustration by chloe xu

told us to stop letting people in probably around 11 [p.m.],” she said.

Freeman couldn’t say whether the Martel public was actually over capacity, but he did say that Martel’s space creates different capacity issues.

“The unique thing about Martel is they have two floors,” Freeman said. “So what happens is if they’re at capacity at the bottom floor and their top is at capacity, when everyone from the top floor comes down at the same time, it’s overcrowded in that one space.”

At Y2K last year, capacity was, in effect, reached before the party had even started, according to Robinson.

“RUPD told us when they arrived at 9:50 [p.m.], they counted the line and it was already over what our capacity was,” Robinson said.

From there, long lines and over-restrictive capacities were the result of student behavior, according to Robinson. “[The commons] was only at capacity around the time we shut the line down. As people left, we weren’t letting people in to fill the gaps,” Robinson said. “We didn’t want to open the line again because the people in the line had demonstrated they weren’t responsible enough.”

Increasing enrollment at Rice has an effect on the lines at publics, according to Freeman.

“The numbers of the attendees have outgrown the spaces,” Freeman said. “So when you think about a public party, not

every student is going to get into a public party. And what that means is if they’re not in the party, they’re in the line.”

Students should do their best to exercise patience while waiting in line for publics, according to Rodriguez.

“If they feel like the line is too long, and even if it gets to capacity and we can’t allow anybody else in, that normally only lasts a short period as people start to leave and then we start letting people in,” Rodriguez said.

“If you go to a popular place off campus like a bar or a club, sometimes you run into the same thing where you have to wait in a long line to get in.”

In the end, capacity limits help increase students’ overall enjoyment of a party, according to Rodriguez.

“I don’t think anybody would want to be inside a venue where you really can’t move around comfortably or dance or enjoy it,” Rodriguez said. “It’s probably better for you to be outside enjoying the time talking with your friends than crowded and hot and uncomfortable in an overcrowded venue.”

Going forward, Freeman said colleges might want to consider an RSVP system for their parties. She is also looking into whether colleges might host parties in larger spaces.

“We probably need to look into if we’re wanting to decrease lines, looking at a system of are we going to turn into where you have to RSVP in advance, or are we going to allow for our parties to move to bigger spaces on campus such as Grand Hall,” Freeman said.

Will Rice, Lovett face flooding and pest issues

courtesy spencer wong

The air conditioning unit of a suite at Lovett College sprouted mushrooms earlier this year. Lovett suites have also reported the recurring presence of wasps and cockroaches.

CLAIRE CASTELLANO FOR THE THRESHER Within the past two weeks, students at Will Rice College and Lovett College have experienced a variety of facilities issues, from flooding at Will Rice to reports of wasps, roaches and fungi at Lovett.

On Sept. 19, Tropical Depression Imelda hit Rice’s campus as the fifth wettest tropical cyclone in U.S. history, according to the Texas Tribune. Will Rice college coordinator Dale Thomas said she noticed flooding in her office as a result of the storm that afternoon.

“I noticed water was pooling around

my desk,” Thomas said. “It was coming in through the commons door and running up into the office. I was worried because this flooring and furniture are brand new.”

According to Thomas, when they noticed the flooding, many students grabbed towels from their rooms and began to help her mop the water from the office floor.

Thomas made a call to Housing and Dining, and said she was overall satisfied with their timely response.

“They actually sent the custodians over pretty quickly to mop it up and [try] to stop the rain flow by the door,” Thomas said.

The storm also caused flooding within

Will Rice dormitories. Jared Snow, a Will Rice sophomore, said that he first noticed flooding on Sept. 20, when a friend said that the toilet of the third floor girls’ bathroom in Old Dorm was overflowing, and that no one should be opening the door to the room. According to Snow, this leak eventually traveled down to the second and first floor restrooms as well.

Snow said before he learned about the flooding in the bathrooms, he heard water trickling down inside the walls and noticed issues with the power in his room.

“I have string lights and a printer and stuff, and that all went out before we even knew the bathroom was flooding,” Snow said. “In the morning I woke up, at around 10 [a.m.], and the power still wasn’t on, but then around 11 [a.m. ...] everything turned back on.”

Will Rice Magister Matthew Bennett sent an email on Sept. 21 asking students to let him know if their rooms were affected. He said he received one response reporting a minor issue.

Lovett has also faced a number of facilities issues recently, including the recurring presence of wasps in dorms. H&D operations manager Diana DeSantiago said H&D usually tries to respond quickly to reports of wasps either by themselves or through pest control.

Other facilities issues have manifested at Lovett dorms, including issues with humidity and cockroaches. Lovett sophomore Spencer

Wong and his suitemates notice cockroaches often in their suite. Earlier this year, they also noticed mushrooms growing out of one of their air conditioning units.

“H&D kind of just took them away without saying anything to us and tried to downplay it, then our A-Team pushed them to look more into it, so they got an outside company to clean out our AC,” Wong said. “H&D could have been more transparent with us because we never really knew what was going on. Also [they] took part of our wall off and never put it back on.”

DeSantiago said the growth of the mushrooms was an isolated incident.

“H&D immediately took action to remediate the situation, which is why a portion of the wall was removed,” DeSantiago said. “Before the wall would be put back in place, we needed to ensure the moisture issue was resolved. We have verified all is fine and the wall is being repaired.”

DeSantiago said H&D encourages students to promptly report problems and wants to help in the most efficient way possible.

“There seems to be a tendency for underreporting,” De Santiago said. “This is why we always strongly encourage students to report by putting in their own work order and include as much detail as possible. This will help our team in resolving issues quickly.”

NEWS

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 2, 2019 • 3

FROM PAGE 1

PROTEST

(Editor’s note: The Thresher granted anonymity to four students who took responsibility for the defacement of Willy’s statue to protect them from potential repercussions. The three students will be referenced using fictitious names.)

Beth, who came up with the idea for covering Willy’s statue with messages, said she felt that she had to raise awareness and reached out to Sam and Jane.

“To me the op-ed felt like more of an issue that people just posted about on social media,” said Beth. “Reading the opinion and hearing stories from my friends and other people talking about [how] the university was not behind them, I thought that was a big issue and wanted to do something.”

At approximately 2:30 a.m., officers from the Rice University Police Department arrived at Willy’s statue and removed all posters and signage. According to Chief of Police James Tate, the defacement of Willy’s statue was in violation of campus policy.

“We also have a duty to enforce all campus policies fairly and consistently, which is why the signs were removed,” Tate said.

Tate also said that permission for any activity covered by the policy must be requested 48 hours in advance. According to Rice University Policy 820 titled “Campus Demonstrations, Protests, and Organized Expressions of Opinion,” activities such as protesting and installing posters are allowed as long as they do not violate local, state or federal laws. Texas Penal Code prohibits the defacement of burial sites, and Willy’s Statue is the tomb for William Marsh Rice.

Sam said that they were aware of the policy and do not have any anger against RUPD. Sam said that the picture of the statue on Instagram served to preserve their message.

Shortly after midnight on Sept. 27, the group again posted cutouts of the alumna’s opinion with painted letters spelling out “YOU CAN’T SILENCE US” on the base. In addition, a sign reading “I PROTECT RAPISTS” was placed on the statue. Images of the statue were again posted by the Instagram account @justiceforricesurvivors. RUPD responded to Willy’s Statue at approximately 1:45 a.m. and removed all signage. Gorman said that no complaints regarding vandalism or defacement have yet been filed with SJP. Sam said that their group escalated the severity of their diction the second night in order to match the discourse on campus. Beth said they considered the potential triggering effects of the message on students, but felt that Willy’s statue was avoidable.

Between 3 a.m. and 5 a.m., multiple groups of students working in solidarity with Sam, Jane and Beth dispersed across campus, trying to cover various buildings and landmarks, including the Sallyport and residential colleges, with cut-outs of the opinion. They also used chalk to write messages on walls.

The platform of Willy’s statue was once again defaced, this time with the message “Rice protects rapists” written in chalk. Most of the messages were removed or cleaned by noon on Sept. 27 but some remained at residential colleges in the afternoon.

Lisa, the fourth anonymous student, said she and others wrote the messages across campus. Lisa said she regrets that they did not have enough time to think about whether the messages across campus would be triggering for survivors, but said that many of the organizers were survivors themselves.

“I understand that different people who are organizing put a lot of posters in college commons and I can see how it would be very overwhelming,” Lisa said. “We should definitely put [survivor safety] as a priority [when organizing demonstrations] going forward but there is not much we can do now after the fact.”

Cathryn Councill, director of The SAFE Office: Interpersonal Misconduct Prevention and Support, said that the SAFE Office has been especially busy providing support to students during this “stressful time.”

Silent Protests At 10 a.m on Sept. 27, more than 50 students, majority of whom were wearing red, held up signs and lined the Rice Memorial Center corridor, spanning from Coffeehouse

channing wang / thresher

Students engage in a silent protest and hold up signs in Ray’s Courtyard. As part of the Families’ Weekend program, parents are attending the “Welcome to the Weekend” event. The protest was organized by an annonymous group of students, including members from Rice Left.

to Farnsworth Pavilion, in a silent protest intending to disrupt Families’ Weekend activities. The protest was organized by multiple students, including those involved with @justiceforricesurvivors. Information about the protest was privately disseminated on the evening of Sept. 26.

As part of the Families’ Weekend program, parents were attending the “Welcome to the Weekend” event inside Farnsworth Pavilion and Ray’s Courtyard. Shortly before 10:30 a.m., some student protesters dispersed into Ray’s Courtyard and handed out copies of the recent Thresher to parents in attendance.

The protest was organized through a collaboration of Sam, Jane and Beth and other students. Jack, who identified as a member of Rice Left and was granted anonymity, said they privately disseminated information about the protest Thursday evening via a PDF document titled “Share this document only with friends you trust.”

According to Jack, the idea of protest started as a discussion within Rice Left. Jack said that they decided on a silent protest to allude to the discourse of the administration silencing student concerns.

“We could have gotten in people’s faces about it and been loud about it but I think the opinion speaks for itself, and we just wanted to amplify the opinion and get parents and administrators to know that students were really upset about it,” Jack said.

According to Jack, Gorman had privately emailed students from the Student Association Senate in the morning about the fact that she knew about the protest and assuring that RUPD would not interfere with the demonstration.

Maddy Scannell, a Martel College junior, was one of the students who participated in the silent protest in Ray’s Courtyard.

“I’m here because I’m angry,” Scannell said. “I’m tired of SJP brushing incidents like this under the rug and I’m tired of when even SJP does the right thing and finds rapists in violation, the administration is not doing enough to punish them and sanction them after the fact.”

At approximately 11 a.m. on Sept. 27, a second silent protest, also organized by Jack, started during Gorman’s Family Weekend lecture at Hudspeth Auditorium in the Anderson-Clarke Center. Students, holding signs and again dressed in red, lined the sides of the auditorium as parents were taking their seats. Jack said that Gorman seemed to not anticipate this second protest and took a few minutes to make some phone calls. The silent protesters remained in the auditorium when the lecture began.

Gorman abandoned her lecture content to address the protesters and field questions from students and parents about Rice’s mismanagement of sexual assault cases.

“I want the group that’s here to know I do see you, I do hear you and we are paying attention,” Gorman said.

Gorman answered questions from students and parents about Rice’s mismanagement of sexual assault cases for the remainder of her lecture. For some questions, Gorman deferred to Vogt, who was also present. Parents and

students asked about instances where SJP asks survivors about what they were wearing and about the reasons for not expelling students in violation of Sexual Assault policy.

In response to the question on clothing, Vogt said that this is an optional question intended to gain insight on the mechanism of the assault. Gorman responded to the question on expulsion that there is a wide spectrum of behaviors classified as sexual assault and not all merit expulsion. Gorman repeatedly mentioned that she would not divulge any details of any specific case.

Administrative Response On Sept. 26, the Thresher published a letter from Gorman regarding the opinion.

In the letter, Gorman said that privacy laws limited what she could say about the case, but “substantial sanctions” were imposed upon the student found guilty.

“Although we do our best to communicate clearly, we realize we fell short in communicating the final resolution of this case to the student who filed the complaint,” Gorman wrote in her letter. “As a result, there has been understandable anger and frustration. For that, we sincerely apologize, and we are committed to doing better.”

The alumna said that Gorman’s Sept.

26 letter failed to provide any resolution or meaningful contribution to the dialogue.

“I did not agree with how she characterized what had happened as a problem in communication as opposed to a problem in decision-making process,” the alumna said. “I think that her letter on Thursday was ambiguous in a way that made the Rice administration seem cold and heartless and avoiding the problem.”

The alumna said that Gorman reached out immediately after the opinion was published and met with her on Sept. 27 to offer a direct apology. According to the alumna, Gorman provided specifics of her case and discussed ways to make changes to the SJP process for sexual assault survivors.

“Dean Gorman was willing to talk to me about the specifics of my case and she was willing to tell me what exactly had happened and why it was able to happen,” the alumna said. “She also apologized to me multiple times in a very human and real way about how she was sorry the case was handled in the way that they did, and was sorry about the effect it had on me.”

The alumna said that Gorman told her that when making the decision on her case, Gorman and others had debated between suspension and allowing him to graduate early. According to the alumna, Gorman said that they chose to let him graduate early so that he could not appeal the decision to defer suspension and be in the campus community.

The alumna said that Gorman told her that they wanted to protect her from her assailant by letting him leave the Rice community.

“Dean Gorman was very honest in saying that decision was a mistake and that they should have involved me in that decision and going forward, they will involve survivors in that decision,” the alumna said.

On the evening of Sept. 27, Leebron and

Gorman sent a joint email to all faculty and staff publicly apologizing to the alumna and the Rice community. Leebron and Gorman said that they would revise the current policy in order to prevent those guilty of sexual assault from graduating early.

“At the time the decision was made, Rice had no explicit policy in place about how a suspension should be applied to a student who is able to graduate before the suspension could take effect,” Leebron and Gorman wrote. “We have determined that there should be such a policy, and that the decision made in this case was in fact a mistake. For that, we sincerely apologize. In the future, our policy will be to not allow anyone to graduate without serving their sanction.”

Leebron and Gorman also specified the sanction imposed upon the alumna’s assailant, which included an indefinite ban from campus and a note on their permanent Rice University record.

The alumna said that this letter reflected her earlier discussions with Gorman and provided her with more closure.

Going forward A closed-door meeting with Gorman, college presidents, magisters, Student Association officers, Students Transforming Rice into a Violence-Free Environment liaisons and other administrators was held Thursday night in the Duncan College Magisters’ house.

Based on minutes provided by Baker College President James Warner, attendees discussed SJP policies, especially with regard to punishment for those found guilty with sexual assault, resources for survivors and how students can provide criticism and feedback to adminstration.

Will Rice College sophomore Izzie Karohl, member of the Student Association’s Committee for Interpersonal Violence Policy, organized a petition writing meeting on Sept.

26 to draft a list of demands. The petition currently has 970 signatures from students, alumni and faculty. The Committee for Interpersonal Violence Policy also organized a town hall on Sept. 30 with both students and administrators, including Gorman and SJP officials. The petition and townhall are covered in an online story, later this week.

The alumna said that she never expected her opinion to have such a great impact on the Rice community. She said she hopes for a continued platform for students to share stories and concerns regarding sexual assault, as well as greater transparency and resources in the SJP process.

“I just really want to emphasize that I have loved being able to sort of like in some way ignite this movement and I really hope that people can continue that,” the alumna said.

“I am really excited to take a step back and see what people do from here on and I hope that people are able to find a different, new symbol beyond just my op.”

This story has been for condensed for print.

For the full version, visit ricethresher.org.

To read more about students’ personal experiences with SJP and sexual assault on campus, continue on to our special feature on pages 8-9.

THE RICE THRESHER

4 • WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 2, 2019

OPINION STAFF EDITORIAL

Accountability for sexual violence shouldn’t be limited to SJP Content warning: This opinion piece contains references to sexual assault.

The anonymous opinion published in last week’s Thresher has prompted hundreds of students to demand change from administration. We all witnessed expressions of anger and protests around campus, which prompted an administrative apology at the end of last week. While the anger aimed at the administration is deserved, we believe that there are layers of accountability to this issue. Rice has failed survivors in more than one instance, and the responsibility to fix our culture falls on our entire community.

CRITICAL THINKING IN SEXUALITY At Rice, students’ education about sexual violence essentially ends when CTIS concludes during the first semester of freshman year.

CTIS implies questioning and pushing oneself beyond a basic understanding of sexuality, so that we may apply this thinking to interactions with others. But CTIS is limited to a basic understanding of textbook definitions of consent.

CTIS has the potential to demand more of students: to have them analyze how even the smallest actions can perpetuate a culture of sexual violence and consider how complex histories and factors affect identity, gender roles and the overall structure of society.

Rice students are supposed to be some of the brightest students in the nation. We shouldn’t have to rely on survivors’ testimony — forcing them to relive and relay trauma — to motivate us to think about and empathize with issues of sexual assault. We hold ourselves to extremely high standards in the classroom, and we should hold ourselves to equally high

standards for understanding and navigating the world through the critical lens of the culture of sexual violence we all live in.

We shouldn’t have to rely on survivors’ testimony to motivate us to think about ... sexual assault.

MAGISTERS + A-TEAM The responsibility to protect the Rice community does not fall on the administration alone. A-Teams at each residential college have been selected to care for their specific community. When the leadership allows the conversation surrounding sexual assault to go on without their input, they fail to care for their students. When college A-Teams continue activities as normal, they avoid the discomfort that comes with addressing sexual assault. Silence leaves vulnerable students to struggle by themselves, ignoring survivors who deserve a comprehensive response from their college leadership. An immediate response to the visceral reaction and difficult discussions happening in the student body would have demonstrated the A-Team’s commitment to providing a safe and caring environment for their students.

In many colleges, student initiatives such as Students Transforming Rice into a ViolenceFree Environment liaisons, Rice Health Advisors and college presidents were made to fill in the gap between administrative silence and student uproar. The populations of each

residential college and the survivors among them deserve better than that.

ADMINISTRATION’S RELATIONSHIP WITH COLLEGE LEADERSHIP On Thursday night last week, the administration called a meeting with magisters, college presidents and STRIVE liaisons. Instead of immediately calling a town hall to ask survivors for their perspective, the administration decided to have a meeting behind closed doors, and survivors were the last to be brought in, four days later. They were only given a one-hour town hall. The onus for student outreach should not be solely placed on college presidents and STRIVE liasions.

It’s the easiest way to not actually have to do any work. Student leaders should not have to talk for survivors. Survivors are strong; they can speak for themselves. So give them space, more than a singular hour, to talk, and actually listen.

YOU — THE RICE COMMUNITY For those of you who are shocked by the opinion, you shouldn’t be. Now that you’ve heard the outpouring of outrage and pain from your peers, connect the dots: Sexual assault is not rare. It will not disappear from our minds in the coming weeks as it will disappear from social media. It will never be old news because women are conditioned to expect sexual assault. Especially on campus, students must repeatedly confront sexual violence on a daily basis even in spaces that claim to be safe. On a campus that supposedly upholds a Culture of Care, why is it that survivors are denied the compassion and protection that their perpetrators so readily

receive? It is not an overstatement to say that virtually every person on campus has either experienced sexual assault or knows someone else who has. So, why is it that we do not believe survivors, our friends and classmates, when they come forward?

While administrative policies are also integral, holding your friends accountable for their actions is the first step. If it’s shocking to you that so many Rice students are assaulted, maybe it’s more shocking that when you take a look around at your peers and yourself, those are the assaulters. It’s easy to get angry at someone else and point fingers and say THEY should do better. And it’s true, they should.

But your fellow students’ rapists, assailants and molesters are also your friends, the people you stroll through serveries with everyday, the people you complain about homework with. It’s hard to take accountability for the ways you’ve dismissed survivors. It’s harder to take a step back, realize you’re not exempt because you consider yourself a feminist and accept that you might have been someone’s assaulter. We see the posts, the comments, the likes, the Instagram stories. But they don’t mean anything when you continue to be complicit. If it doesn’t put you in a dangerous situation, step up when you see someone who is visibly uncomfortable. What’s going to be more important — your fear that it’s going to be awkward or their lifelong trauma?

Hold your friends accountable. Hold yourself accountable. You are not exempt after this week.

Editor-in-Chief Christina Tan and Managing Editor Anna Ta recused themselves from this editorial due to their involvement in reporting on this issue.

OPINION

Dean Gorman responds to sexual assault conversation It is my privilege to be a member of the Rice community, and to serve as dean of undergraduates. Every day, I come to campus and work with people who care deeply about our community and are committed to providing an excellent experience to all our students.

The events of the last week have been deeply emotional for many of us. I feel this emotion when I talk to students and listen to their frustration about a situation and a system that can seem opaque. Our inability to have detailed public conversations about the specifics of a given case due to the privacy restrictions of federal law, and the limited knowledge of facts that anyone outside of the process can have, present unique challenges to me, my staff and many others who find themselves involved in a case that goes to Student Judicial Programs, including Title IX cases. That said, I would like to follow up on a few things regarding the events and discussions of this past week.

First, I would like to address the Title IX case discussed in the opinion piece in the Thresher last week. In the letter to the Rice

community sent out on Friday, I apologized to the unnamed Rice graduate for our failure to keep her better informed throughout the process and for the decision to allow the student who was found in violation to graduate before the suspension was served.

This was important to do for many reasons.

My actions left a member of our community feeling like we did not care about her, and many others felt the same and wondered how this happened.

To be clear, it happened because of my decision – not SJP’s. The people who work in SJP are some of the most thoughtful, dedicated and caring people I have ever had the pleasure to work with and they strive to be fair and thorough for all students involved in their processes. Please remember that their office put a great deal of time and effort into investigating this case as well as others that come before them, and they ultimately issued a finding that the student was in violation with a suspension as the sanction.

It was my decision and mine alone to alter the details of that sanction. And it was my fault that we did not communicate fully the reasoning and details of my decision to the

reporting student. SJP did not do this. I did.

Last night, I attended the Student Association Town Hall and listened.

Throughout the event, I felt sadness listening to a number of our students tell their stories. But, I also felt sadness for the good people I work with who have dedicated themselves to helping our community be safe and healthy. Those of us who work closely with SJP or have been involved in these cases know that they are thoughtful and highly trained investigators.

As you might remember, last year I followed up on student concerns regarding SJP and made very significant changes to the office at the start of the school year. This included a leadership change, with the promotion of Emily Garza to director and Carrie Willard to associate director. In addition, I substantially expanded their budget for community outreach and education, and I formed the SJP Advisory Committee, which submitted their final report last spring. You all should know that prior to coming to Rice, Emily Garza worked for seven years at the Texas Advocacy Project as an attorney representing victims of domestic violence

and sexual assault in family law related cases. Both Emily Garza and Carrie Willard have received extensive and ongoing training in best practices on investigation techniques, trauma-informed interviewing and Rice’s legal obligations for what they must do with this type of challenging work.

Their work is difficult, and we are fortunate to have them here, working for us.

This week I have had several meetings with your Student Association president, Grace Wickerson, as well as the college presidents and a variety of leaders around campus, including our new Title IX coordinator, Richard Baker. Together, in the time ahead, we will be engaged in a detailed and thoughtful review of how our policies are structured, and how pending changes from the Department of Education will shape how Rice handles sexual misconduct cases moving forward.

I would encourage all of you participate in this process in a way that is considerate, deliberative and kind.

BRIDGET GORMAN DEAN OF UNDERGRADUATES

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OPINION

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

On being low income at Rice As a Rice alumna (Lovett College ’03) and a student who also attended Rice under adverse economic circumstances, I was inspired by Elizabeth’s bravery in writing about her financial situation and how foreign the Rice environment can be to those from different socioeconomic backgrounds.

Thanks to extensive financial aid and an external scholarship, I was able to attend Rice. I was the oldest child of a single parent with four kids; my mom made $40,000 a year when I started college. While I was at Rice, I saved money by borrowing library books instead of buying personal copies. I worked on campus and bummed rides from my roommates when we lived off campus. I spent my summers working extensively to cover my expenses and lived off campus where it was cheaper. Study abroad was not an option, as it would keep me from graduating in the four years my funding would pay for. There were so many conversations during which I remember feeling lost, as I had not come from a family where financial planning, savings and budgeting were in the vocabulary.

From all of this, Rice taught and enabled me to change my economic future.

From all of this, though, Rice taught and enabled me to change my economic future.

Rice opened doors for graduate school, my first job and opportunities within my company to network and advance based on my own merits. As a working professional who now has the opportunity to educate my son and plan for his future, I am in awe of all the opportunities he has that were not available to me. Rice, combined with hard work, has enabled me to give so much more to my child.

To Elizabeth — I encourage you to continue to call out what you need. You are helping so many other students use a Rice education as the ladder needed to climb out of poverty. I also encourage you to embrace the discomfort — you will learn much outside your comfort zone. At the same time, never forget your roots — that hard work, a strong heart and a commitment to learning are much more important than money. Lastly — I look forward to seeing what you will do with your Rice degree to pay it forward. How can your story change the world?

Thank you for sharing your story. I am inspired.

LEE READ

LOVETT COLLEGE (’03)

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 2, 2019 • 5

FROM THE EDITORS’ DESK

Why we wrote ‘in their own words’

Content warning: This opinion piece contains references to sexual assault.

Realizing that the anonymous opinion writer is only one of countless survivors at Rice, we decided to open a call for students and alumni to share their own experiences for our feature, “In their own words: survivors’ stories of sexual assault at Rice.”

The decision to publish the opinion was apparently controversial enough to prompt Houston Chronicle to ask us why we did it.

The answer is simple: because the details of the case were factually accurate and the opinion expresses a side of Rice that many Rice students have the privilege to never acknowledge or see. That privilege was on display through the shock and surprise many students expressed to us — that they couldn’t believe something like that happened at Rice.

When we released the form with such a short turnaround time, we expected a maximum of ten responses.

Instead, we got close to 60.

No content warning can truly prepare a reader, particularly a survivor, for the 4,500 words that make up “In their own words.”

The dozens of stories in the feature are graphic, shocking and to some, belatedly eyeopening. In total, the submitters wrote over 20,000 words detailing their experiences.

Alumni from the ’80s were able to recall with vivid detail the circumstances in which they were assaulted. Those who didn’t submit a statement met with us or spoke with us on the phone for a total of six hours of transcriptions.

Writing this piece was a marathon. From 8 p.m. on Saturday to 4 a.m. on Sunday, we realized with dread that our role had shifted from storytellers to curators. Within the bounds of our own paper, we could not do every story justice. So we had to make decisions on which stories to “cut” — even though every story was important. And for six days, we battled other problems: the question of the word “alleged,” for example, in a world where journalists like us get sued for properly believing survivors. We talked about whether or not we should break our own policy of not allowing quote review, sending quotes back to sources to make sure they were okay. In this case, we decided to. No retraumatization is worth adherence to strict ethical standards. And lastly, we grappled with the conflict between protecting survivors and the Thresher and obscuring the identity of their assaulters. The irony of the latter is not lost upon us.

FROM CHRISTINA’S PERSPECTIVE As a survivor myself, I cannot accurately express my admiration for these survivors who relived their trauma even as I started crying out of sheer frustration for their situation. Who took the time to ask me if I was okay. Who willingly and candidly wrote and spoke of their frustrations, fears and sadness.

At the end of six days, I find myself

utterly shell-shocked and fundamentally changed. And I am so fucking angry. At the perpetrators themselves, for forcibly taking away power and happiness from others. At the administration, for letting rapists slip through cracks. At the support structures on campus who let down students with nowhere else to go. But most of all, I am so incredibly angry with myself.

Throughout the process of reading and listening to these 58 stories, I realized with horror that people I interact with on a friendly basis are the perpetrators or bystanders in these stories. That the stereotypes and assumptions I make to go about my day have shielded me from the raw pain of survivors on this campus. That despite my best efforts, and despite the fact that I have experienced my own personal traumatic hell, I have unknowingly failed so many people in my four years here.

Solely directing anger at the administration is a misappropriation of anger.

Solely directing anger at the administration is a misappropriation of anger. Certainly, the administration could provide more explicit support to survivors. They could stop asking survivors what they were wearing. They could start expelling students who are, beyond reasonable doubt, rapists. But there also needs to be a reckoning internally.

FROM ANNA’S PERSPECTIVE In the process of writing this piece, I’ve read and memorized over fifty survivors’ stories. There are some I will never be able to forget.

But for each one, there is a survivor who lived through it. Then they took the time to relive it in telling it to us. I can’t tell you what it means to me to be trusted with these stories.

And I am so sorry.

I beg especially those of us who are not survivors to read this piece in full. Reporting on this piece has changed me and how I think about being a person in a world where assault happens. If you think you’re doing enough, you’re not.

Reporting this story is the first time that I have come to fully understand my own failures. I have smiled at my friends’ rapists. I have allowed them to feel at home and comfortable in social spaces, knowing the irreparable harm they have inflicted on people I love, because I was too nervous to become socially ostracized myself. I have heard others talk about them positively and not said anything. I hide behind the fact that I don’t want to inadvertently out

their survivors. But I know I do it because I’m too weak.

And I have failed in other ways. Worse ways. I have failed to ask questions. Failed to be there. Failed to support my friends when they needed me the most. When I wrote “7 of 70,” I did it out of the selfish desire to feel like I was doing something good. I don’t know if anything actually came out of it. So many people have continued to be hurt. Christina told me that she’s scared that after all of this, nothing will change. I don’t know if anything will. I can’t promise anything to anyone. Just that I’ll listen to them. I will pay attention. I will, finally, hold rapists accountable. We need you to, too.

Don’t let this die in bureaucracy. Listen to your friends, question yourself, protest, if you want.

We’ll be here.

YOUR TURN We researched, wrote and published “In their own words” to challenge the student body to take a deep look at themselves.

You’ve read accounts from students who were assaulted by not only strangers but also their friends, their advisors, their professors.

You’ve read accounts from students whose lasting anger remains not with their assailant, but with the friends who failed them in their time of need and the bystanders who overlooked their incoming trauma. Your takeaway should not be to otherize rapists and assaulters as inaccessible bogeymen but rather to evaluate your own behavior and inevitable participation in rape culture.

If there’s a line being drawn, think twice about which side you’re on. Before you hit share on this, before you sign a petition or participate in a protest, think: Have you defended a friend based on the character you saw in them, instead of listening to a survivor? Have you believed or spread a rumor about someone’s hookup without considering the possibility that it might not have been consensual? Let someone go home with a person they didn’t know? And think: Have you grinded on someone without their consent at a party, or groped them as you slid past? Gotten someone drunk so you could get them closer to you?

For every story of assault on this campus, there are multiple parties that should be held accountable. It’s time for us to hold ourselves accountable. It’s time to actually believe survivors. And it’s time to be uncomfortable and to ask a lot of questions. The alternative is far worse.

ANNA TA

MANAGING EDITOR WILL RICE SENIOR

CHRISTINA TAN EDITOR-IN-CHIEF DUNCAN SENIOR

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Letter to the editor: Strive to do better

Amid the Thresher opinion, protests and town halls, we have been in conversation with many of you about your concerns regarding sexual misconduct policies and the ways in which Rice handles previous and current cases. Many of you feel like your trust in the administration and Student Judicial Programs has been shaken.

We understand this is a precarious time, but first and foremost, we want to express that the primary duty of both the Students Transforming Rice into a Violence-Free Environment Liaisons and the SAFE Office: Interpersonal Misconduct Prevention and Support is to ensure that student concerns are heard and validated. We would like to clarify that the SAFE Office and the SJP office operate independently of each other to carry out two distinct functions. The SAFE Office offers financial, emotional and academic support according to each

student’s needs. This support also includes helping students navigate Rice’s or Houston’s judicial systems. The SAFE Office is not responsible for enforcing the Code of Student Conduct, nor is it required to report any incidents to SJP. SJP, on the other hand, investigates students in violation of sexual misconduct policies, in addition to deciding and enforcing sanctions, only if a survivor chooses to make a report.

On this note, we cannot overstate the importance of putting the survivors first above all else. Therefore, we request that as allies of survivors, we put our best foot forward to seek out accurate information about the SJP process and administrative policies before we disseminate this information to other members of the Rice community. The healing process for survivors is emotionally taxing as is, and misinformation could exacerbate the

obstacles that survivors face in coming forward and asking for help.

Because protests can be triggering for survivors, we request that if you want to advocate for survivors of sexual violence, first and foremost, please take their safety and health into account when you create protest material. Even if you are a survivor yourself and want to make your voice heard, please be considerate of the ways in which other fellow survivors are reacting to and coping with their trauma.

While the administration has issued two apologies related to the handling of this case, our work holding the administration accountable is not done. The administration must consistently enforce sanctions against perpetrators, increase transparency around how disciplinary action is matched to infractions and include sanctions beyond just expulsion on the transcripts of

perpetrators. We hope students continue to envision ideas for the future that the administration and the student body can implement. The conversation does not simply end at “Believe Survivors.” We must challenge ourselves to question our existing beliefs and actions and be aware of how far we have to go in order to secure justice for survivors.

LANEY BAKER

MARTEL COLLEGE SENIOR

KAREN QI

HANSZEN COLLEGE SENIOR

SNIGDHA BANDA WIESS COLLEGE SENIOR

MADDY SCANNELL MARTEL COLLEGE JUNIOR

THE RICE THRESHER

6 • WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 2, 2019

OPINION

Rethinking Orc Raids in the age of blackface

In the past year, there has been a notable influx of blackface scandals among prominent politicians, such as Virginia Governor Ralph Northam and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and I cannot help but think of Sid Richardson College’s Orc Raids every time a new incident hits the press.

As a Sid Rich alumnus (’17) myself, I look back at Orientation Week and Willy Week Orc Raids and wonder how I, along with many of my compatriots, never stopped to consider how smearing black paint on our bodies might resemble blackface. I similarly wonder how many of my Black friends may have felt uncomfortable but said nothing for fear of being a “buzzkill.” I can only hope that the Orc Raids that took place during my four years at Rice — and beyond — were a positive experience for everyone

involved, but if not, I sincerely apologize.

Of course, the spirit of an Orc Raid, which has no basis in either race or historical tensions, is completely divorced

I never stopped to consider how smearing black paint on our bodies might resemble blackface. from the inherent racism that normally permeates instances of blackface.

Additionally, I recognize that during Orc Raids, some students use red or yellow paint in addition to — or instead of — black paint, in line with the three official colors of Sid Richardson College. That

being said, I believe we could do better.

To clarify, I do not hope that this conversation brings about the end of Orc Raids as a tradition, but by the same token, I believe that the tradition’s history is not enough of a justification to preclude reasonable changes in the way it is performed, especially in the face of recent political events. Furthermore, past amendments enacted by the Rice University administration, such as the retitling of “master” to “magister,” suggest a willingness and desire to correct what may have been previously overlooked indiscretions, particularly with respect to race. Orc Raids should be no different.

I am certain that Orc Raids were not created with ill intent, and I hope to see the activity, which is one of the first bonding experiences in which newly

minted Sidizens participate during O-Week, continue to bring students closer together in the classically ridiculous way typical of seminal college experiences.

Nevertheless, I also hope that in light of recent political events (and the history long before these events, for that matter), the leadership at Sid Rich can consider ways to make Orc Raids more sensitive to issues of race, all the while being inclusive and promoting college spirit.

CYRUS GHAZNAVI SID RICHARDSON ALUMNUS (‘17)

OPINION

Use your voices because Kashmir cannot More than 50,000 people gathered in NRG Stadium last Sunday and watched as Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and United States President Donald Trump held up their clasped hands on stage.

Organized by Texas India Forum, a nonprofit with Hindu nationalist links, “Howdy Modi” was touted as a cultural celebration of the partnership between India and the U.S. However, it was as much a political rally for the two nationalist leaders.

While some Rice students attended the rally, others took their positions outside, protesting Modi’s lockdown of Kashmir.

Two months ago, the Parliament of India unilaterally overturned Article 370 of the Indian constitution, stripping the state of Jammu and Kashmir of its special status which included the right to have its own constitution, flag and administrative autonomy, according to reporting by the New York Times. In preparation for this, at midnight on Aug. 4, opposition leaders were barred in their homes, internet connections were cut and phones stopped working. The week before that, 45,000 extra troops had been rushed into Kashmir under various guises. Seven million Kashmiris remain barricaded in their homes under a communications blockade.

The rationale for this decision was to

open up Kashmir, a densely militarized region, to restore peace to the lives of its inhabitants and return Hindu Kashmiris previously displaced by militant violence. Wherever you stand on the issue, the deceitful way all of Kashmir was meticulously silenced is undeniable and the ease with which it was done is terrifying.

Wherever you stand on the issue, the deceitful way in which all of Kashmir was meticulously silenced is undenable and the ease with which is was done is terrifying.

For me, the fact that the Indian government unilaterally decided the fate of Kashmiris — a decision ostentatiously made for their benefit — unveils Modi’s project for what it is: an act of colonialism, of forcibly taking land and abandoning its people. As a consequence, nonKashmiri Indian citizens can now buy land and open businesses in India’s only Muslim-majority state.

Following the Kashmir blockade,

more than 1.9 million people in the state of Assam were excluded from a new National Register of Citizens, most of them Muslim, according to the New York Times. Mass detention camps are currently being built in the state for those designated illegal immigrants by their exclusion from the National Register.

Massive events like “Howdy Modi” allow the Indian Prime Minister to be seen in an overwhelmingly positive light, celebrated by a crowd made up of members of the Indian diaspora — people whom ordinary Indian voters regard as representing success and influence.

As an international student from New Delhi, speaking out against my government can be scary. Censorship prevails in India, with journalists who criticize Modi’s Hindu nationalism branded “anti-national” and sent death threats. Meanwhile, members of the Indian diaspora abroad have the privilege and power of using their voices unfettered to actively deny Modi, a man with a famous desire to assiduously court them, the validation and support he seeks.

Last Sunday, it was mainly the Muslim Student Association and Rice Left which disseminated information about the protests against Modi’s visit.

At the University of Houston, nine groups organized a panel of Kashmiris to foster dialogue around Modi’s visit. This

panel was subsequently disrupted by Hindu dissenters. Support for Kashmir should arise not only from those directly affected, but also from those voices of the South Asian diaspora who have an advantage in being heard.

Engagement with South Asian culture on Rice’s campus must include dialogue about the issues that impact the lives of Rice’s South Asian students, which includes Muslims. For those who have consistently rejected Trump’s Islamophobia, xenophobia and antiimmigration policies, resistance to injustice should not end at the United States’ borders.

It is time to stop being complacent in our privilege. We need to become informed and use our voices to speak up in solidarity with Kashmir and the Muslim community to show that they are not alone in the gross injustice being carried out even now.

SANVITTI SAHDEV

BAKER COLLEGE JUNIOR

OPINION

Entitled students advocate for free toilet paper in bathrooms Students at Rice University are urging the administration to provide free and accessible toilet paper in all on-campus bathrooms. The students seem to think toilet paper is a human right and claim it is necessary for biological function.

Allie Gonzalez, a junior from McPlunkett, said, “One time I forgot to buy enough toilet paper, and no one was around that I could ask! I had no idea what to do – I had no choice but to miss class.”

Aaron Pathak, a sophomore from McPlunkett, added, “I don’t even go to the bathroom but when my friend was visiting me and needed toilet paper, I had no way to get some for them. I just wish there was toilet paper everywhere so it wouldn’t be so hard to find!”

Critics have argued that entitled Gen Zers are taking things too far. Using the bathroom is a completely controllable

process; maybe students need to stop going so much. The most widespread concern appears to be that if the administration provides free toilet paper, students may start stealing it from the bathrooms and hoard it in their rooms.

Access to menstrual products is a human right. Other universities across the U.S. have taken the initiative to be more equitable.

What do real adults think?

Delilah Lewis: “The administration provides free shuttles to Target on the weekends so students can buy toilet

paper. Sure, there are a lot of extra taxes and it is expensive but at least they aren’t spending money on an Uber. How much more will these students ask for?”

Ron Setterfield: “If they forget to take a roll with them to the bathroom, they just have to stop pooping and go ask a friend or find their nearest RHA. It’s that easy. If the administration caves in now, students will expect even more efforts to increase accessibility at the school.”

Ned Bigby: ”The truth is there is simply not enough support for such an initiative. These young students seem to think money grows on trees. We have to provide Tiff ’s Treats for the masses; we don’t have enough money to install toilet paper holders AND provide free toilet paper.”

Replace the word toilet paper with menstrual products and re-read. Wild, right? We think so too.

Access to menstrual products is a human right. Other universities across the U.S. have taken the initiative to be more equitable by providing free menstrual products in their bathrooms.

It’s time Rice does the same.

Want to help? Join student efforts on campus to provide free menstrual products in all bathrooms like Deeds at Rice and the Student Association Health Committee.

KRITHIKA SHAMANNA

JONES COLLEGE SOPHOMORE

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 2, 2019 • 7

THE RICE THRESHER

FEATURES Baker comes first with executive chef Jaymeshia Carter IVANKA PEREZ FEATURES EDITOR

channing wang / thresher

It’s hard to avoid Tasty videos on Facebook. They pop up everywhere, showing you how to make an entire meal using aesthetically pleasing dishware in 10 seconds or less. If you’re addicted to watching these videos, you’re not alone.

Jaymeshia Carter, executive chef at Baker College Kitchen, said she watches Tasty videos too.

Carter has worked at Rice for 11 years and is the first Black female executive chef at any Rice servery. She said she gets cooking inspiration from everywhere, often looking up menus to try new dishes.

Tasty, she said, is one of her favorite ways to get inspired.

“I’m obsessed with the app, so I go on that all the time,” Carter said.

Carter got her first job at Rice when she was 18, but she wasn’t always a chef. After applying for a job that her high school teacher had mentioned, she began her career at Rice as a cashier. However, Carter had always loved cooking.

“I used to cook with my dad and my mom,” Carter said.

Carter said it didn’t take long for her to gravitate toward food preparation.

“I would go in the kitchen and help, sometimes, with salad prep and hot foods,” Carter said.

Soon, Kyle Hardwick, assistant dining director, noticed her interest in cooking and asked her if she wanted to work in the kitchen. She then joined the cooking staff at South Colleges Servery preparing salads. It was her first cooking job.

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In the years following, Carter was souschef at South Servery, but said she also had the opportunity to work at almost every other servery on campus. Some of her favorite work, she said, took place at South Servery, which is one of two serveries that has a brick oven.

“At South, we used to make pita and naan in the brick oven,” Carter said. “It’s my favorite thing to do. I miss it.”

Last year, the Baker executive chef job opened up, and Carter sent in an online application. Susann Glenn, director of communications for administration, said outside chefs applying for the job had to perform a cooking test. Carter, however, didn’t need to — because of her work at Rice, the dining directors in charge of hiring were already aware of her cooking skills.

This is Carter’s first year as the executive chef of Baker Kitchen. She said the main challenge of the job is cooking for such a large number of students. But it isn’t cooking that poses the challenge — it’s baking.

“You don’t really have to follow a recipe [when you cook],” Carter said. “But [with] baking, you have to.”

Carter said she plans to be a chef at Rice for at least 20 more years, but said she wants to become a history teacher after she retires from cooking. Glenn said Carter’s instinct to teach is reflected in her work as a chef as well.

“I feel like [Carter is] always teaching people [she] work[s] with, showing them the process,” Glenn said. “I love that about [her].”

Glenn also said she admired Carter’s approach to teamwork, and her instinct to put her team in the spotlight.

“She is humble,” Glenn said. “She won’t ever brag about herself.”

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

Bolded clues and colored squares correspond to the theme.

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ACROSS 1) one in a leather-clad gang 6) 2019 Powderpuff dropout 9) Humble home 10) Saxophone variety 12) Descriptor for a low sex drive 14) Galileo and Copernicus vis-à-vis geocentrism 15) Albert’s midsection?

16) March 14th honoree 17) Happy cloud to be on 20) Santa __, CA 21) Purses and satchels e.g.

25) One that sucks at everything?

28) blink-182 album “__ of the State” 29) Site of Napoleon’s exile 30) Some efficient lights 31) With -le, frail DOWN 1) Amt. on a bank statement 2) As before, in footnotes 3) Cry often made before tossing some trash 4) Like some underwear 5) Fix, as a voiceover 6) Rubberneck 7) Go undercover?

8) Arcade game pioneer 11) Green-lights 13) Potential cause of a 3.8 GPA 17) Innie or outie 18) Rather kooky 19) “A Boy __ Sue” 21) Bone to pick 22) Willing & __ 23) Sycophantic “The Office” character 24) Wild guess 26) Thatcher and Churchill 27) Corny state (Abbr.)

F

ollowing the Thresher opinion piece submitted by an anonymous alumna which detailed how her assailant graduated early while facing suspension, outrage from the student body inspired multiple silent protests and an outpouring of discussion about sexual assault at Rice. Realizing that this alumna is only one of countless survivors at Rice, we at the Thresher decided to open a call for students and alumni to share their own experiences with sexual assault during their time at Rice.

In the two days the form was open, 58 survivors submitted accounts or were interviewed in the writing of this feature for a total of over 20,000 submitted words and over six hours of interviews. Submitters were given the option to stay anonymous in varying degree, but we confirmed that every included submission came from a current student or alumnus. Although we verified certain objective details of these accounts, we present these stories as survivors’ own experiences from their perspectives, and left them as untouched as possible. Additionally, in order to maintain the anonymity of survivors who reported their assault and wished to stay unidentified, we were unable to corroborate the facts of their cases with Student Judicial Programs. For more information on our process, see our letter from the editors’ desk [p.5].

LOSS OF TRUST Many submissions named trusted members of the community — advisors, roommates, friends and professors — as their assaulters. In a close-knit community like Rice, such betrayals of trust were devastating for many of the submitters.

A Baker College senior wrote that a member of Rice Emergency Medical Services attempted to assault her during a public party.

“At a Duncan [College] public, a member of EMS started telling me that I should go check out a cool room because he thought I was too drunk for the party,” she wrote. “He took me to the EMS suite in Duncan where he tried to rape me.”

Brown College senior Jennifer Truitt wrote that her favorite professor stroked her leg several times at a department party and attempted to move his hand higher despite her trying to move away and despite the fact that her boyfriend was sitting on the other side of her, holding her hand.

Truitt wrote that after she left, she had her first panic attack in months.

She wrote that she eventually decided to report her experience to the university without reporting to SJP, but thinks she should have. The professor was asked to leave Rice and to never contact her again, according to her submission.

“I wanted to know if any of my work had mattered in his classes, or if I had gotten good grades just because he wanted to take advantage of me,” Truitt wrote. “We had even had a conversation about how inappropriate it is for professors to get involved with their students, and he had agreed with me … I felt so stupid for trusting him.”

Submissions that involved violations of trust were both the shortest and also the most extensive. In one sentence, a sophomore wrote, “My advisor gave me shots in his room on Beer Bike and then unconsensually gave me oral sex.”

Violations of trust occurred in a variety of situations — some during moments of vulnerability and others out of the blue. A Brown alumna who graduated in 2018 wrote that she was filling cups for water pong during Beer Bike when she was violated.

“A good male friend was there washing his hands after using the restroom,” she wrote. “As I filled the cups, I felt his hand reach over and start rubbing my butt. I froze. He walked out.

He didn’t even say anything.”

In another student’s story, he recounted how his friends left his roommate in charge of him after a night out. After finding a used condom in the

trash can next to his bed, the student wrote that he eventually realized that his roommate had raped him, a fact that he said his roommate corroborated and then apologized for. The student wrote that he did not report and continued to live with his roommate for the rest of the year.

“Needless to say, though, we are no longer friends nor roommates,” he wrote. “But he is still out there. He has friends all across campus. He is beloved at [his college]. He was an advisor this [Orientation] Week. He is someone people tend to trust. He also raped his roommate.”

IN RELATIONSHIPS Kayla Cherry thought a lot about whether or not to remain anonymous. She wrote that she was overcome with hesitation and guilt about potentially revealing the person who caused her trauma. After all, he had been her boyfriend.

Cherry wrote that a few months into dating, they had agreed to stop having sex due to religious reasons. The night the assault occurred, he asked if she would meet him at the last stop of a crawl and she wrote that she had agreed.

In her submission, she described him as drunker than usual. She had given up alcohol for Lent, and was sober. At the stop, she wrote that he repeatedly slid his hands into her shorts despite her protests. Panicking, she wrote that she asked if they could leave and go back to his house, according to her submission.

“I guess I was hoping that his bed would be safer because it wasn’t in public, and he usually falls asleep when he’s really drunk,” Cherry, a Lovett College senior, wrote. “But he didn’t fall asleep before actually raping me. I didn’t let him finish. The last survival instinct I had was cry, and crying was apparently the only thing that made him get off of me. The entire night, he was deaf to all of the ‘stops’ and ‘nos,’ but he heard my crying. He mumbled a sorry and passed out seconds later. I cried myself to sleep.”

An alumna from the class of 2017 wrote that she was harassed and sexually assaulted by her ex-boyfriend after they broke up. She said that she did not report it.

“He was so public about how hurt he was from the breakup and publicly smeared me as having ruined his mental health and wellbeing,” she wrote. “I wonder now if it was in some part a way to keep me quiet.”

BY STRANGERS While the perpetrators in most of the accounts submitted to us were people the survivors knew, some described assaults from strangers.

One senior wrote about not knowing exactly what happened to her or who did it when she woke up in the morning.

“When I was a freshman, I was assaulted while I was drunk the night of a public,” she wrote. “I don’t remember much of what happened, but I vividly remember waking up in a stranger’s bed and I will never forget that.”

Another alumnus wrote about his first time at Willy’s Pub. He had never had a drink in high school.

“I still remember that Friday night, I was so excited, expecting one of the best nights of my life, but it turned out to be the most traumatic experience of my life,” he wrote. “I started talking with this girl and we were hitting it off.

Eventually we went back to her room … I woke up later [and] found myself laying on my stomach, with this girl who I had just met beginning to penetrate me with a strap-on. The feeling of violation was shameful. I have never been able to share this story with anyone until now ... But my story needs to be heard. Affirmative consent is required for all sexual acts, and males can be survivors too.”

ON CAMPUS Of the 57 responses submitted, 44 described assaults that happened on campus. At parties and in rooms, drunk

and sober.

For one junior, it happened her freshman year. It was her first private party at Rice and her first sexual experience, according to her submission. She wrote that she repeatedly told him no.

“I was so scared, I thought I was about to … lose my virginity to rape,” she wrote. “I managed to push him off me ... [he] kept trying to talk me into it as I was coming up with reasons I had to leave. He forcibly shoved my head into his penis, saying something like ‘at least give me head before you go’ and it touched my mouth and I started to cry. I gathered my stuff as fast as I could but he wouldn’t give me my shirt/bra back, he could tell I was upset and was trying to backtrack, trying to make me say it was ok.”

Another student wrote that her first experience with sex was also when she was assaulted. She wrote that he invited her and two other underclassmen women to his apartment for a party that no one else had been invited to. Then, she wrote that he got her extremely drunk and took her to his car.

“I kept saying no to sex, until he asked so many times that I felt like I should said yes. So I did,” she wrote.

“Still, I thought it was consensual until he began to have anal sex with me. I couldn’t do anything. I didn’t know what to do. I just took it, and stared at the buildings in the medical center, with my face pressed up against the glass.”

Sammi Johnson wrote that she was also a freshman when an acquaintance held her down and forced a hickey onto her neck.

“When I was in the bathroom, I saw a giant, dark bruise spanning from the bottom of my earlobe to my shoulder,” Johnson, a Duncan sophomore, wrote.

“All of [my friends] could tell something was wrong and consoled me. I showed them the bruise and I couldn’t quite verbalize what had happened because I was crying uncontrollably.”

But assault doesn’t just happen behind closed doors. An alumna who graduated in 2018 recalled her first public party, an experience that left her “scared shitless” of ever going to a public again.

“I went to my first public in freshman year (I was 17),” she wrote. “I had a random senior grab me and start jacking off on me while grinding against me in the thick of the crowd. I screamed and cried for help, but no one heard me.”

BYSTANDERS

In many accounts, survivors detailed situations where bystanders, both friends and strangers, either intervened or failed to. A McMurtry College senior, cornered in the quad during McScottish Night by a drunk alumnus who insisted on putting his hands on her, wrote that she looked to her friends nearby.

“Around me, several of my guy friends had been there, even one of their dads,” she wrote. “I made eye contact with several … and nobody stepped in, not even a parent. Even after I had said out loud that he needed to leave me alone, everyone just remained kind of frozen.”

While walking back from a party, one student wrote that she trusted a friend to walk back with her. According to her submission, he tried to get physical on the way back and refused to take no as an answer.

“The only thing that stopped him was the fact that I found people I knew while we were walking and begged them to intervene,” she said. “It makes me shudder to know that he could potentially do the same thing to another girl and have no bystanders around.”

Another student said she was raped by a friend while blacked out. She said that her rapist’s friends protected him and caused her to doubt her own memories despite waking up naked in a stripped bed. While the assault was ongoing, she said that her boyfriend, out of concern, repeatedly tried to enter the suite where they were, only to be stopped by her rapist’s friends.

She said that she later found out that one of the people protecting her rapist had also been assaulted by him two years prior. “[During] that whole semester-long process, there was no sort of intervention on [his friend]’s part,” she said. “The whole thing shatter[ed] my idea of how people act … That’s how you lose trust in the actions of people.”

Cherry said her ex-boyfriend’s assault began at the crawl stop, where she said the attendees failed to step in.

“So many people [are currently] ranting about the horrors of sexual assault all over campus and there were at least 30 people at that crawl stop who saw how uncomfortable I was with his hands everywhere and did nothing,” Cherry wrote. “They could have stopped everything. Months of trauma. If you can see something dangerous happening to someone at a party and don’t do anything about it ... I don’t want to hear a fucking word from you. You hypocrite.”

REPORTING

A few survivors chose to report their assaults to SJP. Many of those who reported grappled with feelings of guilt for potentially affecting their assailants’ lives.

An alumna who graduated in 2015 wrote that it took her two years to muster up the courage to report her ex-

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“They handled my case with sensitivity and care, and till today I still remain grateful to Emily [Garza] from SJP, my case officer, for making the journey to speak out and seek closure as smooth and safe as possible,” she wrote.

Others expressed frustration with how their case was handled.

“Did you know that the accused can hire lawyers as their ‘emotional support’?” asked a Brown student in her submission. She wrote that after experiencing assault at the hands of two friends, she battled guilt about potentially ruining their lives before reporting to SJP, who she wrote eventually found her assailants not guilty.

“All I heard from that phone call which notified me of the results was, ‘Your experience is invalid,’ and, ‘You weren’t raped violently enough for us to do anything about it,’” she wrote.

SJP and Dean of Undergraduates Bridget Gorman said that the accused can hire lawyers as their emotional support as detailed by the Sexual Misconduct Policy, but that their actions are limited — the section states that support people are “not expected or allowed to act as lawyers ... during meetings or proceedings in the disciplinary process.”

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was asked inappropriate questions by SJP during the process, such as what she was wearing, whether she bled and if she did, whether or not there was a lot of blood. Eventually, her assailant was found not in violation, according to her submission.

“This entire experience caused me to lose faith in the Rice administration,” she wrote. “I know now that Rice exists to protect its own reputation but not those of its students … At the end of the day, I don’t regret anything I did to stand up for myself. I just don’t ever want this to happen to anyone else.”

SJP asks about clothing in cases where it is deemed relevant in the report, according to Gorman and SJP. “An important part of the investigation is a thorough analysis of the mechanics of the reported behavior,” they said. “If during a student’s account of the reported behavior it is determined that clothing placement, forcible removal, items left behind, etc. played a part in the reported incident, both reporting and responding students are asked questions about what they were wearing before, during and after.”

A junior wrote that her assault was so severe, she could not imagine that her perpetrator would go unpunished.

She wrote that she told her assaulter twice that she was drunk, fell off her lofted bed, broke his necklace during

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the assault and only when she started vomiting did he stop. According to her submission, she was so convinced that he would be punished that she initially worried about ruining his future.

“The greatest irony is that I was so confident in the system that I thought I had the capacity to consider his wellbeing rather than my own,” she wrote.

“I was confident that SJP would do their job.”

She wrote that SJP found him not guilty.

THE AFTERMATH When the Thresher published the in-depth piece, “7 of 70: After sexual assault, where do students turn?” we explored the avenues of reporting and the difficulty of doing so. But many survivors emphasized that much of their pain came from simply living life after assault.

One Duncan senior wrote that she was assaulted when she was only 17. It was her freshman year, and that night, she had just gotten out of a relationship.

He was a stranger.

“He never used a condom,” she wrote. “And I wouldn’t find out until a year and a half later that he’d given me chlamydia. I knew I was supposed to get tested. I knew that and I looked up Rice Health Center prices, and I looked at the (then) $150+ fee for the whole panel of tests and thought about my parent’s health insurance, and I couldn’t do it. I was only 17 when it happened. Seventeen when I pulled

my shit together the day after and got on the plane home and drove myself to not one, but two CVSs alone to buy Plan B under the [guise] of Christmas shopping. I didn’t get tested for a long time because it meant acknowledging that it really happened and that there could be serious consequences. Having chlamydia for an extended period of time can cause lots of adverse health effects that I wasn’t aware of. The infection may have backed up further in the pelvic region and caused long term damage to my reproductive organs, but I won’t know for a long time if it did.”

A junior said that she didn’t realize that she had been assaulted by a friend while she was asleep — she trusted him to tell her the truth about what had happened that night, but he lied. She said that her assailant finally admitted to assaulting her but denied it after she reported the case to SJP. “My schedule [after I found out] was: wake up, lay there and do nothing; then I would take an eight-hour bath and then go to bed. For the entire summer,” she said. “I think telling my mom what happened to me was probably one of the worst things I’ve ever had to do, because I could just see her heart literally break in front of me ... I know both of my parents blame themselves.”

And in the moment of greatest need, some felt abandoned. One student wrote that they were assaulted by their friend and left behind by their others.

“My friends told me I was ruining his life for no reason. That because I wasn’t raped, it wasn’t a big deal. That I was being dramatic,” they wrote. “Like other degrees of sexual assault can’t have permanent effects. Like I didn’t have to sit on a couch crying as a therapist listed off new mental health issues that I’d have to work through for the rest of my life, from depression, to social anxiety, to PTSD ... Like I should just shut up and move on … Now he’s back to being everyone’s friend, even speaking on these sorts of issues like he didn’t commit them himself.”

A Will Ricer wrote they were choked during sex until they blacked out.

They wrote that they did not report their assailant but were later asked to testify for the Title IX office on behalf of another student who had reported the same assailant. After the assailant was found to be in violation, they said he immediately left Rice and transferred, eventually graduating on time.

They said that “much of what broke” them was their friends’ responses after they tried to reach out to them.

“A few of my friends laughed it off, suggesting that it wasn’t rape because I ‘was into rough sex,’” they said. “I think it was difficult for them to understand what had happened because I had a reputation for hooking up a lot at the time, and it was easier to process it as a “bad hookup,” rather than assault.”

SUPPORT STRUCTURES During O-Week, the advisors and coordinators repeat a mantra over and over: When in trouble, reach out to your A-Team. The Wellbeing and Counseling Center is there for you. Your student government is your advocate. Many of the submissions included experiences with these support structures — while some found solace in these spaces, others left disappointed.

A recent graduate wrote that following their rape, they waited 20 minutes to talk to the counseling center only to be informed that reporting would be a “long and bureaucratic process.”

Seeking solace, they wrote that they turned to their magisters. “[My magisters] told me the best thing they could do was to talk to my rapist one-on-one and get him to sign a piece of paper saying that he wouldn’t talk to me,” they wrote. “They did not tell me how to report the incident, where I could find counseling resources or really address the seriousness of the problem at all beyond trying to find a quick solution that would clean up the problem as rapidly as possible. They left me feeling that my rape was as much

my problem as it was my rapist’s, that it wasn’t important enough to pursue further action, and that it was completely reasonable for me to have to continue living, eating and working in the same immediate space as my assaulter while he faced zero sanction or consequence.”

One survivor wrote that because her assailant was a student-athlete, she was too scared to report him and face Rice Athletics. After telling him no and begging him to leave her room, she passed out and came to in the middle of her assault — her head under the water in a shower. She wrote that he didn’t say anything else to her before leaving.

“He started sitting outside a building he knew I had class in every day,” she wrote. “[He was] telling lies to people around him and on his team and scar[ing] me into never doing anything.

Taking on one person is scary enough.

But facing Rice Athletics too was too much for me. Every day I’m ashamed I didn’t do more. But I was too scared. I just wanted to forget.”

A year after ending an abusive relationship during her freshman year that she wrote had included ongoing non-consensual sex, Christen Sparago (Martel ’15) went to the counseling center on the recommendation of her wellness center nutritionist. There, she wrote that she filled out an intake form, where she checked off the box that asked, “Have you ever had non-consensual sex?”

“My counselor told me that many students typically take time off or away from campus after experiencing ‘extreme hardship’ and suggested I consider if that was right for me,” Sparago wrote. “I was scared I’d fall behind in my training and classes, so rather than look into that option seriously, I never returned to the counseling or wellness center.”

Executive Students Transforming Rice into a Violence-Free Environment Director Laney Baker said that following her rape her freshman year, she eventually went to the Title IX office and got therapy, a psychiatrist and medication. Baker said that the SAFE Office: Interpersonal Misconduct Prevention and Support provides many resources without requiring survivors to report to SJP, such as appropriate academic accommodations and course rescheduling.

“People put real pressure on themselves to report, but quite frankly, I don’t think I could, even at this point, where I talk about sexual violence all the time,” Baker, a Martel senior, said.

“I don’t think that I would want to go through the process of getting picked over for details over and over and over and over again.”

SJP and Gorman said they cannot comment on individual cases.

SOCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY Rice is a small school and through residential colleges, O-Week groups and cozy 12-person classes, it can feel even smaller. This is touted as a bonus — a positive aspect of the institution’s private prestige. But for some survivors, this only makes the aftermath harder.

Some respondents wrote about the pain of seeing their assaulters every day in serveries and across the academic quad.

Others wrote about seeing their own friends chatting with their assaulters, who were still socially beloved and held positions of power.

One senior never reported what happened to her. In her submission, she said that her rapist graduated but before that, it was almost impossible to avoid him. She wrote that even now, it’s hard to avoid him, as he has continued to comment on the many Facebook posts surrounding the sexual assault opinion piece.

“He was well-known in his college and was an extremely popular TA,” she wrote. “He co-advised at my college.

Seeing him every week when he came to [my college] for office hours or O-Week lunch was hell … He’s commented on a number of the [social media] posts surrounding this issue; he doesn’t even

realize what he did to me.”

One student wrote that she was assaulted during her first semester. He had invited her to come watch a movie with some friends in his room. But when she got there, it was just him. He gave her drinks and put his hands on her. She said no and he continued. It wasn’t until she knocked something over that she could escape.

“A few months into the spring semester, I began to hear other stories about him [from at least four other freshmen],” she wrote. “Our chief justice went and talked to the magisters about him, having heard enough stories to be concerned about him advising. He [eventually] coordinated. And … [later], he won [a] college award. I skipped the awards ceremony and cried. My college had just said that the man who assaulted me was [an exemplary] member of our community. I felt guilty for having not done anything about it.”

Many survivors expressed their frustration with complacency in the student body. One sophomore said she felt that the promise of the Culture of Care suffocated any dialogue about bad situations that happened to students.

And as a result, she said that she felt like she was a part of a secret community of survivors that no one else talked about.

“A lot of people were in [the protests] because it’s cool to be involved in social justice,” she wrote. “But those same people wouldn’t be the ones who would step in and be a bystander, or wouldn’t be the ones to step in and tell their rapist friends that they’re being creepy.”

Another student said that after she confided in her friends, they didn’t take her account seriously. She said that one of her friends invited her assaulter to their suite during the ongoing SJP investigation and even faced rumors at her college that she had cheated on her boyfriend, even though in actuality she was assaulted.

“Rice’s Culture of Care is a facade in a way,’” she said. “When it’s your friend being found in violation of sexual assault — where are you when it’s uncomfortable to have those conversations and to actually be there and to actually care?”

PAYING ATTENTION This past week, the campus has been painted red, plastered with copies of the Thresher. Pay attention. Hold rapists accountable. But Mandy Gregg, a survivor and Brown junior, said that Rice students are still not paying attention and holding the rapists among them accountable.

“Every day I see a rapist in the commons,” Gregg wrote. “Everyday I see other students talk to him and engage with him, and when I see him, I see my perpetrator. Although this student did not assault me, I see him and am reminded of my own assault. When I see other students talk to him, I feel like I cannot talk to these students because they’ve decided to remain friends with a rapist. How can I, a survivor, rationally engage with those who take the side of a rapist? While I did learn how to compartmentalize my trauma, see[ing] this student is triggering and I have to work extra hard to manage my trauma.

When SJP fails to protect one survivor, they fail to protect all survivors.”

Rachel Carlton said that she reported a sexual assault through SJP and that the energy from the student body has often felt misdirected.

“People are fine saying ‘fuck SJP,’ but my main problem is the students,” Carlton, a Brown senior, said. “The ones who find ways to excuse assault. Not calling out their friends or talking about their behavior at parties. Not that it’s easy, but you can put that red shirt on at a protest and you can take it off and it’s not your problem. But I have to see these signs everywhere.”

Disclaimer: Sammi Johnson is a senior writer on the Thresher staff. Rachel Carlton writes for the Thresher, and Christen Sparago is a former news editor.

THE RICE THRESHER

10 • WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 2, 2019

ARTS&ENTERTAINMENT Rice Public Art ‘Off the Wall’ Initiative Kicks Off BRIAN LIN THRESHER STAFF

Through a collaboration between the Moody Center for the Arts and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, artist Harold Mendez brought his work “Field (Encounter)” to the Brochstein Pavilion.

Four life-sized charcoal-brushed panels of branches and floral foliage now adorn the previously blank south wall.

Mendez is the first artist to be featured in Rice Public Art’s “Off the Wall” series.

The series seeks to annually highlight the art of one recent graduate of MFAH’s Core Residency Program at the Glassell School of Art — a postgraduate residency for art critics and visual artists. During his residency, Mendez taught visual art at Rice as a Core Fellow.

According to the artwork’s caption, Mendez intended for “Field (Encounter)” to ignite a curiosity for what lies beyond the branches, tugging at viewers’ imaginations with the brush and barbed wire that surrounds all sides. As viewers consider the invitation to peer beyond the leaves, they should realize that they are the “body absent in the original composition.”

“Visitors are struck by the black-andwhite imagery and the almost filmic progression across the long wall,” wrote Alison Weaver, executive director of the Moody Center. “The work slows the viewer down and invites her to engage with the image and its context.”

Korina Lu, a Duncan College

sophomore who worked with Mendez on the project, said she felt this illusion of time slowing down.

“I remember that the day I was working here I had so many science assignments due,” Lu said. “I was very panicked and stressed out, but when I was working here, time stopped and I immersed myself into creating the art. The fact that it stops [your perception of] time is very interesting.”

Sourced from the Keystone Mast Collection, a collection of 350,000 photographs from the late-19th and 20th century, the image aligns with Mendez’s tradition of creating photographs that draw upon the “complex narratives of his Mexican and Colombian heritage,” according to the caption.

“The natural imagery brings the outside in, while the barbed wire invokes borders and political issues surrounding immigration,” wrote Weaver.

The foliage imagery of Mendez’s piece integrates the inner south wall of Brochstein with the outdoor scenery visible through its glass walls. The grayscale color choice blends seamlessly with the building’s color palette and with the black-and-white photographs already in view on the pavilion’s north wall.

As a place for lively meetups and spontaneous interactions, Brochstein’s function is improved by the piece. The “soft-gray tones” make the atmosphere of the pavilion more inviting, according to Duncan College senior Gillian Culkin, who worked on the project alongside Mendez and Lu.

channing wang / thresher

“Field (Encounter),” a series of painted canvases in Brochstein Pavillion, is the first installation of Rice Public Art’s “Off the Wall” series. The piece was created by Harold Mendez and installed by two Rice students.

“It goes along with that pattern of being modern, but as an outdoor scene, it is more natural,” Culkin said. “Brochstein with no people in it would be a very cold space, so [the piece] brings life to it.”

The piece has brought a creative perspective to Brochstein by strengthening Moody’s visibility and connection with a central hub of the campus, according to Weaver.

“One of the goals of the public art program is to offer innovative and meaningful experiences with works of art to the Rice community by intervening in public spaces,” Weaver wrote. “This wall offers a terrific opportunity to do just that.”

UNCONVENTIONAL RHYTHM Katelyn Landry, A&E Editor

Prepare for liftoff — the comet is coming and it waits for no one. This London-based trio excels in a new kind of avant-garde jazz that pulls from electronic, funk and psychedelic rock to create a sound that’s truly out of this world. Saxophonist Shabaka Hutchings, keyboardist Dan Leavers and drummer Max Hallett perform under the pseudonyms "King Shabaka," "Danalogue," and "Betamax" respectively, keeping with the band’s cosmic aesthetic.

“We're exploring new sound worlds and aiming to destroy all musical ideals which are unfit for our purposes,” Hutchings said in an interview with jazz blog Marlbank.

illustration by dalia gulca

With her poignant songwriting and powerful vocals, Yola blends Americana, country and soul genres into gorgeous serenades to femininity and strength. Born Yolanda Quartey, the singer hails from Bristol, England and spent years evolving her unique country soul sound before releasing her first debut album, titled “Walk Through Fire,” earlier this year. In her mission to transcend the toxic, patriarchal confines of the country music genre, break-up ballads like “Ride Out In The Country” and “Shady Grove” are not only addressed to ex-lovers but also to a past self, according to Rolling Stone. For fans of Kacey Musgraves, I give you a new inductee into the feminist renaissance of country music.

If the Mojave Desert had a voice, it would sound like Orville Peck. Peck infuses classic country crooning with shoegaze to create a soundscape that is just as dreamy as it is rugged. As a young queer artist, Peck not only blurs the boundaries of genre but also challenges the heteronormativity that stereotypically permeates the country music genre. On his recently released debut album “Pony,” Peck layers his low-pitched crooning and steel guitars with serene dream pop synths, making for an intimate illustration of Peck’s lonesome cowboy persona. By permanently concealing his true identity behind his pseudonym, the Canadian singer masks himself in mystery, literally — his trademark leather mask is equipped with a long fringe veil that hides his entire face.

Culkin, who became involved with “Field (Encounter)” through the Moody Center, anticipates that the placement of this piece at the heart of campus will entice more students to visit the Moody, where the “Moonshot” exhibition was held last week.

“There are a lot of cool things at the Moody, but since it’s ‘far away’ students don’t generally go there,” Culkin said.

“People go to Brochstein all the time and see this huge thing on the wall and wonder where it came from, associate it with the Moody and then they actually head over, so it’s sort of an outreach thing.”

THE FIRST WEEKEND OF AUSTIN CITY LIMITS IS ALREADY UPON US.

At this point, we’ve all heard the big names headlining this year’s festival, including breakout alt-pop star Billie Eilish, returning favorites Childish Gambino and Tame Impala and legendary rock band Guns & Roses. But if you’re planning on attending ACL, don’t plan your schedule with only these well-established artists in mind. Be sure to check out the following genre-bending artists who have each earned their own spotlight with their unique sound.

Micah Davis, better known by his stage name Masego, is blazing the trail for a genre he coins as “trap house jazz.”

In a rare SoundCloud success story, Davis got discovered by record producers when he began remixing his favorite songs with his own saxophone compositions in 2015 and dedicating the tracks to women on Instagram at random. His recently released debut album “Lady Lady” is an amalgam of sultry R&B, mellow house beats and jazzy vocals, punctuated by Davis’ swinging saxophone features. Masego is certainly one to watch as hip-hop artists continue to explore the jazz roots of hip-hop.

ARTS&ENTERTAINMENT

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 2, 2019 • 11

Best & Worst: Gulf Coast Film and Video Festival VARUN KUKUNOOR FOR THE THRESHER

From intense nationalism to breathtaking animation, the Gulf Coast Film & Video Festival exemplified the beauty and potential of small-budget productions. Even though this annual indie festival was held right next to our very own Houston Space Center, it was no secret that some of the films did not reach the stars.

In fact, I’d go as far as to say some of them barely left the ground. But while not every picture resonated with the audience, there is no doubt that a few shining stars made the Gulf Coast Film & Video Festival worth the while.

“The Cost of Freedom”

A six-minute short, “The Cost of Freedom” demonstrated how thoughtful camerawork and timely musical cues can greatly enhance a story. The film is an elegant sequence of camera pans that chronicle the history of U.S. war sans dialogue.

With its highly detailed wardrobe and set design, the film offers an immersive glimpse into the daily lives of Americans since the birth of the nation. Shots are often punctured with pans of Arlington Cemetery and other notable war memorials located in Washington. The golden lighting and shifting rhythmic intensity bring out a sense of American nationalism in a way that is not manufactured or tacky, but rather appreciative and grounded.

illustration by chloe xu

“My Stretch of Texas Ground”

Yee-fricking-yee. In sharp contrast to “The Cost of Freedom,” “My Stretch of Texas Ground” contains a painfully corny script, bland gender stereotypes and a message of nationalism that makes me want to move to Canada. While the narrative’s goal was humble, the execution was not.

The film chronicles Abdul Latif Hassan, an Algerian Muslim who comes to the idyllic town of Arlettsville, Texas. Abdul makes it a point to expose the horrors of American collateral damage in the Middle East, all the while attempting to assassinate a visiting senator. However, any empathy for his cause is almost immediately lost because of the script’s tackiness and the awkward, overdramatic acting from supporting characters. Moreover, the music did not align with the scenes, suggesting certain laziness in the film’s production.

“The Fiddling Horse”

In many ways, “The Fiddling Horse” proves that the indie film genre is more than capable of holding its own. Director CJ Wallis’ vision is on display with a refreshing script, skillful acting and relatable protagonists. Leslie Hart, a middle-aged woman struggling to maintain her status in high society, inherits a racehorse from her father. She teams up with a horse trainer to con the community and reap the social and monetary rewards, even though she knows

nothing about horseracing. The script’s quaintness allows the actors to fit into their roles with ease. In addition, the plot keeps the audience looking for closure, and the comedic interactions sprinkled throughout the film reinforce the film’s lighthearted nature.

“Loser”

There was an attempt. While there is no question that promoting self-expression and self-love amongst high schoolers has innate value, “Loser” manages to miss the mark by stereotyping high school life.

In this seven-minute short, the jock of the school, who is literally labeled “Jock” in sharpie on his forehead, falls for the girl labeled “Loser.” When she is exposed as a fraud, the jock cheers her up and tells her she is beautiful the way she is. Although the film struggles with a sloppy script, where it really went wrong was in its portrayal of the high school experience. Self-love

isn’t synonymous with popularity, but “Loser” depicts a world in which it is. The protagonist achieves happiness only when she finally attains the friends and attention she was looking for, an intrinsically problematic premise.

“Black Champagne”

A five-minute music video, “Black Champagne” is the exemplar of using fluid, vibrant animation to tell an incredible story. The adventure depicts a young priest and priestess whose kingdom off the coast of Morocco comes under attack by foreign invaders. In order to save their people, they must venture deep into foreign lands and subdue their enemies. The vividness of the shots compliments the intensity of the plot, enthralling the audience in a beautiful display of color, sound and story. The sequel to “Black Champagne” is currently in production and will conclude the priest and priestess’s journey.

ARTS&ENTERTAINMENT

12 • WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 2, 2019

Houston Celebrates First Annual Viet Cultural Festival KATELYN LANDRY A&E EDITOR

Last Saturday, NRG Center came alive with the sights, sounds and tastes of Vietnam during Houston’s first annual Viet Cultural Festival. Hosted by local community group Vietnamese Culture and Science Association, Viet Cultural Festival marked the first festival in Houston dedicated solely to Vietnamese culture as a whole since the Hope Initiative’s 2012 Vietnamese Festival at Discovery Green.

For Lovett College junior Victor Nguyen, Viet Cultural Fest was a springboard for reinvigorating and reuniting the Houston Vietnamese community he grew up in.

According to Nguyen, Houston’s Vietnamese population is the third largest in the nation and Vietnamese is the third most widely spoken language in the state of Texas. Despite this, he says the community is more fragmented and isolated than in the past.

“There’s a serious generational gap within the community as well as all sorts of minor divisions when it comes to

katelyn landry / thresher

The University of Houston Vietnamese Student Association performs at the NRG Center main stage during Viet Cultural Fest 2019. The UH VSA was one of many cultural organizations from across Houston proudly showcased at the festival.

politics [and] personal gripes that have divided the community over the years,” Nguyen said. “It’s really deteriorated since the days of my childhood when I remember these massive festivals that would bring in people from all over the city, no matter how far you were. I’ve heard people who drove eight hours to come to Houston in order to attend these large gatherings.”

Nguyen and a team of VCSA volunteers made one of those large cultural gatherings of the past a reality once again on Saturday. People poured into NRG Center by the hundreds to enjoy a wide range of cultural showcases and entertainment. When I walked through the doors, I stumbled upon a pho speedeating competition at the Le Hoang Nguyen Stage that incited thunderous applause from its audience. Aside from the stage, a bustling marketplace took up the majority of the event space. Local food vendors served up authentic Vietnamese cuisine while clothing boutiques invited

New in Town: October Restaurant Openings GRACE WEI FOR THE THRESHER

Houston, the most demographically diverse city in America, is also home to one of the most diverse food scenes in the nation.

In the next month alone, you can experience new and upcoming restaurants with cuisines from all around the globe. Be sure to try some of these warm meals as the weather outside cools in October.

Toukei

Styled after an izakaya (Japanese pub), Toukei will be opening soon with a woodburning grill and Japanese bar with bar snacks. The menu will feature classic Asian treats like okonomiyaki, spicy white pepper wings and of course, spicy bowls of ramen.

This restaurant will be conveniently located next to the popular noodle restaurant Ishin Udon; both are owned by Mike Tran. If it’s any indication, all of Mike Tran’s nine eateries have been favorably rated and received, and Toukei may very well be his tenth. Toukei is located at 9630 Clarewood Drive and operates Tuesday through Sunday from 5 p.m. - 2 a.m.

MAD

This newly opened restaurant serves food that will transport you to the city of Madrid.

MAD features an interior bursting with vibrant modernity and fun energy. Based on a vivid red color theme, MAD is filled with contemporary light installations and gold-plated wall art. The food is just as

festivalgoers to admire vibrant ao dais, a traditional dress worn by both men and women.

Across the auditorium was the main stage, where visitors enjoyed a multitude of cultural showcases. In the morning, lion dance performers stormed the stage before making way for a lantern-making contest. In the afternoon, children and teenagers performed in pageants intended to celebrate traditional dress.

In addition to entertainment, the festival welcomed local professional organizations in an effort to connect community members to dental, medical and legal services at reduced cost. A sizable portion of the event space was occupied by dental equipment and chairs, inviting festivalgoers to get an impromptu dental evaluation or cleaning. Although certainly not what one would expect at a cultural festival, these services seemed to signal a community value in connecting one another with resources they need.

Viet Cultural Festival is the brainchild

of Nguyen’s older brother David, and with the backing of the VCSA, the brothers have been leading the initiative for over a year. “[The VCSA] really allowed us to go big or go home,” Victor said. “They were the ones that connected us with discounted opportunities to rent out NRG, they’re the ones that brought in all those title sponsors, big companies as well as local restaurants — they were the ones that really made the push.”

Certainly, Vietnamese culture is represented in local pan-Asian festivals such as AsiaFest and Lunar New Year Houston as well as small-scale holiday events such as the recently celebrated annual Mid-Autumn Festival at Children’s Museum of Houston. But Nguyen said that the community as a whole hasn’t been able to come together for a long time.

“Through this festival, my brother and I, as well as the rest of the massive Viet Fest team, hope to be able to provide something for the community to unite behind,” Nguyen said.

HISPANIC HERITAGE FESTIVAL

aesthetically pleasing. MAD serves traditional Spanish dishes like croquetas and crujiente de cerdo, or crispy pig ears. Be sure to grab some of their famous churros with chocolate.

MAD is located at 4444 Westheimer Road and is open Tuesday through Sunday.

Politan Row

Get ready for the highly anticipated opening of Rice Village newcomer Politan Row, a food hall with 12 vendors that will make it harder than ever for Rice students to choose where to eat. These vendors will range from Phillip Kim’s Breaking Bao food truck to a Thai boba and soft serve ice cream vendor. At Politan Row, students will be able to experience food from various cultures, all in one convenient location. Politan Row is slated to open sometime this month at 2445 Times Blvd.

Blood Bros. BBQ

What started as a pop-up barbeque servery has finally found a permanent home in Houston. Blood Bros. BBQ isn’t just one of the numerous classic American barbecue joints in Texas — this restaurant adds a unique Asian twist. It offers savory dishes like brisket fried rice, smoked turkey banh mi and Thai peanut butter sticky ribs. The spicy flavors found in Thai cuisine perfectly complement the fatty meats in American barbeque. Try out Blood Bros. BBQ for an eating experience that combines the best of both worlds. Blood Bros. BBQ is located at 5425 Bellaire Blvd. and operates Wednesday through Sunday from 11 a.m. - 3 p.m.

katelyn landry / thresher

On Thursday Sept. 26, the Hispanic Association for Cultural Enrichment at Rice, better known as HACER, hosted a small festival to celebrate the beginning of Hispanic Heritage Month. The organization served up tamales and pupusas in the Ray Courtyard for students to enjoy while listening to Latin music and admiring Latin American flags draped in the trees.

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WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 2, 2019 • 13

THE RICE THRESHER

SPORTS

Inflatable dome construction delayed illustration by yifei zhang

MICHAEL BYRNES SPORTS EDITOR

The construction of Rice Athletics’ indoor practice facility has been delayed and is not expected to be completed until after Beer Bike, according to Deputy Athletics Director Rick Mello. Mello said the primary reason for the delay has been difficulty with installing electronic circuitry for the facility and a misunderstanding between Rice and its electrical contractor.

“There [were] electrical issues figuring out the best way to pull the power from … either the stadium or the Patterson Center,” Mello said. “The other thing is we had initial conversations with a vendor about the electricity, and there was a disconnect between what they were going to provide and what we were going to provide, which made us revisit the project.”

The plans for the indoor practice facility, known colloquially as the “dome” or the “bubble,” were revealed by Rice Athletics in February, with an original estimated completion date of Sept. 1. It is set to be constructed in the center of the bike track

in Greenbriar Lot, behind Rice Stadium.

According to Mello, construction of the dome’s interior is now expected to begin before Beer Bike, with a tentative start scheduled for near the end of November, pending permit approval. Mello said the initial construction will focus on the facility’s foundation.

“We will do some of the pre-construction [earlier] — that means the grade beam and the field and other things — and the dome itself won’t be inflated until after Beer Bike,” Mello said.

According to Mello, the dome will then be completed sometime in May and will be fully ready for football’s summer training.

The initial dome announcement prompted some pushback from Rice students who felt its construction could interfere with both training and competition for Beer Bike. Mello said there are two ways the dome’s construction could impact the track’s usability.

“The thing that has the potential to interfere with the track [is that] you have to run the power into the middle of the dome — so you go across the track or trench underneath,” Mello said. “The other part of it is when you’re bringing materials from

outside to inside, there would be some time [where the track is unusable].”

However, Mello said he doesn’t anticipate these interruptions to disrupt Beer Bike training in any significant way. According to Mello, Rice Athletics is working with both the Student Association and the dean’s office to minimize the construction’s effects on student activities.

“We [will] get some feedback from the students: [if it is] better [to transport materials] early in the morning, [or] later in the afternoon,” Mello said. “[And] from what I understand, they’ll be able to do the construction in the middle of the track [without interfering with the track] … because there is a lot of room between the dome and the track, and usually they would put up some kind of barrier for safety.”

In future years, Mello said the dome will be deflated for a roughly two-to-threeweek period around Beer Bike to allow for certification and event preparation — this year, he said the dome will be set in a similar deflated position, prior to completed construction. For the rest of the year, the dome will remain inflated.

Additionally, Mello said the teams using the facility will not be limited to varsity athletics. According to Mello, Rice Athletics will manage the dome’s scheduling, and allot time for different campus organizations to occupy its space.

“It’s going to basically be what’s called a block-and-release system,” Mello said.

“Athletics will control the block; they will assign the block, and the [individual organization] will be doing the specific scheduling [within the block].”

According to Mello, Rice now has all its contractors set. Mello said that after talking to Student Association President Grace Wickerson and the dean’s office, the next step is to present an updated plan to the residential colleges. “[Wickerson] has recommended that we present an update to the colleges and the college presidents sometime in November, which we will do,” Mello said.

“At those meetings … we’re going to be really interested in student feedback throughout the process.”

This article has been condensed for print.

Read more online at ricethresher.org.

Twin Smirnova sisters deliver with talent, experience SPENCER MOFFAT SENIOR WRITER

Originally from Russia, sophomore tennis players Anastasia and Victoria Smirnova are twin sisters, and both have been playing tennis with their family since they were six years old. Though the Smirnovas’ parents were athletes themselves, they played a slightly different sport: table tennis. Their father was ranked as high as No. 11 in the world in table tennis and participated in three different Olympic Games; similarly, their mother played table tennis as a member of the Russian junior national table tennis team.

According to Anastasia, she and her sister moved to Belgium due to their father’s job changing locations.

“Our dad got a contract first in Germany, and then from Germany, he got another contract in Belgium, so we moved to Belgium,” Anastasia said.

Both Smirnova sisters won the Belgian Winter Cup under-16 tennis title: Victoria won it in 2012 and Anastasia won it in 2013. But Victoria said she didn’t think it was possible for either sister to play collegiate tennis in the United States. A message from a college coach eventually sparked her and her twin sister’s interest in playing in the United States, according to Victoria.

“We definitely didn’t know we had this opportunity,” Victoria said. “A [college] coach texted me on Facebook asking if I wanted to play college tennis and I started looking [it] up and definitely thought it was a great opportunity.”

According to Victoria, transitioning from life in Belgium to the tennis culture at Rice was a relatively easy adjustment.

“It was kind of easy because I had my sister so it was fine,” Victoria said. “And we have a great team and a great coach so the transition was easy.”

Both Victoria and Anastasia have capitalized on that opportunity. Last season, Victoria led the Rice women’s tennis team with 25 singles wins.

Additionally, she finished with an unbeaten record in three matches at the Conference USA Championship in both singles and doubles. Meanwhile, Anastasia finished with 17 singles wins last season, which marked the fourthmost in singles play on the team.

Both sisters were named to the All C-USA Singles first team. In doubles, Victoria compiled 22 wins and Anastasia earned 21 wins, including 20 wins playing alongside current senior Priya Niezgoda.

According to Anastasia, developing a bond on the court and strong chemistry with Niezgoda took very little time.

“I think we really clicked from the first match,” Anastasia said. “We play well

together and we kept building our game together so we had a really good doubles [pair].”

While one may expect head coach Elizabeth Schmidt to pair Anastasia and Victoria together in doubles play, the twins play separately. However, the Smirnova twins have maximized their time together in other ways. For example, both sisters are majoring in sport management and are also rooming together at McMurtry College. According to Victoria, though the twins occasionally experience conflict, it’s never too serious.

“We are used to it,” Victoria said.

“Sometimes we do get mad at each other, but it’s not something serious because w e spend so much time together on the court and off the court.”

Both sisters finished last spring season on high notes. Anastasia Smirnova won nine of her last 12 singles decisions in the spring and Victoria Smirnova won her last seven. The sisters will both look to continue those winning streaks in the spring of 2020 at Rice’s George R. Brown Tennis Center.

VICTORIA SMIRNOVA

ANASTASIA SMIRNOVA

photo illustration by katherine hui / courtesy rice athletics

SPORTS

14 • WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 2, 2019

You should holler at Holloway MADISON BUZZARD SPORTS EDITOR

Although five varsity athletic teams are currently in season for Rice athletics, soccer might be the most entertaining team at Rice to watch. Here’s why I recommend you watch a Rice soccer match:

read online!

FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS Volleyball returns home to face UTSA

allen sellers / thresher

1. Rice soccer plays an exciting, teamoriented style.

Head coach Brian Lee insists on the team pressuring opponents in situations of potential entrapment. He relates his preferred pressing style to a basketball team working to defend on the court: Once a Rice player steals the ball, the Owls’ wide midfielders, senior Lianne Mananquil and freshman Shiloh Miller, sprint forward into the attack. Then, Lee encourages his strikers to receive the ball in an attacking position, where they can choose to pass the ball to Mananquil or Miller at the attacking flanks, find a fullback in a crossing position, outlet to sophomore midfielder Delaney Schultz or fire a shot toward the goal.

2. Women’s soccer rules benefit the game.

Rules in college women’s produce fairness. For example, any stoppage of play (e.g., injury, foul, referee review) triggers a stoppage of time. This method of timekeeping is superior to professional timekeeping rules.

Professional soccer’s use of “extra time” confers too much power to the hands of officials, while college women’s soccer rules beget impartiality. Another excellent rule in college women’s soccer is the substitution rule, which permits teams to substitute one player at each position once per half. Several Rice underclassmen receive playing time as a result.

3. Rice’s soccer team possesses talent at every position.

The Owls have solid goalkeeping depth; Sophomore Bella Killgore and senior Maya Hoyer share time in goal. According to Lee,

any team would be fortunate to have either goalkeeper. Juniors Trinity King and Mijke Roelfsema anchor Rice in central defense.

In midfield, the three-headed monster of Mananquil, Schultz and senior Erin Mikeska dominate possession. And on the forward line, senior strikers Haley Kostyshyn and Louise Stephens play one-touch passes and strike powerful shots on goal.

4. The Owls are a contender in Conference USA. Some students may observe Rice’s record of five wins, four losses and one draw and conclude the team is average. But Rice’s four losses have come against Oregon State University, Southern Methodist University, South Florida University and the University of Alabama, who boast a combined record of 27 wins, 9 losses and 2 draws. After playing three games against C-USA opponents this season, Rice has two wins and one tie.

Moving forward, the Owls will likely maintain a winning record in part due to their unique training methods. Lee incorporates a system of periodization into the team’s practices, which is a training regimen whereby a team begins with low intensity, high volume training before incrementally increasing intensity and lowering volume throughout the season.

According to the principle of periodization, Rice soccer should therefore reach maximum performance toward the end of the season.

The Owls next play the University of Alabama, Birmingham on Sunday afternoon at Holloway Field. Come hoot and holler!

MADISON BUZZARD

SPORTS EDITOR WILL RICE SENIOR

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WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 2, 2019 • 15

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BACKPAGE

16 • WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 2, 2019

This is a content warning — a.k.a., the warning that you didn’t get walking around campus when last week’s opinion piece was plastered everywhere. Content warnings exist so that you can avoid content that might trigger a strong emotional response because of past experiences. The Backpage needs one this week because serious events and issues are subject to criticism, and satire is, at its core, a criticism. This piece makes reference to sexual harassment and assault.

Heard Around Campus

It’s impossible to have missed all of the protests regarding last week’s opinion piece in the Thresher. Rice students are rightfully angry about SJP’s mishandling of a serious case of sexual assault. The Backpage put together a “Heard Around Campus” to collect some of the sentiments students are expressing.

“I’m really proud of the Rice community for coming together like this for such an important issue.”

From: The guy who hit on you immediately and consistently on your first Dis-O, even though he was an upperclassman and you were visibly uncomfortable.

“We have a Culture of Care here. This should never happen at Rice of all places.”

“Wow. I had no idea that sexual violence was so prevalent at Rice.”

From: The person who, unbeknownst to him, lives on the same hallway as multiple survivors — now that he thinks of it, he remembers that a girl from his floor seemed pretty upset and exhausted before she dropped her extracurriculars and stopped really going out … but, it was probably just because of school stuff or something. He never bothered checking in, though.

From: The person who kept pouring drinks for their suitemate and their suitemate’s crush even though their suitemate couldn’t walk straight … that’s their crush! They must be into it!

“Perepetrators of sexual violence must be held accountable. This is unacceptable.”

From: The friend of a person with several Title IX violations on their record — but, like, they weren’t even friends back then so, like, that’s not on them to pry into … right?

“SJP should be ashamed of their handling of this situation.”

From: Proud feminist who volunteers in many on-campus resources for women, but responded “Dude, you were super drunk, are you even sure that something happened? No offense, but what would you even say to SJP? Is it that big of a deal?” when their roommate was thinking about reporting an incident of harassment.

“Rice administration needs to do better.

Period.”

“Rice students won’t quit until we can ensure justice for victims in cases like these. Survivors deserve more. ” From: Person that once told you, “That’s literally not my problem, he’s not a bad guy, just chill out,” when you asked them to do something about their friend who kept putting his arm around and talking way too close to the girl who could barely keep her eyes open and was slurring her words.

From: The girl who couldn’t stop talking about the sloppy public hook-up she saw that weekend, and insisted that, “He probably just regrets it now,” when someone brought up that the guy involved said he didn’t remember any of it.

“It’s all about making changes going forward. We shape the culture of our campus and we must make choices that promote the safety of all students. Our administration must do the same.”

From: The guy whose boyfriend has been called out for creepy behavior time after time, but he’s been nothing but sweet to him … so why bring it up?

The Backpage is satire, written by Simona “satirically serious” Matovic and designed by Simona “seriously satirical” Matovic. For comments or questions, please email simona@rice.edu.

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