The Rice Thresher | Wednesday, March 30, 2022

VOLUME 106, ISSUE NO. 24 | STUDENT-RUN SINCE 1916 | RICETHRESHER.ORG | WEDNESDAY, MARCH 30, 2022

beer bike 2022 EDITION

CHLOE XU / THRESHER

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2 • WEDNESDAY, MARCH 30, 2022

THE RICE THRESHER

Y2K Ushers in a Bygone Era of Rice Publics

KATHERINE HUI / THRESHER McMurtry College’s Y2K marked the return of publics at Rice after more than two years. Wristbands for the event sold out within two minutes.

LINDSEY RAN

FOR THE THRESHER This past Saturday, McMurtry College’s Y2K marked the return of publics at Rice after more than two years. Wristbands for the event sold out within two minutes of being available to students.

McMurtry College students and co-advisors had access to fast-pass wristbands and were guaranteed tickets if requested within a 24 hour period after the wristbands became available at noon on March 23. Wristband sales for the rest of campus opened on March 24 and were sold for three dollars. A waitlist for available wristbands opened on March 25.

Due to the high demand, Eliot Solomon and Prerna Mohan, the external McMurtry social committee heads, said they made security a high priority. The event was staffed with 35 security guards and 12 volunteer caregivers, along with Rice University Police Department officers.

Additionally, six Rice Emergency Medical Services staffed the event, according to REMS Director Lisa Basgall.

“We [were] obviously nervous about students being aggressive and trying to bypass the line or enter the public without a wristband. However, we [put] a great deal of effort into securing the event,” Solomon and Mohan wrote in an email to the Thresher.

Solomon and Mohan said that wristband transfers were not accepted, and many efforts were made to enforce this policy. Solomon and Mohan declined to comment on wristband sales numbers.

“During wristband pickup, we check[ed] physical Rice IDs for a photo match, and then we [attached] wristbands directly to people’s wrists,” said Solomon and Mohan. “They are one-time use wristbands so removal of the wristband before the event destroys the wristband.”

Orange mesh and metal fences were set up to prevent students without wristbands from entering. RUPD and members of the security team were staged

at possible entrances to keep non-ticketed was quite nice, it was like a mini-Coachella with the grass and music.” students from entering.

According to Anisha Abraham, a The public was initially a collaboration between Duncan and McMurtry, but it student who attended the event, the became a solely McMurtry-run event theme of Y2K was exciting.

“I really enjoyed the early-2000s theme, when Duncan decided to pull out on March 6. According to Duncan College especially since we’ve seen a revival in Socials Committee head Wafa Mohamed, Y2K fashion and pop culture recently. The Duncan decided against hosting because music was a blast,” Abraham, a freshman at Jones College, said. of the short time frame.

Attendance for Y2K was incredibly “My committee heads and I didn’t feel comfortable putting on this public in a high, according to Jenn Nguyen, a freshman at safe manner given Duncan who the fact we had volunteered as under a month to a security guard plan, so we pulled The party stayed under from 12 a.m. to 2 out from the public a.m. planning process,” control for the duration “All the Mohamed, a of the night, and the security guards s o p h o m o r e , line situation was very had a cumulative said. “[Duncan] counter …

I provided McMurtry manageable. People started subtracting with a number of seemed to be having a [from the count] Duncan freshmen good time dancing and as people were to help carry out the hanging out with their leaving and event … [as well as] security would some [technical] friends, which was our ultimate goal. add to the number resources.” as people were The night of the entering,” Nguyen event, a long line Eliot Solomon and Prerna Mohan said. “I started off of students formed MCMURTRY COLLEGE SOCIAL with a count of thirty minutes COMMITTEE HEADS about 750 and from prior to the event start. By 10:20 p.m., students were let there … it dwindled down to maybe 400 … into the public, undergoing two security as the party ended.”

The mosh pit near the DJ was checks of wristbands and Rice IDs. This long line was relatively normal particularly chaotic for a period, for Y2K, a highly anticipated event, according to Soph Toovey.

“There was one point around 11 [p.m.] according to Ted Lim, a student who got where it did get very hectic and crowded, off the wristband waitlist.

“When the party started [in pre-COVID [and] there was a lot of pushing and times], I remember the line was so long shoving,” Toovey, a freshman from Sid [that] the McMurtry commons couldn’t fit Richardson College, said. “I think one more people because it hit capacity,” Lim, person fell onto other people, and there was about 30 people who fell in a circle … a senior at Duncan College, said.

To Lim, the outside location was a We had to stop people [from] falling onto welcome change from pre-COVID public other people who were already down.”

However, this problem was addressed parties.

“At first I didn’t like [the location]. It was quickly, and Toovey went on to have a too small,” Lim said. “But when I went in, it fun night.

“I had a great time overall … it was kinda scary when it was crowded, but they did do a good job of stopping the music to make sure everyone had space,” Toovey said.

Additionally, water ran out halfway through the event.

“All the drink dispensers were dry, and cups ran out by 11 p.m.,” Abraham said.

Access to the water fountain was also restricted.

“There is a water fountain in commons but the path to it was blocked off,” said Juan de la Garza, a senior at McMurtry College. “We had to make the decision: do you want to stay at the party or do you want to drink water?”

However, this problem was resolved promptly.

“Luckily, the event organizers started distributing water bottles after a bit,” Abraham said.

Solomon and Mohan said they were overall pleased with how the event went.

“The party stayed under control for the duration of the night, and the line situation was very manageable,” Solomon and Mohan said. “People seemed to be having a good time dancing and hanging out with their friends, which was our ultimate goal.”

Abraham said she hopes the return of publics marks the expansion of social life at Rice.

“I’m glad things are looking up in terms of public safety because it’s about time for students to be able to enjoy this part of the Rice tradition,” Abraham said.

Solomon and Mohan said they think the successful return of public parties will help make Rice’s social scene more friendly and inclusive.

“We hope that Y2K’s success from a security and safety standpoint will encourage Rice administration to continue opening up campus social life further, and we are very excited to see what college socials committees and Beer Bike [coordinators] will plan in the future,” Solomon and Mohan said.

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 30, 2022 • 3

NEWS

Rice hits record-low acceptance rate for Class of 2026 RIYA MISRA

FOR THE THRESHER This year, Rice hit a record-low acceptance rate of 8.56 percent for its admissions cycle. The Office of Admissions received a record high of 31,424 applications, marking a six percent increase since last year and a 74 percent increase over the past five years, according to Vice President for Enrollment Yvonne Romero da Silva. Out of those 31,424 students, just 2,691 were offered admission.

This year’s acceptance rate shows a decline from last year’s 9.3 percent and edges out the previous record low of 8.7 percent in 2019. This year’s admissions cycle marks the most competitive application cycle to date in Rice’s history.

Romera da Silva said that the class of 2026 is incredibly diverse.

“This has been an amazing year, and [there was an] incredible applicant pool for Rice,” Romero da Silva said. “We have many new voices and perspectives in the admitted class, including students from several more countries than we’ve ever had in the pool.”

The 2,700 admitted students include the 510 students admitted last December from the Early Decision and QuestBridge National College Match Programs. The Regular Decision results for the Class of 2026 also come a year after Rice admitted a record number of 2,749 applicants in 2021, keeping in line with their undergraduate expansion plan.

Romero da Silva said that this year’s increase in applications was likely caused in part by the newly introduced undergraduate business major.

Class of 2026 8.56%

record low acceptance rate

31,424

record high application total 6% increase since last year 74% increase over the past 5 years

total accepted

2,691 510

accepted from Early Decision and QuestBridge

INFOGRAPHIC BY ANNA CHUNG “The addition of the undergraduate business major has drawn the attention of aspiring business students and entrepreneurs from around the world,” Romero da Silva said. “Students applying to Rice Business represent nine percent of the admitted class, which is comparable to the number of students admitted to

the School of Humanities.”

Romero da Silva said that she also attributes the increase in applications to Rice’s social media platforms.

“Students are responding to our new digital and social media presence with improved access to meaningful content and a [more full] understanding of the

Rice undergraduate experience,” Romero da Silva said.

Evonne Huang, a high school senior from Plano, Texas, said she was both nervous and excited to open her decision.

“I was actually studying for an exam in a Starbucks [...] and waiting for the time to hit 5:00 p.m,” Huang said.

“Once I clicked the decision I was a little confused because I expected a video.

But once I saw the confetti, I was really excited. But I was in a Starbucks, so I had to keep [my excitement] on the downlow.”

Brennan Robson, a high school senior from the Woodlands, Texas, said she also experienced similar feelings of anticipation while opening her decision.

“I was so nervous opening [the letter],” Robson said. “I was shaking. I couldn’t even see the words yet, but as soon as I saw the confetti I just started sobbing. I was so relieved that I had gotten in. I called my mom over and we were both crying. It was a really sweet moment.”

This year marks the first time in three years that admitted student events — held by the Office of Admissions — will occur in person.

“We are eager to host a newly revamped Owl Days on April 8 and April 11 for admitted students to learn about undergraduate life at Rice and the amazing city of Houston,” Romero da Silva said. “These one-day programs will feature a number of events and tours for admitted students to connect to the Rice community and one another. We will also host two Owl Express Days April 16 and 23 for those who want to explore Rice on their own.”

New Hanszen Wing construction delayed by supply chain issues NISHANKA KUTHURU

Ditman said that an accurate completion date can not be certain until they receive the remainder of the timber structural Supply chain issues have delayed the elements.

“If the schedule for the remainder of construction of the new wing of Hanszen College, according to an email from Dean the timber deliveries holds, the steering of Undergraduates Bridget Gorman. committee, which includes Hanszen Gorman said she expects construction to leadership, should soon be able to communicate a completion date that all finish at the latest by winter break. can plan around,” As a result, Ditman said.

Hanszen students Kaylah Patel, a will occupy 74 current freshman percent of the old I am a little upset that at Hanszen, lived Sid Richardson construction was delayed in Old Sid this past building until year and will be c o n s t r u c t i o n and that we weren’t living at Old Sid is completed. informed until after room again next year due Gorman said the draw, because it probably the delays in New delay involves a would have altered a lot of to Hanszen. Patel said shifting arrival she doesn’t really date for materials others’ rooming decisions. mind living in Old needed to complete Kenna Dixon Sid. the building.

“I feel like “We remain HANSZEN COLLEGE FRESHMAN anything is better hopeful that the situation will improve and the completion than Old Section [Hanszen],” Patel said. timeline will move forward, but right now “If I could, I would just stay at Old Sid all it looks to be later in the fall semester four years because there is not anything before the new wing of Hanszen will be inherently wrong with the building except for the few water problems and the fact that complete,” Gorman said.

According to Hanszen Chief Justice I doubt the carpet has been shampooed.”

Nasha Wanichwecharungruang, a junior Alan Tapper, the Hanszen magisters and college coordinator were told that at Hanszen, said she secured a single in New the building would be ready to move in Hanszen during room draw but now must live in Old Sid because of the construction sometime around early October.

“We also are not sure of the exact delays.

“I’m very mad about it. First, [the timeline because Dean Gorman’s email says that we would move in over winter magisters] seemed to intentionally not tell us recess,” Tapper said. “All we know about the delay until after room draw. They currently is that those who are living in waited until the morning after the last room New Section next year, including me, are draw to notify us,” Wanichwecharungruang living in Old Sid at least for the beginning said. “Moreover, [Housing and Dining] does not have a clear answer of when the of the fall.”

Mark Ditman, the associate vice building is going to be finished and they president for Housing & Dining, said wont even let us break the housing contract the estimated completion date has been without being fined. Also, the magister, the delayed by timber suppliers in Canada and dean and people at Hanszen Cabinet all say different things about the finish date.” their plant in Arkansas to a lesser extent.

FOR THE THRESHER

CHARLIE WELLS / THRESHER Supply chain issues have delayed the construction of the new wing of Hanszen College, now expected to be completed by winter break at the latest.

Kenna Dixon, a freshman at Hanszen, also said she was frustrated with the lack of communication and opposing information being relayed to the student body from administration.

“I am a little upset that construction was delayed and that we weren’t informed until after room draw, because it probably would have altered a lot of others’ rooming decisions,” Dixon said.

Patel said that her main concern is with how the moving process from Old Sid to New Section will work, especially with the lack of current information.

“My only concern is how harsh the move out deadline [from Old Sid to New Hanszen] will be because I feel like I’ll be really overwhelmed if we are given short notice,” Patel said.

Even though the deadline to sign the housing contract was extended to Thursday April 7, Wanichwecharungruang said she is worried about being fined for breaking

the housing contract to live elsewhere and feels as though she has to live at Old Sid even though she does not necessarily want to. Wanichwecharungruang said. “ I don’t want to live in Old Sid. The living conditions are pretty bad. Sometimes the hot water doesn’t work. Sometimes we get brown water.

Sometimes the AC or the heat is not working.”

Since the format of all of the rooms in Old Sid are four person suites, with each including two double rooms and one bathroom, everyone now has to find a group of four people to live with.

“Those in New Section singles are especially annoyed because they will have a roommate,” Tapper said.

Although there have been some delays to the construction, Ditman says that the goal is to give Hanszen access to the new building as soon as possible.

“The project team is actively looking for ways to improve the schedule without compromising quality,” Ditman said.

4 • WEDNESDAY, MARCH 30, 2022

NEWS

Students voice safety concerns with track prior to Beer Bike MORGAN GAGE

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR

GAZI FUAD / THRESHER

CHANNING WANG / THRESHER Andrew Yang discussed the state of U.S. politics, democracy and the benefits of a third political party at McNair Hall on March 28.

Andrew Yang speaks at Rice on state of U.S. politics and democracy BONNIE ZHAO

ASST NEWS EDITOR Andrew Yang discussed the state of U.S. politics, democracy and the benefits of a third political party at McNair Hall on March 28. Yang visited Rice as a part of the Presidential Lecture Series.

President David Leebron introduced Yang as an entrepreneur, author, philanthropist, nonprofit leader and former US presidential and New York City mayoral candidate, as well as a student in his torts class at Columbia Law School back in 1996.

Yang joked that he was perhaps the last or second to last person in the class that Leebron would have thought would run for president.

“When I graduated from Brown, I had no political aspirations,” Yang said. “I was the son of immigrants, still am, and we did not discuss American politics at my house … It was only after I embarked on the nonprofit journey in 2011 that I started to think about some of the bigger problems that were affecting this country.”

Yang pointed out some of the urgent issues Americans face — staples of American life such as education, healthcare and housing have risen while Americans’ incomes stay the same, and political polarization fueled by the mainstream media rapidly increases, while local journalism dies.

“My friend Ezra Klein said very, very correctly, ‘partisanship is the new acceptable form of prejudice,’ where 62 percent of Americans want a third party and 60 percent of Americans say both parties are out of touch,” Yang said. “You have this very, very robotic system where if you’re in office, you have a great chance of winning, in large part because most of the districts are gerrymandered to be either very liberal or very republican.”

Yang said that our current system will only inflame people against their opposite political affiliation while things degrade in people’s communities, which is why he supports ranked-choice voting and having more than two political parties.

“If you wanted a more resilient system, you would categorically have multiple parties. Every other society has figured this out, except for ours,” Yang said. “How you get from two to five parties is the question of this age. So this is my effort, the third party initiative — the Forward Party.”

“I listened to [Yang] in some of the Responding to Leebron’s question on why he believes a third party will prevail debates,” Reinhardt said. “I thought he had when a third-party candidate hasn’t won a new edge to it … He’s still getting in there. the presidency since the Republican Party He’s still in the mix. You know, that’s great. became a major party in the late 19th century, He didn’t just kind of fizzle out and drift off.”

Helen Pu, a Baker College senior, said Yang said that he is confident because he’s that she never delved deep into Andrew aware of what his competition is.

“At this point, 57 percent of people Yang and his campaign outside of basic facts don’t want Trump or Biden to run, and I’m about him and a few of his really funny Tik going to suggest that they’re the most likely Toks before this event.

“Andrew Yang talked on many of the nominees for the two major parties. So if you were to have Donald Trump versus Joe Biden concerns that I personally have wondered the sequel, the rematch, combined age 158, about, and I think he is heading in the right both of the parties are creaky or worse,” direction to address them,” Pu said.

Jackson Davis, Will Rice College ‘21, said Yang said. “I’d love it if our democracy was thriving … and people felt like ‘oh, yeah, this that he thinks Yang seems to be a stand-up, represents me.’ But instead, you have the reasonable and transparent guy who’s in it opposite … So in that context, if you have for the right reasons.

“After seeing a credible third him, like about 15 party candidate, I feet away from him, think that they can be competitive.”

I’d love it if our democracy I think that comes off even more in Yang said was thriving … and person,” Davis that the last truly said. “It’s also very successful third people felt like ‘oh, yeah, interesting to see party candidate this represents me.’ But his up and coming was Abraham instead, you have the plans… I mostly was Lincoln. opposite … So in that following him during “We don’t the presidential think about context, if you have election when him as a third a credible third party party candidate, candidate, I think that they he had the most coverage and the because it was can be competitive. most notability, but the first run of the I didn’t know about Republican Party,” Andrew Yang the Forward Party Yang said. “But POLITICAL FIGURE before this.”

Abraham Lincoln Davis said that after the speech, he will won in 1860, with 39.8 percent of the vote …

He actually is the closest thing you have to a definitely consider supporting the Forward Party. model for what’s happening right now.”

“As someone who doesn’t have a ton of Yang said that the fear that a third party will take away votes from people’s preferred background or interest in politics, it’s very optimistic, and I think it’d be a good way for winning party is a real concern.

“Let’s say in the 2024 race, Trump is the me to delve a little bit deeper into that world Republican nominee … I personally would and maybe support a real change maker,” not support anything that increases the Davis said.

Thomas Kovac, a Wiess College junior, chances of Trump winning,” Yang said. “And so to the extent that I will be supporting said that before the event, he was familiar third party candidates will be someone who with Andrew Yang and was impressed with takes more from Trump on the other side. how well he did in the 2020 Democratic That’s my perspective … In my mind, Trump primary.

“I was interested to hear his take on our is a catastrophic threat to a functioning current political situation and agree with his democracy.”

Paul Reinhardt, Sid Richardson college endorsement and fight for ranked-choice ‘76, who identifies himself as generally a voting and open primaries,” Kovac said.

Republican, said that he came to this event “Overall, I really enjoyed the event and found Yang to be funny and personable.” to force himself to listen better.

The bike track was closed for repairs to fix safety issues, according to one of Brown College’s bike captains Sara Emami and emails obtained by the Thresher. Several bike captains said they have noticed that the track drains more slowly after rain and that tar and paint have issues caused by heat that reduces surface friction.

Beer Bike coordinators, bikers and chug teams were advised to avoid the track area to avoid causing additional damage, and the track was said to pose a safety risk to bikers, according to an email on March 28 obtained by the Thresher.

“Please avoid any activity on Hackerman Bike Track for the next 12-24 [hours] as we have recently been notified of additional damage [and] maintenance due to significant weather impacts,” Tahj Blackman, student center assistant director and Beer Bike 2022 staff advisor, wrote.

Caroline Courbois, a cyclist for the Martel College women’s team, said that bike captains and college presidents came together months ago requesting that the beer bike track be fully repaved.

“As a half-measure, the track has been repainted and cracks have been filled with tar,” Courbois wrote in an email to the Thresher. “The issue is that significant parts of the track are now tar, which is so much slicker than the fresh asphalt we requested … This is affecting every team’s practice schedules and possibly mock bikes because we can’t race on the track.”

According to Courbois, Martel was assigned the innermost lane this year, so they take the sharpest initial turn of any team.

“With the most recent ‘repairs,’ I’ve had to cut halfway across the track just to stay on my bike,” Courbois wrote. “It was extremely unsettling because in a race, there could be half a dozen cyclists in that path. I know the cycling captains across campus have worked so hard to request repairs far in advance, so it’s sad to see that they’ve been ignored at the expense of every cyclist’s safety.”

As the Thresher previously reported, Beer Bike events will largely return to their pre-COVID format with events planned throughout the week leading up to the event on Saturday, April 2.

According to Paulina Yannitsadis and Sean Judge, campus-wide Beer Bike coordinators, the main alteration to this year’s events is that only current Rice community members and alumni will be able to attend Beer Bike events to limit possible exposure.

Dean of Undergraduates Bridget Gorman said that planning and preparation has gone well so far due to the work of this year’s Beer Bike coordinators.

“I’ve enjoyed seeing the excitement among students for this week to begin,” Gorman wrote in an email to the Thresher.

“We continue to keep an eye on COVID rates in our community, but currently the numbers look good and I look forward to seeing the race run in the typical pre-COVID format.”

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 30, 2022 • 5

THE RICE THRESHER

Colleges celebrate Beer Bike Week TOMÁS RUSSO AND ZOE KATZ

SENIOR WRITERS

JONES BRITNEY SPIRITS: IT’S BEER BIKE, BITCH

KATHERINE HUI / THRESHER

DUNCAN

Jones College is known to take Beer Bike seriously – a sentiment shared by Jones junior and Beer Bike Coordinator Mary Brady. She said that this passion is reflected in their new name for the week before Beer Bike: Winning Week.

“The name ties into Jones’ culture of always winning in everything we do, and it’s really cool to be setting precedents that will be followed for years to come,” Brady said.

The college-wide game of assassins has facilitated more connections among Jonesians, as well as promoted hype for Beer Bike, according to Brady. She said seeing people carrying their spoons across campus and witnessing chases has been amusing.

Brady said that planning the North college bonding events has been especially important because they were first held in 2019, at the last pre-pandemic Beer Bike week.

“It’s been interesting to coordinate an event between five residential colleges, but I think it’s going to be really rewarding in making sure that we can keep this fun event alive,” Brady said.

SPONGEBREW SQUAREPINTS: THE KRUSTY KEG

WIESS

Duncan College’s float, which is expected to be finished late this week, will resemble the Flying Dutchman’s ship from Spongebob, according to Eric Webb, a Duncan senior and Beer Bike coord.

Anthony Insalaco, a Duncan sophomore and Beer Bike coord, said one of the most unique Duncan traditions is the Eternal Flame.

“The flame represents the spirit of Duncan; through the power of the Sungod, the flame stays lit all week,” Insalaco said.

There is a scavenger hunt, according to Carla Sipahioglu, a Duncan junior and Beer Bike coord. Students will have to do different puzzles across Rice, and the winning team will get to eat tacos with the Duncan magisters. Matthew Hamrick, a Duncan senior and Beer Bike coord, said his favorite tradition is Donnybrook, a Duncan-wide Nerf gun fight in their commons.

MCMURTRY

MR. WORLDWINE: BEEN THERE, CHUGGED THAT

Alyson Resnick, a McMurtry College senior and Beer Bike coord, said that McMurtry Orientation Week is special due to the excitement that Murts have for the week before Beer Bike. She said that they gather in a group every day until the big event, and the quad has music, food, bracelet making and painting all week long.

McMurtry hosted a “Monday in Miami” and a beach day with a water slide on Tuesday. On Thursday, there will be a “Mechanical (pit) Bull.” McMurtry’s stationary build features Mr. Worldwide, American rapper and singer.

“Come to our quad to see our 16-ft tall Pitbull tower, complete with other small-Pitbull themed builds: a Holiday Inn sign, a Ke$ha can crusher, a Kodak camera and a huge wooden 305,” Resnick said.

HOGBEER SCHOOL OF WITCHBEER AND WIZARDBEER: BATTLE AGAINST LORD VOLDEBEER Beer Bike festivities at Wiess College include petting zoos, foam pits, senior debates, a movie marathon, a Yule Ball and cross-college tournaments and sporting events. FITQs are held daily.

According to Wiess junior and Beer Bike Coord Charles Lussier, Wiess’s Beer Bike float is supposed to be finished by Thursday.

HANSZEN

WINNIE THE BREW AND THE HUNDRED TANK ARD WOODS

According to Hanszen College junior and Beer Bike Coord Hemish Thakkar, Hanszen’s planned Beer Bike celebrations include a waterslide, a mechanical bull, karaoke, hair dyeing and dodgeball. Hanszen has been preparing to host their annual campus-wide color celebration, where people throw colored powder at each other, on Beer Bike morning.

According to Thakkar, Hanszen has been building their float for the parade all week and plans to have it finished by the end of this week.

“I am personally most excited about getting people to come to our events to spend time with each other and create lifelong memories,” Thakkar said.

SID RICH FRANK GINATRA: FLY ME TO THE BLUE MOON According to Sid Richardson College senior and Beer Bike coord Sophie Call and Sid sophomore and Beer Bike Coord Colin Wei, Sidizens have been working hard on their float, a beer bottle rocketship, inside the Sid Richardson Maker Space for the past couple of weeks.

Wei said that they have planned multiple jacks, a day of water themed events, an alumni tailgate, beer debates, an Orc Raid and Orc Rave.

The Orc Raid, which involves running around in paint and asserting dominance, is followed by the Orc Rave dance party. Call said that she is excited to introduce younger Sidizens to Beer Bike celebrations so that they can continue carrying on the tradition.

“We’re all excited to set the best standard for years to come at Sid,” Wei said

MARTEL BARIOK ART: RAINBREW ROAD The massive build on Martel College’s sundeck is their “stationary float.” Martel will also have a race startline arch featuring Lakitu holding up a bike.

Martel has a lot of cross-college interaction in the week before Beer Bike, according to Liu. This year, the North colleges come together for a capture-the-flag competition and block party.

“We also have some pretty cool Martel specific events, like a glow in the dark event at night with loud music and colorful lights,” Liu said.

6 • WEDNESDAY, MARCH 30, 2022

THE RICE THRESHER

BROWN

WILL RICE

THE THIRST Y GAMES: MAY THE BEER BE EVER IN YOUR HAND

GIN-N-OUT BEERGER: VICTORY YOU CAN TASTE!

Brown College’s Hunger Games-themed Beer Bike features a dodgeball game versus Martel on Wednesday and Brown’s Best: The Capitol Fashion Show on Thursday. Their new name for the week before Beer Bike is Maggie Week.

In a February Thresher article, Brown Beer Bike Coord Cooper Donnalley said that many of the pre-COVID-19 Brown Beer Bike traditions will be returning.

LOVETT

BEER BOLD: THE CHAMPAGNE FOR RICE Beer Bike festivities at Lovett include a midnight toast with champagne and Texas toast, tie dying a trivia and dodgeball tournament, multiple Fun in the Quads, a ping pong tournament, karaoke with s’mores, an inflatable obstacle course, beer debates and an alumni get-together.

Senior Beer Bike coordinator Marykathryn Charles said that no official jacks are planned for this week but that some students are trying to coordinate unofficial ones.

According to Charles, Lovett doesn’t usually participate in the float parade, instead hosting a mud fight.

“After the water balloon fight Lovett comes and pours out all of the water and makes a big mud pile and wrestle each other in that,” Charles said.

“We were originally planning to have one [this year], That’s why we didn’t build a float, [but] we were told that it shouldn’t happen.”

Charles said that she is most excited to participate in Lovett’s karaoke and s’mores event as well as to see the payoff of the work she and her fellow Beer Bike Coordinators have invested.

“I’m excited to see everything we’ve been planning for come to fruition because we’ve spent so much time and stress planning for this,” Charles said.

BAKER

MARVEL’S GIN-EMATIC UNIVERSE (MGU) PRESENTS… AVENGERS PREGAME

Beer Bike Coordinator and Will Rice College senior Michael Katona said that the two-year lapse in Beer Bike due to COVID-19 has allowed for the creation of new Will Rice traditions. Will Rice is renaming their Willy Week to Sweep Week in reference to their status as the only college that has ever swept Beer Bike by winning all three Beer Bike races (men’s, women’s and alumni) in the same year.

Katona said Rice administration has helped preserve most of Will Rice’s Beer Bike traditions while balancing student safety. According to Katona, work on building the Will Rice float for the parade has been sporadic since right before spring break. Will Rice is hosting crosscollege events with Sid, Wiess, Lovett and Baker throughout the week. Katona said that he is most excited for the campuswide festivities on Beer Bike Morning.

“We haven’t had those since I was a freshman, and it will be fun to watch three fourths of Will Rice experience that for the first time,” Katona said.

Baker College sophomore and Beer Bike Coordinator Ronnie McDonald said that Baker celebrations began this week with the moving of their parade float, a hell car, into their quad. Painting and decorating the car throughout the week is a bonding event for the college.

According to McDonald, Baker has planned secret jacks for the week. On Monday, Baker jacked Martel by driving through their sallyport and parking in their quad in reference to the joke that Martel is a parking lot and not a residential college. Baker hosted a combined FITQ with Martel afterwards.

Other planned Baker Beer Bike events include a bahn mi tailgate, beer debates, a mechanical bull, an alumni tailgate, a south college block party and an all-nighter.

“I think that I’m most excited for Baker to stay up all night before Beer Bike.

Most of the college participates but for those that do sleep prior, we have all the seniors wake them up before the day’s activities,” McDonald said.

“It’s overall just a really fun vibe.”

GAZI FUAD / THRESHER

Beeeeer Biiiike!

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IZZI REYNOLDS

FOR THE THRESHER

1 Old witchy woman 4 Unwanted garden plants 9 Netflix offerings 14 401(k) alternative 15 Sleeping disorder 16 Bad news on “Shark Tank” 17 Beer Bike-ified Rice locale?

20 Sign in many shop windows 21 Hard lemonade brand 22 Not many 23 Way to remove knots?

26 Type of TV screen display 28 Beer Bike-ified Rice locale?

34 Biblical poems 38 “Say ____ to the dress” 39 Popular early 2010s hashtag 40 Figure out based on available facts 41 NY times 42 Very, slangily 43 Social expectation 44 The “way” in East Asian philosophy 45 Dividing line 46 Beer Bike-ified Rice locale 49 Modern day addition to many jeans 50 Dictatorship supporter 55 Santa ____, California 58 Perplexing spelling of a normal sounding name 61 State known for its national parks and large Mormon population 62 Beer Bike-ified Rice locale?

66 Video game pioneer 67 Bean producing tree 68 What you need to hit a bullseye 69 Parts in a cast?

70 The Riddler, to Batman 71 Opposite of NNW

DOWN

1 Phrase said by many who briefly get on TV 2 Doughy Venezuelan treat 3 What a child may ask if you have on your phone 4 Violent quarrel 5 Start to pen or center 6 Tooth coating 7 Sandwich seller 8 Word with ball or potato 9 Big hassle 10 Little devil 11 Bread unit 12 Hybrid animal that can’t reproduce 13 Common crockpot meal 18 Carry-____ 19 Aids 24 Whispery YouTube genre 25 Pricey commodity lately 27 Commonly broken part of the laundry room 29 Disinfectant brand 30 Nonetheless 31 “Somebody _____ Me” by The Killers 32 Woods of “Legally Blonde” 33 Crowd sound 34 Spots of note on a map 35 What may be clogging your nose if you have a cold 36 Big hairstyle 37 World’s oldest living primate species 41 Unit of corn 42 Some beer ingredients 44 Native American tent 45 Fuzzy neckware 47 Mesopotamian river 48 Likely setting for a 9-5 51 Pool necessity 52 “_____ a dark and stormy night...”

53 Indian garments 54 Herb with many possible puns 55 At a distance 56 “Say _____ This” from “Hamilton” 57 Uptight 59 Fairy tale starter 60 Caramel-topped custard dessert 63 “Dr.” of rap 64 Explosion sound 65 Family name in “Succession”

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 30, 2022 • 7

65th edition at a glance For the first time since 2019, Beer Bike is back in person and returns in all its glory with events like the campus-wide water balloon fight and float parade.

changes this year More restrooms & handwashing stations Added security at water balloon fight Exclusive Snapchat filter (APRIL 2, 9AM – 11PM) Parade outlet moved to South Stadium Lot Digital waivers for teams Track repaired & repainted

concessions Shipley Donuts (morning), Papa Johns, Taco Cabana, Bahn Mi, Chick-fil-A

schedule

– 10AM College-specific events @ FOUNDER’S COURT 10AM – 10:45AM Water balloon fight SEE MAP ON PG. 10 10:50AM Parade begins 11:00AM Concessions open 11:20AM Alumni race 12:05PM Women’s race @ RACE TRACK 12:50PM Men’s race 1:30PM End of events

saturday, april 2

lanes 12 — 1

the Thresher’s spectator guide design by robert heeter

insert paid for by the Rice Program Council

LANE ASSIGNMENTS 1. Will Rice 2. Hanszen 3. Wiess 4. Jones 5. Brown 6. Lovett 7. GSA 8. Sid Richardson 9. Martel 10. McMurtry 11. Duncan 12. Baker

hackerman race track map BLEACHER ASSIGNMENTS 1. McMurtry 6. Sid Richardson 2. Hanszen 7. Brown 8. Will Rice 3. Lovett 4. Jones 9. Wiess 5. Martel 10. Baker 11. Duncan

8 • WEDNESDAY, MARCH 30, 2022

BEER BIKE SPECTATOR GUIDE

beer bike: te 65th edition

saturday, ap

college

theme

coords

Baker

Marvel Gin-ematic Universe (MGU) Presents... Avengers Pregrame

Joyce Li, Leighton Less, P McDonald, Valeria Marti

Will Rice

Gin-N-Out Beerger

Reece Eberhardt, Michae Thurman, Rafe Neathery Aanchal Thapa

Hanszen

Winnie the Brew and the Hundred Tankard Woods

Jarrett Prchal, Makayla Fr Sarah Kim, Hope Mousta Thakkar

Wiess

Charles Lussier, Myritney Saketh Katta, Robert Che

Jones

Hogbeer School of Witchbeer and Wizardbeer: Battle Against Lord Voldebeer Britney Spirits: It’s Beer Bike Bitch

Brown

The Thirsty Games: May The Beer Be Ever In Your Hand

Cooper Donnalley, Naven Alice Lee, Grace Vincent

Lovett

Beer Bold: The Champagne for Rice

Bryan Sanchez, MaryKat Steven Cloud, Evan Huan Pavithr Goli, Lucia Fernan

Sid Richardson

Frank Ginatra: Fly Me To The Blue Moon

Colin Wei, Tyler Brient, Is Call, Nithya Shenoy

Martel

BarioKart: RainBrew Road

Mark Abboud, James Liu Brenda Diaz

McMurtry

Mr. Worldwine: “Been There, Chugged That”

Grayson Kotzur, Anusha Resnick, Brandon Zimme

Duncan

Spongebrew Squarepints: the Krusty Keg

Carla Sipahioglu, Eric We Hamrick, Anthony Insala

GSA

Bockbuster

Siqi Du, Lissa Blackert, L Victor, Paul Mayer

Sarah Sowell, Jen Spell, Ryan Emelle, Steven Dill

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 30, 2022 • 9

THE RICE THRESHER

eams & themes

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10 • WEDNESDAY, MARCH 30, 2022

BEER BIKE SPECTATOR GUIDE

parade judges

John Hutchinson, chemistry professor Travis Alexander, medical humanities postdoc Abby Schuh, OURI administrator Corin Bauman, OURI administrator

west lot

float drop-off

extended servery hours SATURDAY, APRIL 2 Breakfast Continuous service Dinner

@ ALL SERVERIES @ NORTH & SIEBEL @ NORTH & SIEBEL

6AM – 9AM 9AM – 3PM 5PM – 7:30PM

north colleges

keck hall

founder’s court

water ballon fight start of parade

float judging

inner loop

track & stadium

south colleges south stadium lot

end of parade student entrance to races

parade route

event coordinators

FACULTY ADVISORS Tahj Blackman (Student Activities) Petre Herbert (Student Activities) CAMPUS-WIDE COORDINATORS Sean Judge Paulina Yannitsadis

“

Planning for Beer Bike has been such an exciting journey for us this year. I can’t wait for everyone to be able to enjoy the event!

– Tahj Blackman

AREA COORDINATORS Nayna Nambar (Concessions) Sean Judge (Security) Paulina Yannitsadis (Security) Luisa Tolda (Track) Daniela Covarrubias (Parade) Amber Liu (Judges)

a special thanks to these organizations

CAMPUS ORGANIZATIONS RUPD & Rice EMS Wellbeing & Counseling Center Student Judicial Programs Parking Risk Management Enviro. Health and Safety Alumni & Alumni Office Housing & Dining Facilities Engineering & Planning Student Activities Academic Affairs & Strategic Partnerships STUDENT ORGANIZATIONS Rice Bikes Rice Thresher

“

I’ve always heard so much about Beer Bike... It’s the biggest tradition on campus and something that I wanted to take a larger part in!

– Nayna Nambar

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 30, 2022 • 11

THE RICE THRESHER

EDITORIAL

Unclear election rules hurt everyone As it stands under the Student Association election rules, candidates are not allowed to send mass campaign emails, and included in this rule is anyone campaigning on behalf of the candidate.

During this year’s SA presidential race, Rice PRIDE endorsed candidate Gabby Franklin, a choice they then shared with their members via an opt-in Listserv.

This is now the subject of the recent complaint by former Will Rice College senator William Tsai who claims that the endorsement email was a violation of SA election rules. The case will be brought to University Court this upcoming Thursday, March 31.

What this issue really highlights is the immediate need for the SA to update and clarify their rules around election time. The idea that under current policies, someone completely unrelated to a candidate could get them disqualified by a simple email through a Listserv is ridiculous. That was obviously not the intention of Rice PRIDE in their endorsement of Gabby, but the way the rules are currently written, it is a

possibility for a group or individual with ill intentions, and that is to put simply, a huge problem.

The rules also clearly allow for social media campaigns, which makes the

The idea that under current policies, someone completely unrelated to a candidate could get them disqualified by a simple email through a Listserv is ridiculous. lack of updates to policies even more inexcusable. As times change, so should the rules, and the SA needs to decide if they should treat social media and email campaigning differently. And no matter how they choose to view the platforms, the rules for each need to be spelled out and thought through more extensively.

We want to be transparent as we write this — our editorial board endorsed Gabby as well, and now in the question of this case, we believe that her attributes and promise as an SA president outweigh these murky circumstances. As such, we believe that it should not prevent the changeover to her leadership. However, even disregarding our support of her candidacy and hopefully future presidency, we still find the process and regulation on its own here in need of immediate attention.

And we also want to be clear that we don’t blame the current director of election or any specific student leaders. In fact, we recognize that the current rules are making their jobs more difficult — which is why they must change. The SA needs to come together to support a rule change process which is overdue in the institution. Otherwise we risk facing issues of discrepancies between the letter of the law and its spirit, and the students who suffer undue consequences as a result.

Managing editor Ben Baker-Katz recused himself from this editorial due to being on University Court.

ask the

STAFF

What are you most excited for during Beer Bike Week?

That post Beer Bike nap

Savannah Kuchar EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

I got persuaded into biking and I was terrified but now I’m excited

Jasmine Liou VIDEO EDITOR

Participating in all the activities our coords put together

Morgan Gage

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR

Epic pictures

Channing Wang PHOTO EDITOR

OPINION

War in Ukraine: Blame America’s oligarchs as well as Russian counterparts While life at Rice seems to return to normal, we must all comprehend that Russian President Vladimir Putin has unleashed hell on Ukraine. Countries including the United States are sanctioning Russia’s oligarchs, whose concentration of immense wealth suffices to fund Putin’s war. But those rich Russian terrorists have not acted alone. Decades of wrongdoing by America’s oligarchs, due to our failure to control their greed and power, have also enabled Putin’s present holocaust in Ukraine.

As I will lay bare, we must defend ourselves against America’s oligarchs by recognizing and broadcasting their tactics, and by changing our behavior to neutralize these tactics and subvert their power. In doing so, we can help fight the war in Ukraine from within the hedges.

Let me first be clear on who I implicate: the multimillionaires and billionaires of big American corporations who prioritize profit above the common good. In an ongoing instance of their evil, instead of absorbing the higher costs of goods brought on by global supply-chain issues, they are passing these costs on to you, the consumer, inflating their prices beyond just what they must to offset the higher costs. And by stealing from our middle class, debilitated by similar past abuses of America’s oligarchs, their monopolies are raking in record profits.

The toll of the oligarchs’ unrestrained economic power has extended to Ukraine as well. For nearly two weeks, we hesitated on a decision with only one morally correct answer: whether to ban Russian energy imports or to continue to finance Putin’s brutality. One reason is the hundreds of millions spent on political lobbying to

EDITORIAL STAFF

obstruct our development of a renewable, self- only anti-American – they are pro-Putin, reliant energy infrastructure, exacerbating whether or not they themselves brandish climate change and our dependence on it as shamelessly as Trump and their other political instruments do. foreign energy.

All humans who know the truth feel But, somehow, price gouging and climate change are not the saddest parts of this story. worried for the people of Ukraine. Besides The truly saddest part is that our Congress donating, what can we do? We can modify our is complicit. Hungry for campaign funding, behavior toward our fellow Americans on the many of our “public servants” are corporate “other side” of the culture war, strengthening slaves bribed to veto laws which threaten the the Rice community and, ultimately, our oligarchs’ economic and political power, and nation. In doing so, we will weaken foreign bribed to craft laws which further enrich the autocrats like Putin, domestic wannabeautocrats like Trump, richest few. and their oligarchic How could such backers. corrupt legislators We are vulnerable infiltrate our to the oligarchs’ democracy?

We Our shared economic divisive tactics the people have pain at the hands of the been conned into oligarchs should precede all only because we are emotional electing these craven of the artificial differences beings. Today, our traitors by the sole defense is our oligarchs, who have they have managed to draw willpower. Thus, we distracted us from between us. must learn to open their wrongdoing by instigating a culture war. In this war, their our eyes and free ourselves from their devices of division. weapons are our emotional vulnerabilities.

Break away from the self-reinforcing Through media and the mouths of their politician puppets, they spout racism and propaganda on news outlets and social xenophobia to scapegoat minorities and media, both far-right and far-left. Override foreigners, diverting our anger from the the instinctual fury you feel for your fellow true criminals and terrorists who cause our Rice students or other Americans when they economic woe, and they employ religion express a “radical” belief, even if aimed to invade our private morality, further directly at you or your own values. (For good fracturing our unity. Ultimately, oligarchs practice, peruse some of the Thresher’s have distracted us from their ever-growing other recent opinion articles.) Of course, we political power by turning Americans against still must unequivocally excise the cancer of one another. And, when we the people misinformation from our national discourse, are distracted and divided, our foreign but do so sensitively and with sympathy for adversaries are enabled and emboldened. the truly innocent people held captive by For this reason, our oligarchs are not those emotional fallacies.

* Indicates Editorial Board member

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT Morgan Gage* Editor Michelle Gachelin Asst. Editor

Savannah Kuchar* Editor-in-Chief Ben Baker-Katz* Managing Editor

SPORTS Daniel Schrager* Editor

NEWS Talha Arif* Editor Hajera Naveed Asst. Editor Bonnie Zhao Asst. Editor

BACKPAGE Timmy Mansfield Editor

OPINION Nayeli Shad* Editor FEATURES Nicole Lhuillier Editor Nithya Shenoy Asst. Editor

COPY Bhavya Gopinath Editor Jonathan Cheng Editor PHOTO, VIDEO, & WEB Channing Wang Photo Editor Katherine Hui Asst. Photo Editor Jasmine Liou Video Editor Brandon Chen* Web Editor

DESIGN & ILLUSTRATION Robert Heeter Art & Design Director Anna Chung News Siddhi Narayan Opinion Katherine Chui Features Ivana Hsyung Arts & Entertainment Andi Rubero Sports Lauren Yu Backpage Chloe Xu Illustrator Ndidi Nwosu Illustrator Andrea Gomez Illustrator BUSINESS MANAGEMENT Edelawit Negash Business Manager Deema Beram Social Media Amanda Mae Ashley Distribution

Learn not to hate, but to understand the perspective of others at Rice, and try to convince them that you are not their enemy and they are not yours. Reveal to them what I have presented here about our common enemy, to whom you should really be directing your hatred and hostility. Truly, our shared economic pain at the hands of the oligarchs should precede all of the artificial differences they have managed to draw between us with their implements of racism, xenophobia and religion.

Our human propensity to polarize into Democrat and Republican, “Trump supporter” and “lib,” is both what hands America’s oligarchs their political power and enables Putin to effect his malicious will with impunity. In this disunited state of these United States, distracted by a culture war that truly need not exist, we have historically and at present failed to stamp out Putin’s barbaric ambitions and to protect the world against his ruthless aggression.

Tragically, the beautiful people of Ukraine must now suffer the consequences of our inaction.

Now, for the sake of all humanity, we must condemn Putin’s explicit apologists as well as his latent oligarchic conspirators in this country, and we must stand united as one American people with Ukraine.

Joseph Asfouri SID RICHARDSON COLLEGE JUNIOR

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

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

Editorial and business offices are located on the second floor of the Ley Student Center: 6100 Main St., MS-524 Houston, TX 77005-1892 Phone: (713) 348 - 4801 Email: thresher@rice.edu Website: www.ricethresher.org The Thresher is a member of the ACP, TIPA, CMA, and CMBAM. © Copyright 2022

12 • WEDNESDAY, MARCH 30, 2022

THE RICE THRESHER

Acappellooza raises vibrations in this year’s showcase

KATHERINE HUI / THRESHER Last Saturday, March 26, Rice’s five a cappella groups combined forces for an evening of performances.

MICHELLE GACHELIN

ASST A&E EDITOR

Last Saturday, March 26, Rice’s five a cappella groups combined forces for an evening of performances that couldn’t have been more pitch perfect.

The Philharmonics, Basmati Beats, Nocturnal, the Apollos and Low Keys each took the Grand Hall stage to perform their sets featuring creative arrangements and mashups of popular hits. The groups came together at the end of the evening for a joint performance of Silk Sonic’s “Leave the Door Open,” with singers from the featured groups alternating solos.

Vibha Sastri, president of the Philharmonics, said that the event is a great opportunity to discover each group’s unique qualities.

“This is really the one-stop shop for all things a cappella,” Sastri, a McMurtry College senior, said. “Each group does a ten minute set, so you get a tiny little sampler from every group. You get to know their different voices and what music styles they perform.”

The event doubled as a fundraiser for the Houston Music Therapy Services, which provides trauma-informed music therapy interventions in the Greater Houston area to people of all

ages. According to Sastri, the 200 or so audience members in attendance helped raise around $150 for the center.

“That’s a collaboration we’ve been fostering for the last several years, because we really believe in what they do for the Houston community,” Sastri said.

As a longtime a cappella fan, Sastri said she knew she wanted to join the a

I would hope that the audience can see the connection that we have with each other and that I feel like we have with the audience as well.

Emily Plotkin LOVETT COLLEGE SENIOR

cappella community once she came to Rice. She auditioned as a freshman, as did Apollos first tenor Randall Schulz, who was able to hone his vocal skills in the process.

“I wanted to be in an a cappella group when I came to college because I’ve always loved singing. I had also been afraid to sing in public for a long time,

and so I just wanted to do it,” Schulz, a Sid Richardson College sophomore, said. “I tried out for another group, Nocturnal, my freshman year and did not make it. I took some voice lessons …

Then I tried out for the Apollos this year and made it.”

Schulz credits the Apollos’ social atmosphere as a large part of what makes the group special.

“I enjoy the group dynamic a lot — in rehearsals, we definitely laugh a lot,” Schulz said. “I look forward to going to rehearsals because I enjoy singing, so it’s fun that way, but it’s also a destressing social time. I feel like all of the guys enjoy each other.”

Emily Plotkin, a Nocturnal member since their freshman year and the group’s previous digital media lead, also said that she enjoyed the social aspect of acapella. This year, the group is showcasing more complex vocal arrangements, which Plotkin credits to music director Katie Kirkpatrick’s vision.

“When I joined, we were doing fourpart harmonies, but over the course of the time that I’ve been in the group, it’s really gotten a bit more serious,” Plotkin, a Lovett College senior, said.

“Now we’re in six-part harmony, we have some choreography planned and I feel like we’re giving a different kind of performance now than we were before.”

Plotkin said that she hopes that Nocturnals’ bond shines through in their performance.

“Whenever I’m singing, I just want to be able to touch people. I really think everybody can sing, but there’s something special that happens when you’re singing with a group,” Plotkin said. “I would hope that the audience can see the connection that we have with each other and that I feel like we have with the audience as well. [I want them] to feel like they’re a part of something.”

Martalisa Fischer, a member of the Low Keys and a soloist, echoed Plotkin’s hope to positively impact the audience.

“I just want them to see the effort and the love that we’ve poured into it,” Fischer, a Wiess College freshman, said.

“And that they can really enjoy it and walk away from it feeling refreshed, because music is very refreshing and can bring a lot of joy to people.”

Black-owned beauty: Explore these brands owned by Black women SARAH BARTOS

THRESHER STAFF

The beauty and wellness industries are worth billions of dollars, but despite their massive consumer base, there has been a lack of dialogue surrounding inclusivity in product design and marketing up until very recently. Many Black women-owned beauty businesses are working to make the beauty industry more inclusive. Here are just a few beauty and skincare brands owned by Black women to invest in after Women’s History Month is over, including those that call Houston home.

LAMIK LAMIK (Love and Makeup in Kindness) is a Houston-based beauty and skincare company that focuses on providing products to women of all complexions.

Founder Kim Roxie emphasizes the importance of beauty being “revealed not applied” through the company’s various products. You can purchase LAMIK products ranging from skincare, eyes, brows, lips and more via the LAMIK website or cosmetic stores including Ulta.

Fashion Fair In 2021, “The Chicago Tribune” wrote an article detailing the history behind Eunice Johnson‘s company Fashion Fair.

Founded in 1973, this was one of the first companies that addressed the skincare and beauty needs of women of color. These products can be found on the Sephora and Fashion Fair websites.

Earth’s Nectar Earth’s Nectar is a Houston-based, eco-

friendly hair brand that offers a variety of hair care products to address common scalp and hair problems among clients with textured hair. The company is coowned by Tamika Fletcher, a Black woman from Houston who also operates Natural Resources Salon, a natural hair salon and boutique in the Museum District. You can purchase Earth’s Nectar hair care products online or at department stores like Macy’s.

This article has been condensed for print. Read the rest online at ricethresher.

Y2K Style SHREYA CHALLA

THRESHER STAFF

It has been two long years since the last public, but after much waiting and anticipation, McMurtry College finally held the first public of the year this past Saturday March 26: Y2K. Donning butterfly clips and fishnet, jerseys and glitter, Rice students drew inspiration from decadesolds trends for the party. The Rice community submitted their best 2000’s-inspired outfits from the weekend to the Thresher for us to compile.

Saanya Bhargava, McMurtry College junior: “I cut the McMurtry Y2K shirt, wore bell-bottom jeans and glitter eyeshadow!

The hair totally reminded me of my childhood.”

Caleb Dukes, Lovett College senior: “My childhood meets the classic butterfly clip girl.”

Ariah Richards, McMurtry College freshman: “Showing midriff and wearing sunglasses” NDIDI NWOSU / THRESHER Read more online at ricethresher.org.

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 30, 2022 • 13

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Beer Bike shirt designers talk inspiration

Beer Bike:

MORGAN GAGE & ANNIKA BHANAKER

A&E EDITOR & FOR THE THRESHER

The festivities of Beer Bike pick up and will continue throughout the week, and Beer Bike itself quickly approaches this Saturday, April 2. Students will don their college Beer Bike as their college teams race around the track and vie for one of the most hotly contested

titles at Rice — champions of Beer Bike 2022. For the first time since Beer Bike 2019, eager students will be able to not only wear their college’s shirt but will be able to display the designs with pride while they cheer on their college biking and chug teams. The artists and designers behind the Beer Bike shirts emailed the Thresher about their inspiration for the shirt as well as the thought that went into the design process.

SID RICH: Frank Ginatra: Fly me to the Blue Moon

LOVETT: Beer Bold: The Champagne for Rice

Designed by: Adriana Amaris and Savannah Parrot

Designed by: Bryan Sanchez

“The inspiration is very much based on Frank Sinatra’s music and timeless style … I also wanted to seize the opportunity to design one more thing for Sid before I graduate. Beer Bike is very much a showcase of each college and our shirt along with every other colleges’ shirts are a major part of college representation on the day of and for years after. I’ve always loved how [past Beer Bike] shirts from each college are still so recognizable.” – Amaris “The “B” in the Blue of “Fly Me The Blue Moon” is the same typeface that’s used on the logo from the Blue Moon beer logo. Super small but I thought it was cute.” – Parrot

BROWN: The Thirsty Games: May the beers be ever in your hand

MCMURTRY: Mr. Worldwine: Been there, chugged that

“After our college voted on our theme of Beer Bold: The Champagne for Rice, we wanted to honor an iconic Rice symbol: Lovett Hall [and] the Sallyport!

With the design, we tried our best to recreate Lovett Hall and integrate the champagne theme by fitting the bottles into the structure. We think it was a great way to parody the Beer Bold campaign while also honoring it through Beer Bike.” – Sanchez

Designed by: Waverly Dickason

Designed by: Amy Zhang

“This was a fun theme because there’s not always a specific person that is the “face” of the beer bike theme, so I had fun trying to represent the likeness of Pitbull without using too many colors or lines ... Because Pitbull is “Mr. Worldwide” and I wanted to emphasize Rice’s diverse campus population of students, I designed graphical representations of different flags from different parts of the world and put them on wine bottles to represent “Mr. Worldwine”. Pitbull’s iconography is also layered onto a map of the world.” – Zhang

“Brown’s amazing Beer Bike coords and merch team came up with the idea to incorporate the mockingjay with a brew in hand — I just put it together! Of course, we also had to include our twist on the infamous “may the odds be ever in your favor” to finish off our vision for the Thirsty Games logo.” – Dickason

BAKER: Marvel Gin-ematic Universe presents: Avengers Pregame Designed by: Joyce Li

JONES: Britney Spirits: It’s Beer Bike bitch

“The shirt I designed helps encompass Beer Bike because it focused on different Avengers characters holding a variety of soft alcohol. We mainly stuck with this shirt because we thought it was funny. We spent a while trying to decide which drink would go with which Avengers character, so we hope other people agree with our decisions.” – Li

“Our shirt is based off of a Britney Spears concert shirt. We wanted a nice shirt that people can wear again. We chose to have our shirts pink this year as it better aligned with our theme: Britney Spirits.” – Brady

Designed by: Ryan Emelle, Jen Spell, Mary Brady, Terri Liu, Steven Dillman, Sarah Sowell

MARTEL: BarioKart: RainBrew Road Designed by: Kianna Broadman

“I like trying to make art and I also wanted Martel to have more design options to vote on so that we could have a shirt design that people liked, so ... I started thinking about how I could include Mario, rainbows, drinks, and/or bikes in one design. I also looked at images of Mario online and thought I might be able to draw him on his kart with a glass of something in his hand, so this design is the intersection of the combination of Mario and a drink with my art capabilities.

I’m really happy that people ended up liking the design! In Mario Kart, Mario’s hat and kart have an M on them, but on our shirt it’s MC for Martel College.” – Broadman

WIESS: HogBeer School of WitchBeer and WizardBeer: Battle Against Lord VoldeBeer Designed by: Varun Kukunoor

“The inspiration was melding elements of Team Family Wiess and the prevalent themes of the Harry Potter franchise. We really enjoyed that process. For instance, the TFW on the sorting hat looks like an HW (for Hogwarts) as well as the TFW.” – Kukunoor

WILL RICE: Gin-N-Out: Victory you can taste Designed by: Guillian Paguila

“Beer Bike holds a special place in Will Rice’s culture. To us, it’s a means to both reassert our complete and utter dominance on the bike track and a means to remind everyone that we are and always will be the only college to sweep the races five friendly times. As such, from the ‘Victory You Can Taste’ menu title to the ‘Five- By-Five’, this shirt is covered with references to our past and upcoming victories. For the front of the shirt, if you look closely, you can see the Will Rice Centennial logo replacing the copyright symbol. For the back, the typical In-N-Out fountain drink is replaced by a beer can decorated with a Phoenix/ Whale pattern instead of In-N-Out palm trees! Each menu item [on the back] includes easter eggs that all Will Ricers should know.” – Paguila

HANSZEN: Winnie the Brew and the Hundred Tankard Woods Designed by: Lily Remington

“I wanted to design the shirt with the theme at the forefront. I really loved Winnie the Pooh as a kid so I was super excited when this theme was selected ... However, I didn’t want to overwhelm the design with too much alcohol because I wanted to make a cute shirt that others would maybe be willing to wear even after Beer Bike.

I also wanted to make the shirt more kid-friendly so that the Hanszen RAs and their kids would enjoy the design as well. Initially, the design went through a few phases, but through each we kept the main drawing of Winnie the Pooh slightly buzzed ... and I decided to replace his HUNNY pot with a tankard of beer.” – Remington

DUNCAN: Spongebrew SquarePints: The Krusty Keg Designed by: Deema Beram

“My mind immediately went to this one scene from the first Spongebob movie. Spongebob and Patrick went to Goofy Goober’s Ice Cream Party Boat after Spongebob was denied a job position, and they eat so many sundaes that they start acting really loopy. Looking back, I realize that that entire scene was just a kiddy version of going to a bar and getting drunk, so I thought basing the design off of one snapshot where they’re really disoriented was fitting.” – Beram Editor’s Note: Deema Beram is the Thresher’s social media manager.

14 • WEDNESDAY, MARCH 30, 2022

THE RICE THRESHER

Rice, Methodist join forces for research center in Tudor REED MYERS

SENIOR WRITER Earlier this month, Rice announced a partnership with Houston Methodist to create a center for athletic performance at Tudor Fieldhouse where physicians, researchers and students will study athletic performance from a scientific lens. According to Assistant Athletic Director for Sports Medicine Dean Miller, the plan for a performance center has been a part of Rice’s long-term vision.

“This was our vision for victory in the [Vision for the Second Century, Second Decade],” Miller said. “In the last two and a half year period, Houston Methodist has approached us. We have done four or five small studies with them and had our students involved in them. They were looking to have a collaboration which was not only academic but scienceoriented.”

According to Miller, Methodist and Rice have a long-standing relationship, and partnering with them once again to team up for a research center was the right blend.

“Methodist and Rice have joined forces in a couple of other projects across the street, not only academic issues but also some research perspectives and some performance ends,” Miller said. “The medical center is right across the street, and we feel we have a huge capacity for student intelligence and research capacity that could be a great blend.”

The new athletic performance center will be located on the second floor on the backside of Tudor Fieldhouse. According to Miller, the center will have areas ranging from state-of-the-art motion caption cameras to an internet cafe.

“It’s six and a half thousand square feet, and it’ll have two or three offices and

some areas to do possibly muscle biopsies, blood draw, and DEXA [bone density] scans,” Miller said. “There will be a working area for students in there that will be a little bit like an internet cafe, and then there will be a large section in the middle which is motion capture cameras and activity level that will be able to identify everything from a volleyball serve to a pitcher throwing you name it [pitch]. Then we got some additional space for other basic things like treadmills so we can do [maximum oxygen uptake], heart rates and some physiology testing.”

In addition to the partnership with Houston Methodist, various departments on campus will also be involved in making sure the performance center runs smoothly.

According to Miller, the George R. Brown School of Engineering and Wiess School of Natural Sciences will also contribute to the research being done at the center.

“The academic area is going to fall a little bit on the Wiess School of Natural Sciences, which is going to include the Kinesiology department and how they are going to blend with the sustainable collaboration bringing in from a performance aspect,” Miller said. “Engineering can be anything from a technology standpoint; possibly to prosthetics for legs, bits, pieces, different types of materials, and that will lead into Methodist identifying some clinical aspects about getting better from a medical perspective.”

With the contributions of these various helping hands on and around campus, Miller said the performance center aims to push Rice’s athletic programs forward. According to Miller, a key focal point in the performance center is how they can take what they learn from the center and apply it to the field or court of competition.

“We want to take the athletic performance research center from the athletics standpoint to an innovative concept working with

CHARLIE WELLS / THRESHER Earlier this month, Rice announced a partnership with Houston Methodist to create a center for altheric performance at Tudor Fieldhouse

a variety of people to make sure that it works,” Miller said. “Coming back to the most important part is the lab to the arena.

What does all of this going to make as far as performance, healthier and safer perspectives, and be able to get results, better recovery, and better injury prevention. But most, how are we going to perform and win and get that stuff done.”

One of the key elements of the performance center is the opportunity for students, physicians, and researchers to trailblaze on the research side. According to Miller, he hopes the center will allow for research in a field that has been underexplored.

“We want the technology to lead us into better performance on the field, and we want wins, [and] that’s wonderful, but we’re Rice University,” Miller said. “We also want to continue to do a massive amount of research that not only puts us on the map in another area, can we be a fostering leader nationally, maybe worldwide, in an area that no one else understands the capacity of.”

With high expectations and goals set for the performance center, it aims to be a central figure in helping to bring all participants together. According to Miller, this is more than just a performance center strictly for athletics.

“Make no bones about it, [athletic director Joe Karlgaard] put in there that this is not just for the student-athlete, but we really want to foster this environment here of academics and have all students involved in this process,” Miller said.

“We have so much talent on campus, how can we draw that other talent to be able to help us be better too and create a better student partnership on campus with athletics, academics, science, and research. This is not an athletic endeavor, this is a Rice University, Methodist collaboration to get the center set up, and then it’s a matter of Rice and Methodist and all areas bringing together perspectives so that we can all be successful with no limitations.”

Women’s tennis suffers dry spell over weekend in the desert REED MYERS

SENIOR WRITER The No. 49 Rice women’s tennis team could not pull off two upsets during their west coast trip, losing to No. 48 University of Arizona 4-3 and No. 32 Arizona State University 4-0 last weekend. According to junior Maria Budin, while the results were not what she and the team wanted, learning from this road trip can move the team forward.

“It’s always tough to come out on the losing end of a couple of close matches this weekend,” Budin said. “We all need to take confidence from how close we were in all our matches this weekend, probably without our best level. The

margins are small, and if we focus on the things we need to improve, we will be in a good place for more tough matches to come.”

The Owls jumped out to an early 1-0 lead against the Wildcats on Friday as senior Anastasia Smirnova and freshman Allison Zipoli won their doubles match 6-4, and senior Victoria Smirnova and sophomore Federica Trevisan also took their doubles match 6-4.

Senior Anna Bowtell got the first singles point with a 2-0 victory. Junior Maria Budin rallied to salvage another singles point, but it was not enough as Arizona took the other four singles matches, giving them a 4-3 match victory.

According to head coach Elizabeth

Schmidt, losing after getting out to an early lead was tough for the team.

“We started off well with a solid doubles point and getting the quick point from [Bowtell,]” Schmidt said. “As scores show, it was a tight battle on the other five courts with lots of lead changes and momentum swings for both teams.

Definitely a tough one to lose but now our focus is getting back up, learning from this match, and putting it all out there again tomorrow.”

The college tennis season is a marathon, not a sprint, and each mile under our belt helps prepare us for the final kick of conference and [the] NCAAs. Elizabeth Schmidt HEAD COACH

COURTESY RICE ATHLETICS Junior Maria Budin hits a backhand.

Budin and the Owls headed to Arizona over the weekend where they lost both of their matches.

The next day, the Owls were up against the Sun Devils, who were coming off of three consecutive losses on the road. The Sun Devils returned to their home court by taking the match’s first point as they won two of the three doubles matches.

According to Schmidt, she has been pleased with how her doubles teams have been playing as of late despite the loss.

“Overall, I think our doubles play continues to improve,” Schmidt said. “We got the doubles point against Arizona

and had chances to get the point against Arizona State even with a completely new team playing at No. 3 doubles.”

The Sun Devils never looked back as they won three straight singles matches to give them the match 4-0 over the Owls.

According to Budin, the team found some positives to take away from the weekend despite getting swept.

“I think we can all be proud of what we gave and how we adapted to the new, hot conditions,” Budin said. “We definitely proved we have the level to be competing with quality teams. We have to keep focused on the positives and keep building from here.”

With just four regular season matches remaining, the Owls will look to build off these two matches against ranked opponents as they gear up for another road trip this weekend. According to Schmidt, she hopes that through practices and matches like these, her team will be able to reach consistent form as they enter the latter stage of their season.

“I believe that if we continue to push ourselves in practice and put it on the line time and time again in each match that solid play will become even more consistent from set to set and match to match,” Schmidt said. “The college tennis season is a marathon, not a sprint, and each mile under our belt helps prepare us for the final kick of conference and [the] NCAAs.” The Owls will travel to Tampa, Florida, where they will take on the University of South Florida on Friday at 11 a.m and Florida International University the following day.

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 30, 2022 • 15

SPORTS

Rice hosts Lopez Classic for first time in three years

COURTESY RICE ATHLETICS Sophomore jumper Ese Amata competes in the high jump at this weekend’s Victor Lopez Classic. Rice hosted the meet for the first time since 2019 due to COVID-19 percautions.

DANIEL SCHRAGER

SPORTS EDITOR

Athletes from nine colleges and over 25 high schools took over the Ley Track at Holloway Field over the weekend, as the Victor Lopez Classic returned to campus after a two year hiatus. The event, which was the first hosted by Rice this season, started on Thursday afternoon and ran nearly all day Friday and Saturday.

According to Jim Bevan, head coach of the women’s team, it was great to race in front of a home crowd.

“It was nice to have a big meet again,” Bevan said. “It’s been three years since we had this Victor Lopez Classic which goes back almost 40 years. And in the city of Houston it’s one of the premier meets.

Depending on the weekend, it can be the premier meet in the country. It’s nice to get back to normal because this is a highlight for all of us.”

Thursday’s events were reserved for the high school competition, so the meet kicked off for the Owls the following day.

Friday was highlighted by three golds for the Owls. Senior distance runner Lourdes Vivas de Lorenzi was the only Owl to take first place on the women’s side on Friday when she won the 5,000 meter race. On the men’s side, sophomore thrower Shaun Kerry took first in the hammer throw with a mark of 59.95 meters, and senior Andrew Abikhaled took the gold in the steeplechase with the fifth best time in school history. Men’s head coach Jon Warren said he was very impressed with Abikhaled’s personal best time. “[Abikhaled’s] 8:51 was exceptional,” Warren said. “That time is really, really good, he’ll get to the first round of nationals.”

Six more Owls won golds on Saturday, including five in field events. On the women’s team, sophomore vaulter Elena Siemens won the pole vault, sophomore jumper Ginnie Okafor won the triple jump

and junior jumper KC Nwadei won the high jump. For the men’s team, sophomore jumper Ese Amata won the high jump, and sophomore thrower Elhian Amar won the shot put. The Owls’ only track individual gold on the day came from senior distance runner Alex Topini. In addition, the women’s 4x100 relay team took first place.

After the day, Warren said that, while none of Saturday’s results jumped out at him like Abikhaled’s win had, he was happy with nearly his entire team’s performance on the day.

“We really had a good meet,” Warren said. “They were not exceptional performances for most of those guys, but good performances for those guys. So very pleased with where we’re at right now.”

While this year’s meet was smaller than in past years, Warren still said that it is likely among the ten biggest meets in the

It was nice to have a big meet again. It’s been three years since we had this Victor Lopez Classic which goes back almost 40 years.

And in the city of Houston, it’s one of the premier meets.

Jim Bevan

WOMEN’S T&F HEAD COACH country, when the high school competition is factored in as well. According to Bevan, the meet took a lot of work to host, and it took a massive effort from both the athletic department and students around campus to make everything run smoothly.

“It’s a lot of hard work,” Bevan said. “A lot of people stepped up in the department and around campus. We’d like to give a shout out to the Rice ultimate frisbee club

who helped us out with a lot of hard work, as well as our athletes. Just putting it on is a big act.”

However, Bevan said that hosting the meet was worth the extra effort, since it gives his athletes the rare opportunity to compete in front of their friends and family.

“It’s always wonderful to run at home in front of a home crowd and their peers,” Bevan said. “A lot of the girls on the team had peers who were there watching them, and you don’t have that enough in track.

We only have two home meets a year, so it’s nice to have their peers here watching them excel at what they practice and do for hours at a time every week.”

The meet wasn’t as big as it has been in the past, according to Bevan, because the Texas Relays at the University of Texas, Austin happened to be the same week. A handful of Owls even made the trip two and a half hours west, with junior thrower Erna Gunnarsdóttir taking second in the shot put with a throw of 17.29 meters, the fourth best mark in the NCAA this season at the time. Upon hearing about Gunnarsdóttir’s

Weekly Scores BASEBALL

RICE

MEN’S TENNIS

RICE

MEN’S TENNIS

RICE

WOMEN’S TENNIS

RICE

WOMEN’S TENNIS COURTESY RICE ATHLETICS Spectators watch the Victor Lopez Classic from the stands of Holloway Field. Rice hosted the meet this weekend for the first time since 2019 due to COVID-19 precautions.

personal best mark, Bevan was taken aback.

“Oh, Erna threw 56.8 [feet].” Bevan said. “Whoa, buddy.”

After the indoor season ended in early March, both teams are now two weeks into the outdoor season. Both teams will have until mid-May to prepare for the Conference USA championships. According to Warren, this early in the season, he is more concerned with his athletes’ progress than he is with their placement.

“What we’re really looking for this time of year is [finding] good races, good competition and [getting] good marks,” Warren said. “I’d rather have, take [Topini] for example. I’d rather have him run 3:43 and get eighth than 3:49 and win. Now, when we get to the championship portion … then it’s about placing.”

Next up for the both Rice teams will be the University of Houston’s Alumni Invitational and the University of Texas, San Antonio’s Roadrunner Invitational, both of which take place this upcoming weekend.

RICE

7-2 6-5 4-5

MARSHALL

4-3

NEW MEXICO

1-4

EAST TENN. ST.

3-4

ARIZONA

0-4 ARIZONA ST.

16 • WEDNESDAY, MARCH 30, 2022

BACKPAGE

Y2K Review: Not enough trifling, tomfoolery, or other mischief NDIDI NWOSU, ANDREW KIM, TIMMY MANSFIELD

BACKPAGE NEWS REPORTERS

It’s been two long years since Rice has had its first official public party, but now that it’s finally happened, students agree that it was … just okay.

Anonymous chief justices report being “bored” by the lack of calls.

“I mean it’s good,” an anonymous CJ confided in us. “I’m glad everyone was safe and had fun … but um … No one called me once! Not even to make a noise complaint! I was bored out of my mind.”

The lack of absolute shenaniganry even affected us here on the Backpage team. Y2K ran so smoothly that there was really nothing to make fun of. It was too perfect. We’re honestly at a loss here.

“We really struggled coming up with an idea for this week. We were hoping someone would poop in a hallway again or something, but what can you do, really. It is what it is,” said the team on the matter.

“I mean it was fine,” Lovett freshman Turndow N’phorwat says. “But … like, I was hoping DJ Banh Mi would start a mosh pit. ‘I want you on one side and you on the other, and I want you to kill the other side’ type beat. Y’all weren’t joking when they said ‘Culture of Care’, huh. Thought Bestie Bridget was joking about that, TBH. Guess I was wrong.”

Apologies for this blurry photo that looks like it was taken on a potato

Ok that’s it. That’s the article.

Since this Backpage this week couldn’t be as exciting as we hoped, enjoy these exciting images instead...

The Backpage is the satire section of the Thresher, written this week by Ndidi Nwosu, Andrew Kim, and Timmy Mansfield and designed by Lauren Yu. For questions or comments, please email dilfhunter69@rice.edu.