The Rice Thresher | Wednesday, February 26, 2020

VOLUME 104, ISSUE NO. 19 | STUDENT-RUN SINCE 1916 | RICETHRESHER.ORG | WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2020

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CHECK OUT OUR 2020 HOUSING GUIDE FOR TIPS AND TRICKS SEE INSERT ON PAGE 7

SPORTS

2020 SA ELECTION RESULTS PRESIDENT

ANNA MARGARET CLYBURN

MICHAEL BYRNES

Martel College junior, current Martel president and former SA senator

SA EXECUTIVE ELECTIONS internal vice president

KENDALL VINING ASHLEY FITZPATRICK

treasurer

% vote:

67.73%

JOHN COOK

29.32%

participation rate:

secretary

28.4%*

*based on most participation (RPC race)

SAVANNAH PARROT

RICE PROGRAM COUNCIL RESULTS president

SAMANTHA McCLENDON WILL LEDIG

percentage of the vote:

62.74% 35.93%

infographic by tina liu

FEATURES

Getting out the vote: Students prepare for primaries ELLA FELDMAN FEATURES EDITOR

Next Tuesday, voters across Texas will head to the polls to select party candidates for the presidency and several statewide and local races. They’ll be joined by voters from 13 other states, making March 3 this election year’s Super Tuesday. However, not a single one of those voters will be headed to the

Rice Memorial Center, much to the dismay of leaders of political organizations on campus.

To Carolyn Daly, the external vice president of Civic Duty Rice, the lack of a polling location on campus isn’t only about accessibility — it sends a message about how much political parties value their youth voters.

“It’s really important to have a voting location on campus for students, just to

TUNE IN TO PRIMARIES COVERAGE 553 students responded to our primaries poll. To see who people are voting for, flip to page 15 Why doesn’t Rice have a polling station on campus? We asked the Harris County parties and Rice administration.

Flip to page 2 How are students getting out the vote? To read our feature on student organizational efforts, flip to page 15 Local elections? To read our editorial on why local elections matter and how to prepare, flip to page 6

Women’s T&F wins first indoor title in 10 years

make things accessible for people who might not have transportation or might have so many classes that they don’t have the time to get to the polls,” Daly, a junior at McMurtry College, said. “But it also shows that the county is valuing youth voters.”

Civic Duty Rice, a nonpartisan civic engagement club, is one of three student-led political organizations that make up the Rice Vote Coalition. The coalition, which includes the Rice College Republicans and Rice Young Democrats, worked with the administration to organize shuttles to take students to nearby polling locations on Thursday for early voting and on Election Day. They’ve also collaborated on voter registration and information efforts.

The lack of a polling location on campus isn’t the only issue student organizers have faced regarding the primaries. Daly said Civic Duty Rice has found it challenging to shift some of the focus on campus from the national election to local ones.

“It’s really important for students to be informed on more local and state issues too, because those have a huge impact in students’ daily lives whether they realize it or not,” Daly said.

SEE POLL PAGE 15

SPORTS EDITOR

Last weekend, the Rice women’s track and field team won the Conference USA Indoor Championships for the first time in 10 years, and only the fourth time in the history of the program.

Freshman Grace Forbes — a two-time C-USA Female Track and Field Athlete of the Week honoree this season — continued her superb indoor season with two firstplace finishes in the mile and 3,000-meter races. Forbes set a personal record in the mile with a time of 4:40.05, more than eight seconds faster than the second-place finisher, and won the 3,000-meter by 22 seconds in 9:21.19. Over the indoor season, Forbes’ mile time ranks her No. 36 in Division I and tops among freshmen.

Senior Michelle Fokam, a three-time NCAA All-American and the 2018-2019 C-USA Female Field Athlete of the Year, also starred for the Owls, setting a program record in the triple jump to notch the eighth conference title of her Rice career, and posting a second-place finish in the long jump. Fokam’s 13.32-meter jump was just over half a meter short of the all-time C-USA meet record, and came on her sixth and final jump attempt of the night.

Redshirt senior Hannah Jackson led the way for the Owls’ sprint team with a victory in the 200-meter dash — her fourth career C-USA title, and third in the 200-meter race. Jackson’s 23.57 time was her fastest of the 2020 indoor season.

Freshman Tara Simpson-Sullivan earned a victory and broke her own school record with a 19.45-meter weight throw. Senior Zinedine Russell took first place in the pentathlon for the Owls’ sixth individual victory.

The win was celebrated by team members on social media.

Senior Khayla Patel, who finished fourth and set a personal record in the 5000-meter race with a time of 17:03.54, tweeted, “Grateful for this team and the opportunity to contribute to our Conference title. Outdoor here we come!!!”

Overall, the Owls won the conference meet with 110 points, seven points ahead of second-place Middle Tennessee State University. Forbes, Fokam, Jackson, Russell and Simpson-Sullivan all earned First Team All-C-USA nods for their performances over the weekend, and head coach Jim Bevan was honored with his third-career C-USA Indoor Coach of the Year award.

On the men’s side, the Owls secured a No. 5 finish, led by a team victory in the distance medley relay featuring freshman Elliot Metcalf, sophomore Keegan O’Connor, junior Jason Bugg and junior Alex Topini.

The men’s team will begin its outdoors season on March 19 at the Houston Spring Break Invitational, while the women’s team will begin its outdoor season on March 20 at the Roadrunner Invitational, where the men will also compete. Members of both teams could also qualify for the NCAA Indoor Championships on March 13 and 14 in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

THE RICE THRESHER

2 • WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2020

NEWS

On-campus primary polling location moved off campus RISHAB RAMAPRIYAN NEWS EDITOR Student groups are expressing concerns over the lack of an on-campus polling location for the upcoming March 3 primary election. These concerns follow a decision by county party officials to not hold a polling location at Rice due to accessibility concerns for non-Rice voters.

Lila Greiner, media relations director for the Rice Young Democrats, said the loss of an on-campus polling location at the Ley Student Center, combined with issues of voter suppression during the mayoral election last semester, sends a message that Rice student voter rights do not matter.

“Rice students are markedly less likely to vote when polling locations are moved off campus,” Greiner, a Will Rice College sophomore, said. “As Harris County allows voters to vote at any polling place, the polling center in the [Ley Student Center] was a wonderful resource for students and staff alike, one that we have been robbed of this election.”

Greg Marshall, director of university relations, said county election officials had initially planned to have an on-campus polling location. According to Marshall, county officials limit the number of primary election precincts by combining polling locations, directing more voters to fewer polling places. Marshall said that the Ley Student Center lacks convenient access to nearby free parking, which posed challenges during past elections.

“In bad weather this is obviously less than ideal, but even in good weather, many older voters, and voters with limited mobility, were understandably annoyed by the remote parking, and they often took it out on the Rice

students who had volunteered to work the polls,” Marshall said.

Following repeated occurrences of this issue, Marshall said that Rice requested political parties and county officials keep the Ley Student Center polling place open for campus voters, but also open nearby polling places to serve off-campus voters.

Marshall said that for the upcoming March primary, Rice was notified with “very little advance warning” that Rice would be the only polling site and nearby sites would be closed.

“We reminded county officials about the parking problems faced by off-campus voters coming to Rice, and immediately offered another additional voting site at the Greenbriar building, which has good adjacent parking for off-campus voters,” Marshall said. “[County officials] chose to reopen the Poe Elementary polling site but not open the polling place on the Rice campus so, from combining precincts onto our campus, they turned to combining precincts at a location off-campus.”

Genevieve Carter, communications director for the Harris County Republican Party, echoed Marshall’s concerns about the inaccessibility of Rice’s polling location.

Carter noted that the county clerk requires all primary polling locations to be shared by both parties and said that the Democratic Party officials had already agreed to the Poe Elementary location.

“A Rice location is incredibly inconvenient for anyone who does not live on campus for many reasons,” Carter said. “It’s extremely difficult to find parking, there is construction going on, and it disenfranchises voters who have been used to voting at Poe Elementary for years.”

While Greiner attributed the lack of

PRIMARY VOTING Transportation to off-campus voting locations: 1. Thursday, Feb. 27 (Early Voting): From 9 a.m. to 7:30 p.m., an early voting shuttle will run between the Ley Student Center and Fiesta on Kirby.

2. Tuesday, March 3 (Primary Election): From 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., a voting shuttle will run continuously between the Ley Student Center and the nearest off-campus primary voting site at Poe Elementary School. infographic by Dan Helmeci

an on-campus polling place to “pressure coming from the Harris County Republican Party,” Nisha Randle, the Harris County Democratic Party communications director, said it was due to the parking issues mentioned by Marshall.

The Rice Vote Coalition, a group started by the Office of Public Affairs more than 20 years ago, is composed of student leaders from Rice Young Democrats, College Republicans and Civic Duty Rice.

“When the county made the decision to close the campus polling precinct, despite our offer of an additional location with immediately adjacent parking which would have served the needs of off-campus voters well, the Rice Vote Coalition worked with campus groups to create a transportation option for early voting at Fiesta on Kirby and election day voting at Poe Elementary, which all agreed was the best remaining option,” Marshall said.

Meredith McCain, Civic Duty Rice president, expects student turnout to be dampened this year, but acknowledged

the efforts of Rice Vote Coalition in providing transportation and publicity for upcoming elections.

“The administration, especially Public Affairs, have been very helpful in supporting the Rice Vote Coalition’s efforts to make voting more accessible for students, which we’re very grateful for,” McCain, a Duncan senior, said. “They’re providing funding for the shuttles, as well as helping us reach out to the President’s office and other departments on campus to get the word out.”

According to Marshall, there has also been a decline of trained student poll workers to staff the Rice location in recent years, but said that the Rice Vote Coalition has begun recruiting and training students to staff an on-campus polling place for future elections.

“We hope that a cadre of trained Rice student volunteers will be available to assure that Rice students can operate their own oncampus poll on campus for future elections, and that this will position us to keep the Rice polling site open for future primary and runoff elections as well,” Marshall said.

Gorman approves funding for menstrual products ALINA ZHU THRESHER STAFF Dean of Undergraduates Bridget Gorman approved university funding for the installation of dispensers of free pads and tampons in residential college bathrooms and major academic buildings on Feb. 20.

The funding will be directed to Housing and Dining and Facilities Engineering and Planning to buy dispensers for two bathrooms in each building, as well as to refill menstrual products as needed.

Dispensers will be placed in all residential colleges, Humanities Building, Herzstein Hall, Sewall Hall, Rayzor Hall, Anderson Biological Laboratories, Herring Hall and Duncan Hall, in two bathrooms per building determined to be highest-traffic.

This decision was the result of a twoyear-long effort by members of the Student Health Services Office in collaboration with Jones College sophomore Krithika Shamanna, according to Rodrigo GonzalesRojas, one of the co-chairs for the SA’s Student Health Services Accessibility Committee and leaders of the funding initiative.

Following a meeting with GonzalesRojas, fellow co-chair Aaron Pathak and Shamanna, Gorman agreed that this funding was necessary to increase equity at Rice.

“If some of our students are having difficulty being able to afford these products and it’s interfering with their schoolwork and their social life and their ability to function and thrive on campus, I don’t want something like this to be getting in the way of that,” Gorman said. “So for those reasons alone, I’m happy to support it.”

Shamanna described how upon coming to Rice, she had immediately noticed a need to provide students at Rice with better access to menstrual products.

Channing Wang / Thresher

Dean of Undergraduates Bridget Gorman recently approved funding to install dispensers for free menstrual products in bathrooms in residential colleges and major academic buildings.

“When I came to Rice as a freshman, I expected college to be different [from my high school] and for menstrual products to be more accessible everywhere … but it’s still kind of hard to get access,” she said. “During [Orientation Week] I talked to the Jones president … I used some of [our college’s fund] and bought tampons and pads and I put them in the bathrooms at Jones.”

Shamanna’s passion for menstrual equity also led her to write a satirical opinion piece for the Thresher last October, where she compared the need for menstrual products to the need for free toilet paper.

“We see toilet paper as super necessary, which is why none of us carry around rolls of toilet paper whenever we go to the bathroom,” she said. “Menstrual products should be the same thing because the reasoning for providing toilet paper is that it’s necessary for a biological need.”

Other women at Rice shared similar sentiments regarding accessing menstrual products on campus.

According to Jasmine Lee, a Brown College sophomore, although there are some resources at Rice that provide free

menstrual products, they are currently not widely available.

“Buying tampons or pads is so expensive, and the Rice Women’s Resource Center is great but the [Rice Memorial Center] is not the most accessible location for some colleges,” Lee said. “I [am] constantly having to spend money on highpriced, taxed menstrual products and … living on campus without a car makes it difficult to get access to buying menstrual products. It’s been a major hindrance to both my budget and also my time to not have easy, cheaper access.”

Shamanna said a lack of available menstrual products can sometimes pose a barrier to education.

“In one of my classes, one of my friends was like, ‘Do you have a tampon?’ [But] I didn’t have one with me,” Shamanna said. “[She] had to go back to [her] dorm and missed the first half of class. It was a huge time constraint too because [she had] to go all the way back to like her room and get it and come back. It took like 30 minutes and it was a 50-minute class.”

Bharathi Selvan (Hanszen College ’19), the previous co-chair of the SA’s Student

Health Services Accessibility Committee, was the founder of the initial project to provide more widespread accessibility for free menstrual products at Rice. Selvan worked with her fellow co-chair Hannah Kim, a senior at Brown, and Dr. Jessica McKelvey (Will Rice College ’93), director of Student Health, to create a pilot program and gather data on the demand on campus for menstrual products. “[Members of our committee] took turns tracking how many people use the tampons and pads in those locations,” Selvan said.

“We did that for about a month [and] the data definitely demonstrated a need for menstruation products on campus, especially in buildings where people take classes.”

Shamanna also discussed the importance of being gender-inclusive, and not putting menstrual dispensers in bathrooms for women alone. “[Menstruation] is definitely seen as only an issue that affects women,” she said. “[The idea that] everyone can menstruate regardless of what gender they identify with … has been a particular part of the conversation [on menstruation that] people have not been fully aware of.”

Gorman said she was happy to see the increasing engagement and discourse surrounding menstruation and the actions students at Rice are taking towards achieving menstrual equity.

“It always really pleases me when I see students come together and work on something they feel is going to make the Rice experience more equitable for everyone,” she said. “We’re seeing [the discussion of menstruation] become more mainstream. I think it means that [individuals who menstruate] are in a position to be able to talk more openly about their bodies in a way maybe we haven’t previously seen.”

NEWS

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2020 • 3

College elections plagued by errors and violations KAVYA SAHNI THRESHER STAFF Spring elections at the residential colleges came with a myriad of problems this year, following the implementation of OwlNest voting at some colleges. Tabulation errors of ranked-choice voting by OwlNest have pushed Will Rice College’s secretary race to the its college’s court. Although Jones College continued with Qualtrics, similar problems have led to a re-election for the positions of internal vice president and treasurer.

Baker College and Will Rice switched to a new Student Activities system, OwlNest, which does not automatically implement ranked-choice voting. OwlNest is an online, Rice-specific platform, introduced by the Rice Student Center at the beginning of the fall semester.

When ranked-choice voting is used, if someone’s first choice candidate receives the least amount of total first choice votes, that candidate is eliminated from the running.

Their vote is then transferred to their second choice candidate, and total votes are recounted. This process of eliminating the least-voted-for candidate(s) continues until there is one winner.

Kathleen Hu, programs director at Will Rice, said that the OwlNest-based elections at Will Rice caused issues during the first round of elections, which included the secretary race.

The winners of the secretary race at Will Rice were initially determined without using the correct, ranked-choice system. However, a breach in security led to this discovery, and the case is now headed to its college’s court.

According to Hu’s email statement, Owlections — the voting system used in previous years made by Rice Apps — automatically implements a ranked-choice algorithm. However, in the past Will Rice had experienced many technical errors,

inefficiencies and lack of quick support as needed from Owlections administration.

Hu, a senior at Will Rice, said the Rice administration pushed the Will Rice program administrators to use the new system, OwlNest, for this year’s elections, but ran into problems with the system’s incorrect implementation of ranked-choice votes.

Kristen Ernst, associate director of student engagement, said that OwlNest does have the ability to do ranked-choice voting, but the option needs to be selected while building the ballots.

The Will Rice elections committee said they were initially not aware of this feature.

According to Ernst, OwlNest student engagement consultants have been hired and will provide training to incoming college presidents, and support to other clubs.

Melinda Nelson, Will Rice sophomore, was a member of one of the three candidate pairs who ran for Will Rice secretary.

According to Nelson, after the voting period ended, she received an email saying that she and her running mate had not been elected as secretaries of Will Rice and that the results would be made public the next day.

“But no results came up. I was like, ‘Wait, what’s happening, it’s 2:30 and they haven’t announced who got secretary.’ And then at the bottom of it, it said that the election for the secretaries was contested. I was really confused,” Nelson said. “It just went downhill from there.”

Jonathan Lloyd, another candidate on a pair running for Will Rice secretary, said that a third candidate — who is also a Will Rice election committee member — was allowed to have access to the voting data before the results were made public, and did a recount without following due procedure.

According to the email statement from the Will Rice elections committee, this member used private access to examine the OwlNest voting results and information.

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Illustration by yifei zhang

“While they did expose a flaw in the system, they did not use the proper route to do so, as they accessed information other candidates were not able to view instead of asking [the elections committee] for the break-down of the votes,” the elections committee wrote.

According to Rachel Lamb, parliamentarian at Baker, OwlNest was used for elections this year.

“For contested elections, I had to do ranked-choice calculations myself,” Lamb said. “Luckily, this year the elections were pretty straightforward so that wasn’t a big problem at Baker, unlike at other colleges.”

Other colleges, who did not use OwlNest, also faced problems. At Jones, Qualtrics election software was used.

“Jones typically uses ranked-choice voting for candidates,” Jessica Su, Jones election coordinator, said. “There was one incident in which ranked-choice voting was not conducted for two elections that involved

three candidates, and by a careful discussion between the election coordinators, the Jones president and our magister, we decided to rerun those elections to best uphold the Jones Constitution.”

Re-elections are being held for the internal vice president and treasurer positions, according to an email statement from Jones election coordinators, Su and Adam Subel.

“There was a significant, albeit unintentional, error in our Jones voting process that was unconstitutional and therefore produced invalid results in multiple elections,” the email reads.

The same candidates were on the ballot, and no new speeches were given. According to the email statement, the decision was taken after extensive deliberation. “[Our] number one goal as election coordinator[s] is to ensure that everyone is given the opportunity they deserve to both run and have a vote in Jones elections,” Su and Subel’s joint statement reads.

Meet me at the Moody Café Your spot for sandwiches, salads and sweets.

Free coffee with purchase! Now accepting Tetra Points.

Operated by Salento

@themoodyarts

NEWS

4 • WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2020

3 years of SA presidents speak on progress, achievements BRIAN LIN SENIOR WRITER The end of the Student Association election season on Tuesday marked a new term for the SA. We asked the last three presidents to speak, in their own words, on the most prominent SA accomplishments from the past three years. In the administrations of former SA presidents Justin Onwenu, Ariana Engles and Grace Wickerson, the SA’s achievements span the creation of the Rice Harvey Action Team to the formation of the Financial Accessibility Working Group.

Kristen Ernst, associate director of student engagement, said the SA serves as amplifier of student voices.

“If a student has a particular priority, utilizing the SA is a great way to make sure that they are connected to the resources they need to help make that idea or concern see through to fruition,” Ernst said.

2017-2018 In August 2017, when Hurricane Harvey swept through Houston and flooded various parts of the city, over 1,700 students volunteered as part of the Rice Harvey Action Team to support recovery efforts.

Onwenu, the 2017-2018 SA president, said the greatest challenges in organizing R-HAT were the logistical hurdles of mobilizing 1,700 volunteers and the urgent nature of the recovery efforts.

“I think the challenge was the sheer scale of what we built in a day or two,” Onwenu (Sid Richardson College ’18) said.

“We sent over 1,700 students, faculty and staff all across the city in the drop of a hat, so the logistics and speed of that was certainly a big undertaking.”

During Onwenu’s term, the SA Senate pushed for the on-campus meal plan to include Saturday dinners at North and

Seibel serveries in an effort to reduce financial strain for students.

Onwenu’s term also saw the beginning of student access to the New York Times, which is currently being funded by the residential colleges, and to the Wall Street Journal, which is funded by Fondren Library.

2018-2019 In March 2018, the SA voted to extend the Undocumented Student Support Services Task Force, which created UndocuAlly Trainings to reduce barriers faced by undocumented students, according to Engles, the 2018-2019 SA president.

UndocuAlly Training, which Engles said helps students and staff improve their literacy of legal terms and cultural issues surrounding immigration, was most recently offered November 2019.

Engles also led the creation of the Undocumented Student Support Services working group to launch daca.rice.edu, a website that gathers campus resources and Frequently Asked Questions by undocumented or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals students.

During Engles’ term, the SA voted to approve the Improving African Presence in Academia Task Force, which in October last year created the Center for African and African American Studies within the School of Humanities, Engles said. As of October, the CAAAS is working to expand the African Studies minor into an African and African American Studies minor by offering more classes across interdisciplinary fields.

“The Increasing African Presence in Academia [Task Force] did an excellent job in gauging campuswide interest in African and diasporic studies,” Engles said. “[It] raised several important questions about academic privileging of some subjects over others.”

2019 – 2020 One accomplishment of the SA this year was the creation of the Financial Accessibility Working Group, which produced a 26-page report voicing improvements that could be made to assist first-generation and lowincome students, according to Wickerson, the SA president for the 2019-2020 term.

This year, the SA also collaborated to create the Accessibility and Opportunity Portal, which aggregates funding opportunities around campus into one website.

On the website, students can apply for funding for career attire, funding to address food insecurity and funding from the Residential College Accessibility Fund to subsidize costs for college merchandise and events.

The SA this year has also been able to lower the cost of sexually transmitted infection testing at the campus health center, reducing the cost of a test from $100 initially to $46, according to Wickerson. In 2018, they co-led a task force that aimed to reduce the cost of STI testing, and the recent Survey of All Students found that the optimal price students would pay for an STI test was $25 dollars, Wickerson said.

In April 2019, the SA held a special election to vote on an amendment that would allow any member of the undergraduate student body to sponsor legislation, an idea originally proposed by former parliamentarian Freddy Cavallaro. Before this amendment was passed, legislation had to be co-sponsored by a voting member in the SA Senate, which are college senators and presidents.

“Any undergraduate student can propose legislation to the Senate,” Wickerson said.

“And so that opened a door for people regardless of whether they hold status in the SA to propose legislation, and we’ve actually gotten to see that recently with the refugee legislation that’s out and being voted on in the Senate this Monday.”

SA in Review Justin Onwenu:

2017-2018 - Rice Harvey Action Team - Free student access to New York Times and Wall Street Journal - On campus Saturday dinner

Ariana Engles:

2018-2019 - UndocuAlly Training - Improved African Presence in Academia Task Force - Creation of Students with Disabilities Council - DACA.rice.edu

Grace Wickerson: 2019-2020 - Financial Accessibility Working Group - Accessibility and Opportunity Portal - Lowered STI testing costs - Amendment to allow any student to sponsor SA legislation infographic by Dan Helmeci

NEWS

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2020 • 5

Senate votes to support community benefits agreement

I definitely think that the HCEDD group has their heart and their minds in the right direction.

Drew Carter JONES COLLEGE SA SENATOR this is the key word – between developers or cities and community coalitions,” Neal, a Jones junior, said. “So the developers or cities, you can take that as an and/or, it can be either a developer/coalition or city/coalition, but either way it must include the coalition as a negotiating and enforcing party.”

This is also the definition acknowledged in the resolution.

According to SA President Grace Wickerson, Rice Management Company Real

Visual and Dramatic Arts Department Rice Theatre Program presents

All in the Timing and more...

Sexual Agency & The Future of the “Me Too” Movement March 4 @ 4 p.m. // Farnsworth Pavillion

Directed by Jack Young X

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Spring Fling at the Moody, featuring The Tontons

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Short plays with romance, reality and monkeys writing Hamlet

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Friends of Diversity is hosting Ayesha K. Faines, a feminist thought leader and founder of the ‘Women Love Power’ platorm, as a speaker for women’s history month. Food will be provided.

by David Ives

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N THE RADAR

Estate Director Ryan LeVasseur said that Rice Management Company did not see the HCEDD as a valid counterparty in the CBA at this point in time for several reasons.

“I also think one of those reasons is that they didn’t know which organizations were even in the coalition. But they gave some things about longevity, the organization has to have been around for a long time, will it continue to exist,” Wickerson said.

SA Senate members at SA Senate meetings preceding the passage of the resolution also mentioned pressure from Rice Management Company to stop supporting the HCEDD, at the threat of damaged relations between the SA and Rice administration. Martel College SA Senator Ashley Fitzpatrick said at the SA 2020 Election Debate and Town Hall that Rice Management Company threatened to disown the SA as a legitimate campus body if the SA Senate passed a resolution supporting the HCEDD as a signatory party in the CBA. HCEDD member Assata Richards said that while she was open to the city being part of brokering the deal, she did not support allowing the city to move forward with negotiations without the HCEDD’s input.

“There is a reason for us to keep going ... the consensus is this coalition should be a part of the negotiations in the agreement,” Richards said at the meeting on Feb. 4.

one. At the town hall hosted by the SA Senate on Feb. 6 to discuss changes to the resolution, resolution writer Mary Claire Neal said that a community coalition was a necessary part of a CBA, by definition.

“A CBA is a project-specific, legally binding enforceable document between –

IX

After several weeks of deliberation and significant changes to the language of the resolution, the Student Association Senate passed Senate Resolution 8 on Monday, Feb. 17, to recommend a community benefits agreement process for the Innovation District project.

The resolution in its final form passed nearly unanimously, with the exception of Jones College SA Senator Drew Carter.

Carter said that supporting a community benefits agreement, or a legally binding contract, between the City of Houston and Rice Management Company undermines the goals of the Houston Coalition for Equitable Development without Displacement, the only signatory party named in the original resolution.

“I definitely think that the HCEDD group has their heart and their minds in the right direction. What I will say is that I feel like the SA [Senate] somewhat compromised this, and I feel like the best thing the SA [Senate] could have done is just say ‘We’re going to support the HCEDD group ... but we’re not going to say anything in regards to supporting Rice or supporting the City of Houston,’” Carter, a sophomore, said.

The significant changes to the resolution since its original introduction on Jan. 27 came as a result of Mayor Sylvester Turner’s announcement that the City of Houston will enter a CBA with Rice Management Company.

The original language of the resolution recommended that Rice Management Company enter a CBA with the HCEDD, and the resolution that passed on Monday states that the SA will only support a CBA for the South Main Innovation District if the HCEDD “is an equal decision-maker in the negotiations process and ultimately itself or its members’ organizations are equal signatories.”

The new resolution acknowledges, but no longer endorses the letter written by members of the HCEDD and endorsed by several Rice student groups, and instead acknowledges the HCEDD as the driving force behind the conversation about a CBA. In addition, the resolution recommends forming a task force to hold RMC accountable to commitments of transparency and openness. The SA Senate bill to charter the task force was also passed on Monday after a motion to table the vote did not pass.

Changes to the resolution were also due to the HCEDD and Rice Management Company’s conflicting definitions of a CBA – specifically, which parties are eligible to enter

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RYND MORGAN ASST NEWS EDITOR

Archi-Arts: Duo

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Join the Moody for a free, public event featuring a food truck from Moon Rooster, complimentary wine, beer and cocktails, and live music by the Tontons. The entire building will be open for guests to experience the Moody’s spring exhibition “Radical Revisionists: Contemporary African Artists Confronting Past and Present.” Parking is $5.

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February 28 @ 8 p.m. // Moody Center

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SHOW TIMES

March 7 @ 7 p.m. // Anderson Hall

Archi-Arts is an interdisciplinary arts event hosted by the School of Architecture to celebrate creativity in all its forms from across campus. The School will be transformed into a display of sculpture, art, architecture, music and dance.

Contributors range from student-artists to Shepherd School performers to members of the Rice Dance Theater.

INFOGRAPHIC BY dan Helmeci

FEB 28-29 MAR 1 MAR 5-7

8 PM 3 PM 8 PM

Ticket Information: Call 713-348-4005 or email hamman@rice.edu. hamman hall at rice university, theatre.rice.edu.

Dynamic and Energetic Teachers wanted. Pay rate is $24 to $38 per hour.

We provide all training. Email your resume to rice-jobs@testmasters.com

THE RICE THRESHER

6 • WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2020

OPINION STAFF EDITORIAL

Primaries are here, and not just for the president Early voting ends this Friday, Feb. 28 and Election Day is next Tuesday, March 3. If you have the privilege of being registered to vote, get out the vote on behalf of yourself, your communities and everyone who is institutionally excluded from our election processes. Political apathy is rampant in this country and on our campus with only 42 percent voter turnout last year. But we urge you to care. Our future will be shaped by the people we elect to office and the decisions they make regarding the issues we talk about, protest for and care about.

Preparing to vote goes beyond being informed on your choice for your party’s presidential nominee — there are 63 local and statewide races on the ballot for you to vote on. If you chose to register to vote in Texas, you must also be informed on those races. Your vote will affect the surrounding community for much longer than the four years you’re here. Print or write your picks before entering the polls — Texas typically doesn’t allow you to pull out your phone in the voting booth.

We are not endorsing candidates for this election, but we hope to provide more information on the roles of these elected officials and the implications of the possible ballot choices.

Texas U.S. Senator The incumbent is Senator John Cornyn (R). He faces four Republican challengers and 12 Democrats vying for the party nomination. According to the Texas Tribune, Cornyn is widely expected to win his party’s

nomination and will likely face one of the top six Democratic candidates who have at least 3 percent support in a Texas Tribune poll and have raised at least $100,000: Chris Bell, Amanda Edwards, MJ Hegar, Cristina Tzintzún Ramirez, Royce West and Sema Hernandez.

Read the Texas Tribune voter guide (linked online) to understand where the Democratic candidates fall on almost every issue, watch the Democratic candidate debate and read the Tribune’s coverage.

U.S. Representative, District 2 The incumbent is Representative Dan Crenshaw (R) who won in 2018 with 52.8 percent of the vote. The Republican primary is uncontested, but three Democrats are vying for the party’s nomination. Democratic challengers Elisa Cardnell, Sima Ladjevardian and Travis Olsen all offer compelling reasons why they should be the party’s nominee in Courtesy baird campbell an attempt to beat him.

To learn more about their policies, you can look at ballotpedia.org or vote411.org.

Texas Railroad Commissioner The incumbent is Ryan Sitton (R), who faces one Republican challenger and four Democrats vying for party nomination.

Sitton is one of three commissioners, who serve for six years. The name is misleading — they regulate the energy industry, including policies regarding pollution prevention, gas utility rates and alternative fuels. This position has historically been competitive, with a Republican winning the 2018 commissioner race by 53.2 percent.

OPINION

Increasing transparency paves the way for change Two weeks ago, for a Thresher news story, I read a resignation letter from a former custodian at Rice who was employed for just six months. What I read made me contemplate the working conditions of the Rice staff I see on a daily basis, but it would never end up getting published due to the Rice administration.

The former custodian alleged that his management team placed him with a co-worker who rarely contributed to the daily work orders and refused to learn the safety protocols for operating certain equipment. Additionally, he wrote that he watched his team leader feed the answers of an insurance certification test to the same co-worker in order to legally operate the department’s van. Even after repeatedly reporting his circumstances to his management team, he was allegedly expected to tolerate these issues as part of his work assignment. As his last resort, he quit his job and contacted the Thresher.

However, when I reached out to the management team to confirm or deny these allegations, I received nothing but a curt reply from the communications team for the Rice administration: “The university doesn’t respond to questions regarding individual personnel matters.” Without input from the management or administration themselves in order to prove his claims, I was left with

the only option of giving up the article and moving on.

The dry response from the administration immediately imposes a dead end to news articles that require allegations to be confirmed and credible. The lack of transparency from administration discourages me, and possibly other journalists, from pursuing stories that deserve to be heard by the Rice community but require verification from administration.

My correspondence with the Rice staff and faculty for another Thresher news article verifies this wasn’t an isolated incident.

When I was writing my article on the unequal maternity leave benefits between staff, tenured faculty and non-tenure-track faculty, I reached out to multiple faculty and staff members to discuss their maternity leave terms. What was supposed to be a weeklong process turned into a monthlong process as I struggled to find even one faculty or staff member who was willing to disclose their benefits.

This opinion has been cut off for print. Read the rest online at www.ricethresher.org.

GRACE WEI BAKER COLLEGE FRESHMAN

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

The dangers of a single Student Association story When you’re the only media organization in a given space, you have a lot of power.

We appreciate the platform the Thresher has given stories like “Black at Rice” and “In Their Own Words” this year — and recognize their meaningful contribution to the campus dialogue. However, speaking from our individual experiences in the Student Association Senate, we think it is important to note that the Thresher presents information in an environment in which there are few external checks on the narratives that it creates. This can present problems for students with perspectives that counter the Thresher’s but lack the same institutional capacity to present conflicting accounts. We find ourselves in that position today due to some of the ways in which the SA has been covered this year.

This year’s SA Senate has been presented as not caring about our “constitution or [our] elections, that famously democratic process,” as “lacking student engagement” and as ineffective in comparison to the SA Senate that “created the Critical Thinking in Sexuality workshop requirement.” Each of these claims is contestable: we have a committee dedicated to overseeing our election process and a Parliamentarian who ensures the constitution is followed; we have tasked an auditing committee with analyzing and improving our organization’s structure and this year; and we processed thousands of responses to the Survey of all Students as they pertain to our formal objectives. The critique

of the SA we want to address more fully is the final one stating that the present SA does not live up to past precedent.

Since the CTIS requirement was recommended by the SA in 2015, the SA has continued working by lobbying for Saturday dinners, securing New York Times subscriptions for campus, designing and implementing a composting initiative, setting standards for student leadership eligibility, establishing campus values on academic freedom, calling for better international student financial aid and pushing for sources of support for refugee and Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals students, among other efforts. All of these were covered by the Thresher.

This year SA members have worked to increase menstrual product accessibility, defined a plan for greater African presence in academia, crafted a joint SA-Graduate Student Association resolution on diversity and inclusion resources, stood in solidarity with Latinx, immigrants and refugee members, created the guest meal swipe sharing program, started an interpersonal violence policy committee, worked to reclaim the Culture of Care and advocated on behalf of students on topics such as financial accessibility, academic freedom and protest rights and sexually transmitted infection testing costs. While some of these projects 8 a.m. classess aren’t the have received coverage from the Thresher, biggest many othersproblem have not,facing reinforcing the narrative that the SA has not been as effective students

this year as it has in years past.

When you erase these from our collective memory by excluding them from media coverage, two things occur: you devalue hundreds of students’ work that, while produced under the umbrella of the “SA,” does in fact belong to individuals and you perpetuate the narrative that the SA isn’t productive and therefore isn’t worth joining.

The second of these points is a problem for us especially during election seasons when, after hearing of the SA’s ineptitude, students may be more likely to focus their energies on other organizations where they feel their work will be more recognized and valued.

Making students feel underappreciated and voiceless is the last thing that we want.

We want our members, which include every undergraduate, to take pride in the SA’s work and know that they have a space to speak in this organization. For this reason, we have sent monthly email updates to the undergraduate body highlighting student initiatives, hosted an SA external objectives week, organized town halls where anyone can come to share their perspectives and presented regularly at college government meetings. However, we recognize that many of these channels do not reach every student.

The Thresher’s mission is “to provide the student body with up-to-date campus news and information.” However, when we’ve been reported on, we find that the predominant message is that the SA is either an organization of one president or of 26 voting members

— even though the SA has over 100 formal leaders and many partners around campus who often are ignored. As much as we try to bring students’ efforts to light, we aren’t an organization meant for mass storytelling – that’s you.

The SA wants and needs to collaborate with the Thresher. And in the past, it has; for example, in the case of maternal and caregiver leave policy inequities, the Thresher reported on non-tenure-track caregiver leave concerns and the SA activated to address them. We recognize and respect the Thresher staff’s dedication to the Thresher’s mission, and are now asking you to please do the same for us. Because together, we can work to combat critical issues on campus while also celebrating student work in these areas, creating a compassionate environment in which we can use our institutional power in a positive way. We believe that we have a responsibility to do this; our only question now is, do you?

Wickerson is the current SA president and Clyburn is the incoming SA president.

GRACE WICKERSON & ANNA MARGARET CLYBURN

BROWN COLLEGE SENIOR & MARTEL COLLEGE JUNIOR

STAFF Christina Tan* Editor-in-Chief Anna Ta* Managing Editor

OPINION Elizabeth Hergert* Editor

NEWS Rishab Ramapriyan* Editor Amy Qin* Editor Rynd Morgan Asst. Editor Savannah Kuchar Asst. Editor

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FEATURES Ivanka Perez* Editor Ella Feldman* Editor

COPY Vi Burgess Editor Bhavya Gopinath Editor Phillip Jaffe Editor

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DESIGN Tina Liu* Director Dalia Gulca A&E Designer Joseph Hsu Features Designer Katherine Hui Sports Designer Anna Chung Ops Designer Dan Helmeci News Designer Yifei Zhang Illustrator Chloe Xu Illustrator

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

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

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Editorial and business offices are located on the second floor of the Ley Student Center: 6100 Main St., MS-524 Houston, TX 77005-1892 Phone (713) 348-4801 Email: thresher@rice.edu Website: www.ricethresher.org The Thresher is a member of the ACP, TIPA, CMA and CMBAM. © Copyright 2020

FEATURES

7 • WEDNESDAY, MARCH 7, 2018

HOUSING GUIDE 2020

Cover illustration by: Tina Liu Guide design by: Anna Chung, Joseph Hsu, Katherine Hui, Dalia Gulca

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- LEASING 101 AVERAGE MONTHLY RENT 9 - A LOVE LETTER TO MONTROSE 11 - MEAL PLANS UTILITIES/PLANNING 12 - ALONG THE METRO LINE 13 - MAP

HOUSING GUIDE

8 • WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2020

LEASING 101 LEGAL TIPS FOR OFF-CAMPUS STUDENTS

IVANKA PEREZ | FEA TURES EDITO R

With students beginning to search for off-campus housing and anticipating the housing draws at their residential colleges, the Thresher decided to ask a lawyer about common legal rights and concerns that students might face when moving off campus. We spoke with Rick McElvaney, former clinical associate professor at the University of Houston Law Center, about the legal rights that tenants have.

What should students know about their lease before they sign?

What does the process of applying to rent a house or apartment look like?

[Landlords often look at] your rental history, any kind of criminal history, income [to see] if you can pay for it.

Many students face the problem that you’re in school, you don’t have any income, so often they make someone co-sign with you — your mom, your uncle, your brother, something like that — somebody will be responsible if you don’t pay. Anyone who co-signs is responsible and liable to the landlord to the same extent you are if you don’t pay them. If you’re accepted as a tenant, they’ll notify you and you’ll have to sign the lease.

How can tenants get their landlords to do repairs on the house or apartment?

You want to look at it when you move in, do a little inventory check sheet to see what’s banged up — [if] the window’s cracked, the door’s broken, something like that — you want to hand that in to the landlord, keep a copy of it [so] that you have it.

If you need repairs during the term of your lease, you’re entitled to get things that materially affect your health or safety repaired. So if you don’t have any water, stuff like that, the lock breaks [or] there’s water coming through your electrical outlet — something dangerous, you can require the landlord to try to fix that.

You have to give them notice of the problem. The best way to give them notice is through certified mail. If you do certified mail with that tracking method, the landlord will have one reasonable period, which is presumed to be seven days, to come in, look and make a diligent effort to repair that condition. If they don’t do it at the end of that reasonable time period, the landlord’s going to be liable to the tenant for failing to repair. So with the failing to repair, the tenant can terminate the lease, go to court, try to get some money awarded to them or get the judge to force the landlord to do the repair, that kind of thing.

So repairs are generally the main concern for tenants. If you don’t give that first notice [...] you have to wait the reasonable time, [and] if the landlord doesn’t repair, you have to give a subsequent written notice, wait another reasonable time, so you’re just doubling the amount of time the landlord has to do it if you don’t give it by certified mail.

How do security deposits work?

Make sure you read the lease. There’s going to be certain things in there — anything bold or underlined — things that are legally required to be underlined and bold to be effective, generally.

[Landlords] usually require a security deposit to make sure there are no damages to the apartment when you move out, and the security deposit covers damages, not just normal wear and tear on the apartment.

You have to give the landlord notice [that you’ll be leaving at the end of the lease]. The typical notice is 30 days, but there’s often a 60 day notice in some of the leases. Whenever you communicate with the landlord, you should probably do it with some method that you can prove you did it. If I call you and say I need something or I’m moving out at the end of my lease, I can’t prove I said that. So you want to send something.

The best way to do it is to send it by certified mail and you can request a receipt that they received your notice that you’re going to leave at that time.

What complications can arise with rent?

You have to read your lease about when you have to pay your rent. Mostly there’s a time that says this is the time you have to pay, usually the first or the third. If you don’t pay your rent by the first, you may be in default. There may be some provisions in leases that say you have a grace period, but you have to read your lease.

If you don’t pay by the date it’s due, you’re going to be in default and the landlord can evict you. If you get evicted, that then goes on your rental history, and then when you apply for the next place, you’re going to have an eviction on your record, and landlords aren’t going to be really keen on renting to you with prior evictions.

What are tenants’ rights for subletting?

That’s something you have to negotiate with the landlord from the [beginning] … Subletting by the law is not allowed unless it’s in the lease that you can do it. So if the lease is silent, the tenant cannot sublet without the consent of the landlord. Leases may [discuss] subletting, or they may have a different provision. If you’re concerned about that, you should negotiate that with the landlord right when you’re moving in. If you don’t, as a tenant, you’re going to end up on the short side of that issue.

HOW TO GET A HOUSE

When you move out, you’re entitled to get your security deposit back, unless you have any kind of damages to the apartment.

If you gave them proper notice, the place is in good condition, the landlord’s required to give you an itemization of anything they’re going to deduct from your security deposit and return the unused portion of that security deposit to you. They have to do both of those things within 30 days. If they don’t do that, they’re presumed to be in bad faith, and you can recover extra damage because they’re in bad faith. You can get up to three times the amount of your deposit back if they can’t overcome that presumption that they’re in bad faith by returning that to you. But you have to give them a forwarding address of where to send these notices and the refund. If you don’t give them that forwarding address, the time period [doesn’t] start until you give the [address].

Are property owners allowed to come into the property anytime without the tenant’s permission?

They will be allowed to come in for any kind of emergency or emergency repair. The lease is going to specify when they can come in, usually. And the typical provision is when they give you 24 hours’ notice to come in, to look at something that needs repairs or something like that, that’s fairly typical. Some of them [have] a 72-hour notice. If you’re worried about that, that’s something you can negotiate if you’re doing the lease, [but] there’s no law in the property code that says they have to give you a certain amount of notice.

Are there any resources available for students who encounter legal problems with their landlords?

[One] resource to call is Ryan [Marquez, professor of practice] over at [UHLC]. Ryan runs the clinic over there now, which provides free help for people if you’re accepted as a client. So if you’re a student over at Rice [and] you encounter a landlord-tenant situation, you call over to the UH legal clinic program and apply for some help there. They provide free lawyers — they’re actually student lawyers — [but they are] under the supervision of Ryan.

ANNA TA | MANAGING ED ITOR

Congrats! You’re going off campus! Even if you’re not amped about this decision (or had the choice taken from you), look on the bright side: it’s (likely) cheaper, you’ll actually get to know the city and no one will ever come into your house and throw out your candles. Nevertheless, this can be a daunting journey (it was for me) so here’s how to get through it all without a real estate agent and not end up moving into a spare room at Hanszen College.

one. finding prospective housing

Once you figure out who you’re living with (do this first for obvious reasons), start looking for potential properties that can fit all of your needs and hearts’ desires. One of the easiest ways to get housing is to get it from another Rice student who’s already off campus and about to come back on campus. Ask around and see if any of your friends (advisors, acquaintances, that kid you had a group project with one time) who are currently off campus and see if they need someone to take over their lease or know of anyone who does. Almost all rentable properties around Rice are typically rented by Rice students anyway. Even if you don’t know someone personally, plenty of people post options on the Facebook groups Rice Students Selling Stuff or Rice University Housing, Sublets & Roommates. Keep in mind that if you had dreamed of taking one of the extra large Bolsover Street houses, you’re actually likely too late to the game. Most of those houses will probably have already been handed down from current residents to their friends for next year.

But again, don’t stress, there’s still plenty of housing to go around.

If no one you know has an available property that you’re interested in leasing for the next year, your next steps are just doing things the old-fashioned way: checking on real estate websites (Zillow, for example).

You can also look up nearby apartment complexes.

Some places go actually old fashioned and don’t list online at all — you can drive around neighborhoods you’re interested in renting in and look for For Rent signs and the numbers attached to them as well.

things to keep in mind • • •

• • • •

Rent: Is it affordable? Is it worth it? How will I split it among my room/housemates?

Space: Do I want to live in a house or an apartment?

Will anyone in my group have to share a room and is that something we’re okay with?

Parking: how many spots do I get? Is it street parking or private? Do I need to pay for a street pass or does my landlord? (PS: street passes are only about $30 each for an entire year in Houston) Utilities: Are they included? Do I need to set them up myself?

Is this place furnished?

How far away is it from campus? How will I get to campus?

Is there an in unit washer/dryer? If not, how annoying is it to get there and will it cost money?

two. I’m interested in this house. now what?

Cold call the real estate agents listed on properties you’re interested in. This can seem scary but don’t worry — just let them know you’re interested in the property and ask to make an appointment to see it. Make sure to show up on time and try to look fairly respectable.

At the appointment, just look around the space, imagine yourself in it and ask any questions you have, like, is this place prone to flooding? Did it flood during Hurricane Harvey? What’s the parking situation? How can I start the process of applying for this property and signing a lease? Do I need someone to co-sign it with me?

continued...

Hopefully, the real estate agent likes you, you get there before any other interested groups and they agree to lease the property to you. You might have to go through a few properties before you can get to this stage. You may have to submit an application for the property, but the property’s real estate agent can walk you through that. In my case, the agent/landlord agreed to lease the house to us only if one of my housemates’ dad co-signed our lease (given that none of us made enough income to cover the rent individually).

Before you sign the lease, have someone you trust look over it all, whether that be a parent or someone with an actual law degree. There are plenty of concerns to watch out for (read our interview with someone with an actual law degree about these concerns) and it’s important to remember that this is an extremely important document for the next year of your life.

Again, you might have to see several properties or cold call a few agents before you find The One. Don’t stress too much, it’ll all work out. And worst comes to worst, you can always move into Hanszen.

HOUSING GUIDE

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2020 • 9

A Love Letter to Montrose A beginner’s guide to the eccentric Houston neighborhood I have a theory that you could live an entire academic year on campus without having to leave once. Think about it. Every single meal is provided, and the options for food outside of the serveries are numerous: 4.Tac0, The Hoot, bites from Coffeehouse and Willy’s Pub, snacks at the campus store. Even boba cravings can be satisfied on campus. We have a gym, laundry services, kitchens, clothing swaps, concerts, sporting events, art galleries, a movie theater and even a student-run haircutting business. Why leave?

Some students, once kicked off campus, don’t have a choice. Others, like myself, find the notion of staying within a

ILLUSTRATION BY CHLOE XU

300-acre elite university space for weeks and months on end absolutely terrifying.

Whether you’re moving off campus by choice or because your name appeared on the dreaded kick list, taking a break from the dorms is the perfect excuse to see more of Houston — the glorious, sprawling city we sometimes forget we’re a part of.

At 2.3 million inhabitants and almost 700 square miles, Houston is a city that feels like it could swallow me whole. But in my two years living off campus, I’ve found corners within its monstrosity that feel like home. My most beloved of those corners is Montrose — the artsy, queer, heavy with history and rapidly gentrifying neighborhood north of campus. For those looking for a neighborhood other than Rice Village to immerse yourself in, here are some spots in Montrose to get you started.

Satisfy your caffeine addiction.

If you’ve reached your Nutty Bee capacity or can’t stand one more minute in Fondren, Montrose is the perfect place to head for a coffee shop.

Campesino Coffee House: Tucked into an adorable repurposed house, Campesino is a Latin American take on Montrose’s coffee shop scene. Come for a homey space to study and the Pérez Prado, stay for un tamale y un cortadito, por favor.

Agora: With uncomfortable chairs, unreliable Wi-Fi and the perpetual possibility that one of its customers might break out in song and guitar when absolutely no one asked him to, Agora is good for one thing: ze European vibes. To its credit, it really nails those vibes. And, in very European fashion, it closes at 2 a.m.

Inversion Coffee House: Sharing a

space with Art League Houston and right next to Texas Art Supply, Inversion doubles as a cafe and art space filled with outlets, tables and natural light. Try one of their specialty drinks or homemade gelatos.

Honorable mentions: Siphon Coffee, Mercantile, Blacksmith, Southside Espresso Take a break from Seibel.

With everything from pizza to pho for every budget, Montrose is at the heart of Houston’s culinary scene.

Tacos Tierra Caliente: A Houston classic, this food truck located on West Alabama serves up some of the best tacos, quesadillas and hot sauce in the city. Grab your tacos of choice and cross the street to the West Alabama Ice House for outdoor seating, ping-pong and a beer or a Topo Chico.

Ramen Tatsu-Ya: Originally founded in an effort to bring high-quality Japanese food to Austin, Tatsu-Ya is now serving up hearty and flavorful bowls of ramen right off Westheimer Roadd. The quality is comparable to other Houston ramen spots, with typically better prices and shorter waits.

Lúa Viet Kitchen: Located in a shiny, sleek space at Alabama Row, Lúa Viet offers modern takes on Vietnamese classics at a reasonable price. While it doesn’t come close to Houston’s best Vietnamese fare, it’s an accessible spot for a fresh and satisfying meal.

Honorable mentions: Velvet Taco, Aladdin Mediterranean Cuisine, UB Preserv Save Tetra, shop with cash.

While the majority of Houston’s

cheapest and best shopping exists outside of Montrose (see: Family Thrift Outlet), the neighborhood is filled with a number of strange stores suited for window shopping and shopping alike.

The Magick Cauldron: This witchcraft supply store on Mect, peculiar place for a study break.

Montrose Market: Located in the parking lots of Petty Cash and Pavement Clothing, this flea market has jewelry, clothing and art. The free event features music and beer.

Trader Joe’s: It’s only fitting that the best grocery store on the planet is located in Houston’s best neighborhood. Housed in a refurbished movie theater, the California chain offers delectable and affordable snacks and frozen meals perfect for a college student’s diet.

Honorable mentions: Goodwill, The Cottage Shop, Half Price Books How do I get there?

Houston is especially daunting without a car. But that piece of plastic we can pick up for free from the Allen Center? It’s a key to the city’s public transportation system — a system not nearly as horrible as Rice students love to claim. Buses are quick and fairly reliable, and the 56 and 27 are easy options for getting from near campus to Montrose.

Ella Feldman Features Editor

HOUSING GUIDE

10 • WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2020

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HOUSING GUIDE

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2020 • 11

IF YOU’VE NEVER LIVED ON YOUR OWN BEFORE, BUDGETING FOR LIVING EXPENSES ON TOP OF RENT CAN SEEM OVERWHELMING, ESPECIALLY IF THE CLOSEST YOU’VE COME TO BUDGETING AT RICE IS PLANNING OUT HOW TO SPEND YOUR TETRA. THE MAIN COSTS YOU CAN NEVER REALLY ESCAPE ARE FOOD AND UTILITIES.

FEEDING YOURSELF FOR THE FIRST TIME CAN BE THE ONE OF THE MOST DAUNTING PARTS OF LIVING OFF CAMPUS. JUST ASK ME, WHO LIVED ALMOST COMPLETELY OFF FROZEN MEALS LAST YEAR. LUCKILY, I’VE ASKED A FEW PEOPLE WHO HAVE FARED MUCH BETTER FOR THEIR ADVICE ON EATING HEALTHILY AND WELL WHILE LIVING OFF CAMPUS.

AMY QIN

NEWS EDITOR

MEAL PLAN OPTIONS

Rice Housing and Dining currently offers five different meal plans, according to their website, as well as option to purchase $50 to $500 in Tetra points. It’s worth noting that meal plans do not allow you to roll over leftover meals into the next semester, whereas Tetra does roll over and can be used for servery meals (breakfast is priced lowest, then lunch, then dinner). See below for all the options.

Andrew Feng, a Jones College junior, purchased Plan B so he could eat most of his weekday meals on campus.

“I didn’t want to have to travel off campus to get food as that would be really inefficient, and I don’t like to bring food from home because it would require me to cook, and cooking also takes a lot of time and energy to prepare,” Feng said.

Stanley Tsou, a Will Rice College sophomore, said he chose to buy only Tetra.

“I chose this meal plan because of the flexibility to dine both at the serveries and at the [Rice Memorial Center] (e.g.

Ambassador’s Cafe),” Tsou wrote. “Unlike meal plans, in which students have to use all their meals by the end of the semester, Tetra points roll over the semester. Not having to worry about ‘wasting’ meals or not having enough meals in the middle of the semester is a huge perk for me.”

GROCERY SHOPPING

Lia Pikus, a Baker College junior, opted for no meal plan this year. Pikus and her roommate alternate cooking every day and do bulk meal prepping on weekends.

“If you bulk cook on the weekends, usually you can get through the weeks,” Pikus said. “There are the occasional PB&Jfor-breakfast-lunch-and-dinner days, but

they are few and far between. I also have come to really treasure the time I spend cooking.”

Since her housemate has a car, Pikus is able to carpool with her to buy groceries, but sometimes opts to use Instacart, a grocery delivery service, to save time. According to the Instacart website, delivery is free for orders above $35 for Instacart Express members, and membership costs $99 per year.

Natalie Siejczuk, a Lovett College junior, is living off campus for her second year.

She makes breakfast every morning and meal preps once a week. Siejczuk gets her groceries delivered from Shipt, which costs about the same as Instacart.

“I don’t have a car, so getting groceries is kind of impossible on a bike,” Siejczuk said.

According to Pikus, it’s understandable for a busy school schedule to occasionally get in the way of cooking, so a convenient backup meal, like frozen veggie burgers, is usually a good idea to keep on hand.

MEAL SWIPE DONATION INITIATIVE This semester, a new initiative was launched that allowed students to donate guest meal swipes to students living off campus who cannot afford meal plans. By the time the online form to donate meal swipes closed on Jan. 24, 246 people had donated a total of 615 swipes, with 2.5 swipes donated on average per person, according to Anna Margaret Clyburn, Martel College president. At the time of print, the Thresher has not determined when the swipes will be accessible to students.

The Pantry, another program by Student Success Initiatives, offers non-perishable food, such as soup, proteins, pasta, dairy and nondairy milk, rice and snacks and hygiene products. It is available to walk in from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays.

MEAL PLAN C: $1350 (170 meals/semester, $100 tetra) MEAL PLAN E: $425 (50 lunches/semester) MEAL PLAN F: $550 (85 breakfasts/ semester) MEAL PLAN A: $2220 (20 meals/week, $100 tetra) MEAL PLAN B: $750 (85 meals/semester, $100 tetra)

SIMONA MATOVIC

BACKPAGE EDITOR & DESIGNER

FOOD Grocery shopping, cooking and cleaning dishes take time and money. Plenty of off campus students still opt for some kind of meal plan to save time, especially when they don’t have easy access to a car for grocery shopping. It’s worth noting that meals left over on the plan you choose do not roll over. Some plans cover certain numbers of any meal, while others only cover breakfasts or lunch. But, you can buy Tetra to use for servery meals (breakfast is priced lowest, then lunch, then dinner) that will roll over from semester to semester. So, if you don’t want a full meal plan but want to be covered in case you’re stuck on campus for a meal that you haven’t packed, Tetra is a low-commitment option.

With all of this being said, I live off campus with no meal plan or Tetra and it’s completely feasible if you have access to a car. You’re going to have a lot more repeated meals and fewer options each week than with dining on campus (especially if you don’t split groceries with a roommate), but learning to plan meals and cook is an essential life skill. I spend $40 to $50 a week at HEB and will have ingredients left over from week to week — it’s not uncommon that I decide I don’t need to shop on a given week because of groceries I haven’t yet used. I usually have frozen vegetables on hand because they’re cheap and usually just as nutritious as fresh ones, and then buy around four or five items of fresh produce a week. Frozen shrimp and frozen berries are good for the same reasons, as well as canned beans. Potatoes and sweet potatoes also take longer to go bad than other fresh produce, as well as alternative milks like oat or almond as opposed to cow milk. Also, eggs are cheap and you can eat real eggs now as opposed to servery eggs!

Embrace eggs!

UTILITIES Utilities include electricity, gas, water and internet. Some apartments will have all utilities included in rent, but many don’t and most houses won’t have any utilities included. Houses typically require a lot more energy to cool in the summer (and every other season) and heat in the winter (for the two weeks that it’s actually cold) than apartments. Some internet companies offer flat-rate fees for Wi-Fi, while others charge based on usage. My share of Wi-Fi (split with three roommates in a house) is usually up to $20 a month.

Water, electricity and gas vary immensely based on the size of the living space, so be sure to ask whoever’s lease you’re taking over — or landlord — how much utilities typically cost when you’re deciding on a place. I spend $100 a month on average.

Reducing utility usage is better for your wallet and the environment. These tips may seem simple, but you probably haven’t thought much about them on campus. First of all, turn off your air conditioning or heating every time you leave. If it’s too hot for no air conditioning, still set the temperature much higher than what you’d keep it at when home and vice versa for the cold. It’s not pleasant to walk into a warm home in the summer or a chilly one in the winter, but it probably won’t take that long for the temperature to get back to a comfortable one. Second, if you live in a unit with a dishwasher, it actually uses less water than washing all your dishes by hand. With that being said, never run a half-empty dishwasher. The “dishwasher saves water” rule doesn’t apply to running it when it’s mostly empty. Finally, always turn off your lights. It’s extremely obvious, but the only light switch you’re in charge of controlling while living on campus is probably your own room. Plus, your parents won’t be around to (rightfully) complain when you leave the light on.

KITCHEN >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >>

3 pans, varying size (non-stick) 1 medium-sized pot 1 rice cooker 2 spatulas 1 pair of tongs 1 big wooden spoon 2 bowls/roommate 2 plates/roommate Silverware 2 knives 2 cutting boards (1 big 1 small) 1 baking pan/vessel, glass is most versatile tupperware Spices: salt, pepper, garlic powder,

>> >> >> >>

basil/oregano, red pepper flakes, paprika/cumin Dish soap, sponges, steel wool Measuring cup Metal strainer/colander Drying rack

BATHROOM AND CLEANING >> >> >> >> >> >> >>

Shower liner and curtain Bleach Toilet bowl cleaner Plunger Vacuum Rags (t-shirts come in handy!)

All-purpose disinfecting spray

HOUSING GUIDE

12 • WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2020

>> ALONG THE METRO LINE MCGOWEN

HERMANN PARK/RICEU

This is the stop closest to Brown College, on the corner of Fannin Street and Sunset Boulevard.

This is the stop for Midtown — which also means delicious and affordable Vietnamese food. While you might already know Pho Saigon, Les Givral’s is the place to be for a cheap rice or vermicelli plate and an iced ca phe sua da (extremely strong and sweet iced Vietnamese coffee). The new Cafe#13 also just opened in this plaza and has amazing banh mis with gorgeously toasted bread and just the right proportion of every ingredient. I seriously cannot recommend all of these places enough.

After dark, those of you over 21 can also get off this stop for Proof Rooftop Lounge (when it reopens) and its chill vibes when the weather is right, Mongoose versus Cobra for a board game night or group night out at one of the two karaoke bars.

MUSEUM DISTRICT

Get off here to see some of Houston’s best (you guessed it) museums, including the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, the Houston Natural Science Museum or take in the new Glassell School of Art and its sculpture garden. The MFAH has a great cafe space if you’re looking to study somewhere that’s not Fondren and want to easily get off campus without a car.

For the less educationally-oriented folks, consider Bodegas Taco Shop, an easy walk from the metro stop for Mexican food and great deals on margarita

pitchers. While Bodegas is great for groups looking to relax after a long school week, if you’re looking for a place to take your date after all that art-going, consider MF Sushi for a pricey but yummy dinner. A little further away are the chiller eateries Dak & Bop (Korean fried chicken), Barnaby’s Cafe (decadent brunch) and Fadi’s Mediterranean Grill.

ANNA TA

Managing Editor

MEMORIAL HERMANN HOSPITAL/HOUSTON ZOO This is the stop closest to the South Colleges, across Main Street from Sid Richardson College. A lot of quick food options are available, such as Chipotle, the Halal Guys and the newly-opened Juiceland.

ENSEMBLE HCC

Ugh, now this is Houston food. Get off here for The Breakfast Klub (and be prepared to wait), Tacos A Go Go (if you’re not tired of eating it at every catered food event at Rice), Diced Poke, Spicy Girl (Szechuan Chinese food) and Kura Revolving Sushi Bar.

*gathered from our OC survey

RANTS RAVES

“There’s essentially no resources given to students when they’re kicked off campus which can pose an especially large burden to low income students.” - Mezthly Pena, Duncan ‘22 “The shuttle app should be improved. It’s oftentimes significantly off which is frustrating for those of us that take the shuttle everyday!”

- Rebecca Egan, Martel ‘22 “The walk to West Lot at 10 p.m. is the worst.”

- Natalie Goddard, Duncan ‘21

RANTS RAVES

“It seriously made my relationship to Rice so much healthier!”

- Areli Navarro Magallon, Duncan ‘20 “Living next to Trader Joe’s is as awesome as it sounds.” - Josh Bochner, McMurtry ‘20 “I just think that having your own space to go back to is so underrated. People are always talking about the convenience of living on campus, but it’s so good for your mental health to be able to go home off campus at the end of the day.”

- Chris Walters, Will Rice College ‘20

HOUSING CLASSIFIEDS Fully furnished all bills paid 1br garage apt located 1/2 mile from campus in Southampton.

Cable/Electric/one covered and gated parking spot included (no large SUVs).

No washer/dryer.

Available beginning late.

May/June 2020.

Single occupancy only.

No smokers, no pets.

Rice students preferred.

Email: boyyakima@yahoo.com or call/text 832-573-2694 SUMMER AND/OR SCHOOL YEAR LEASE IN A FOURPLEX IN RICE VILLAGE. BILLS PAID WALK OR BIKE TO CAMPUS. Spacious furnished 1B, 1B, separate living, dining room and kitchen apartment $985.

Furnished Studio $765.

Furnished room in a three bedroom, one bath and kitchenette/dining area $560.

Furnished room in a two bedroom, one bath, kitchenette/ dining area apartment $660.

Bills paid. W/D available.

Email: melsyo@sbcglobal.net. Phone: 713-205-6681

7900 N Stadium Dr. #81, Houston, TX 77030 - Lovely 729-sqft condo: French shutters, bathroom and kitchen with granite countertops and new cabinets, laminate wood floor, spacious walk-in closet, brand new AC unit, in-unit washer & dryer, small yard, outside storage shed, covered parking spot.

-Friendly complex: swimming pool, tennis courts, club house, on-site manager, 24/7 security guard.

-Ideal Location: various transportation options (bus, rail, bike...)

-Rent: $1,050.00/month (including water, trash, cable, Internet...)

-Contact: cuonghoa264@gmail.com Furnished rooms walking distance to Rice Univ. Bills paid.

Safe, quiet location.

W/D. Internet. Single rooms. Summer and school year ending 2021 leasing.

Rent $560.00/mo.

International Students Welcome!!

Email: nutydreams2@yahoo.com Cell: 713-703-6372

HOUSING GUIDE

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2020 • 13

ATTENTION RICE STUDENTS! HAVE YOU FOUND HOUSING YET?

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HOUSING GUIDE

14 • WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2020

HOUSING & TRANSPORTATION IN HOUSTON* HOW DID YOU GET TO CAMPUS EVERYDAY?

DID YOU SHARE A ROOM?

Walked

YES (23%)

Biked Drove self Got driven (Uber, carpool, etc.)

NO (77%)

took the metroRAIL

Took the bus Took a Rice shuttle Scootered / long boarded

*results taken from 92 respondents who said they lived off campus during their time at Rice

MONTROSE 5 percent of survey respondents live here, paying from $750 to $1000/month

MUSEUM DISTRICT

BOLSOVER / CLOSE BY 39 percent of survey respondents live here, paying from $750 to more than $1000/month

BELLAIRE

RICE UNIVERSITY WEST U 23 percent of survey respondents live here, paying from $500 to $750/month

HERMANN PARK

MED CENTER 15 percent of survey respondents live here, paying from $750 to $1000/month

NRG

THE RICE THRESHER

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2020 • 15

FEATURES Students organize around primaries despite lack of polling location on campus

INFOGRAPHIC BY CHRISTINA TAN

POLL FROM PAGE 1 Maddy Scannell, president of Rice Young Democrats, said voter identification requirements often confuse and intimidate students.

“A lot of out-of-state students don’t really know what they need to bring to vote. If you’re out of state, you can’t use your driver’s license alone. You have to sign a reasonable impediment declaration, which is confusing and bureaucratic. You can also bring a passport, which a lot of people don’t have here,” Scannell, a Martel College junior, said. “Spreading awareness that you can vote — it’s just sort of harder — is one of the main barriers.”

This uncertainty surrounding voter identification laws made it difficult for some students to advocate for themselves when they were illegally turned away from polls during last November’s municipal election, Scannell said.

“We had no real way to get in touch with the county to be like, ‘Hey. This is illegal,’” she said. “We complained enough that we got [the phone numbers of] election administrators so that if people are getting turned away again, we can hopefully intervene.”

The Rice Young Democrats will not endorse candidates for this race to “make sure that everyone who identifies with the Democratic party or left of it can share their opinions and not feel alienated by majority rules,” according to Scannell, but she says they will likely endorse in the general election.

The Rice College Republicans will also not endorse candidates for their primary.

According to Thomas Keller, interim president of the club, this is because the Republican race for the presidential nomination isn’t very contested.

“Functionally, I would be shocked if anyone other than Donald Trump won [in the primaries],” Keller, a Duncan College junior, said. “So we’re not taking any particular action other than just watching and seeing how it pans out.”

Still, Keller believes students should

exercise their right to vote in every election and said there is nothing in particular about 2020 that changes that.

Dustin Belsha, founder of the student group Owls for Bernie, thinks otherwise.

“Every year, it is said that this is the most important election ever, but I think that this year it is actually true,” Belsha, a Wiess College sophomore, said. “There are so many things on the line right now

There are a lot of people on campus who would be happy to help you get informed and help walk you through this process, because I know it is hard and it’s really complicated.

Carolyn Daly MCMURTRY COLLEGE JUNIOR that we can’t put off any longer. Climate change is obviously a huge one.”

Owls for Bernie, a group of students supporting Bernie Sanders’ campaign for president, is the most visible effort on campus to directly support a presidential candidate. (The only other effort is an Instagram account supporting Pete Buttigieg that hasn’t posted in a month.)

Belsha founded the group after working directly with the national campaign last summer. He thinks the lack of other candidate-specific organizations at Rice reflects the Sanders campaign’s emphasis on grassroots organizing.

Although they’re not part of the Rice Vote Coalition, Owls for Bernie has also been contributing to voter registration and information efforts such as public tabling. However, due to rules the university has regarding candidate affiliation, event organizing has been a little trickier for the group. “[The Office of Government Relations has] made it clear that any event or organizing effort which requires a request

for resources from Rice University in order to support a candidate will have to be denied. That means reserving rooms on campus,” Belsha said. “I totally understand why those rules exist, but it has been kind of frustrating to deal with.”

Belsha is referring to the university’s partisan political activities policy, which says that Rice cannot use any resources to support or oppose a candidate for public office.

“We don’t want to temper anyone’s enthusiasm for the electoral process, but it’s important for all of us in the Rice community to understand that increasing voting participation across campus is different than increasing turnout for one candidate over another,” Nathan L. Cook, director of government relations, said. “The university can’t help turn out the vote for any particular party or candidate, but we can help get students to the polls.”

Although Scannell said she is grateful to the Office of Government Relations for providing the Rice Young Democrats with funding for things like shuttles and event food, she also said she wishes the administration would do more. “[Funding has] been super great, but on the education and information end, they just don’t really talk about it,” Scannell said. “They’re willing to throw money at the problem, but there’s not a lot of institutional, ‘Here’s how we increase voting.’”

Daly said student leaders of the Rice Vote Coalition and other political organizers across campus are doing their part to provide voter education and information. To Daly, this mission is vital given how intimidating voting can be.

“I hear from students a lot that they’re not informed enough, or they don’t feel like their voice matters, but it really does,” Daly said. “There are a lot of people on campus who would be happy to help you get informed and help walk you through this process, because I know it is hard and it’s really complicated when you’re going through it for the first time, but it’s worth it.”

Heard around campus: Tulsi Gabbard is the only candidate standing up against American involvement in wasteful foreign wars. She would be a great choice for the Democratic nomination.

Karl Abramson JONES COLLEGE FRESHMAN

I am supporting Warren because she is the best candidate to unite both wings of the party, and she is the most qualified person for the job. She is the only candidate truly prepared to bring the structural change needed in this country.

Adrian Almy WIESS COLLEGE FRESHMAN

Students shouldn’t forget about the local elections.

There are a variety of hotly contested primaries for positions that have direct impacts on Rice students every day.

Benjamin Lamb WILL RICE COLLEGE JUNIOR

FEATURES

16 • WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2020

Pursuit of improved minor unites two students IVANKA PEREZ FEATURES EDITOR

Taylor Crain and Zubaidat Agboola have known each other for a while. They’ve run into each other at Rice African Student Association and Black Student Association meetings and even took a religion and hiphop class together. But it wasn’t until the two were selected as student members of the African and African American Studies Steering Committee that they really got to know each other.

“I wanted to know [Crain] from before — when I knew she had all these aspirations … so it’s nice to be in the same room with her [on the committee],” Agboola, a Wiess College junior, said.

Agboola and Crain each took a different path to join the AAAS committee.

Agboola joined as a candidate elected by the Student Association after she and Axel Ntamatungiro, co-founders of the Increasing African Presence in Academia task force, were approached by SA President Grace Wickerson for the job.

The other position was open for applications, so Crain filled out a short form to apply. Shortly after, she was notified that she had been offered the position.

“I was invited to join the Slavery and Segregation Task Force [but] I knew it wasn’t the right fit for me because I didn’t have much experience with archival work and preferred to be in a role where I could pitch ideas and give feedback,” Crain, a Lovett College junior, said. “Once I heard more about the AAAS Steering Committee and the work Dean Kathleen Canning and [Anthony] Pinn were doing, I knew that that was where I wanted to be involved.”

Although both Crain and Agboola have been consistently taking AAAS classes, neither is sure whether they will graduate with the minor. For Agboola, the challenge is finding AAAS classes she hasn’t already taken that don’t have time conflicts with her major requirements.

Crain echoed this problem.

christina tan / THRESHER

Lovett College junior Taylor Crain and Wiess College junior Zubaidat Agboola are members of the African and African Studies steering committee, which is currently revamping the African and African American Studies minor.

“In my experience, there will be semesters with just a ton of Black classes, but they’ll be scheduled around the same time, and then there would be a semester with, like, none,” Crain said. “If you have the time, with your requirements, to fit in those classes, you’re good, but if not, then you’re kind of screwed.”

These kinds of challenges are what the AAAS Steering Committee is aiming to fix.

In their committee meetings, the team — made up of select faculty along with Crain and Agboola — is working on a certificate for graduate students and an introductory course to the AAAS minor.

“I thought it was going to be really intimidating at first — it’s like, oh wow, all these people I’m taking classes with and admire and think are really cool are all in the room and we’re a part of the decision-making process,” Crain said.

Agboola said she appreciated how much the professors valued her perspective as a

student, considering how accomplished and respected they are.

“Whenever there’s anything that has a direct … effect on the students, they really want our opinions,” Agboola said. “It’s really welcoming.”

Once I heard more about the AAAS Steering Committee ... I knew that was where I wanted to be involved.

Taylor Crain LOVETT COLLEGE JUNIOR But the meetings aren’t all work and no play. Crain and Agboola both said they

enjoy interacting with the professors on the committee outside of a class setting.

“Knowing how important this is to them, to us, to the community, at first it was very intimidating, but they as a whole are extremely fun and welcoming,” Crain said.

“Very fun. Lots of jokes.”

Crain and Agboola aren’t just inspired by the professors they work with — they’re also inspired by each other. Crain said seeing the impact of Agboola’s work with this committee and her SA task force has inspired her to work harder for the minor.

“Seeing Zubaidat and all the work she’s done revamping a minor, kind of making this whole new department — [she’s] just taken it on, and it’s going to happen,” Crain said. “It’s exactly where I want to be as well, helping and making it better for the next generation of students here at Rice.”

Agboola is also inspired by the students who came before them — students who took the African studies classes, completed the minor and made it possible for their committee to work toward a new and improved AAAS minor.

“Even when [they saw] that the minor wasn’t as good as it could be, they were working as hard as they could within the bounds of their departments and their requirement classes and the time that they have to actually make things happen, so I’m just really grateful for them,” Agboola said.

Crain said she appreciates the enthusiasm her professors have shown for projects outside of their job descriptions and the compassion they’ve shown for their students.

“I made it a point throughout my academic career to know the other Black faculty and [I appreciate] just how supportive they are,” Crain said. “I think it’s already a big burden to be a minority professor, but for them to take the extra time to get to know students [and] to champion what they want to do in the future … it’s pretty amazing.”

NOT ALL HEROES WEAR CAPES

Crossword by Sam Rossum Thresher Staff

1

2

3

3 8

7

15

5

6

9

14

8

9

10

11

10

17 20

20

21

21

22

18

27

24 26

25

16

15

19 23

4

13

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18

4

27

29

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31

32

28

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

Bolded clues and colored squares correspond to the theme.

ACROSS 1) Downstairs neighbor for the Thresher 4) *Eyeroll* 7) Downstairs neighbor for QWER 9) Chomsky and others 12) Start of many zany headlines, exemplified by reading this puzzle’s highlighted answers in order 14) Carnival features 15) Siesta 17) Gainesville athlete 18) Like “Revenge of the Sith,” episodically 19) Direction for a horse to walk, vis-a-vis a bar 20) Texas shaped servery offering 23) ___ tai, rum cocktail 24) Senate counterpart 25) 1940 directive for Stalin’s hitmen 29) Pt. of NASA 30) Jay-Z and Kanye West song that sampled “Try a Little Tenderness” 31) Cops at a Padres game: Abbr.

32) Some lap dogs, informally

DOWN 1) Doofus 2) Symbolic speech? Abbr.

3) Deep feelings of love 4) Where Persephone dined on pomegranate seeds, in myth 5) Impersonate, at a Halloween party 6) Ingredient in a Cuban sandwich 8) Partner of Lay in a snack food empire 10) Declaration of Independence, for one 11) ___ mail 13) Altar affirmative 16) Key lime, e.g.

17) Flying nuisance 19) Powderpuff and freshman flag, briefly 21) The answer is AUO 22) Aperture setting 24) Start of many addresses 26) Word with bachelor and mouse 27) Disney secret agent Possible 28) End of an abyss?

THE RICE THRESHER

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2020 • 17

ARTS&ENTERTAINMENT

Review: ‘Miss Anthropocene’ Grimes returns with cacophony of sound prophecizing artificial intelligence and apocalypse.

See more at ricethresher.org

‘Perhaps, there is no sequel’ invites us to consider futurity

SANVITTI SAHDEV SENIOR WRITER

Four bright yellow billboards materialized in the center of campus last week. Located in the lawn on the west side of Brochstein Pavilion, the first of them spells out a startling message in delicate black script: “a committee made an announcement: a better future awaits us.”

Thoughts about futurity and inclusivity inform this new installation titled “perhaps, there is no sequel,” an invitation for the public to unfold upon the layered meanings of each of its components. Created by artist and educator Kameelah Janan Rasheed, it is the third iteration of Rice Public Art’s “Platform” series.

The second of the banners poetically plunges into the complications of the statement asserted by the first, while the third defines each word in terms of its limitations in thinking about a shared future. The last banner repeats the phrase, “a better future awaits us,” which can now be more expansively considered.

Rasheed said that she is interested in inciting thought about the premise of her statement, including who “us” includes, what we mean by the future, who is actually going into this future and whether the future we imagine includes everyone.“A lot of that has been inspired around discourse of climate change, but also just mounting disasters on all fronts — ecological fronts,

social fronts, political fronts,” Rasheed said.

When confronted by the text while passing by Brochstein, you may have kept walking without reading, or you may have slowed down to consider it. How public art incorporates the body, changes the path of walking and breaks up movement across campus is exactly what Rasheed wants to explore. “I’m interested in the choreography or dance that someone does with the work,” Rasheed said.

A former high school teacher, Rasheed said her interest in movement is influenced by her background as an educator. “I had a very short attention span in school and so I think about that a lot when I make my work — what it means for someone to do something with their body — which means that I’m interested in space and architecture, and thinking about movement as a mode of learning,” Rasheed said. “By moving across space, having an experience where your body remembers something, and through that moving process, you’re learning something.”

Rasheed’s highly interdisciplinary work also involves the use of cards dispersed across the campus in locations such as serveries and Rice Coffeehouse. They contain various prompts, such as those to write the time without using numbers or language that describes numbers, draw images that represent a notion of the future and repurpose words in a given statement to create something new. The cards will be

used in a creative writing workshop with Rice students led by Rasheed on Sept. 1.

“I wanted to construct opportunities for people to actively be involved in thinking about something, writing about something, responding to something,” Rasheed said.

The opening reception for the installation took place outside Brochstein on Tuesday, Feb. 18 and featured a collaborative performance between Rasheed and Houston-based trumpeter, composer and hip-hop artist Jawwaad.

The two began the performance by making sounds with their bodies by kicking the ground, thumping their chests, clapping, snapping fingers and breathing heavily. As the sun set, Jawwaad’s trumpet resounded across a darkening campus, eerie and beckoning at the same time, as spotlights kept a steady glow on the yellow banners.

Rasheed and Jawwaad then invited the audience to collaborate with them and the attendees obliged, clustering around five microphones set up on the lawn in front of the installation. Participants were given a sheet of prompts, and contributed to the performance by making sounds with their bodies, reading from excerpts and making sentences based on given words.

The collaborative performance created moments of palpable intensity, notably when Rasheed took up a refrain of “How much longer?” and when the audience joined her in counting to 60 years. While some participants were confused or

hesitant to follow the instructions, others abandoned them to come up with their own actions.

The pair ended the performance together with a series of actions including clapping, snapping fingers and sighing, with Jawwaad curling his hand into a fist in front of his chest as a final gesture. In her closing statement, Rasheed asked the audience to allow uncertainty into their movements and lives.

“Perhaps, there is no sequel” will be on view in the west lawn adjacent to Brochstein Pavilion through Sep. 1.

This article has been condensed for print.

To read the full story, visit ricethresher.org.

channing wang/thresher

Houston-based hip-hop artist Jawwaad performs at the opening reception of “perhaps, there is no sequel” on Feb. 18.

Review: King Krule gets comfortable with chaos on ‘Man Alive!’

COURTESY true panther sounds/matador

MAN ALIVE! Genre: Alternative / Indie Top Track: “Stoned Again”

LIA PIKUS FOR THE THRESHER

If you ever a) were an angsty teen or b) hung out around other angsty teens, there’s a good chance that at some point you’ve headbobbed contemplatively as you pretended to understand one of King Krule’s cryptic lyrics.

Since his ascension to his throne with his 2013 album “6 Feet Beneath The Moon,” 25-year-

old Archy Marshall — known by his stage name King Krule — has reigned with a silver tongue and an enigmatic fist. As a countercultural figure he’s been largely reclusive, but as a lyricist, he’s one of the generation’s best.

But Marshall is far more than a poet. He’s a post-punk howler, a soulful crooner and a skillful guitarist. His musical influences, ranging from jazz to hip-hop to gothic rock and new wave, culminate in a brooding and nuanced style that by its very nature transcends genre.

“Man Alive!,” Marshall’s newest album released Feb. 21, is a complex and conflictual entwining of his creative impulses. While the album offers a more transparent window into Marshall’s psyche through a newfound lyrical accessibility and overall softening, the frightening and discordant nature of the music itself creates an album comprised of some of his most anguished work to date.

The album begins with a flurry of electronic noises reminiscent of a tuning orchestra with Marshall’s voice coming in over a bed of gritty bass and steely drums. During the album’s artistic incubation, Marshall developed a fascination with electricity, specifically pylons — an obsession which takes a central role in the freakishly-animated music video for “Cellular,” released only days before the album. “Cellular” is only the dreamy primer, however, for the grotesque surrealism that develops in the album’s next three tracks.

“Supermarche,” “Stoned Again” and “Comet

Face” each carves out its own space on the album through aggravated dissonances and visceral imagery evoked by Marshall’s lyrics.

The arrival of the album’s fifth track, “The Dream,” a gentle interlude laced with loopy guitar and keys, paves the way for a softer remainder of the album. Tracks like “(Don’t Let The Dragon) Draag On” and “Underclass,” though still largely dissonant, are contextualized by moments of consonance and lyrical intimacy, serving as glimmers of light that pierce through the Krulean twilight.

Yet, only in its final seconds does the album’s true brilliance reveal itself. “Please Complete Thee,” the final track, ends with an escalation of harmonies that build upon one another to create a cacophony of electronic noise. In place of a sweet conclusion, the final taste left in our mouth at the end of “Man Alive!” is of utter and complete chaos.

This feels like the heart of what Marshall is aiming to get at through the course of the album: a truthful exploration of the chaos that accompanies being. In life’s absurdity, there’s no harmonious piano to sweep us off our feet and place us squarely back into an evenly ordered world. Even the most beautiful parts of being a person such as growing up, falling in love and having a kid — all things Marshall experienced while creating the album — require making peace with a certain level of mystery. By creating an album full of both musical and emotional dissonance, Marshall is inviting the listener to get comfortable with

the unknown, embrace the strange and stop trying to make sense of it all.

Unlike on his earlier albums, there aren’t really any tracks that are explicitly pleasant to listen to, and discomfort is not a sensation that naturally captures the attention. Even on the mellower tracks, Marshall still leans heavily on dissonance, warped instrumentation and eerie soundscapes to create music that even at its most tame feels like it was pulled straight out of a fever dream. If you go into the album expecting the agreeability of Marshall’s earlier work, you probably won’t enjoy the uneasiness that takes its place.

However, if you’ve ever been holed up inside with only a lamp for light in the late hours of the evening and then, finally, look up at the night sky, all you’re going to see is a thick slab of black. Yet let your eyes adjust and, bit by bit, as your eyes forget to expect the warm glow of a lamp, a whole blanket of stars will suddenly appear above your head.

If you approach “Man Alive!” expecting the golden light of day — or even the dingy glow of a lamp — you’ll surely come out disappointed. But if you let yourself just experience the 41 minutes of inky, dreamy night that Marshall has imagined, you might find yourself seeing starlight you never expected.

“Man Alive!” is available on all major streaming platforms.

This article has been condensed for print.

To read the full story, visit ricethresher.org.

THE WEEKLY SCENE

SPRING FLING

ART DAY IN THE PARK

The Rice Women’s Resource Center will present its annual “Critical Approach to the Vagina Monologues” on Feb. 27, 28 and March 1 at 7 p.m. Presale tickets are $5 and may be purchased with cash or Venmo (@VagMo20) online and in the RMC Feb. 2426. Tickets will be $7 at the door.

This Friday from 8-10 p.m., visit the Moody Center for the Arts for its annual Spring Fling featuring live music by local indie rock band the Tontons, food from Moon Rooster Food Truck, complimentary wine and cocktails and the opportunity to tour the Moody’s “Radical Revisionists” exhibit. This event is free and open to the public.

Gather with Houston artists and art lovers alike this Sunday from 12 - 5 p.m. in Menil Park to celebrate the life of late Houston artist Cecilia Ingrid Johnson. The annual public arts and crafts event welcomes all forms of musical, visual and performance art, so bring your own supplies and get creative!

sid richardson college basement

moody center for the arts

menil park 1405 branard st.

ALL IN THE TIMING

VAGINA MONOLOGUES

Rice University Theatre will present “All in the Timing,” a collection of six short comedies written by David Ives and directed by Jack Young. Shows will run on Feb. 28 and 29 at 8 p.m., March 1 at 3 p.m., and March 5, 6 and 7 at 8 p.m. Tickets are $5 for general admission. hamman hall

ARTS&ENTERTAINMENT

18 • WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2020

New Winningham exhibit resurrects Houston’s ringleaders

photo by geoff winningham

“Mil Mascaras leaps from the ring post in his ‘Flying Body Press’ against Toru Tanaka” from “Friday Night at the Coliseum,” 1971.

KATELYN LANDRY A&E EDITOR

In a city as sprawling and teeming with life as Houston, crowds have an energy, a vitality and a gravity of their own. Photography professor Geoff Winningham (Baker College ’65) knows this. He’s known this since 1971, when the young photographer found himself caught in the gravitational pull of the Houston Coliseum. There really couldn’t have been a more fitting title for the arena where men performed Roman-esque choreographies of combat, bathed in light and enveloped by the shouts of supporters and slanderers alike.

Now nearly 50 years later, wrestling fans and photography enthusiasts alike are able to get another look into the ring with the opening of Winningham’s exhibit, “Friday Night at the Coliseum,” the first comprehensive gallery exhibition of his internationally renowned body of work.

The work in the exhibit, which opened last Saturday, was originally published in 1971 in book form and contained photos from over

170 rolls of film. Though Winningham admits this first edition didn’t sell particularly well among the wrestling community, the book received immediate critical acclaim in the art world, earning a special six-page spread in Life magazine titled “The Rousing Rebirth of ‘Rasslin.” Since then, the work has come to be considered a cornerstone achievement of contemporary American photography; six photographs from “Friday Night at the Coliseum” concluded the American Federation of Arts’ 1973 publication “Masters of the Camera,” a collection of the most important American photographs of the 20th century.

The exhibit coincides with the release of the second edition of “Friday Night at the Coliseum,” a remastered collection of the project. The edition features previously overlooked photos and omits photos Winningham no longer likes. He also includes quotes from writers who offer illuminating perspectives on the often misperceived nature of professional wrestling. A quote from French critic Roland Barthes introduces the second edition of “Friday Night at the Coliseum” and adorns the Rice Media Center gallery wall: “What is thus displayed for the public is the grand spectacle of suffering, defeat and justice. Wrestling presents man’s suffering with all the amplification of tragic masks.”

“I don’t like to ever suggest to somebody in advance how they should look at my photographs,” Winningham said. “But it does help to have such a learned and thoughtful idea about it before you get to the pictures. This is not ‘fake sport.’ This is serious, grand spectacle.”

When Winningham saw masked men flung through the air and heard the passionate shouts of wrestling fans on those electric Friday nights, he knew he was about to capture something special. “It was one of those subjects that I thought okay, I’m not sure anybody’s ever seen this properly, has ever

really written about it or photographed it or observed it for what it is,” Winningham said.

“It’s, in my mind, a folk theater where people come to experience a dramatic presentation, a spectacle in which good goes against evil and doesn’t always win, but is always worth cheering for.”

This is not ‘fake sport.’

This is serious, grand spectacle.

Geoff Winningham PROFESSOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY The contorted faces and bodies of grown men in the pain of defeat or elation of victory decorate the walls of the Media Center gallery.

In addition to the action shots, many of Winningham’s black-and-white photographs capture the palpable anxiety and anticipation of the audience, suspending the excitement noticeably plastered on the faces of young fans swarming to get a fighter’s autograph in one photo. In others, it seems that the spirit of ferocity spills outside the ring, infecting older women with an emboldened fearlessness as they shake their fists and shout at the men twice their size. In a black-and-white video recording displayed on a small television in the corner of the gallery, an old woman raises her arm above her head, threatening to lash out at the giant lumbering past her.

“When [the fighters] were in the ring, they were god-like,” Winningham said. “But when they were coming into the ring and when they were coming out, they came right through the crowd, and the crowd could touch them.

These guys were touchable gods.”

The act of going to the Coliseum for a wrestling match was an act of community

solidarity, evident in the racial and gender diversity of the crowds captured in Winningham’s photos. While the phenomenon of local wrestling is gone for now — effectively dismantled by the rise of a national market for dramatized, televised wrestling — Winningham’s work has adopted the role of the Coliseum itself as a site where people can gather and remember a deeply Houstonian and American tradition.

The exhibit is a celebration of two 50th anniversaries: the 50th anniversary of the Media Center and the 50th anniversary of Winningham’s tenure as a Rice professor.

His return to Rice after graduating in the mid-1960’s coincided with the construction of the Rice Media Center the following year, and since then the photographer’s legacy has been intimately entwined with the history of arts at Rice.

“I hate to see the building go. I’ve worked here all of my working life. Not only that, but I love the building,” Winningham said.

“The Media Center has always been, from the beginning, a place where Rice met the community. So the place has an important history, and of course it’s personal history to me as well. It feels great to have [the exhibit] here. I’m showing it at home. This is where it belongs.”

Through the exhibition at the Media Center, Winningham has chosen to house his first comprehensive exhibition of his most famous work at Rice as opposed to a museum. His choice emerges as a poignant presentation of an artistic endeavor come full circle, and a heartfelt goodbye to the place that started it all.

“Friday Night at the Coliseum” is on view now at the Rice Media Center central gallery until March 22. Gallery hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, and entry is always free.

This article has been condensed for print.

To read the full story, visit ricethresher.org.

Menil offers surrealist retrospective MOSES GLICKMAN THRESHER STAFF

The Menil Collection’s “Photography and the Surreal Imagination” is a work of profound audacity, and is better for it. The exhibition, held in a single, large room bisected by a central wall, sets out to form a retrospective of surreal photography over a time period spanning from 1920 to today. The result is cramped and creative, displayed in a manner that seeks to draw big-picture linkages between eras and holds only lightly to chronology. A series of collages from the 1930s is broken up by a time traveler from 2015; a line of modern photographs on the back wall is interrupted by “The Demonic Tree,” a disconcerting 1950 work by Clarence John Laughlin.

In the face of such an apparent disparity between the scope of the retrospective and the size of the gallery meant to display it, the exhibit runs the risk of overlooking smaller, more obscure artists in favor of including as many titular artists as possible. Indeed, “Photography and the Surreal Imagination” is packed with big names such as Man Ray, a photographer and painter whose lens captured the likes of Pablo Picasso, James Joyce and Salvador Dali. However, despite space constraints, the exhibit still manages to showcase a diverse array of contemporary work, most notably Arthur Tress’s “Hermaphrodite between Venus and Mercury” and selections from Alison Jaene Hamilton’s 2015 collection “Sweet milk in the badlands.” These are some of the best pieces of the exhibition. Tress’s 1973 portrait, showing a hermaphroditic figure standing in the middle of a lawn flanked

by Romanesque statues, is beautifully tender and provides refreshingly uncoded queer representation. Hamilton’s portraits experiment in what she describes as rural Black surrealism, tapping into the power of masks — a device for cultural commentary that has become popularized in dark TV and film such as “Us,” “Watchmen” and “The Purge” — to chilling effect. In one

portrait, a middle-aged Black woman in a 1400s-esque plague mask walks in front of a run-down church; in another, a younger woman stands alone in the middle of a vast, grassy lawn.

The exhibition’s greatest strength lies in its juxtapositions between disparate time periods. Max Ernst’s 1920 photograph, “Health through Sport,” depicts a Greek heroic statue holding a golf club and wearing a reptilian mask, an augury of Hamilton’s masked subjects. A small glass case at the center of the gallery shows the exhibition at its most efficient: two photomontages, one from the 1920s, the other from over 70 years later but still both resembling each other.

These comparisons prevent the exhibition’s collapse into a drab timeline while also raising fascinating questions.

By using a 1920 work as a barometer for understanding motifs featured in a 2018 portrait, it weds contemporary surrealism to work one might consider antique — and converts the present into the past with disorienting speed.

“Photography and the Surreal Imagination” is now on view at the Menil Collection until June 14. The Menil is open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., Wednesday through Sunday, and entry is always free.

COURTESY the menil collection

Allison Janae Hamilton, “Scratching at the wrong side of firmament” from the series “Sweet milk in the badlands,” 2015.

THE RICE THRESHER

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2020 • 19

SPORTS PREVIEW

After slow start, baseball hopes for a turnaround DANIEL SCHRAGER FOR THE THRESHER

Some players might not be old enough to remember it, but when the Rice baseball team faces Missouri State University for a three-game series this weekend, it will serve as a rematch of the first game in the 2003 College World Series. For Rice, that game — an Owls win — sparked a run that culminated in the first and only College World Series title in program history. For Missouri State, that game represented the closest that the Bears have ever been to a College World Series title. Seventeen years later, both teams find themselves in similar situations, looking to get back to their 2003 heights.

The Owls experienced a tough sixgame losing streak to start the season, in which the team lost three games at home against the University of Texas, Austin and three games on the road against the University of California, Irvine. Now, at 0-6, Rice is looking to rebound against a MO State team which is, according to Rice head coach Matt Bragga, a perennial power in the Missouri Valley Conference.

Bragga said Rice knew it would be tested to begin the season, which started on Feb. 14.

“These [were] two really good teams,” Bragga said. “We knew [the beginning of the season] was gonna be a challenge, and it certainly has been. We haven’t been able to get over the hump.”

According to junior shortstop Trei Cruz, it’s only a matter of time before the team hits its stride.

“I feel good with where we’re at, and where we’re going,” Cruz said after Sunday’s game, a 9-4 loss to UC Irvine.

“The biggest thing is that we need to

Courtesy rice athletics

Senior second baseman Cade Edwards prepares to swing in a game at Reckling Park against the University of Texas, Austin. This year, Edwards has six hits and five walks in 26 plate appearances.

get offense going. I think we have a lot of very talented hitters on our team and they just haven’t found it yet, myself included, and I think today, we showed a little bit of life with the bats. I think today was a good step forward and I’m excited for this week.”

Rice got some help in the form of senior pitcher Roel Garcia, who returned from injury this past week. He threw two innings on Friday night against the Anteaters, striking out two. Garcia’s return could prove crucial against Missouri State, as his next outing is most likely to come against the Bears on Friday.

Bragga said his return was an “energy boost” for the team.

Garcia said it was great to be back on the field.

“[Pitching again was] absolutely incredibly amazing,” Garcia said. “I was honestly speechless. It had been over a year and a half that I hadn’t pitched ... The feeling of playing baseball and having fun again was the absolute best feeling in the world for me.”

According to Bragga, Rice and MO State are currently in similar positions.

Like Rice, the Bears are also looking to bounce back from an uncharacteristic losing season. Under head coach Keith Guttin, they have enjoyed 10 conference championships over a span of 37 years, in a run reminiscent of Rice’s under longtime head coach Wayne Graham.

However, just as the Owls are coming off of back-to-back losing seasons for the first time in decades, Missouri State is

Swimming seeks C-USA title

in any diving events. But the issue is exacerbated by FIU’s utter dominance atop the diving leaderboards. In last year’s conference meet, among the three diving events — the 1-meter, 3-meter and platform dives — the Panthers placed at least four divers in the top five for each event. In the platform dive, they swept the entire top five.

looking to rebound from a year that saw the most losses in program history.

The Bears are led by two star players.

One, sophomore Dakota Kotowski, was named the 2019 Missouri Valley Conference Freshman of the Year. The other, pitcher Logan Wiley, earned Missouri Valley Conference Pitcher of the Week honors with his seven-inning, twohit shutout performance in the Bears’ season-opening win two weeks ago.

Bragga said remaining confident will be the key to getting Rice’s season back on track.

“When you’re 0-6 it becomes a little bit of a confidence thing,” Bragga said, “It’s easy to begin to doubt. We have to guard from that because if we allow that [doubt] to creep in, then you end up losing games that you shouldn’t lose. I think one of the keys to this week’s game is just gonna be can we make sure our guys are staying confident.”

According to Garcia, Bragga’s message to the team largely echoed the same sentiments about confidence. “[Bragga] said, ‘We just gotta keep our heads up, we’re playing hard, we’re playing tough, and eventually, things are gonna fall into place,’” Garcia said.

Only six games into the season, the Owls still have plenty of time to right the ship. According to Bragga, there’s reason to believe that they’ll do just that.

“It’s been a challenging schedule, we’re off to a tough start, but I still believe in these guys and I think there’s a great future to this season ahead,” Bragga said.

Rice faces Texas State University in a single-game away matchup on Wednesday, before hosting Missouri State at Reckling Park for a three-game series over the weekend.

PREVIEW

We know we are capable of competing with [FIU] top to bottom ... the one thing we don’t have any control over is diving.

Seth Huston SWIMMING HEAD COACH courtesy rice athletics

Junior swimmer Rebecca Brandt extends her arms behind her back during a butterfly stroke.

Brandt specializes in the butterfly and also competes in the individual medley.

SPENCER MOFFAT SENIOR WRITER

In each of the past five years, Rice swimming has lost the Conference USA first place title to Florida International University. This week, they hope to break this streak at the conference championships, hosted in Atlanta.

In the teams’ dual meet this past October, Rice eked out a two-point victory. According to head coach Seth Huston, though the Owls are at an inherent disadvantage, they still have an opportunity to come away with a victory

over the Panthers this week.

“We know we are capable of competing with [Florida International] top to bottom,” Huston said. “The one thing we don’t have any control over is diving … we don’t have diving and they do, so that’s a really big asset for them.”

Last year, Rice lost to FIU in the conference championships by 63 points.

However, FIU scored 242 points from diving events alone, meaning Rice handily beat the Panthers in the swimming events.

It’s a twofold problem: The first, of course, is that Rice has no diving team, so it’s impossible for the Owls to score points

Outside of the total team score, at the C-USA Championships Rice will also have an opportunity to qualify individual swimmers to compete in the NCAA Championships. In the team’s last meet against the University of Houston, nicknamed the “First Chance Meet” as a preparation meet for conference championships, several Rice swimmers put together strong individual performances in the short course and long course. Sophomore Marta CanoMinarro posted the fifth-fastest 200-yard butterfly in school history (1:59.17) for a first-place finish, accompanying junior Ellery Parish, sophomore Erin Vance, senior Sarah Nowaski and freshman Virginie Qian in winning at least one individual event on the day.

Overall, Huston said he is pleased with where the team is at this point in its preparation for the conference meet. “[The swimmers] are really in a good place before we back off and have them rested and peaked,” Huston said last week.

For the seniors on the team, the C-USA championship meet will mark the last time they take the water against opponents they have consistently faced throughout their four years at Rice.

Huston said he believes the seniors on the team are in a very good position for their last C-USA Championships. “[The seniors] all are carrying themselves really confidently,” Huston said. “They look really good in the water right now.”

Some of Rice’s first-place finishes at the First Chance Meet against UH were also season bests. Parish and freshman Zoe Spitz, who took the top two finishes in the 200-yard backstroke, both set season records, and Vance and Qian added bests of their own in the 200-yard breaststroke and 400-yard individual medley, respectively.

According to Huston, the meet against UH serves as a strong indicator of how the team has improved thus far and how the team can improve further before the meet this week.

“We use that meet as a measuring stick of what we want to do over the next 10 days to prepare,” Huston said. “If they were swimming faster at the First Chance Meet than they were back in November at the Phill Hansel [Invitational], that’s a really good sign.”

The C-USA Championships begin on Wednesday and will last through Saturday.

The meet will be held at the Georgia Tech Swim Center in Atlanta, and the final three days of competition will be televised on C-USA TV.

BACKPAGE

20 • WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2020

Leap Day: Everything to do with your 24 extra hours This Saturday is a very special day that happens only once every four years: Feb. 29. If you’re not sure how to use this rare resource, don’t worry. The Backpage has a step-by-step schedule, so you don’t have to leap to any conclusions on your own about what to do with Leap Day. It’s in military time for maximum clarity, and so that your friend who studied abroad and now insists on having their phone set to a 24-hour clock doesn’t get confused.

00:00 to 01:59 You have a long day ahead of you. Kick it off with a midnight snack — any nutritional damage you do to your body doesn’t count since Feb. 29 isn’t real. If you’ve exhausted all of the on-campus late-night food options available on the weekend (stale snacks left over from events in your college’s commons AND your roommate’s cups of cereal taken from the servery), you can leap beyond the hedges for sustenance.

02:00 to 03:59 Bars have last call at 2 a.m., so this is a great time to collect any upperclassmen that may have gone out and rally them for the remainder of the 29th. The next planned activity is going to require as many hands on deck as possible, so take as much time as you need to gather people for a common cause. If anyone is coming from Midtown’s Howl at the Moon, they’ll be in the perfect mindframe for the task to follow.

04:00 to 06:59 In his classic “Sicko Mode,” Houston legend Travis Scott once said, “Now it’s 4 a.m. and I’m back up popping with the crew.” We suggest that you get back up popping with the band, instead. A “band” is what you call a group of coyotes and, as Rice University Police Department let everyone know, there are plenty of bands playing on campus. This is the perfect time to seek them out and tame them before sunrise. It took generations for humans to breed wolves into dogs, but Saturday is essentially 2/29/17, 2/29/18, 2/29/19 and 2/29/20 all in one — four years in just a day! Getting rid of the coyote problem is difficult and potentially inhumane, but training them gets Rice a new, stronger, equally nocturnal mascot.

07:00 to 09:59 The sun is up, but you have to prove your loyalty to the coyotes. Sleep among them for a few hours both to bond and to get your energy levels back up to 29 out of 28.

10:00 to 11:59 Coffeehouse opens at 10 a.m. and you’re going to need the nation’s most socially acceptable drug, caffeine, to power through the day. But, you’re going at opening time on a Saturday, so go ahead and block off a couple of hours to secure your sweet, liquid upper.

12:00 to 13:59 Serveries are open for lunch and you definitely need some food by this point. Help yourself to the Saturday specialties at Seibel (those little circular pizzas and Water Chicken) and at North (those little circular pizzas and Athlete Chicken).

14:00 to 17:59 Saturday’s weather is supposed to be beautiful. Make the most of every last hour of sunshine with what Leap Day is all about: play leapfrog with your friends for four hours to really prove you’ve got each other’s backs and because you’re riding a sleep-deprived wave of hyperactivity.

18:00 to 20:59 Now that you’re energized, you’re in the perfect state to take on an extensive workload: manually double-checking the SA election results. Do you really trust that everything just ran smoothly this year? Not even Leap Day Luck can guarantee that.

21:00 to 21:59 It’s 9 p.m., an acceptable time to drink. Celebrate with a Power Hour.

22:00 to 23:59 Realize it is basically March and enter a miniature existential crisis. Remember those assignments and exams you have in the weeks leading up to spring break? These are the weeks leading up to spring break.

The Backpage is satire and written by Simona “top coyote” Matovic and designed by Simona “coyote being leapt over” Matovic. For comments or questions, please email JamesJoyceLovesFarts@rice.edu.

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