The Rice Thresher | Wednesday, September 28, 2022

Brochstein Pavilion’s new art reckons with ugly history via an idyllic view

MICHELLE GACHELIN A&E EDITOR

Sometimes, obscured messages come billboard-sized. Brochstein Pavilion’s newest wall art debuted last Friday for the Moody Center for the Arts’ fourth iteration of their Off the Wall series, a partnership between Moody and the Glassell School of Art’s Core Residency Program. “Death Drive” was created by interdisciplinary artist Danielle Dean to critique capitalistic greed and its exploitation of environmental and labor resources. Specifically, Dean examines the case study of Fordlandia, a utopian city conceptualized by automobile maker Henry Ford and built in the Amazon Rainforest in the late 1920s. A now-derelict rubber factory, Fordlandia’s failure had devastating consequences for the natural environment and indigenous Brazilian populations.

Dean was inspired by the aesthetics of advertisements throughout history in creating the piece, which resembles roadway advertisements.

“It kind of looks like a very large billboard stuck inside the wall,” Dean said. “It’s a watercolor that’s based on the history of advertising that utilizes watercolor or brush painting. It’s thinking about our relationship between landscape and the representation of landscape within advertising, in particular in relation to Ford cars. The adverts that are mashed together in this illustration are from Ford car ads: one from the early 2000s and one from the ‘40s. Our relationship to both landscape and the American Dream is also depicted within these adverts, which use the vast space of the American landscape as if it’s a place of freedom.”

Frauke Josenhans, the Moody’s curator, said that she selected Dean because of her previous work with large-scale installations, as well as her performances with banners and visuals. According to Josenhans, this work engages viewers to think critically about their surroundings.

KATHERINE HUI / THRESHER ART BY DANIELLE DEAN

It’s interesting because the audience will be lured in, because it feels a bit like a Disneylike landscape. But then by reading and looking closely, there hopefully will be more of an understanding of the dark side of capitalism.

Danielle Dean ‘DEATH DRIVE’ ARTIST

Close but no Bucket: Owls lose backand-forth battle with UH

Rice football lost their seventh-straight Bayou Bucket Classic to the University of Houston on Saturday night by a score of 34-27. The back-and-forth affair with the Cougars dropped the Owls to 2-2 on the year. Head coach Mike Bloomgren said that regardless of the result, he is very happy with the effort his staff and players put into the game.

“I am really proud of these guys,” Bloomgren said. “The way that these coaches put plans together and the way these kids fought and the way that these guys stuck together when things were getting tough out there. You gotta love it, and we are going to find ways to win these kinds of games.”

Losing a heartbreaker to their crosstown rivals, Bloomgren emphasized that his team was saddened by the end result of the game.

“It is no secret how bad they are hurting right now,” Bloomgren said. “They put a lot into this game, and when you sell out for something and it doesn’t go the way that you want it to, it hurts.”

MARIA MORKAS ASST.

EDITOR

At the Sept. 26 senate meeting, students presented two resolutions: one for the creation of a student reproductive health coalition and one for improving the accessibility of disability accommodations.

Senators Ally Godsil, Siddhi Narayan, Ariah Richards and Olivia Roark drafted and presented this legislation in response to the Supreme Court’s ruling on Dobbs v. Jackson and the Women’s Health Organization repealing protections on reproductive healthcare and rights.

The group’s intent is to identify the most critical areas of reproductive healthcare needs and address them through resource and information distribution.

Richards, a McMurtry College sophomore, said that the proposed

student task force would remain active indefinitely to address ongoing student concerns.

“This coalition is important to me because every student has a right to have access to reproductive health resources,” Richards said. “As it stands right now a lot of these resources exist, but they are inaccessible because our students don’t know how or where to access them.”

Additionally, Tyler Kinzy, a Wiess College sophomore, presented a resolution to improve the accessibility of disability accommodations. He said the resolution was in response to him realizing that Rice students with disabilities are responsible for initiating the conversation with professors about accommodations and arranging for them within the first few weeks of class.

The resolution proposes allowing students to send letters of accommodation to the instructors directly from the Disability Resource Center online portal.

“The genesis of this resolution was conversations I had with people I care deeply about at Wiess who’ve struggled with the imbalance [of] power dynamics in [communicating their] accommodations and a desire to streamline that process,” Kinzy said.

According to Kinzy, even though the resolution doesn’t solve the issue of destigmatizing disability, it helps students who are struggling in the short term.

“I think [in the] long-term, accommodations are a very important part of attempting to provide equal access to education for students with disabilities,” Kinzy said. “But even on a broader societal level, we have a long way to go in terms of truly creating a societal infrastructure that is inclusive of all, not just in regards to disability, but a variety of different identities.”

This article has been condensed for print. Read the full article at ricethresher.org.

The game started slowly, with both teams’ opening drives ending in punts. After going three-and-out on their second drive of the game, the Owls punted the ball to the Cougars who marched down the field and scored a touchdown to end the first quarter. Although the Owls were unable to respond immediately, a Cougar interception gave the Owls a short field and a four-play drive that culminated with a game-tying two-yard rushing touchdown by redshirt junior Ari Broussard.

The Owls’ defense forced a Cougar threeand-out on their very next drive, giving the ball right back to the Owls’ offense, who marched down the field thanks in part to a 34-yard run by sophomore wide receiver Kobie Campbell. A couple of plays later, Broussard scored his second touchdown of the day when he ran two yards into the endzone, giving the Owls a 14-7 lead. On their next possession, the Cougars drove down the field, but settled for a 37-yard field goal, cutting the Owls’ lead down to 14-10 at halftime.

PAVITHR GOLI ASST. SPORTS EDITOR

Proofpoint digest implementation brings mixed reactions

BONNIE ZHAO MANAGING EDITOR

Rice expanded Proofpoint Digest, an email filtering system that quarantines emails suspected to be spam or bulk into one single daily digest, to the undergraduate community this fall, leading to mixed responses within the student population.

Marc Cougle, associate vice president of IT infrastructure and operations, said that Proofpoint’s email protection is a cloudbased solution that allows organizations such as Rice to easily review all email and apply protective security filters to inbound and outbound email.

“This service can identify and protect users from spam, malware and other threats both known and unknown,” Cougle wrote in an email to the Thresher. “This includes imposter or look-a-like emails or spoofed email domains, which aim to trick people into sending money, sensitive information or could lead to email/account compromise.”

Cougle said that Proofpoint has been on campus since 2014 to protect private data and provide a way to send encrypted emails for those that needed it on campus; its anti-spam and anti-malware solutions were later added in 2017 for faculty and staff.

According to Cougle, Proofpoint is now implemented for all Rice email users to add an extra layer of protection and provide a consistent experience regardless of which email system their account resides on.

“While Google’s Gmail has basic spam and malware protections, they are not as robust or effective as Proofpoint’s, and continual attacks against those individuals on Google, primarily students but also an increasing number of faculty and staff, seemed to easily bypass the Google protections,” Cougle said.

Chief Information Security Officer Marc Scarborough said that expanding Proofpoint to the undergraduate community is partly because of increased scam emails targeting

students last year, resulting in monetary losses. Scarborough said that they began in-depth tracking of email-based phishing campaigns this February.

“Since then, we have tracked 53 significant campaigns against our campus. Approximately 26,500 individual attempts were made, with about 30 reporting that they had responded to the scammers,” Scarborough said. “Fortunately, we were able to warn them before accounts were compromised or personal money was lost.”

Grant Parajuli, a Baker College senior, said that Proofpoint quarantined an email from a journal asking him to approve a paper he was the co-author on.

“I think the email might have been delayed by about [three to four] days since I didn’t know where it was,” Parajuli said. “I couldn’t find it anywhere in my email since the only notification for it was in the digest. If I didn’t find it by luck, it would’ve been a much bigger headache.”

Parajuli said that Proofpoint has brought him more inconvenience than convenience.

“Technically, the paper will need to be in review for quite a long time, so it doesn’t really matter, but [it] shows that really important emails might get flagged by this service. It’s probably much worse for professors or grad students who do things like this more,” Parajuli said. “Most of the emails [Proofpoint] flags are Rice athletics promotions.”

Cougle said that Rice email accounts can sometimes be quarantined by Proofpoint because Rice has three email environments.

“Two of these, Google and Microsoft, are operated in the cloud by different service providers. While each system has a Rice email address, emails delivered from one to the other may appear as external to Proofpoint, since they come from different Internet-based email systems,” Cougle said. “In those cases, Proofpoint may evaluate an email as spam, malicious or a low priority email and filter it accordingly.”

Lawrence Zhao, a fifth-year Ph.D. student from the finance department, said that he has received Proofpoint’s daily digests since 2020.

“I think overall it’s brought convenience to me,” Zhao said. “The main benefit is that less important emails are grouped into a single email every day, so what’s left are usually more important emails. That said, I don’t have many spam messages to begin with, and there were a few occasions where important emails were blocked.”

According to Zhao, some of the important emails he missed over the years include prospective students inquiring about his Ph.D. program. But his biggest complaint has been the format of Proofpoint’s daily digests.

“It really isn’t mobile friendly — the font is really small and the alignment is often messed up, making it super hard to read,” Zhao said. “And I might be mistaken, but I don’t think [the system] has changed at all over the years. So it’s been like that forever.”

Vince Wang, a Brown College senior, said that he doesn’t like how Proofpoint quarantines his emails because he prefers

Rice breaks ground on Cannady Hall

VIOLA HSIA SENIOR WRITER

Construction broke ground earlier this month for the new School of Architecture building, a 22,000 square foot structure that will sit adjacent to the current architecture hall. In 2019, Rice announced the building would be named after Professor William Cannady, who has been a faculty member at Rice since 1964.

Cannady, lead donor, served for 55 years as a professor at the School of Architecture before retiring in 2019, only to become an adjunct professor at the Jones School of Business soon thereafter. Cannady said he is excited for the new addition to the school.

“We have an excellent school, great students, great faculty [and a] great campus,” Cannady said. “There’s some things that we need more of in [the architecture school] spaces. We’re trying to expand the school a little bit. If we do all that, we may have the opportunity to do things we haven’t thought about doing better and also do things better.”

Amber Wang, a junior from McMurtry College and a current architecture student, said the expansion will benefit the growing body of students at the school of architecture.

“The school has already been admitting more underclassmen as of 2021, so the expansion is ... a relief for upperclassman that have experienced shortages of space and resources,” Wang said, “The new building is a reminder to current architecture students like me that Rice architecture is continuing to evolve.”

According to Dean of the School of Architecture Igor Marjanović, the new building will connect to the current existing architecture building and house new facilities that include a fabrication space, new teaching spaces and exhibition spaces for students to display their work.

“We haven’t had a new building or a new addition since 1981,” Marjanović said. “Times have changed a lot since [then]. So the fact that we are having a new facility now, I think, is very transformational.”

President Reginald DesRoches said that the new Cannady Hall will pose new opportunities for architecture students.

“I think Cannady Hall is an aspirational building designed for architects and how they work,” DesRoches said. “Instead of office and classroom space, there’s open, collaborative space for faculty and students, as well as space to make the work

of the school more visible to the wider community.”

The building, designed by Swiss architecture firm Karamuk Kuo, will present different possibilities for students exploring different fields within architecture, according to Marjanović.

“People come to architecture from many different backgrounds. Because of that, I think the building will be a great engine for architecture students, in a sense, that allows them to do many different kinds of work,” Marjanović said.

Jeannette Kuo, of Karamuk Kuo, said that she has enjoyed working with the students and the faculty of the school in designing the building.

“To think about the future of architectural education and what that means and how we can provide for that at Rice, which is, of course, within the U.S., a very respected undergraduate and graduate program for architecture … was actually quite special,” Kuo said.

Marjanović said that naming the building after Cannady reflects his

to filter them on his own, and it also delays important information for him.

“[Advertisements], for example, are not important academic emails, but I still like to open some of them for information. I know I technically can still receive them by clicking ‘allow sender,’ but it’s just extra work,” Wang said. “Let’s say Venmo. I used to receive emails of transactions immediately, but now I have to go into the app to confirm.”

Jordan Killinger, a Will Rice College senior, said that she finds Proofpoint convenient.

“I really like it. it keeps me from having to click an email just to unread it. And one less email can be helpful,” Killinger said.

Cougle said that Proofpoint continues to improve their security offerings, and the office of IT continuously evaluates those features or services to better protect the Rice community.

“Furthermore, OIT is moving towards a full cloud-based modernization of our email environment for everyone, which will allow for a more secure and better user experience,” Cougle said.

legacy and generosity within the architecture school.

“His legacy is significant in two ways.” Marjanović said. “He gave us the resources to actually build this building. [Also], he’s been teaching our students for more than five or six decades. I think there is nothing more rewarding than to name a building after your colleague and a faculty member who has influenced generations of students.”

KATHERINE HUI / THRESHER

Rice breaks ground on new architecture building on Sept. 15.

HAI-VAN HOANG / THRESHER

This service can identify and protect users from spam, malware and other threats both known and unknown.

Marc Cougle ASSOCIATE VICE PRESIDENT OF IT INFRASTRUCTURE AND OPERATIONS

Rice community celebrates Hispanic Heritage Month

EMILY LONDON STAFF WRITER

The Office of Multicultural Affairs and student groups like the Hispanic Association for Cultural Enrichment at Rice have come together to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month, a national acknowledgment of Hispanic culture which runs from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15. There will be cultural events across campus to commemorate the month.

Events this month include a game night, a documentary screening, a display at one of the football games, a concert and more. The planning committee for Hispanic Heritage Month tried to encompass a wide variety of events throughout the month, according to Vice Provost for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Alexander Byrd.

“Some [events] are cultural and celebratory [and others] focus on intellectual issues and discussions,” Byrd said.

HACER, the largest Hispanic cultural organization on campus, will host one event each week throughout the month. One such event will be a “Passport to Latin America,” where attendees can visit booths representing different countries to try their food and learn about their cultures. HACER co-President Jaime Fuentes Salgado said this event will showcase the diversity within the Hispanic community and spotlight cultures that are often under-represented.

“Our main mission this year is to be more inclusive of cultures that are not wellrepresented, so this event is a good way to do that,” Salgado, a Sid Richardson College senior, said.

Salgado said he is most excited about Latin Pub Night, an event in collaboration with Pub that historically was a Hispanic Heritage Month tradition but hasn’t been held since 2019.

“This is our opportunity to bring it back and bring it back better than it was before,” Salgado said. “I went my freshman year, and I loved it. Now being part of the planning process, I’m trying to make it as big and exciting as I can.”

Salgado said that HACER has also tried to incorporate celebrations of Hispanic culture in other parts of daily life on campus. They’ve collaborated with Rice Coffeehouse and East-West Tea to bring Hispanic cultural drinks like the mangonada and horchata to students, and Salgado hung up flags from various Hispanic countries in the RMC.

Salgado said there’s also a display in Fondren library commemorating the

Kinder receives $50 million grant

50th anniversary of HACER this year and celebrating its history.

“We have a Fondy display that’s like a ‘walk through the decades’ with the past of HACER, the present and the future of what we’re planning to do,” Salgado said.

These displays, Salgado said, help Hispanic students to feel represented on campus and expose others to the beauty of Hispanic culture.

“We’re really trying to emphasize the cultural enrichment part of our mission, to show that we should be proud of who we are and show other people why we’re proud and show them the beauty of Hispanic culture,” Salgado said.

For another event this month, Luis DunoGottberg, the Baker College magister and an associate professor of Caribbean and Film Studies, worked with the Baker Diversity Council and the Spanish Consulate’s Office

to bring famous flamenco-jazz composer Jorge Pardo to perform on campus. The free concert will be held in the RMC Grand Hall on Oct. 7.

“It’s not the traditional flamenco thing that you would imagine from Southern Spain, dancing on a table with a rose in their mouth,” Duno-Gottberg said. “That’s some of it, but it’s more experimental. It should be very exciting.”

Byrd said that this year’s event planning faced complications when the staff member in charge of coordinating the month left midway through the process. The planning committee relied on other members’ previous experiences in planning Hispanic Heritage Month events at Rice to make the planning go as smoothly as possible.

“That created a little bit of a scramble, but he had gotten things off to a good start, and the committee worked really hard to finish things up,” Byrd said.

Duno-Gottberg said he encourages every student to attend Hispanic Heritage Month events, because they not only will be fun and enriching for the students who come, but they will also help to acknowledge and appreciate the large Hispanic community here at Rice.

“The Hispanic population is here in Houston, but [it] is also here at Rice,” Duno-Gottberg said. “They’re doing things, making the university work, making life for the students better. Acknowledging their presence and their contributions is a thing we have to do out of decency and out of consideration for others.”

HackRice returns in-person for year 12

HAJERA NAVEED NEWS EDITOR

The twelfth annual HackRice was held in-person this past weekend for the first time since 2019. Anthony Yan, one of three student directors, said that while engagement was slightly lower than previous years, the event ran successfully.

MARIA MORKAS ASST. NEWS EDITOR

The Kinder Foundation announced a $50 million grant to Rice’s Kinder Institute for Urban Research on Sept. 23.

According to Director of the Kinder Institute Ruth López Turley, the institute focuses on five main areas of research — housing and neighborhoods, economic mobility, community health, education and population research — and utilizes a holistic approach to solve societal challenges.

“The Kinder Institute aims to support Rice’s mission and strategic priorities, including expanding our research infrastructure, securing more research funding, recruiting and retaining topnotch students, faculty and staff and engaging and serving our community through research that improves lives,” Turley wrote in an email to the Thresher.

Rich Kinder, chairman of the Kinder Foundation, said in a Rice news article that the Kinder Institute has done important work in shaping Houston.

“However, we can do more to inform and more directly address the challenges our communities face, particularly in the areas of housing,” Kinder said.

Turley said that since this grant serves as an endowment to the institution, it ensures the longevity of the institution’s work.

“Endowment funds cannot be spent. But rather [they] are allowed to grow so that they generate revenue, which is spent,” Turley said. “We plan to use these revenue funds to expand the institute’s team so that we can take on more work on behalf of our community.”

The Kinder Institute uses a partnership research model, working closely with community partners who use the institute’s research to reform their efforts in making Houston better. According to Turley, this is one of the reasons why she believes the Kinder Institute is special.

“In addition, we aim to work with community partners regardless of whether they can afford to pay for research — this is why this recent gift is crucial,” Turley said. “There are many organizations in Houston that are working hard to make Houston better, but most of them have very limited — or zero — research capacity. We want Rice to be known for [its] research excellence in service to our community.”

Provost Amy Dittmar said she is grateful for the Kinder Institute serving as a pillar of the university’s outreach and engagement within the community.

“This gift ensures that their important work will have a lasting and deeply engaging impact on many of the most pressing issues in Houston … and serve as an [example] for other urban research,” Dittmar said.

Along with plans to expand the structure and staff of the Kinder Institute, Turley said that the institute’s overarching plan is to focus on a vision of inclusive prosperity.

“There are huge economic disparities that must be addressed to ensure that everyone has an opportunity to build and share in Houston’s prosperity,” Turley said.

The 36-hour hackathon involved teams of up to four students creating a software, or hardware, project designed to solve a problem specific to an event category. Eisha Hemchand, a McMurtry College sophomore, said she participated in the hackathon to gain more project experience.

“In college, it’s harder to have a larger chunk of time to really dedicate yourself to a bigger project, so having this built in time where you can actually work [collaboratively] and be in an environment with other people who are also interested is really cool,” Hemchand said.

While sign ups for the event were comparable to last year, the submissions were less than expected, according to Yan. He said he believes competing with other events, such as the Baker Christmas public, led to lower hackathon engagement.

“With a lot more in person events, there is a lot more competition with [other] events now so it is hard to keep the attendance as it was last year,” Yan, a junior from Will Rice College, said.

Rosendo Pill, customer success manager at Major League Hacking, which sponsored the event, said that he thinks participating in the event allows students to build invaluable skills.

“A lot of students feel like they are learning skills at hackathons that they can’t necessarily learn within the classroom setting, things like collaboration, learning specific technologies that they aren’t going to learn from a formal CS class,” Pill said.

Yan said that the opportunity to network face-to-face was a benefit this year.

“We have a lot of different sponsors and companies come in person to us, [so] it is kind of like a mini career fair before the hackathon,” Yan said. “As we all know, in person networking and meeting is a lot more valuable than virtual.

Manning Unger, a McMurtry sophomore, said he appreciated the opportunity to talk to recruiters in his field of interest.

“You get to talk to a lot of people who are in technology that are in industry and obviously the main goal of college is to get a job, so that is the hope there,” Unger said.

Isabel Wang, a Duncan College freshman, said that though she isn’t planning for a computer science career, the hackathon provided an opportunity to learn important skills.

“It’s definitely kind of a launch pad where it teaches you a lot of the fundamentals and how to use certain platforms so that you can create projects later on,” Wang said.

Scotty Shaw, founder of Tech Tree Root, another event sponsor, said that, as someone who has been to many hackathons across the country, he thinks HackRice can serve as an example for other schools’ hackathons.

“I would say that out of the ones I have seen, if you are talking [about] all the events that aren’t on the [east or west] coasts, so far HackRice has been the best one in terms of hospitality [and] quality.”

FRANCESCA NEMATI / THRESHER

Flags from various Hispanic countries were hung up in the RMC to celebrate this month.

COURTESY ANTHONY YAN

COURTESY JEFF FITLOW

Nancy and Rich Kinder shake hands with President Reginald DesRoches at the Kinder Institute’s Sept. 22 advisory board meeting.

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is satire, not journalism

Every week, the Thresher’s Backpage staff spend their Monday nights in a corner of our office coming up with a satirical take on the week’s news. Their goal is simple: to bring some levity to what might otherwise be a dreary week of problem sets, essays and exams. Their works of comedy also serve as a delightful ending to much of our more serious journalistic content; and for this reason, the Backpage is a consistent favorite for many of our readers.

But despite the Backpage being a central part of every issue, we’ve realized that it’s important to clarify that, with its own group of staff members, the Backpage is a separate section from the rest of the Thresher. While we demand unbiased, thorough reporting in our other sections, the Backpage is not journalism, and we do not treat it as such. The quips and banter poking fun at current campus affairs are made with the sole purpose of entertaining, not informing the Rice community. That’s what the rest of the paper is for.

We understand that the Backpage content sometimes offends people. Satire does offend. We strive to ensure that the Backpage does not stereotype or capitalize on marginalized communities. But other than keeping common-sense

decency, we encourage the Backpage staff to come up with ingenious jokes, practice their free speech and, most importantly, to have as much fun as possible while doing their jobs. The Backpage has relentlessly mocked both Rice University administration and the undergraduate student population for years. It is also not uncommon to see the Backpage content seemingly “contradict” itself, as they’ve made fun of the frequency of COVID testing and the lack of COVID testing at Rice in almost consecutive weeks. The Backpage is not written with a fixed agenda in mind, as comedy often isn’t.

In today’s world, it can sometimes be hard to tell just where the jokes end and earnest beliefs begin. Therein lies the beauty of the Backpage — it’s a joke! All of their content, every single week, cannot be taken out of context or misconstrued. We should celebrate the fact that such a space exists.

We hope, moving forward, that our readership will not conflate our satire section with the totality of our paper’s content. However, if you really want to voice your complaints, refer to the disclaimer at the bottom of the page and email dilfhunter69@rice.edu.

Read more at ricethresher.org

Universities should support the public good

Betterment of the world, that is, contributing to the public good, must be the ultimate mission of Rice.

... Improving the world is the goal; unconventional wisdom is the means.

Moshe Vardi COMPUTER SCIENCE PROFESSOR

Rice is not your average school. We don’t want an average band.

Starting this season, Rice’s Marching Owl Band, longtime instigators of musical shenanigans at various Rice sporting events, will no longer play at basketball games — a role the university intends to fill with the traditional-instruments-only, student-only, audition-only, near-perfect attendancerequired Owl Pep Band. To the three of us, this is a slap in the face to everything the MOB, and indeed Rice, stand for.

According to Rice Athletics, our removal and replacement is an improvement as Rice moves to a better conference, and they say a conventional band will attract and animate crowds to improve the home advantage our basketball teams enjoy at Tudor Fieldhouse. To us, this means the MOB, and the quirky side of Rice that we represent better than anything else, is unwelcome in Rice’s cold, corporate public image as it seems to reject the “unconventional wisdom” it uses as a selling point. For decades, the MOB’s incarnation as the Basketball Owl Band has performed at dozens of basketball games each season, lead crowd chants, and put on comedic half-time shows. If waving our cutouts of memes while wearing Aloha shirts can’t attract the crowds Athletics is looking for, then a run-of-the-mill pep band, with no energy to give outside of their stand tunes, will fail.

String and miscellaneous instruments obviously don’t fit that insipid sameness of nearly every other basketball band that Athletics wants to copy. Violins are hardly even audible over percussion and wind instruments, so Athletics must think the mere sight of unexpected instruments risks frightening off attendees. But James, the MOB’s accordionist, can readily affirm the opposite: He and fellow members of the Stringatronics section, like our cellist and ukulelist, bring a wow factor that nothing can come close to replicating. Upon introducing himself and mentioning he plays accordion in the MOB, people have frequently

responded with admiration: “You’re the accordionist? I’ve seen you! That’s so cool!”

Athletics doesn’t grasp what would be ruined by excising this instrumentation. Alumni and community members are excluded, purportedly because it would be too complicated to pay them, but this easily remedied obstacle is a poor excuse.

students to audition and commit to 30 games in that same way.

Ryan would have conducted the BOB as its drum minor but is eligible to audition for the new pep band as a trombonist. To him, being stripped of such a privilege while being asked to join this new band is insulting. The stated motivations behind this band don’t come close to justifying the disregard and ungratefulness shown to so many MOBsters, who sacrificed their time for no compensation. Rather than lend the MOB a modicum of support, Athletics would demolish a vibrant instance of campus life and spend thousands of dollars per week on a substitute with embarrassingly little thought put into it. We doubt throwing money in such a manner at what is ultimately a sideshow attraction will earn them back that investment.

EDITORIAL STAFF

* Indicates Editorial Board member

Ben Baker-Katz* Editor-in-Chief

Morgan Gage* Editor-in-Chief

Bonnie Zhao* Managing Editor

NEWS Hajera Naveed* Editor

Maria Morkas Asst. Editor

Keegan Leibrock Asst. Editor

OPINION Nayeli Shad* Editor

FEATURES

Riya Misra* Editor

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT Michelle Gachelin* Editor

SPORTS Daniel Schrager* Editor Pavithr Goli Asst. Editor

SPECIAL PROJECTS

Prayag Gordy* Editor

BACKPAGE

Timmy Mansfield Editor Ndidi Nwosu Editor Andrew Kim Editor

COPY

Jonathan Cheng Editor Annika Bhananker Editor

PHOTO, VIDEO, & WEB

Katherine Hui Photo Editor Cali Liu Asst. Photo Editor

Jasmine Liou Video Editor Camille Kao Asst. Video Editor

Eli Johns-Krull Asst. Video Editor

Brandon Chen* Web Editor

DESIGN

Robert Heeter Art & Design Director

Anna Chung News Siddhi Narayan Opinion Alice Sun Features

Ivana Hsyung Arts & Entertainment Olivia Robson Sports Lauren Yu Backpage

BUSINESS Edelawit Negash Business Manager Ariana Moshiri Social Media

Jazmine Castillo Distribution

To Kaitlyn, a clarinetist, the MOB has been an accessible alternative to the traditional college marching band experience — a way to unwind a few times a week with friends, and without the pressure of mandatory rehearsals or games. Rice students are perpetually busy, because even outside of heavy course loads, so many of us devote our free time to more than just one passion. In the fifty years since Rice’s marching band was reborn as the MOB, it has scattered instead of marched, and welcomed members regardless of their musical prowess or ability to show up consistently. This structure acknowledges the reality of life at Rice, and for decades has given Rice a more comprehensive band than it may have had otherwise. We’re skeptical that the Owl Pep Band can fill its roster from the talent pool to which it’s restricted. MOBsters devote countless hours throughout basketball season because they get to do it with their friends amid an invigorating atmosphere. The offer of money can’t get

This decision disturbingly echoes Rice’s sale of KTRU in 2010, which also happened without consulting its members. Both undermine student autonomy and Rice’s connection to its alumni and wider community. Despite the assurances we’ve been given, we can see a simple answer to the inevitable next question: If the BOB doesn’t fit the university’s image for its new conference, how does the MOB at all? We call on Rice Athletics to reinstate the Basketball Owl Band — and to motivate this, for student musicians to join us in boycotting the Owl Pep Band.

Kaitlyn Esneault BROWN COLLEGE JUNIOR

James Karroum ENVIRONMENTAL ANALYSIS GRADUATE STUDENT

Ryan Mbuashu-Ndip HANSZEN COLLEGE JUNIOR

In “Volleyball upsets No. 17 Creighton, jumps into top-25,” the fifth-year senior middle blocker is Anota, not Anote, Adekunle.

Main St.,

To us, this means the MOB, and the quirky side of Rice that we represent better than anything else, is unwelcome in Rice’s cold, corporate public image as it seems to reject the “unconventional wisdom” it uses as a selling point.

Explore these Houston attractions from new heights

has a retractable rooftop, which allows the open space to be covered in case of bad weather. Rise Rooftop hosts a variety of concerts for a wide range of genres, with some upcoming shows including concerts from Matoma to Mom Jeans and events from a Shrek-themed rave to Croptoberfest.

Rooftop Cinema Club

Marriott Marquis Texas Pool

RENLY LIU / THRESHER

NISHANKA KUTHURU THRESHER STAFF

Check out Houston from a new perspective by visiting some of the city’s best rooftops scenes. These venues offer varieties of activities to keep their visitors entertained throughout the day, with sunrise yoga at Skylawn, midday swimming at Marriott Marquis or nighttime dancing at one of the many rooftop

bars. Browse through some of the following recommendations to explore Houston from above.

Rise Rooftop

Looking to escape campus for a night? Rise Rooftop is a music venue less than four miles from campus that hosts a multitude of shows, from concerts to conferences to holiday events. Located in the heart of midtown, this event space

One of only a handful of rooftop cinema clubs in the world, The Houston Rooftop Cinema Club is truly a unique experience. Using wireless headphones for each person, moviegoers can enjoy films outside without distractions. Standard tickets range from $17.50 to $25.25, depending on ticket type and day of the week, but students can enjoy 10% off with the voucher code UptownStudent2022. From dates to solo outings, the Rooftop Cinema Club, located less than eight miles from campus, is a perfect way to enjoy a movie under the stars.

Skylawn at POST

How many things can you put on a roof? The answer is: far too many. The Skylawn rooftop at POST Houston includes seven distinct gardens, a skyline promenade, an event space, a stage, a game space and much more. A never ending source of entertainment, Skylawn hosts events ranging from yoga and Zumba lessons to outdoor concerts. With five acres of rooftop, Skylawn is the perfect place to enjoy outdoor activities with friends while witnessing a spectacular 360-degree view of Downtown Houston.

JAYAKER KOLLI CROSSWORD EDITOR

Too hot outside? Beat the heat by going to The Marriott Marquis in downtown Houston. This hotel is equipped with several amenities, including a spacious sixth-floor rooftop terrace. Called Altitude Rooftop & Pool, this impressive venue has been compared by many visitors to a tropical rooftop park. Including both a heated rooftop infinity pool and an exclusive Texas-shaped lazy river, you can enjoy long hours of relaxation under the Texas sun by staying at the hotel or purchasing a day pass.

Z on 23 Rooftop Bar

Perched on top of Le Méridien Houston Downtown Hotel, you will find Z on 23 Rooftop Bar, Houston’s highest open rooftop bar. A stylish cocktail bar with a fantastic 360-degree view over Houston, Z on 23 boasts beautiful sunset and skyline views. Looking for a drink while you enjoy the magnificent view? This bar’s menu includes a wide selection of handcrafted signature cocktails, premium spirits and wine.

77 Degrees Rooftop

One of the trendiest bars in Houston, 77 Degrees Rooftop is set over four levels. The Caribbean-themed open venue has a mix of cabanas and swings to sit on while you enjoy one of their famous $12 Caribbean-inspired specialty cocktails, such as the “Cayman Account,” or any of their tropical treats. Climb to the top of the venue and treat yourself to panoramic views of the Houston skyline.

Brag 404,

Observe Yom Kippur

Rice- or seed-based agua fresca Aids and

Brazilian soccer legend

Subject of many readings?

Infectious misfolded

Plant used in caffeinated Guarani

Camping gear

via

Scout’s brother in “To Kill a Mockingbird”

Type of retirement account

Like some seats

or

Soup server

unit

Fruit smoothie with chamoy and tajin

Lyft alternative

Publication read by many doctors, for short Limeade, in Brazil

Let off the gas

Kanga’s kid

Rep. opponent, in Nov. Bear with black skin and hollow

Way to play without

Not tall

music

One who is highly sought-after? In _____, Nirvana’s final album Uncommon

Largest First Nations group Burden

Taking testosterone, for short Faux ___

ACROSS DOWN

A view of the Houston skyline from Skylawn at POST.

Diving into the DEEP with Rice’s Data Science Club

DANIKA LI FOR THE THRESHER

Data Education and Exploration Program is an annual data science showcase competition put on by Rice’s Data Science Club, open to all levels of coding experience.

According to Vinay Tummarakota, president of the Data Science Club, the program consists of a semester-long workshop series that alternates between lessons where senior Data Science Club students teach curriculum, and applicationstyle workshops where mentors help students apply skills learned the week before. Over the course of the fall semester, student teams develop projects on their chosen data set, and eventually present in a final showcase.

“[Students] start by importing [their] data set, transporting it, cleaning it, visualizing it, modeling it and communicating results to a broader audience,” Tummarakota, a Hanszen College senior, said. “Each of our workshops is really designed to target each of these different skills within the process, and over the course of the process, each of the students is really building a data science project from the ground up.”

Melody He, a McMurtry College sophomore, said she initially came to Rice interested in studying math or computer science, but she decided to participate in DEEP this year after learning more about data science last year and hearing feedback from a friend who previously participated in the program.

“I like that [DEEP gives] you a lot of guidance. They do a lot of workshops that cover the basics, and then you take the workshops and apply them to your own datasets,” He said. “I feel like that’s a really good step-by-step process of getting exposure to data science.”

According to He, her group is studying a data set about thyroid disease, which she hopes will provide her more experience with data science analysis and coding.

“Learning more about thyroid disease and the intersection of data science and healthcare is something that’s super fascinating to me,” He said.

Beyond bolstering skills in the data analysis field, DEEP can also serve as a useful introduction for students without prior data science knowledge.

Caleb McKinney, a Will Rice College sophomore, said he didn’t have any prior experience in data science before he joined the program as a freshman.

“A lot of people had taken AP Statistics in high school. My school didn’t have that [class], so I came into DEEP not knowing any statistics or data science,” McKinney said. “I knew that I wanted to be a computer science major but [didn’t know] what I wanted to

do with it. Data science has been a really popular path, so I wanted to really explore that.”

DEEP also helps prepare students for future opportunities, both inside and outside of the Data Science Club. Grace Wang, a Sid Richardson College sophomore, and McKinney said they both returned as mentors this year after having a positive experience last year, and they found their DEEP experiences useful within the context of other data science roles as well.

“I had a research position this summer at the Rice Neuroscience Institute,” McKinney said. “I really recommend [DEEP], I think it was applicable to my research role and prepared me well for it.”

Wang said she performed data analysis as an intern for the Wellbeing and Counseling Center during the past spring semester and currently analyzes data in the Warmflash lab at Rice.

“My DEEP experience interested me in the real-world application of data,” Wang said. “Data by itself is too discrete. I really like to see concrete results and know that there’s something more that could come out of my analysis, which is why I went for a computational biology lab.”

Working with DEEP can also provide guidance for students trying to figure out their academic interests. Manasvi Paturu, a sophomore at Sid Richardson said DEEP helped her realize that data science was not her passion.

“I got to [gain] experience with data science and figure out whether or not I liked [the subject] and got experience presenting at the final showcase,” Paturu said. “I also met a great mentor [who] I’m still friends with and ask questions to, not just about data science and DEEP, but computer science and stuff that I need help with.”

Notably, DEEP does not require any prior coding experience to join. Tummarakota said he stresses the importance of STEM information availability and translates this accessibility into DEEP’s policies.

“When you look at a lot of other organizations, particularly in the context of STEM on campus, they do have a lot of barriers to entry,” Tummarakota said. “I think it’s a really great benefit that we can provide this information for free to anyone who’s interested, because ultimately, that’s what being in a college environment should be like.”

ROPEing Rice into the outdoors

Cortez said that ROPE is unique because it allows students to participate in outdoor activities, even if they lack experience or equipment.

Rice’s location in Houston is beneficial in a variety of ways. After all, we have access to entertainment, culture and research in a world-class city. However, we don’t have as much access to nature — a problem Rice Outdoor Programs and Education is trying to solve.

ROPE is a program offered by the Barbara and David Gibbs Recreation and Wellness Center. This program provides students, staff and faculty the opportunity to go on various outdoor trips each semester. ROPE trips range in skill level and duration and are aimed at people with various time commitments and outdoors experience. Students can also apply to be ROPE trip leaders, which entails planning and facilitating their own outdoor excursions.

According to Kris Cortez, the assistant director of Outdoor Programs at Rice, ROPE began as an outdoor club, growing into the program it is today when the new Rec building opened in 2009.

“Initially there was an outdoors club called [Rice Outdoors Club], and that was when [the Rec] was inside Tudor Gym,” Cortez said. “When the expansion or new building happened here at the Gibbs Recreation Center, ROPE became the primary program.”

Cortez said the program is important because it offers nature-related activities in the midst of an urban environment.

“We’re set up to provide [outdoors] experience without students having to bring anything to the program,” Cortez said. “Our explanation for students is ‘you need to show up with clothes, and we’ll provide everything else.’”

Sophia Figueroa, a trip leader, said she joined ROPE because she wanted to share her love for the outdoors with others.

“I discovered over quarantine that I really enjoy the outdoors – spending time outdoors and doing different activities like hiking and camping,” Figueroa, a Lovett College sophomore, said. “I decided to join [ROPE] as a [trip] leader because I want to explore more of Texas and do different activities, and also to help share that [experience] with other students at Rice.”

Despite Figueroa’s enthusiasm about her ROPE peers, she said that ROPE trips could benefit from further undergraduates amongst their participants.

“I would love to see more undergraduates doing the trips,” Figueroa said. “[There’s] actually a surprising amount of graduate students that sign up for trips, which is great. But I think after the pandemic there’s been a need for more undergraduate participation.”

Evan Dunbar, a Duncan College junior, said he has enjoyed the opportunity to meet new people as a ROPE trip leader.

“I plan and lead trips with about one to two other leaders per trip, and then I lead about two or three of those every semester,” Dunbar said. “I’ve really enjoyed the interpersonal connections and being able to teach people about something that I

Dunbar said he is particularly excited about a freshmen-only backpacking trip that ROPE will be hosting later this semester. He said he believes the trip will provide a welcome introduction to ROPE.

However, Dunbar said the program could be improved with further funding.

“[More funding would allow us to] have more leaders and be able to run more trips concurrently,” Dunbar said. “Right now, we’re limited. We have one vehicle to transport people in, so it makes it very difficult to run more than one thing at a

According to Figueroa, ROPE is an important program because it allows people to explore outdoor activities that may seem inaccessible otherwise.

from the city,” Cortez said. “[ROPE trips allow people] to be physical, be active, think about nature and relax – all benefits that aren’t necessarily available on campus or even in Hermann Park.”

“I feel like if people aren’t given the opportunity to try new things such as camping for a weekend or going on a kayak trip, then it’ll be harder in the future to find things like that,” Figueroa said.

This article has been condensed for print. Read the full article at ricethresher.org.

Get $2 Off your pre-tax purchase of $10 or more. One coupon per person,visit at the Main Street location only. In store or online. Not valid withother offers. Reproductions of this coupon will not be accepted. ExpiresDecember 31, 2022

MADISON BARENDSE FOR THE THRESHER

I came into DEEP not knowing any statistics or data science.

Caleb McKinney WILL RICE COLLEGE SOPHOMORE

VIVIAN LANG / THRESHER

SHREYA JINDAL / THRESHER

‘R2: The Rice Review’ to host open mic

talents to the event through a musical theater song. This will be McClung’s first time performing at an open mic, and she said that the familiarity of an allRice setting helps make the event less stressful.

“Everyone watching [at a Rice open mic] is kind of in the same part of life as me and there’s less of a pressure to be an upcoming professional. You can just do something you love and share it with people who have something in common with you,” McClung said. “I’m always looking for opportunities to get to participate in music and do something that I enjoy, even though I’m not really pursuing it as a professional career.”

Gargi Samarth, a Brown College senior, will be reading a poem on Thursday. Like McClung, Samarth said that they appreciate the informal and welcoming atmosphere of an open mic.

ACL Survival Guide 2022

MORGAN GAGE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

FELICITY PHELAN FOR THE THRESHER

This Thursday evening, Rice community members will gather in Ray Courtyard to celebrate their peers’ artistic talents and share their own. Performances, some scheduled and some impromptu, will run from 8 to 10:30 p.m. and will include music, poetry, comedy and other ways Owls are spreading their creative wings.

The fall Open Mic Night is a key event for “R2: The Rice Review,” Rice’s undergraduate literary journal, which has been hosting the event for over a decade. Initially located in The Pub at Rice, it migrated in 2017 to Lyle’s in the Lovett College basement and joined the rest of the Rice community on Zoom in 2020. Since 2021, the event has found an outdoor home in Ray Courtyard. The increased space has allowed the event to accommodate large crowds — last year, the event attracted a crowd of nearly three hundred people.

McKenna Tanner, a Hanszen College junior, is one of the R2 editors-in-chief and an organizer for this year’s Open Mic Night. For her, the event is a way to showcase the often-overlooked artistic talents of the Rice community.

“When you talk to people about Rice, so many people are just focused on the STEM aspect, when, realistically, Rice is a place full of a lot of really talented and creative and smart people in all kinds of domains,” Tanner said.

Lily Weeks, another R2 editor-inchief and event organizer, said that they see Open Mic Night not only as a way to

highlight artistic talents outside of STEM, but to challenge the dichotomy often created between the two fields and invite the Rice community to engage in interests outside their usual academic pursuits.

“[There are] STEM majors or people unaffiliated with certain [artistic] groups that can use this as a chance to try something different out or do something that they wouldn’t normally have the opportunity to showcase,”

Weeks, a Jones College senior, said.

Mariachi Luna Llena, Rice’s mariachi band, will also be performing on Thursday.

“Compared to, say, a formal concert or other readings, I feel like open mics are meant to be casual. They’re meant to be intimate,” Samarth said. “[The audience] can clap, they can snap, they’ll make noises of encouragement or feel the emotions with you, and they’re encouraged to show [their reactions] rather than be quiet as a form of respect.”

Lopez thinks Mariachi Luna Llena’s performance will be an opportunity for some of the band’s members to share an aspect of their identity with their peers.

Art to me is still a form of communication before all else. Some communications are meant to have a response and some are just there to be put out into the world, but either way you’re telling someone something. You’re telling a story.

The band draws its members from across Rice’s academic departments, including multiple engineers. Alan Lopez, an electrical engineering major and the band’s president, says he also sees this diversity reflected in Rice arts as a whole.

Gargi Samarth BROWN COLLEGE SENIOR

“Mariachi is such an essential part of the Mexican culture,” Lopez said. “It’s very beautiful that we get to share that culture with the Rice community … even though [some people] don’t know the lyrics to the songs or they don’t have history with Mariachi music or experience with it, they still receive it well.”

For Samarth, this idea of sharing and connection connection to others is deeply intertwined with art.

“[Rice has] pre-meds or business majors that are also artists and musicians, and that’s awesome because you wouldn’t expect it,” Lopez, a Martel College senior, said. “That’s what makes Rice so great and makes our community beautiful.”

Ava McClung, a Lovett College freshman, is planning on bringing her

Meet the ACL Artist: Izzy Heltai

MICHELLE GACHELIN A&E EDITOR

Izzy Heltai has spent almost a decade working to be heard. From sleeping in parking lots to performing for hundreds of people, he is intentional in finding joy throughout his journey. Now that he’s reached a turning point in his career, the singer-songwriter’s hard work is finally paying off, with multiple tours lined up through the spring and a stint at this year’s Austin City Limits Music Festival. Heltai is currently on tour with Bear’s Den before hitting Zilker Park on Oct. 15.

Heltai started writing songs as a teenager, and by the time he was eighteen, he was booking small venues like coffee shops, gallery openings and breweries.

“It was seven or eight years from then to my mid-twenties of just playing

wherever I could for $50 and nobody really listening,” said Heltai.

He strung these local gigs along in a makeshift tour, which brought him through Texas, Wyoming and Canada, among other places.

“It would take me out for two, three months at a time. I would sleep in my car — I built a bed in it. I would just sleep in WalMart parking lots, Planet Fitness parking lots. I had a black card so I could shower … I would go wherever I could.”

Heltai’s drive to make a name for himself by any means necessary was fueled by his belief that he needed to perform at a consistently high level in order to succeed, which he says is due to his intersectional identity as a transgender person and the son of European immigrants.

“One of my favorite parts [of] sharing my poetry is seeing what it means to other people,” Samarth said. “Art to me is still a form of communication before all else. Some communications are meant to have a response and some are just there to be put out into the world, but either way you’re telling someone something. You’re telling a story.”

It’s been a year since my last ACL survival guide of dubious quality, and I’ve returned with another to prepare all wannabee Austinites and music lovers for one of the largest music events Texas has to offer. This music festival spans two weekends, eight stages and features over 100 musical acts and a long list of food options. The 2022 festival dates are set for the weekends of Oct. 7-9 and 14-16, and one-day tickets are still available for purchase.

If you’re as annoying about live music as I am, you might be planning on making the trek to Austin, and, to ease your prefestival worries, here is the Thresher’s Unofficial Guide to ACL.

When, where and how do I get there?

As I mentioned before, ACL spans two weekends. There are some small differences in the festival line-ups. A few artists are only going to be there for one or the other, so it might be worth considering which artists are a must-see for you.

However, it’s worth noting that the first weekend coincides with Rice’s midterm break, for better or worse. Maybe you’re planning a road trip for the long weekend! Or, if you’re like me last year, you’re planning to use Monday and Tuesday to recover from the (exhausting) whirlwind of an ACL weekend (and to catch up on work — no Thresher that week, sorry. I get to go camping).

Zilker Park, the location for the festival, is in south Austin, so it’s worth keeping your travel plans in mind if you’re looking for somewhere to stay. For those who aren’t making the two-and-a-half-hour drive themselves, round-trip Megabus tickets from Houston to Austin start at approximately $40.

COURTESY IZZY HELTAI

“I am a trans person. My mother is a woman in tech, and in the 80’s she was working as a mathematician in a field that was all men, basically. [This work ethic] was always hammered into me — unless we are functioning at 150 percent at all times, we have no chance of getting anywhere. The privileged in our culture get

[there] for being at 80 percent some of the time.”

Heltai said that he remained naïve to the fact that he wasn’t initially making progress until he reached a turning point in his career.

This article has been cut off for print. Read more online at ricethresher.org.

Singer-songwriter Izzy Heltai will perform at Austin City Limits Music Festival Oct. 15.

Read more online at ricethresher.org.

VIVIAN LANG / THRESHER

NDIDI NWOSU / THRESHER

“I think it is an image that will appeal to a lot of people because it has so many different layers to it,” Josenhans said.

“The first thing you see is this really beautiful, peaceful landscape scenery … When you read more about the work, you understand how [corporate strategies] had a huge impact on indigenous populations in other countries — in this case, Brazil — and how these scenes, topics and narratives are still embedded in the images that surround us.”

rubber trees were planted close together, and they actually suffered from tree blight and died because bugs could jump across from the trees,” Dean said. “So the connection [between] this illusion of the abundance of nature and the freedom that these Ford car adverts depict of nature is interesting [because] the car production caused a lot of environmental destruction and death.”

Budget Bites: $4 vs. $15 Spring Roll

Goi cuon: a classic, yet overlooked staple in Vietnamese cuisine. Competing with the likes of pho and bánh mì, the spring roll is often underappreciated, commonly served as a shared appetizer or side dish. However, don’t be fooled — if executed poorly, the dish can ruin one’s entire experience, from soggy rice paper wraps to low-quality filling

ingredients. Typically, the spring roll includes some form of meat — think shrimp, pork or tofu — as well as a medley of rice vermicelli noodles, lettuce and other herbs. A fish sauce dip is traditionally served alongside it, but peanut sauce can accompany it as well.

This article has been cut off for print. Read more online at ricethresher.org.

‘DEATH DRIVE’ ARTIST

Much like the Ford advertisements themselves, “Death Drive” is deceptively picturesque at first glance.

“It’s interesting because the audience will be lured in, because it feels a bit like a Disney-like landscape,” Dean said. “But then by reading and looking closely, there hopefully will be more of an understanding of the dark side of capitalism.”

This discordance between the natural environment and capitalist agendas for mass production is reflected throughout the piece. For instance, Dean’s watercolor acknowledges the labor of the Amazon Mechanical Turk workers by planting a computer screen in the center of the landscape.

“Nature doesn’t always abide by certain rationalist ways of being organized. The

Dean’s archival research on Fordlandia is a major theme throughout her work. Currently, she is teaching a course about using historical archives to create researchinformed art at the University of California San Diego, where she is an assistant professor. Dean said that she is particularly motivated to explore capitalism’s reliance on racism to ultimately help people reframe material histories.

“The archives are often from the point of view of the bureaucrats of the managers, or the colonialists. They’re never from the point of view of the people who are being oppressed,” Dean said of her research. “So you really have to dig into the archives and not take them at face value and find ways to read between the lines, and maybe even speculate so that you can get closer to what it might have actually been like for the people who are being oppressed … The archive itself is mostly only telling a onesided point of view, and usually it’s the point of view of power.”

Review: “Industry” takes the leap with a poignant second season

WILL COVER THRESHER STAFF

The finale of the stellar second season of “Industry” features a relatively cliché sports metaphor, so it’s only fitting to start this review with one of my own. There are a few universally satisfying moments in sports: the underdog who beats an obnoxious

powerhouse, the aging star who has more left in the tank than we thought or the young talent who puts it all together and goes from promising to a superstar. This season, “Industry” took that leap.

This article has been cut off for print. Read more online at ricethresher.org.

Review: Djo creates a dreamy, psychedelic journey with “DECIDE”

JACOB PELLEGRINO THRESHER STAFF

On “DECIDE,” actor and musician Joe Keery expands his solo project Djo’s sound to ambitious new places. Although many people primarily know Keery through the show “Stranger Things,” where he plays Steve Harrington, he’s been involved in music for years and is a former member of Chicago psych rock band Post Animal. “DECIDE” is his sophomore album, a follow

up to 2019’s impeccable “Twenty Twenty.” Keery may wear sunglasses and a shoulder length wig while performing as Djo, originally in an effort to separate his music from his TV character, but “DECIDE” exhibits some of his most personal songwriting to date.

This article has been cut off for print. Read more online at ricethresher.org.

Rice professor’s film explores environmental crises in Bellandur Lake

“I think we live in a time of aesthetic confusion when it comes to how we are supposed to relate to some of these things,” Thirumalaisamy said. “When the foam was showing up on the roads for the first time, I read a news article that said that someone got out of their car to go and play with it because they were so enamored by this thing that kind of looks like snow in a place where it doesn’t snow.”

policy. And they’re very carefully designed to protect certain people and render others disposable.”

COURTESY RICE UNIVERSITY Sindhu Thirumalaisamy, Rice assistant professor of film, held a film screening of her documentary, ‘The Lake and the Lake,’ last Thursday, Sept. 22.

FOR THE THRESHER

Environmental crises are not typically portrayed as slow in the media, but Sindhu Thirumalaisamy’s award-winning 2019 documentary film, “Kere mattu Kere,” or “The Lake and The Lake,” stands as a counterpoint to the standard environmental activist narrative.

Bellandur Lake is the largest kere, or lake, in Bangalore, India, and it acts as the receptor to sewage released from the rapidly urbanizing city.

“I used to live around this lake before I moved to the US, which is where I started working on this film,” Thirumalaisamy, a Rice assistant professor of film, said. “I lived not in viewing distance of the lake but in smelling distance, which is a much farther radius. I feel like it’s a part of me in some ways.”

Last Thursday, Thirumalaisamy’s film screening marked the first event of the year in the Humanities NOW series. Fay Yarbrough, a Rice professor of history and an associate dean for undergraduate programs in the School of Humanities, began the

series during the pandemic to showcase the relevance of humanities research to contemporary challenges in the world.

“People need the humanities to understand what is happening to make sense of what is going on around them,” Yarbrough said.

While introducing the film, Thirumalaisamy explained that Bellandur Lake’s toxic foam, fumes and recurring fires have become the center of international media attention. Those who live near the lake face a daily environmental crisis, even as life persists around its foamy waters.

But the film takes a slower approach, opening to footage of the foam churning over the lake’s surface. We see people and wildlife coexisting — the lake’s migrant communities continue to use the lake for its natural resources and as a place of worship and gatherings.

“I wanted to think about different kinds of beauty, both terrible and socially meaningful,” Thirumalaisamy said.

In the post-film discussion, the audience brought up the film’s depiction of Bellandur Lake’s beauty despite its pollution, and the discomfort that this contradiction brings.

When asked about the title, Thirumalaisamy pointed to China Miéville’s novel “The City and The City,” in which there are two cities that share the same geographical space.

“It’s like the serial of how many different lakes could exist for how many different people,” Thirumalaisamy said.

This multifaceted view of the lake was particularly impactful for Caroline Mascardo, a freshman from Lovett College.

“We tend to be very solutions-oriented and have this idea of what is good, what is bad [and] what will fix things,” Mascardo said. “There is a lot more nuance — there are so many layers in terms of who and what is affected.”

In particular, the film showcases the very visible socio-economic and caste divides of Bangalore through the apartment complexes towering over the impoverished settlements closest to the lake. Although the film centers around urbanization in India, Thirumalaisamy believes that there are resonant parallels with Houston too.

While environmental activists often depict Bellandur Lake as one that needs urgent saving, Thirumalaisamy asks us to critically look at the crisis as inextricably tied to social and cultural challenges. She explained that after the film was completed, many migrant communities were raided and destroyed by the police.

“There are no clear separations between people and environments, [which] I try to teach in my classes,” Thirumalaisamy said.

During the filming process, the lake was both restricted and unrestricted, according to Thirumalaisamy. Despite the signs that warn against trespassing, people still went to worship there, social workers monitored levels of pollution and journalists visited to cover the kere, among others. As a filmmaker, Thirumalaisamy wanted to honor these social interactions and the persisting life that continues to exist around Bellandur Lake.

Sindhu Thirumalaisamy

“The funny thing is that when I started making the film, people would be like, be careful out there, it’s really dangerous over there, there’s no one there,” Thirumalaisamy said. “But I did not sense that I was doing something dangerous just by being there.”

On the other hand, accessing the sewage treatment plant was far more challenging.

“In Houston, like in Bangalore, city planning decides who remains disposable to floods and who remains protected,” explained Thirumalaisamy. “Those kinds of decisions are designed. They come out of

“They didn’t have the infrastructure to process the quantities of waste that the city was producing, and so they would let it just pass through,” Thirumalaisamy said. “I could never get that shot because they were so paranoid that I would make them look bad.”

IVY LI

In Houston, like in Bangalore, city planning decides who remains disposable to floods and who remains protected. Those kinds of decisions are ... very carefully designed to protect certain people and render others disposable.

RICE ASST. PROFESSOR OF FILM

SYDNEY PARK THRESHER STAFF

The connection [between] this illusion of the abundance of nature and the freedom that these Ford car adverts depict of nature is interesting [because] the car production actually caused a lot of environmental destruction and death.

Danielle Dean

Extra, extra! Student-athletes grapple with unexpected year of eligibility

REED MYERS SENIOR WRITER

News of the COVID-19 outbreak is a flashbulb memory for many people who can recount the exact moment they first heard the news. For senior infielder Benjamin Rosengard, he was incredibly saddened when he first heard the news that the outbreak had canceled his sophomore baseball season at the University of Chicago.

“At practice, we heard some rumors that our season was maybe going to be canceled; so it was a very emotional practice, especially for our seniors,” Rosengard said. “We were all called in, and [our athletic director] delivered the news, and it was just instant tears from nearly everyone. I’ll never forget that and that feeling of having the rug pulled right from underneath you.”

In a matter of hours, the NCAA canceled championship tournaments and entire seasons because of the COVID-19 pandemic in March of 2020. It took months before games got back up and running, and while football was able to play on a relatively normal schedule that fall, other seasons — like soccer — were delayed until spring 2021.

student forward Alexis Stover were now faced with a decision to make.

“I actually had no intentions of playing basketball again,” Stover said. “I was going to go the graduate assistant route at a different college. So it was hard … when I was trying to decide whether I was going to go to Rice or be a graduate assistant somewhere else, but I made that decision because I wasn’t ready to hang up the shoes yet.”

The NCAA said that the extra year of eligibility was to provide opportunities for student-athletes impacted by the pandemic. But it also caused a logjam for athletes like Rosengard, who were in the transfer portal trying to find a new home during the pandemic.

The way that I’ve always looked at it is that there’s a ticking time clock that you don’t really know when it’s going to end, and so I’ve always wanted to play baseball as long as I could because I love it so much.

Benjamin Rosengard SENIOR INFIELDER

“It was very difficult because you couldn’t visit anywhere in person, you couldn’t meet anyone in person, they couldn’t come out to watch any summer ball with COVID, so it was a very, very difficult and frustrating process,” Rosengard said.

NCAA volleyball tournament because of COVID-19 protocols, the time was right to enter her life’s next chapter after her senior season.

“Wrapping up my senior year, I just got to the point where I felt content being done with the sport, which was really weird because I’ve played it my entire life,” LaBue said. “It’s kind of scary thinking that like ‘oh, you’re not going to do this again,’ but I was at the point where I had accomplished so many of the things that I wanted to do, and the thought of pursuing a life without volleyball was extremely scary, but also really exciting.”

During the decision-making process of returning for a fifth year, athletes also took into account their ability to further their education and how it would fit in with their post-graduate plans. For former swimmer Marta Cano-Minarro (‘22), this was a significant factor in her decision not to use her fifth year of eligibility.

“When we started considering it as an option in the fall, we realized it wasn’t feasible to complete an additional major or a minor in the little time I had left at Rice if I decided to stay,” Cano-Minarro said. “Therefore, I chose to use the year following graduation to work and get some good lab experience before I start applying to grad school.”

No matter the logistical headaches or life implications of sticking around for another year, for some athletes, Rosengard included, the decision boiled down to maximizing the time spent playing the sport they love.

“There’s a very short period in your life where you can play the sport that you love, and so one day, if it’s at 23 or if it’s at 40, the jersey is going to come off,” Rosengard said.

“The way that I’ve always looked at it is that there’s a ticking time clock that you don’t really know when it’s going to end, and so I’ve always wanted to play baseball as long as I could because I love it so much.”

Because of the postponement and cancellation of games and seasons, the NCAA decided to give collegiate athletes who played a spring sport during the 2020 season or a fall or winter sport during the 2020-2021 school year an extra year of eligibility. Given an unexpected opportunity to play another year, athletes like graduate

“On top of that, that was when the COVID backup started, so, for example, I talked to Rice out of the University of Chicago, and they didn’t have any roster spots or money left, because they had some fifth years coming back from COVID.”

While some athletes decided to come back for their extra year of eligibility, plenty still chose to call it a career after their traditional senior year ended.

According to former libero Elizabeth LaBue (‘22), a member of the Owls team that got knocked out of the 2020-21

Anota Adekunle redefines what it means to be a middle blocker

CADAN HANSON SENIOR WRITER

The middle blocker position is known for what its name implies: blocking the middle. Middle blockers are usually the first line of defense, quickly reading and blocking up the opposing team’s attacks. But Anota Adekunle, a fifth-year senior from Humble, Texas, transcends the typical middle blocker role by adding a strong offensive presence in addition to her defense. When asked about the position she’s played since middle school, Adekunle said that the middle blockers’ role is usually to act as a distraction on offense.

“We’re technically just supposed to be blocking,” Adekunle said. “That’s our job. We focus on a lot of defensive things and act like decoys on offensive. When the defense bites on us, it opens up other people to hit the ball freely. A lot of the time, the middles aren’t the ones getting the big kills like the outside hitters.”

But if there is anything that Adekunle is known for, it is her big kills that light up the arena. According to Adekunle, what really sets her game apart is her versatile offensive attack.

“Usually middle blockers run quick tempo balls and only hit middle position,” Adekunle said. “But I sometimes hit on the right side or … in the middle which is not very common for a middle blocker.”

Adekunle’s head coach, Genny Volpe, referred to her as “one of the most exciting, dynamic attackers in college volleyball,” claiming that “you often

Adekunle’s unique style of play has allowed her to etch her name into the school record books. Over her five years as an Owl, she holds Rice records in single-game and season hitting percentages; she also made the Conference USA First Team All-Conference in each of the past three seasons and was named the C-USA Tournament MVP in 2018. In 2021 and 2022, Adekunle earned an honor a bit more patriotic than the rest when she was selected to the U.S. Women’s Collegiate Volleyball National Team. As one of 35 players selected, along with her teammate, fifth-year setter Carly Graham, Adekunle said that suiting up alongside players that she would otherwise be competing against was an amazing experience.

“I loved getting an opportunity to play for the U.S. National team,” Adekunle said. “I got to meet so many people from different schools and walks of life. It was amazing to get to connect with those girls and also learn from them. It was also nice to be on the same side of the net as them.”

Adekunle said that part of what made the experience so rewarding was being able to work with highly decorated and respected coaches.

“I got to work with coach Karch [Kiraly], the [U.S. women’s national volleyball team] head coach, and was able to take away some great tips from the great coaches and Olympians there,” Adekunle said. “I tried to soak it all in and be a sponge, trying to take what they were saying and put it in my back pocket so that I can use it in games.”

Adekunle and the Owls have made the NCAA tournament in four straight seasons, and as her Rice career nears its end, Adekunle said that not only do they intend to make it five in a row, they hope to make a deep tournament run.

“Our goals are to win the regular season, win conference, make the NCAA tournament and hopefully go past the Sweet Sixteen,’’ Adekunle said. “They are big goals but we’re ready to chase them. We’ve made it to the NCAA tournament before but making it past the Sweet Sixteen is really a big goal of ours and something we are willing to fight for.”

Currently in the first year of a two-year graduate program in global affairs, Adekunle is unsure of how her career as an Owl will end, but hopes to return to the national stage and represent her country as a professional volleyball player.

“I’m hoping to go pro and be able to play for the USA team again,” Adekunle said. “I’m still in the process of seeing how my Rice career will finish out, but it is definitely something I want and something I’m working toward. Being able to play for your country is one of the biggest honors you can get and I hope to continue to do so in the future.”

don’t see [these types of performances] from a middle blocker.”

KATHERINE HUI / THRESHER Typically, a middle blocker mostly plays defense. But Anota Adekunle (middle) has made an impact for the Owls on both sides of the ball.

GUILLIAN PAGUILA / THRESHER

New approach might make volleyball more dangerous

The idea that losing a key player can make a team better – often called “addition by subtraction” – has been at the center of many a hot take over the years. At first glance, the Rice volleyball team would appear to have a case of addition by subtraction on their hands this season. After losing their all-time kills leader, outside hitter Nicole Lennon, the team has somehow gotten better this season. Two games into their conference schedule, they’re 12-1 on the year and ranked No. 22 in the NCAA after beating then-No. 17 Creighton University. At this point last season, they were 8-5 — albeit against a slightly stronger non-conference schedule. In the past, head coach Genny Volpe’s teams have struggled against difficult non-conference schedules before fixing their flaws against overmatched conference opponents and hitting their stride at the end of the year. If this team is still a ways off of their peak, which is a big if, it would be the best team Volpe has had in years.

The strange part about the Owls’ success this year is that they’re doing it without a clear replacement for Lennon. Where Lennon contributed 4.44 kills per set last year, no Owl on this year’s team has a figure above three. Instead, they’ve taken a collective approach at replacing her production. While last year’s team had only two players above the 2.5 kills per set threshold, four players have reached it this year. Fifth-year senior middle blocker Anota Adekunle has taken on some extra responsibility, chipping in an extra 0.3 kills per set compared to last year, while outside hitters Ellie Bichelmeyer, Danyle Courtley and Sahara Maruska are all on pace for career highs in kills. This has made the Owls offense far less predictable and keeps opposing defenses constantly guessing — their four primary attack options have almost identical kills-per-set numbers and no Owl had led the team in kills in consecutive games until Adekunle accomplished the feat just over a week ago. That unpredictability has helped the Owls limit the damage of losing one of the best players in program history, but it hasn’t completely replaced her production. Their 13.67 kills per set as a team is almost but not quite on par with their 13.85 figure from non-conference play last year.

The real root of the Owls’ improvement this year has been their defense. They’re averaging 1.2 more digs per set than last year, while they’re holding opponents to 1.2 fewer kills per set than last year – and all of those figures should only improve as they play more conference games. Leading the charge has been junior libero Nia McCardell, who’s averaging nearly two more digs per set than last season’s team high at 5.35, and opened the year with three straight Conference USA defensive player of the week awards.

Soccer’s new system might be key to a tournament run

While their new offensive approach isn’t quite as potent on a per-set basis, it’s given them flexibility that they didn’t have a year ago

However that isn’t the entire story behind their improvement. While their new offensive approach isn’t quite as potent on a per-set basis, it’s given them flexibility that they didn’t have a year ago. Last season, the Owls’ first choice was to get the ball to Lennon, and their second choice was to use her as a decoy for one of their other attackers, with the ultraefficient Adekunle contributing kills as well but on relatively few attempts. If teams were able to stifle that, Rice had little else to turn to. When they lost the first set last year, they went on to win just two of eight matches. This year, they’re 3-0 in those games, including comebacks against Louisiana State University and Texas Tech University where their offense looked completely overmatched in the first set, and a reverse sweep of Kansas State University. They can’t be expected to keep that 100% rate up over the course of an entire season, but so far their versatility on offense has allowed them to seamlessly pivot when Plan A isn’t working. That’s not a result of losing Lennon — if she was still around it would give them yet another option in attack and make the offense even more versatile — it’s the result of three Owl outside hitters enjoying breakout seasons at the same time. But when the postseason comes around and they have to play tougher opponents, their ability to pivot might prove to be a secret weapon. Just don’t call it addition by subtraction.

Daniel Schrager SPORTS EDITOR

Although Rice soccer is coming off three straight wins to start conference play, their struggles early in the season are notable enough to cast doubts. While the Owls went up against and lost to some of the best teams in the NCAA, such as No. 8 Florida State University and No. 23 Southern Methodist University, they also struggled against much weaker opponents such as Samford University and Loyola University Maryland. Formation changes and familiarity with the system seem to be having a positive impact on the quality of play at the start of conference play, but will it be enough to guide them past the ConferenceUSA and toward the NCAA Tournament glory seen less than two years ago?

After starting the season 2-5, the Owls were matched up against the defending national champions FSU. Head coach Brian Lee featured a new 3-2-4-1 formation that emphasizes rotation throughout the field to overload both the offense and the defense while accommodating for gaps left on the opposite side of the field. Lee was also encouraging the central attacking midfielders to put pressure on the opposing center-backs, inciting either defensive mistakes or clearances where the Owls could win back possession and quickly counter.

The squad has stuck with this formation and found success against conference opponents, winning their first three conference games by a combined score of nine to two. The Owls showed improvement over those games as well, creating only three against the University of Texas at San Antonio, but bringing their production up to 17 shots in their most recent game against Louisiana Tech University. The issue with this formation, however, is that it was exploited by an FSU side that scored five goals against a Rice team that struggled to maintain possession. The Owls’ defensive midfielders, key components to this specific formation, were picked apart by FSU attackers, creating enough gaps to outnumber the three Owls defenders. The current system may lead the Owls to a solid conference record, but it’s hard to see how it’ll fare up against faster and more aggressive opponents.

Lee professed at the beginning of the season that the newcomers, both transfers and freshmen, would play a huge role in the success of the team, and a quick look at the minutes played in each game confirms

his statement. Graduate transfers Grace Collins and Madi Allen and freshmen Kallie McKinney, Jules Johnston, Jessica Molina and Carsyn Martz have all been featured and played prominently in nearly every game. Collins, forward and right midfielder in the current formation, has had impressive performances throughout the season, setting the Rice and C-USA record for most assists in a game and currently has the seventh-most assists in the NCAA this year. Martz, a centerback, has also turned in solid performances while spearheading a back line of three that features two former attacking players on either side of her. Along with a strong set of returning players, the team has the skill necessary to compete against the strongest sides in the nation, but only time will tell if their current system can be perfected enough to generate results.

Two seasons ago, the Owls began an unprecedented run that saw them at the heart of the NCAA tournament. An upset win against No. 5 West Virginia University carried the squad to the Sweet Sixteen of the NCAA tournament, just three games away from championship glory. An important part of that season was being tested and overcoming high-performing teams before the NCAA tournament. If the team wants to replicate that success this season, those types of games must be taken advantage of, especially taking the new system into account. Despite dropping games against SMU and FSU, there are still opportunities left to showcase where the trajectory of the season might go. Facing Texas A&M University and the University of Alabama at Birmingham on the road and hosting the University of North Texas will all be tough games for the Owls and crucial for the team’s development and confidence. Under Lee, the Owls have shown in flashes that they can compete with the best teams in the nation. But only time and experience in their new system will tell if this year will bring back that NCAA success or another year of unfulfilled potential.

Diego Palos Rodriguez THRESHER STAFF

FRONT PAGE

The Cougars, who received the secondhalf kickoff, scored a touchdown in four plays and less than two minutes into the half. The Owls’ offense responded with a touchdown of their own after McMahon connected with McCaffrey on a deep 52-yard pass. This backand-forth continued as the Cougars scored a touchdown on their next drive, giving them a 24-21 lead halfway through the third quarter. The Owls tied the game at 24 with a 42-yard field goal on their next possession.

The Owls’ defense came up big at the start of the fourth quarter, stopping the Cougars on a 4th and one. With the ball back, the offense converted their good field position into a 43yard field goal and a 27-24 lead. The Cougars responded with a field goal of their own, tying the game at 27-27 with five minutes left to play in the game.

The Cougars’ defense forced a McMahon fumble a few plays later and took the ball in for a touchdown, giving the Cougars a 34-27 lead with just over three and a half minutes remaining. On their next possession, the Owls’ offense gave the ball right back to the Cougars when McMahon threw his first interception of the day.

The Owls’ defense forced a Cougar three-and-out, giving their offense one last opportunity with 24 seconds left. McMahon made several big throws, including a 51-yard Hail Mary pass to Bradley Rozner, putting the ball at the Cougars’ nine-yard line with just one second left. However, McMahon failed to connect with McCaffrey on the final play of the game, sealing the Cougars’ victory.

Bloomgren said that a handful of big plays by the Cougars at the end of the game made the ultimate difference.

“[They] made a couple more plays than we did in the fourth quarter,” Bloomgren said. “They had a couple of big third-down conversions, [pressured] the quarterback and found a way to win the game.”

The Owls start conference play next weekend when they host the University of Alabama at Birmingham Oct. 1 at 6:30 p.m. Despite the loss, junior linebacker Chris Conti, who racked up a team-high 11 total tackles against the Cougars, is keeping his head up and focusing on the next game.

“Next week is a new week. We are going to watch the film and let it go,” Conti said. “In college football, we can’t reflect on the past too much. We are going to come in … and work for the UAB game.”

Luke McCaffrey runs with the ball last Saturday against the University of Houston. He finished the game with seven catches, 121 yards and a touchdown, but the Owls fell to the Cougars 34-27.

COURTESY RICE ATHLETICS

Along with a strong set of returning players, the team has the skill necessary to compete against the strongest sides in the nation, but only time will tell if their current system can be perfected enough to generate results.

HackRice: A Rich History

Reverse engineers your webcam to allow you to talk to your assigned CIA agent; shut down by the National Guard before release

Helmets that use facial recognition to determine if your sexual partner reacts positively or cringes at your dirty talk and provides a performance report upon climax (Note: results may be unreliable for data collection < 20 sec.)

Carefully researched algorithm predicting the end of the world—drops 23 years every time Eminem releases an album; drops 106 years every time SCOTUS releases a ruling

Smartphone app that displays a Shaq highlight at a random time every day

Repurposes existing Tooth Tunes technology to open a voice channel between you and another person brushing their teeth around the world

Initially meant as international cybersecurity weapon; accidentally unleashed as unremovable virus across all Rice-affiliated devices

2019 2021 2022

Delivers a small shock when user begins thinking about Harry Styles

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Rice Alum hiring well-qualified tutors for all levels of STEM, Humanities, and Social Sciences. Reliable transportation highly preferred. Pay $30/hr+ based on experience. Email resume to sri. iyengar@sriacademicservices.com. Visit our website www.sriacademicservices. com to learn more!

PUPPIES

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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.

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