The Rice Thresher | Wednesday, April 19, 2023 by The Rice Thresher

‘The only catharsis that comes to mind’: Students open up about suicide

Editor’s Note: This article contains graphic mentions of suicide attempts. Students interviewed were given the option of remaining anonymous in the interest of keeping their experiences private. The anonymous students were given false names, which have been marked with an asterisk on first mention. If you or anyone you know are thinking about suicide or experiencing a health crisis, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988.

“The way that people view suicidal ideation is very interesting to me,” Gargi Samarth, a Brown College senior, said. “You tend to see the person who is dealing with them as less of a person, [like] they’re not as capable of understanding themselves, being self aware or as possessing rationality.”

This translates into heightened fear and stigma of people grappling with suicidal ideation, Samarth said. But it also, they said, encourages people to “write off” their own mental health difficulties when they experience them.

“You think that if it was really bad, you would … be crying in the bathroom, and the French depressing music is playing and it’s like black and white, you know?” Samarth said.

From suicidal thoughts to attempts on their own lives, the Thresher spoke to former and current students about their experiences with suicide on campus.

Samarth struggled with their mental health throughout high school, but when they came to Rice, they said they were doing better than ever. That changed in the spring of their freshman year when campus shut down due to COVID-19 and they returned to their high school bedroom and, in a way, their high school mental health — which didn’t bounce back, even after campus returned to “normal.”

“Everything somehow wasn’t fine … We’re putting the worst part of isolation behind us and trying to rebuild a community,” Samarth said. “I think there was this expectation that I could just ignore, wipe away or erase how bad I had been feeling and just be better now, but …. it was just a breaking point.”

PROJECT REASSESSING 2003

Alaina Bertram (’21) experienced similar degrees of isolation after being sent home during the pandemic in the middle of her junior year. As she grappled with a change in routine and mounting depression back in her childhood home, she said her suicidal ideation reappeared.

“It’s difficult to really talk about suicidal ideation because there’s kind of a line between suicidal ideation and being suicidal. I mostly dealt with the suicidal ideation aspect of it … I was always sort of passively suicidal,” Bertram said. “The fact that I graduated from college was a huge deal to me. Now I’m 24, and I was never supposed to make it to 23. I never had a plan to kill myself. I just always sort of assumed it would happen at some point.”

‘Unique cocktail’ of stressors

Thomas Avalos, a Lovett College senior, spent 10 years in the Marine Corps. Suicide in the military, he said, “has a strong presence in the veteran community, myself included.”

He noted that multiple other men he served with died by suicide.

Avalos said he wanted to be a marine his whole life. When he left, he said that it felt like there was “a very big

void through the center of my life.” Avalos said that once, when talking to Veteran Affairs, they asked him if he felt a feeling of hopelessness, and he said yes.

“I didn’t feel … like life was worth living,” Avalos said. “We had, not necessarily money problems, but money wasn’t always around, so I remember thinking at one point I’m worth more dead than alive.”

With weapons, particularly firearms, in the house, Avalos said it was difficult not to think of suicide. That began to change when he started “reinvesting” in himself by returning to school to earn his degree to focus on “Thomas Avalos, the person, as opposed to Sergeant Avalos, the marine.” However, thoughts of being “better dead than alive” resurfaced in the face of academic stress coupled with a pressure to excel in his classes.

Bertram echoed similar sentiments of academic pressure, saying she grew up conflating her self-worth with her grades — an especially difficult thing to separate after entering college, when her happiness hinged on the subjective grading scale of introductory classes.

SEE SUICIDE AT RICE PAGE 6

Philip Humber revisits a career of ups and downs

LANDRY WOOD THRESHER STAFF

At 9:01 p.m. on June 23, 2003, Philip Humber’s teammates tackled him to the ground. He had just thrown a complete game, allowing two runs on five hits, against Stanford University. At the moment the last batter grounded out, Humber was awarded his eleventh win of the season and Rice became the national champion of a team sport for the first time in school history. So, at the base of the dogpile, Humber lay smiling.

“The national championship,” Humber said, “is the thing I’m most thankful for that happened during my baseball life.”

Humber grew up in Carthage, Texas and elected to play ball at Rice over signing with the Yankees out of high school. He saw success under Owls head coach Wayne Graham, stepping into the starting rotation as a freshman in 2002. That year, the team reached, but exited early from, the College World Series, losing their first two games and being eliminated before Humber could have his first Omaha start.

The next season, the Owls rode a schoolrecord 30-game win streak through the middle of the season to make it back. Throughout, the Owls’ “Big Three” starters — Jeff Niemann, Wade Townsend and Humber, all sophomores — excelled, in Humber’s eyes benefitting from the team’s solidity on defense.

“[The streak] is mind boggling to think about now,” Humber said. “Being able to win 30 consecutive games, at any level, is hard to imagine because things that don’t go your way just happen. But I think that just showed how solid we were, since in baseball, pitching and defense is really what wins you most of the games.”

After coming home as a champion that June, Humber prepared for another season with many of the key components which brought success in 2003. Things went well for Humber in 2004, as he improved his ERA to 2.27 and set the Rice singlegame strikeout record, ringing up 17 University of Hawaii hitters. However, according to Humber, a pattern of ups-anddowns began to appear during that year’s NCAA tournament that would come to characterize his career.

“The last game that I pitched [that year] was the last game of our season,” Humber said. “I came in relief and ended up giving up, as the last pitch I threw in college, a grand slam. You went from my last game in 2003, where you can’t get any better than that … to that incredibly low moment.”

Humber entered the Major League Baseball draft the next day and was selected by the New York Mets as the third overall pick, immediately behind MLB star Justin Verlander and before Niemann. Humber’s career, however, remained unstable.

This article has been cut off for print. Read the full article at projects.ricethresher.org.

VOLUME 107, ISSUE NO. 26 | STUDENT-RUN SINCE 1916 | RICETHRESHER.ORG | WEDNESDAY, APRIL 19, 2023

I think there was this expectation that I could just ignore, wipe away or erase how bad I had been feeling and just be better now, but …. it was just a breaking point.

Gargi Samarth BROWN COLLEGE SENIOR

I never had a plan to kill myself. I just always sort of assumed it would happen at some point.

Alaina Bertram RICE UNIVERSITY ‘21

MORGAN GAGE & RIYA MISRA

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF & FEATURES EDITOR

COURTESY RICE ATHLETICS Philip Humber threw a complete game to seal Rice’s 2003 College World Series victory. Humber later threw a perfect game with the Chicago White Sox before struggling and being released.

The national championship is the thing I’m most thankful for that happened during my baseball life.

What Rice’s only national championship means 20 years later SEE PAGES 7-10

Philip Humber FORMER RICE PITCHER

SPECIAL

Rodolfo Gutierriz-Garcia BAKER COLLEGE JUNIOR

Honor Council limits use of ChatGPT

The Honor Council sent an email to all undergraduates on April 11, announcing an Honor Code amendment explicitly prohibiting the use of artificial intelligence software such as ChatGPT without proper citation.

Additionally, the email clarified professors’ right to ban the use of AI software for their classes.

“Utilizing AI software to generate ideas and pass them off as one’s own will also be considered plagiarism and will be adjudicated as such by the Honor Council,” the email said.

The email also clarifies that use of AI software “for your own study purposes is allowable.”

Rodolfo Gutierrez-Garcia, Honor Council internal vice-chair, explained that rather than creating a new policy, the amendment was a clarification of previous policy.

“We’re going to be treating it like any other resource,” Gutierriz-Garcia, a Baker College junior, said. “If you don’t cite it when you use it, that’s plagiarism.”

According to Honor Council communications chair Pedro Ribeiro, this decision was driven by the Honor Council.

“Administration had no play in this at all,” Ribeiro, a McMurtry College

sophomore, said. “We only started meeting with [administration] to really facilitate outreach … We thought it was a common-sense amendment we could pass.”

Ribeiro added that the Honor Council would consider evidence such as revision history and proper citation of AI software when adjudicating cases. According to Gutierrez-Garcia, the Honor Council is not currently planning to use AI detection software for various reasons.

Maya Irish, an associate professor of history, said she intends to prohibit the use of AI in her classes.

“My plan is to be very explicit throughout my policies regarding ChatGPT or any other artificial intelligence tools,” Irish said. “I’m thinking of just banning it all together and making it very explicit in the syllabus that it’s not allowed. If [students] have … a good argument why they have to use it, they’d have to ask me.”

Additionally, Irish said her class’ policy would extend to the use of AI tools for personal study purposes.

“[The policy] says using AI for your own study purposes is allowable … that point seems very problematic to me, because I ask students to find articles on the subject of their research and read them,” Irish said. “If they’re just going to go and use artificial intelligence to summarize them, that defeats the purpose of education.”

Mack Joyner, an assistant teaching professor in the computer science department, said he has a more positive view of AI software.

“It’s important not to highlight only the negative side of ChatGPT, but the positive aspects,” Joyner said. “From that standpoint, [faculty] need to really think through in which cases it should be allowed.”

Joyner said potential applications of AI software in the computer science department include improving a student’s existing code or debugging programs.

“If there’s an error [students] could ask for more information, maybe, what are the possible solutions to fix this particular error,” Joyner said. “Students ask that now, but maybe [with AI software] they can get a more detailed answer that leads them to a solution, instead of spending hours trying to define what that particular solution would be.”

Sid Richardson College sophomore Michael Wong said that he believes the clarified policy is reasonable.

“It seems reasonable to me that you can’t pass off the AI’s work as your own,” Wong, a computer science major, said. “But also I don’t see a problem with using it like a tool. It’s like Google on steroids.”

However, Wong said he still had some confusion over the permissible uses of AI software.

“I wrote code for this assignment and it passed,” Wong said. “I asked the AI, ‘Is there a way I can optimize the code?’ It said, ‘you should try doing this’, and I tried doing that and it worked. The assignment is due in the future and … the AI’s code has concepts we haven’t already learned. I’m not sure if I’m allowed to use it.”

Steven Murdock, founding Director of the Hobby Center who served as the Allyn and Gladys Cline Chair in Sociology at Rice University, passed away on April 7 at the age of 75.

During his life, Murdock was the director of the U.S. Census Bureau, as well as the first- ever state demographer of Texas. He also served as a Regents Chair at Texas A&M University, tThe Lutcher Brown Distinguished Chair in Demography and Organization Studies at the University of Texas at San Antonio and was a distinguished scholar, publishing with 14 books and more than 150 articles and analytical reports.

President Reggie DesRoches said Murdock made a huge impact on Rice through his teaching, mentoring and research.

“Steve was a firm believer in the power of demographic data and its ability to influence and shape policy and important decisions that affect society,” DesRoches wrote in an email to the Thresher. “He will be missed, but his legacy and knowledge will live on for years to come.”

Rachel Kimbro, dean of Rice’s School of Social Sciences, said Murdock was a professor who dedicated his career to making sure demographic data was measured and used well.

“For example, it is critical to understand how populations change over time when policymakers are making decisions about where to invest in a new public school or community center,” Kimbro said. “Steve’s work was able to help state and local policymakers make smarter policy choices, and it was very important to him that his work made a real impact on society.” According to Kimbro, Murdock mentored dozens of students while working at a range of universities in Texas over his career. She said his students will now carry his legacy forward.

Jim Elliott, professor and chair of the Department of Sociology, said when Murdock joined Rice as a faculty member, he had already had a long and celebrated career prior to joining Rice as a faculty member.

“[At Texas A&M], he [published] an avalanche of books, articles and reports and advised nearly 50 graduate students as a primary advisor or close

Editor of the journal ‘Rural Sociology,’” Elliott said. “Just before coming to Rice, he was nominated, unanimously approved and appointed the director of the U.S. Census Bureau, an honor very few sociologists can claim.”

Elliott said that Murdock was always a strong proponent of addressing working-class citizens’ needs, with a particular emphasis on enhancing their access to education and healthcare services in underserved communities.

“He has been a leader, an educator, an expert witness, a trusted man of

letters and numbers. And, he’s been our colleague. For all of those things, we’re forever grateful,” Elliott said.

Murdock is survived by his wife, Mary Zey, stepson James Collins Ferrell and grandson George Collins Ferrell. A memorial service for Murdock will take place on April 29 from 5-7 p.m. at WeedCorley-Fish Funeral Home in Lakeway, Texas. Memorial contributions may be made to the Steve Murdock and Mary Zey Scholarship Fund for Ph.D. students of demography and population studies at UTSA.

2 • WEDNESDAY, APRIL 19, 2023 THE RICE THRESHER

SPRING CHENJP THRESHER STAFF CALI LIU / THRESHER

We’re going to be treating it like any other resource. So if you don’t cite it when you use it, that’s plagiarism.

BONNIE ZHAO MANAGING EDITOR

Steven Murdock, former chair of sociology department, passes at 75

COURTESY RICE UNIVERSITY

He has been a leader, an educator, an expert witness, a trusted man of letters and numbers. And he’s been our colleague. For all of those things, we’re forever grateful.

JIM ELLIOTT PROFESSOR AND CHAIR OF THE DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY

BISF’s ‘Israel at 75’ conference sparks controversy

The Baker Institute for Public Policy will host an ‘Israel at 75’ conference on April 27, featuring diplomats, subject-matter experts and stakeholders to analyze the relationship between the U.S. and Israel, among other topics. In response, the Rice Students for Justice Palestine group began a petition calling for cancellation of the event.

The conference agenda includes recorded remarks from Israel’s President and speakers such as the current U.S. Ambassador to Israel and the former Israeli Prime Minister. The conference will include a panel discussion on the Israel-Palestine conflict, with a seat for the former prime minister of the Palestinian party.

SJP organizing member Alizay Azeem said that it was disheartening for her to see the conference platforming speakers, especially ones that she alleges have committed war crimes against Palestinian people.

“[The conference is] basically legitimizing the violence that we see, especially this past month, against Palestinians by the Israeli government and forces,” Azeem, a Wiess College senior, said.

The Jewish Studies program at Rice is among a list of sponsors for the event. Matthias Henze, director of the program of Jewish Studies, said that because Israel has always been a controversial topic, it is important to host academic conferences to debate openly and critically.

Henze said he believes that although SJP has every right to express their opinion on Israel, calling for the event to be canceled

is not helpful in promoting free speech on college campuses.

“Canceling an academic conference at the Baker Institute on Israel at 75 because of its controversial nature would be a clear violation of Rice’s ideals of free speech and open academic debate,” Henze said in an email to the Thresher. “It would also have a chilling effect on the future of academic conferences at Rice.”

A Palestinian student, whose grandparents were displaced from their village during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, said he finds Rice hosting the conference upsetting. The student emphasized the timing of the conference, which falls near the end of Ramadan and heightened conflict in the region.

“I am a third-generation refugee by chance, by the same state that Rice University will be hosting,” the student said. “[Palestinian students here have] all seen videos recently of Israeli military occupation

Rice student struck by car on inner loop, taken to trauma center

BEN BAKER-KATZ EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

forces hitting people inside a mosque. I think these images are really frightening and upsetting [and instead of Rice] checking on us, [holding] a conference to enforce and celebrate … is really disrespectful.”

Leigh Gabriely, a Hanszen College senior, said she believes the conference is a unique opportunity for students to listen to and question speakers with different stakes in the Israeli occupation.

“More than supporting the conference, I oppose its rejection,” Gabriely said. “Everyone has a right to criticize and to have an opinion, but it seems silly to do so when individuals won’t take advantage of an opportunity to engage more.”

Azeem said that she believes the conference does not reflect Rice’s mission statement, nor affirms any goals related to diversity, equity and inclusion.

SJP’s petition currently has 543 signatures. The conference is set to take place from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. next Thursday.

A Rice student was struck by a moving car as they attempted to cross the inner loop near Baker College at around 1:15 a.m on Saturday, April 15. The student was transported to a trauma center in the Texas Medical Center, and their condition is currently unknown. Out of respect for the student and their family, the Thresher is not releasing their name at this time.

According to an email from a Rice University Police Department officer obtained by the Thresher, the driver of the vehicle was also a Rice student, though their identity has not been released.

According to RUPD Chief Clemente Rodriguez, the driver of the vehicle remained at the scene and “fully cooperated” with officers in their investigation. Rodriguez declined to comment further, citing RUPD’s ongoing investigation into the incident.

This is a developing story.

Rice Program Council announces final Beer Bike results

IN SUMMARY

GSA Women: +75 seconds

Jones Women: +15 seconds

Brown Women: -2 seconds

Duncan Women: +20 seconds

Hanszen Alumni: +60 seconds

Rice Program Council announced the corrected, final Beer Bike times and results following several appeals. Adjustments were made for the women’s and alumni races, and no adjustments were made to the men’s race.

Taking into account the adjusted times, Hanszen College overtakes the Graduate Student Association to win the women’s race, Hanszen remains the winner of the alumni race and Jones College remains the winner of the men’s race.

For Dani Knobloch, a senior biker for Hanszen, winning the women’s heat was a culmination of years of hard work.

“It’s really special to have won two years in a row, and especially for me since it’s my last year racing as an undergraduate,” Knobloch wrote in an email to the Thresher. “I think this whole team has worked really hard to build a strong group of women over the past four years, and it’s an incredible feeling to bring the win home one last time.”

In the women’s race, Jones suffered a 25-second penalty for excessive weaving during warm-ups that resulted in the injury of a McMurtry College biker. According to RPC, the injury resulted in McMurtry not having a full time since they did not have a complete team of eight bikers. Ultimately, the McMurtry women’s team was given a result of “Did Not Finish.”

Terri-Jeanne Liu, a woman’s bike captain at Jones, said she is frustrated with the time penalty added to the Jones women’s team. According to the 2023 Beer Bike Violations

and Fines policy, excessive weaving results in a penalty of 10 seconds, not 25.

“Regardless of what actually happened during the crash, because right now, it could just be [an our word] versus their word [situation], it just didn’t seem fair the arbitrary amount of time that was placed on us,” Liu said. “I think there’s a lot of emotions, especially [with] me graduating … The past two years, we have put out a performance on the track that should have gotten [the win] and it just hasn’t happened for multiple reasons … [but] no matter what, I’m proud of our team.”

RPC campus-wide Beer Bike coordinators did not respond to a request for comment.

McMurtry bike captains said they were not aware of any appeal filed on behalf of the McMurtry College biker until the results were finalized.

GSA, the previously announced winner of the women’s race, was given a penalty of one minute and 15 seconds for having a single biker ride three times. Ultimately, GSA placed seventh in the women’s race.

Although Hanszen retains its original status as the winner of the alumni race, it faced a penalty of one-minute for not

having an equal number of women and men bikers in the alumni race. Their team consisted of four men. RPC imposed a 20-second penalty for the three missing women on the team.

Patrick Breen (Hanszen ’20) described the win, despite the added one-minute penalty, in one word: “orgasmic.”

Regarding the penalties, Knobloch said that RPC had previously only required two female bikers. This policy is still currently listed on their website, which their alumni used to confirm race details and procedures. Before Beer Bike, one of their female cyclists broke her ankle, leaving just one woman biker on their alumni team, according to Breen.

Appeals were submitted by several colleges, but according to the final results from RPC, decisions only arose from appeals submitted by Jones, Wiess College, Duncan College, Brown College and the GSA.

Jonathan Lloyd, one of the bike captains at Will Rice College, was upset that their appeals were not addressed. Will Rice submitted an appeal asserting they finished approximately ten seconds before the Sid Richardson biker, but the

RPC calculations stated Will Rice came in around one minute after Sid Richardson.

“I’m grateful to RPC for releasing the penalty breakdowns, but their inaction on fixing the massive Sid discrepancy is a glaring mistake,” Lloyd said. “I am hopeful that the processes that allowed this error to propagate will be fixed for next year.”

Many bike captains also called for more transparency during the appeals about what challenges are being leveled. Liu said that while she knows it’s hard for RPC to go to each college to talk about and respond to appeals, she wishes that there was a more open discussion about challenges and penalties so people know how appeals are reviewed.

“To all of the current captains who are annoyed about the results, I get it,” Breen said. “When I was an undergrad, I was that bike captain who would cry about the RPC official results all week when I should have been studying ... When you’re as old as me, you figure out that one, RPC ruins the results with penalties every single year and two, Nobody cares about the results weeks after the event has ended … Fighting that is a losing battle.”

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 19, 2023 • 3 NEWS

NEWS

HAJERA NAVEED

EDITOR

NDIDI NWOSU / THRESHER MORGAN GAGE & BRANDON CHEN EDITOR-IN-CHIEF & WEB EDITOR INFOGRAPHIC BY ROBERT HEETER

EDITORIAL

The Editorial Board presents: The editorials we never wrote

For our final editorial of the year, we decided to do a brief recap of some of the editorials we never had a chance to write. Some are very serious, some are only mildly serious — and we leave it up to y’all to figure out which are which.

Rice should replace the current campus buses with electric ones. There are so many benefits to this switch, including reduced greenhouse gas emissions, lower maintenance costs and a cleaner, more modern appearance on

campus. But most importantly, getting stuck behind one of the current buses while biking the inner loop does a number on your lungs for the rest of the day.

The Honor Council’s new ChatGPT policy is arbitrary and impossible to enforce. Instead, the university should require faculty to individually determine the extent to which AI software is allowed in their course assignments and reflect that in their syllabi.

When True Dog was initially introduced to campus, we were going to urge the Rice community to give it a chance. After we tried it, we realized those thoughts were premature. We’re glad we held off on that one.

A big shoutout to H&D, both the housing and dining arms. Housing staff, we realize that we’ve put y’all through a lot this year, and we know that most of your work goes unnoticed, so thank you. Dining staff, both the food and servery

set-ups have been noticeably better this year, and we appreciate it.

One crucial thing we learned this year is the importance of increased mental health support in the Rice community. We urge the administration to increase funding for the Wellbeing and Counseling center to sufficiently address student needs.

And finally, we are absolutely begging y’all, please stop making people get wristbands for public parties.

Thank you for letting me tell your stories Thresher holds the memories of a campus

If there is anything I will miss about college, it is the Thresher.

No matter how many long nights or years of my life I have given to this paper, I have never grown tired of the Thresher. Maybe because of a superb staff that impresses me every day with their talent and dedication to good journalism or the unwavering support and friendship (and fist bumps) from my coeditor Ben Baker-Katz, but, I think most of all, it is the work I was able to do here.

When I came into Rice, I was pretty positive I wouldn’t be involved in the Thresher. Then, COVID-19 ravaged the globe, and I relocated to my childhood bedroom where there was very little to do outside of write for the Thresher. Let me be honest, I fell in love. In a time where everyone felt disconnected from campus, I somehow felt more connected to all of you than ever.

In the years since, I have written stories that meant the world to me. I have articles about Title IX student advocacy and disordered eating on my dorm wall. I have (semi-)jokingly remarked that I am on the mental health beat at Rice and written and edited stories about the first-generation low-income student experience and LGBTQ community as a mentally ill, queer FGLI student. The Rice community is small but overflowing with stories worth reading.

None of this would have been possible

without the trust of our community, so let me thank you. Thank you for trusting the Thresher and myself to tell your stories. I cannot claim to be an unbiased journalist, because no one is. I can say, though, that we strive to make room for the truth, even when the truth isn’t 50/50. It has been the privilege of a lifetime to tell your stories.

I would be remiss to write this letter without a series of thank you’s to (a few of) the people who made this possible. Thank you to Ella Feldman — I thrive too much on validation, and you encouraging me to keep writing is why I got involved in the Thresher. To Riya Misra, for your friendship, mid-afternoon office gossip sessions and for taking this job next year. To my editor-in-chief Savannah Kuchar. Everything I know about this job, I learned from you. To Katharine Shilcutt for food recommendations, endless encouragement and making each of us better than we would have been without you here.

Thank you to Ben — I love you so much, and I can’t wait to spend less time with you.

For the last two years, whenever someone has tried to make plans with me on a Tuesday, I’ve responded with some version of “I can’t, I’ve got Thresher.” The natural next question, after I explain that putting together a weekly paper takes up the vast majority of every Tuesday, is “Why do you spend so much time on it?” And silly as it may seem, I’ve never really come up with a good answer to that question.

I usually give some obligatory answer along the lines of “I enjoy it, and I think the work we produce makes campus a better place.” Both of those things are true, but they don’t accurately convey the extent of my answer. It wasn’t until recently, when I began to seriously reflect on leaving this job, that I realized the true purpose of the Thresher is what it leaves behind.

Do yourself a favor, and spend some time exploring the Thresher archives. Pick a random issue, or choose one very deliberately, and immerse yourself in whatever was happening on campus that week. From old intramural sports coverage, to discussion of conscription’s impact on students to the phenomenal shenanigans that Rice students used to get up to, I promise it is well worth your time.

I’m incredibly proud of the work the Thresher has published in my two years in leadership. Some articles made me laugh, others made me cry, but they were all worth writing. I hope that, in a few decades, someone will be looking back at our archives to learn about what Rice was like in the years following the pandemic, and thoroughly enjoying themselves in the process.

Now it’s time for some obligatory sappiness. Thank you to Savannah Kuchar and Ivanka Perez for being the best EIC role models imaginable. Thank you to Katharine Shilcutt, for agreeing to a job with no idea what she was getting herself into and for helping me love Houston. Thank you to Morgan Gage, the most talented person I’ve ever worked with. And finally, thank you to Kelley Lash — gone but never forgotten, you are missed every day on the second floor of the RMC.

Baker Institute must cancel ‘Israel at 75’ conference

This year marks the 75th year since the horrific events of the Nakba began. Al-Nakba, an Arabic phrase meaning ‘The Catastrophe,’ refers to Israel’s ethnic cleansing and violent dispossession of the Palestinian people and the establishment of the Zionist settler-colony. Between 1947 and 1949, 15,000 Palestinians were killed and over 750,000 were forcefully displaced by Zionist military forces to create the state of Israel. These events, cumulatively with the current violence perpetrated by the Zionist entity, have been characterized as genocide by Palestinian organizers, journalists, and activists working towards the liberation of their people from colonial rule.

But the Nakba isn’t over — it’s ongoing. 75 years later, Israel continues its brutal oppression of the Palestinian people. Just last week, during the holy month of Ramadan, Israeli forces beat Palestinian worshippers at Al-Aqsa Mosque bloody, injuring at least 31 and detaining over 400 —a violent attack condemned by the United Nations as “reckless and lawless.”

At a time when global support for Palestinian liberation is increasing, Rice University’s Baker Institute has not only turned a blind eye to the atrocities being committed by Israel but also has chosen to endorse them by hosting perpetrators of such violence on our campus. While Palestinians grieve 75 years of ongoing genocide, the Baker Institute’s “Israel at 75” conference — set to

take place on April 27 — celebrates 75 years of Israeli colonization and aggression. We refuse to allow Rice University to engage in the normalization of Israeli aggression and demand the university cancel the conference.

Among the Zionists that the Baker Institute has invited are men who decorate their careers with the statesanctioned murder of Palestinian men, women, and children.

Are we going to be a student body that is okay with war criminals coming to our campus? Or are we going to make a stand?

Rice plans on hosting Ehud Barak, the former Prime Minister of Israel, who previously faced a war crimes arrest warrant for the murders of 1400 Palestinians during his role as Operation Cast Lead as the Defense Minister of Israel. While he acted as Defense Minister, it was found that the Israel Defense Forces violated international humanitarian law by using white phosphorus that created a ‘rain of fire,’ killing and injuring Palestinian civilians, as well as destroying schools and hospitals. Barak has also maintained a steady siege on Gaza, expanded the apartheid wall and ordered the assassinations of Palestinian political leaders. Institutions such as Yale University have faced criticism for hosting him in past years, as he is recognized by many as a war criminal.

Also invited to Rice University is Isaac Herzog, the current President of Israel, who further entrenches fascism into the lives of Palestinians; since his election, hundreds of Zionists have burned Palestinian homes and cars to the ground. Instead of actively working to counter this violence from his position of authority, Herzog has simply offered platitudes. Michael Herzog is also set to appear, a former military strategist for Israel who is an indicted war criminal. Herzog faced proceedings in Spain for his 2002 ‘al-Daraj’ bombings of civilians in Gaza, Palestine, killing nine children.

But we, as Rice University students, committed to justice for all peoples on our campus, don’t have to idly stand by while Rice spends hundreds of thousands of dollars on catering to men who are recognized to have engaged in the most brutal of war acts against civilians and families. We must refuse to allow the normalization of colonialism and apartheid on our campus. Rice, an institution that claims to “contribute to the betterment of the world,” should lead by action and immediately cancel “Israel at 75.”

Our campus is home to Palestinian students, organizations and community; what

is Rice saying to them when our university hosts men who have massacred Palestinian villages? Rice University Students for Justice Palestine, in collaboration with Students for Justice in Palestine at the University of Houston, Palestinian Youth Movement Houston and Jewish Voice for Peace Houston, have invited us to sign a petition demanding better from and for our home.

When we demonstrate principled solidarity towards freedom — when we refuse the comforting insularity of staying behind Rice’s hedges and instead push for more — we decide who we are. Are we going to be a student body that is okay with war criminals coming to our campus? Or are we going to make a stand? All oppression is interconnected, and, so too, is all liberation; from standing with the peoples of the Philippines to supporting Indigenous rights movements here on Turtle Island — nobody’s free until everybody’s free.

Editor’s Note: Anna Rajagopal is the Thresher’s social media manager.

4 • WEDNESDAY, APRIL 19, 2023 THE RICE THRESHER

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK LETTER FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK

GUEST OPINION

Morgan Gage EDITOR-IN-CHIEF MCMURTRY COLLEGE SENIOR

Alizay Azeem WIESS COLLEGE SENIOR Anna Rajagopal JONES COLLEGE SENIOR

Ben Baker-Katz EDITOR-IN-CHIEF BROWN COLLEGE SENIOR

EDITORIAL STAFF

Rectify Beer Bike results, or do away with them

Editor’s Note: Parts of this opinion piece rely on eyewitness accounts and are, as a result, subjective. The Thresher could not independently verify any claims made about the events of any Beer Bike race.

In Beer Bike 2021, when there were four heats of three teams each, the Jones College men’s bike team finished with the fastest time of all the residential colleges, a net time that was at least three seconds faster than the Hanszen College men’s team–which was affirmed by the original results produced by the Rice Program Council, the entity that organizes Beer Bike – earning Jones men the uncontested first place finish they deserved. However, the Hanszen race was fully recorded from one Rice Athletics camera while the Jones race was recorded using two Rice Athletics cameras which had a threesecond lag between them when aired on the livestream that recorded the races–as fully documented and proven in an email I sent to RPC on April 20, 2021, which is still available today. Hanszen took advantage of the lag in the livestream and contested the results to claim that Jones and Hanszen times were equivalent, and RPC responded by editing Jones’ and Hanszen’s times, tying them to the millisecond, earning Hanszen an unfair win. When I emailed RPC with proof of the lag which should have invalidated its flawed adjustments to the results, it evaded its responsibility to maintain integrous results

GUEST OPINION

by simply saying “RPC has historically not allowed any petitions to be re-petitioned.” Here we are in 2023 finding ourselves in a very similar situation with the women’s Beer Bike results, except that we still have the capacity to rectify the flawed final standings for the women’s race.

At this year’s Beer Bike, Jones women completed the race with the fastest time of all the residential colleges, which should have earned them the uncontested win they deserved. However, during the women’s warm-up, as a Jonesian woman was slowly passing a McMurtry College biker on the inside of the track, I witnessed from a few feet away the Murt biker panic and swerve slightly into the Jonesian’s rear wheel. Since bikes are more susceptible to losing balance upon contact with the front wheel, the Murt rider crashed. Based on an appeal that not even the McMurtry bike captains claimed to have submitted, Jones women were penalized with an arbitrarily assigned 25 seconds for “excessive weaving” placing them third in the final standings–even after getting back 10 seconds from their own appeal for other errors. The only penalty related to “excessive weaving” in the RPC rules is a 10 second penalty. If Jones women were to deserve the penalty, which they absolutely did not, they would still be in first place. RPC not only failed to properly investigate the events that led to the crash, but they unjustly assigned a

fully arbitrary penalty, which is questionable in and of itself.

Let’s consider this: what is the point of results if the final standings are heavily influenced by arbitrary and poorly reviewed decisions? If Beer Bike was purely in the spirit of a campus-wide celebration and standings did not matter at all, then we could do away with the results altogether. However, I am not sure that Beer Bike is solely a campuswide celebration, as demonstrated by the fact that virtually all the residential colleges on campus trained and prepared for race day, which hints to me that there must be an element of athletic competition in Beer Bike. Instead, we need integrous results that fairly capture the performance and events of race day. If the current RPC leadership is unable to produce such results, then I propose that they delegate that responsibility to a separate committee that is willing to do so. Otherwise, a lack of such results is a complete disregard of the weeks of time and commitment that bike teams across campus dedicated towards preparing for Beer Bike.

Mahmoud Al-Madi JONES COLLEGE SENIOR

‘Israel at 75’ presents a unique opportunity

The initiative to reject Rice University’s Israel at 75 conference is rooted in hatred and performative anger. The Israeli occupation of Palestine is a nuanced and convoluted issue that has plagued many for decades — people have lost their homes, friends, families, and lives. This issue is nuanced and convoluted beyond most Rice students’ comprehension, including my own. The Baker Institute is not attempting to diminish these issues or glorify Israel’s actions over the past 75 years. By hosting this conference, it is simply acknowledging that this conflict continues to be one of the defining dilemmas of our time, and one that deserves attention, especially at a center of education such as Rice University.

By encouraging the average student at Rice who lacks deep understanding

regarding the occupation to protest and boycott the conference, we are discouraging people from listening to those who are personally involved in the issue, perpetuating both hatred and the conflict itself. Why not encourage people to attend, and come with questions and criticisms? The speakers are coming from a plethora of backgrounds related to the conflict, and it is in all of our interests to listen, regardless of whether we agree with what they have to say. Among the panelists are Israeli leaders who offered unprecedented concessions of peace, current U.S. ambassadors to numerous Middle Eastern countries, esteemed Ivy League professors, and the former prime minister of the Palestinian Authority. If this group of people isn’t allowed to have productive

LETTER FROM THE OPINION EDITOR’S DESK

discourse, what group is? And who are we to deny them this platform?

The urge to shut down any conversation related to this painful topic is understandable, but the opportunity to foster exciting new dialogue among this diverse group of leaders, while providing us mostly uninformed Rice students the rare chance to educate ourselves on a complex global issue from the people attempting to solve the issue firsthand, is a unique occasion that everyone involved should recognize, not shut down.

Leigh Gabriely HANSZEN COLLEGE SENIOR Ari Vilker HANSZEN COLLEGE SENIOR

Upholding free speech is a balancing act

When I came into this job, the Thresher was learning how to do journalism in a pandemic. We couldn’t anticipate how the paper would look like if and when we returned to “normal.” The once-jampacked opinion spread had been reduced to a single page that wasn’t always filled. As engagement with and trust of the opinion section has ebbed and flowed in the three years since then, one thing has remained constant: to uplift diverse voices and start important discussions on campus, we have to wield the platform carefully.

As a journalist and the arbiter of the section most devoted to the First Amendment, I have to give every voice a chance to speak. The only way to open a platform for some people is to do so for all — though not without limits. Deciding

FROM FRONT PAGE

SUICIDE AT RICE

“They call them weed-out classes, and I probably should have been weeded out. But I was stubborn,” Bertram said. “My classes did not reflect that love that I have for [my current job in] neuroscience.”

Lisa* said that the pressure of Rice, especially as a first-generation, lowincome student, makes dealing with mental health issues even more difficult. After already struggling with the pressures of being FGLI, they said, “It’s really hard to convince yourself that it’s worth it.”

“I would say there’s probably never really been a point in my life since about middle school where I wasn’t suicidal,” Lisa said. “It’s definitely been worse since I’ve been at Rice, and I think a lot of the scary part of it is you really don’t have anyone to actually check in on you … You’re like, wait a minute, I actually could disappear for a few days. No one would know.”

Katherine*, a Martel College freshman, said she struggled with self-harm and suicidal ideation throughout middle and high school, though she was unable to afford psychiatric care. Financial struggles compounded after matriculating, when Katherine had to take out private loans in order to finance Rice.

“It’s an astounding amount of pressure and there’s also the knowledge that if I die, that student debt … is passed on to my mother as cosigner. What that does, is it effectively removes death as an option,” Katherine. “Being in college and being independent creates a unique cocktail of situations and additional factors that can add pressure. It can really crush you and make you feel like you want to die.”

While dealing with his own “unique cocktail” of stress, Avalos said that once, after he had been drinking, he grabbed a pistol while in an argument with his wife.

“My wife was ... following me around the house,” Avalos said. “I said, ‘If you don’t leave me alone, I’m gonna blow my brains out,’ and whenever I said that she was obviously very shaken up by it. Who wants to hear that from the person they married?”

Avalos said his wife called the police, and he was detained and ended up receiving psychiatric care for four days.

“It was definitely something that put life in perspective in terms of what I’m doing at Rice compared to life-life,” Avalos said. “Saying that to my wife scared her … and it took me getting to that point to realize that, even if I didn’t mean it, even if I knew that I would never kill myself, at no point should I say that … and at no point should I start taking steps towards doing that.”

Campus resources

For Iris*, an engineering student, her mental health struggles came to a head during her junior and senior years of high school, as she would sit through mass at her Catholic high school thinking of ways to end her own life. When she came to Rice, she said that thoughts of suicide or selfharm recur during especially heavy weeks of coursework.

“I was like, ‘I cannot do this anymore without support,’ so I went to the [Rice] Counseling Center,” Iris said. “[My therapist] is good at identifying a little bit

of what’s going on … understanding [what might be wrong with me] … Going to the RCC has helped … me identify what’s going on.”

Andrea Plascencia, a Will Rice College sophomore, said that when she finally reached out to Wellbeing and Counseling, she was frustrated by a five-week waiting period on top of struggling with suicidal thoughts.

“That alone was a trial,” Plascencia said. “Because I was like, ‘Why is it so hard to even just get a basic consultation to see a therapist face-toface?’”

Lisa said that they would like to see more support for students to utilize off-campus resources.

“I’ve heard horror stories from people who have opened up with counselors or wellbeing people, and ended up … essentially being forced to take a semester or year off,” Lisa said. “For some people, that’s not really an option … so it’d be really nice to know that you could talk to someone without your whole life changing.”

In a statement to the Thresher, the Wellbeing and Counseling office and Associate Dean Alison Vogt said that they encourage students to learn more about hospitalizations and medical withdrawal policies by reading through their website or in a consultation appointment. They said that “not all suicidal thoughts need to lead to a hospitalization, which appears to be a misconception among students,” and the Counseling Center can help students to develop a plan to ensure their safety.

“We are aware that there are instances in which students are fearful of sharing their experiences with therapists, however coming to speak to a therapist about suicidal ideation is a part of preventative self care,” the office said. “Students are assessed and an individual plan is made for them based on their needs.”

While considering Rice’s priorities, Hugo, a Duncan College sophomore, said that Rice provides an adequate amount of mental health support for their students — up until a certain point. (Editor’s Note: Hugo opted to not include his full name)

“I think Rice is great at supporting students who are going through academic stress, who are feeling a little blue,” Hugo said. “We have all these study breaks and we have [Rice Health Advisors] and everyone … But then as soon as you’re actually going through any kind of significant mental health problems, Rice does not want to deal with you. They have no resources for you.”

Hugo cites a deeper need to recognize the full spectrum of mental health, from moderate to severe. While study breaks and RHA events may serve their purpose, Hugo said that mental health runs deeper than that.

“Mental health … isn’t going to be solved with a study break and some face masks,” Hugo said. “That kind of performative, ‘Oh, we care about mental health,’ we can just stop that. It just isolates the people who are actually struggling even more.”

Dean of Undergraduates Bridget Gorman said that Rice is focused on increasing both the number and specialty range of staff who provide mental health services. Over the last few years, she said Rice has steadily increased the number of staff in the Wellbeing and Counseling

center and will add a new wellbeing advisor, a “learning differences case manager” and a trauma therapist for the upcoming academic year.

Administrative pushback

During her Orientation Week, Anita* should have been at one of the mandated mental health talks. Instead, she attempted suicide by overdosing in her room. Anita, a current Will Rice College sophomore, had previously been hospitalized at a psychiatric ward during high school — an experience that followed her even after leaving, even through her matriculation at Rice.

“A month after I got [off the ward], one of my friends passed away. It just sent me down a path that was even worse than the depression path. They put me on antidepressants, and I was manic and hypersexual and all over the place reckless, impulsive,” Anita said. “That led to me being in that state of mind coming into Rice O-Week.”

After being rushed to Houston Methodist until she stabilized, Anita was placed on medical leave and returned home for a gap semester. She said that the readmittance process was “10 times harder” than her initial application process.

“I had to have proof of continued successful work experience, proof of continued successful therapy, continued successful school, like community college or extra classes,” Anita said. “I had to write a letter, get letters of support, have a four-year academic plan [and] meet with a bunch of academic advisors at Rice to figure it all out.”

According to Gorman, mandatory leaves of absence are incredibly rare.

“These decisions are made with a treatment team that includes the student and their caregivers,” Gorman wrote in a statement to the Thresher. “We look holistically at all of the systems around the student to determine what kind of care is needed.”

Gorman said that medical leaves of absence are intended to provide students an opportunity to focus on their health and wellbeing, away from academic stresses. Before readmitting a student, she said that an interdisciplinary team meets to evaluate the student’s progress in their treatment and care and their treatment team’s recommendations.

Gorman said they also look at the student’s proposed academic plan, as well as their plan to continue treatment at Rice.

“I think it’s important to know that our RCC and Wellbeing team has implemented various ways over the years to be as flexible as possible with students who have experienced a mental health crisis, [and] many [students] do continue their enrollment at Rice with various accommodations in place,” Gorman wrote.

For Hana*, a McMurtry College junior, her medical leave was entirely voluntary.

“I started seeing a psychiatrist [and] they officially diagnosed me with depression and anxiety,” Hana said. “I realized I just need a semester off to process what it means to have depression.”

Hana, who echoed other students’ experiences about the grueling readmission process, faced an unexpected setback when her appeal for readmission was denied.

“Because I [didn’t] have any work experience or coursework during my time off, I wasn’t proven to be able to handle the stress of Rice,” Hana said. “If I knew Rice

was going to react this way in terms of my readmission … I’m not sure if I would have come to Rice.”

After getting off the phone with Wellbeing’s crisis line the eve of an exam, Justin* found himself on the way to Houston Methodist in a Rice University Police Department vehicle. After discussing his suicidal ideation on the crisis line, Justin accepted the operator’s offer for RUPD to escort him to the hospital and meet with a social worker. Despite voluntarily going, Justin said that, upon arrival at the hospital’s emergency room, the RUPD officers issued an emergency detention order that had Justin involuntarily detained.

“In 30 minutes, I was in … It wasn’t a bedroom, it was an empty room with a temporary, I wouldn’t even call it a bed, just some sheets,” Justin said. “The light was bright and everything. It was one of the most scary nights I’ve ever had.”

RUPD Chief Clemente Rodriguez wrote in an email to the Thresher that officers make an initial evaluation based on factors including statements, actions and history of the student. Officers may refer a student to campus mental health services or, if they believe the student may harm themselves or others, bring them to the hospital for a psychological evaluation.

“Every decision is made with the information known at the time and in the interest of safety for the person they’re helping,” Rodriguez said.

Nation’s ‘happiest’ student body

Having one of the happiest student bodies in the country has become a pillar of Rice’s admissions brochures and outreach programs, but many students say it is difficult — nearly impossible, even — to live up to.

“Saying we’re the happiest students is like how on your birthday, you’re supposed to be really happy, and then bad things happen, and you feel extra bad,” Anita said. “We’re supposed to be one of the world’s happiest campuses, and sometimes we’re not, and then you feel extra shame.”

Others say that this label of happiness creates a campus culture that’s not quite as inclusive as it claims to be. For all its criticisms, however, students have praised their support systems at Rice — ones that are rooted entirely in the student body.

Plascencia said that when people think of people considering suicide, they think of “bitter and selfish individuals,” but that isn’t true — they are some of the most caring, “beautiful” people she has ever met.

“I honestly think it’s quite the opposite. I don’t think it’s that they don’t feel for other people. I think it’s that they feel for other people and for the world so much, and at some point they really were some of the happiest people that existed,” Plascencia said. “But they know what it’s like to feel so much, that it’s just painful. The only catharsis that comes to mind is taking your own life.”

For Samarth, even though they say they still struggle with their mental health and, at times, with suicidal ideation, things are better.

“I’m comfortable talking about this sort of thing. I’m also doing a lot better now,” Samarth said. “And I think it’s really important for people to hear that … My life is not sunshine and rainbows, but I have found things that work for me.”

6 • WEDNESDAY, APRIL 19, 2023 THE RICE THRESHER

As soon as you’re actually going through any kind of significant mental health problems, Rice does not want to deal with you. They have no resources for you.

Hugo DUNCAN COLLEGE SOPHOMORE

We’re supposed to be one of the world’s happiest campuses, and sometimes we’re not, and then you feel extra shame.

Anonymous Student WILL RICE COLLEGE SOPHOMORE

Twenty years ago this June, Rice won its only national title in a team sport, the 2003 College Baseball World Series. In the 14 years that followed, the Owls made the NCAA regionals every season. But the six years since have seen the reign of long-time head coach Wayne Graham draw to a close and the short-lived tenure of his successor, Matt Bragga, come and go, as the Owls failed to qualify for even the conference tournament in Bragga’s final year.

The Thresher spoke to several members of the ’03 team, as well as coaches, staff and fans. The result is a detailed picture of the years leading up to ’03, the Owls’ fairytale season and how the program unraveled in the two decades since.

See the full project at projects.ricethresher.org.

REASSESSING 2003

Player development, discipline fueled baseball’s rise in early Graham years

In the 79 years of Rice baseball prior to 1992, the Owls’ best year ended with a second-place finish in their former Southwest Conference. This, coupled with the lack of success seen in many other Rice sports at the time, did not dissuade incoming Athletic Director Bobby May from visions of national prominence.

David Hall was the first head baseball coach in Rice history with an overall winning record, but his sudden retirement in 1991 left May with the opportunity to build something bigger with the baseball program. According to May, the choice to hire Wayne Graham to lead the new era was not a difficult one.

“It was pretty much a slam dunk for Wayne, [even when] you compare a couple of assistant coaches from really good programs with [him],” May said. “Wayne Graham won five national championships at the [junior college] level, was five times national coach of the year and at some point voted coach of this century in junior college, so he had incredible credentials.”

Almost immediately after starting as head coach, Graham changed the environment within Rice baseball. He ran a tight ship that, according to former player and current head coach Jose Cruz Jr., was new to many players at the time.

“I would say [the pace] was totally different [compared to] coach Hall,” Cruz said. “What Graham expected from all of us was something completely different to most of us that were there when [Hall] was. Just very demanding on effort, very demanding on toughness, understanding how much of a fight it was to go out there and play and compete.”

According to Henry Zamudio, a longtime Rice baseball fan and the owner of Henry’s Barber Shop, this transition was evident even from the stands.

“He had the kids disciplined, you could tell they were scared of him,” Zamudio said. “One time I was there, I saw a pitcher that didn’t cover first base [when he was supposed to]. He [had only] pitched maybe two or three balls in the game, and Wayne Graham went in and took him for another pitcher, real quick.”

Chris Kolkhorst, a co-captain of the 2003 Owls, said Graham’s expectations and order came from a desire to get the best out of his players.

“[He was] amazing,” Kolkhorst said. “He was firm but fair. Once you realized that he only got on the guys he cared about and he was

trying to make you better, then you understood him.”

One of the first pieces that went into building up the Graham-era success was an increase in the quality of recruits that they brought in, many of whom hailed from the Greater Houston area. Cruz believes that the location and prestige of Rice boosted the program to unprecedented heights.

“I think Houston, and Texas for that matter, are hotbeds for athletes, but especially for baseball,” Cruz said. “Especially around here, everybody understands what Rice is and how prestigious it is to be a part of Rice. If you’re around town and you wanted to be any good, you wanted to come to Rice.”

It was this time that saw many legendary Owls walk through campus and into professional baseball, including Cruz, Matt Anderson, Lance Berkman, Bubba Crosby, Damon Thames and many more. Through this change of culture and cultivation of talent, the Owls started to see success on the field.

Even with the constant improvement over the first few years of Graham’s tenure, May said he believed there were still ways in which the team could have improved to reach their ultimate goal. Regional championships were progress, May said, but the ultimate goal remained national.

It only took Graham five years to bring the Owls to their first College World Series appearance in 1997. By the turn of the century, Graham’s team won nearly every title they could and made it back to Omaha one more time.

At the same time, the Owls were in the midst of their first conference change since 1914, and a new stadium was under construction. Despite a completely different landscape on South Main, Zamudio said these were roaring times to be an Owls fan.

“You could tell they were getting close and the fans were excited,” Zamudio said. “The ballpark was always full, especially when [we were in the] Regionals [and] the Super Regionals. It was hard to get tickets.”

From Kolkhorst’s perspective, it was this atmosphere that motivated the progress that the team was making.

“It was awesome,” Kolkhorst said. “It was my first year at Rice, [we saw] some success and there was a crowd there, it was awesome. I just loved being a part of Rice baseball.”

Zamudio, who took the trip to Omaha for Rice’s third College World Series appearance in 2002, recalls that hundreds of Reckling regulars also followed the team to cheer on the Owls. Despite their shortcoming in Omaha that year, he believed that the team kept getting closer to national championship glory. They were getting “better and better and better,” he said.

All the pieces that went into the program since 1992 were coming together. Paul Janish, currently an associate head coach at Rice and an infielder for the Owls in 2003, said the experience in Omaha in 2002 gave the team the confidence they needed to get the best results.

“It was so beneficial to go to Omaha my freshman year,” Janish said. “The following year … we go to Omaha not so much with the kind of starry eyes of, ‘oh my gosh, we’re in Omaha.’ It was more of the, ‘This is where we’re supposed to be.’”

Somewhere inside Vincent Sinisi’s home, a lone baseball sits in a case, on display. It’s worn and still emblazoned with the College World Series logo, its appearance seemingly unaffected by the two decades since its last use. It’s the same baseball that Sinisi caught to end the 2003 College World Series.

“I got that ball, put it in my back pocket right after I caught it, got rid of all my other equipment, went to the dogpile after the game [and] gave the ball to coach [Wayne] Graham,” Sinisi said. “He held on to it for all these years. Last year, I actually went and saw him in Austin at his house, and he gave the ball back to me.”

In the 20 years since Rice clinched the championship, Sinisi has both entered and retired from professional baseball. He was drafted in the second round by the Texas Rangers in 2003, and played in the minors for seven years in six different places in California, Texas and Oregon, before finally hanging up his glove.

“Going into pro ball is a completely different atmosphere,” Sinisi said.

“It’s more of an every man for himself scenario, where you’re trying to produce so you can advance to the next level and to the next level … It’s hard to have a whole lot of chemistry with a team in pro ball versus a team in college that we spend every minute of every day with.”

This article has been cut off for print. Read the full article at projects. ricethresher.org.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 19, 2023 • 7

What Rice’s only national championship means 20 years later

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Twenty years after catching last out, Sinisi reflects on life in baseball

RIYA MISRA FEATURES EDITOR

DIEGO PALOS RODRIGUEZ SENIOR WRITER THRESHER ARCHIVES Rice baseball celebrates a victory during the 2002 season.

‘Consistent excellence’: An oral history of baseball’s 2003 30-game win streak

20 years ago, Rice came within four games of the longest winning streak in college baseball history. On their way to their first national title, the Owls rattled off 30 wins in a row. The streak lasted from Feb. 18 to April 9, garnered national attention and catapulted Rice to a 33-1 record and the No. 1 spot in the national poll.

The Thresher spoke to several players and staff from that team, who told the story behind the streak to Omaha.

Rice ranked No. 4 in the 2003 preseason poll after going 54-12 season the season before and making a trip to Omaha for the College Baseball World Series. However, they had an early exit from the CBWS after losing back to back games against the University of Texas at Austin and Notre Dame University.

Greg Mitchell, Rice baseball student manager from 2000-2004: Going into the ’03 season, there was definitely a sense of [or expectation] to win. For me, in 2002, it was very exciting to be at the College World Series for the first time, and it was surprising for everybody that didn’t go beyond those two games … We wanted to make sure that the next season we got farther than that.

With most of the team able to return for the 2003 season, Rice was poised for success.

PART 1: A losing start

Jonathan Yardley, play-by-play broadcaster from 2002-2005: Omaha was the expectation. I don’t think that’s overstating it. We had lost one starter, one reliever and maybe two guys from the lineup. We brought in Josh Baker as a transfer to fill the spot in the rotation. We had guys come in the lineup who seemed ready to play right away. I think it was a very confident group.

The beginning of the year, you’re trying to establish what your pitching is going to be and how you’re going to use it. I think the lineup was pretty well set … The big issue was our best pitcher Stephen Hurst was hurt. He’s the guy who went 13-3 with a 2.79 ERA the year before.

Josh Baker just transferred in from [The University of] Alabama and [he] is Lance Berkman’s brother in law. Rice is home for him. His brother, Ryan Baker, had played at Rice … Obviously, we lose the Alabama game. He’s knocked out in the fourth inning. It’s not the smoothest transition. At that point, to me, the question was how is everybody going to do pitching wise. How was [Jeff] Neimann going to do pitching on the weekend, because he had been the midweek starter the year before? How was Baker going to do? Can he be the Sunday guy? And then does that leave Wade [Townsend] as the midweek guy? Who was the midweek guy? We didn’t know.

The first game of the winning streak was against the University of Houston on a Tuesday night. The game took place on the road at Cougar Fieldhouse against a top-25 opponent and crosstown rival.

PART 2: Streaking without the shaving cream

Jonathan Yardley: Then we start Silver Glove play with Houston. And I think Wade really announced himself.

Wade Townsend, pitcher from 20022004: There were only two people that thought I was going to have a really good year that year, and that was me and [head] coach [Wayne] Graham. He gave me every chance to make sure [it happened]. I started off terribly that year, like the first two outings, and then he got me pointed in the right direction and just kind of snowballed. He gave me one start against Houston, and that went well.

Jonathan Yardley: He pitched six shutout innings.

Wade Townsend: Then I pitched the next Tuesday and it was like, well, this is going well, let’s just keep this like it is.

Jonathan Yardley: We crushed the Big 12 [Conference], and Wade personally could have been Big 12 pitcher of the year for the number of times he beat a Big 12 team and dominated them.

Wade Townsend: I prefer pitching in those [big] games, because I’m an adrenaline freak, and I feed off the crowd. I think Graham kind of knew that.

Greg Mitchell: Coach Graham, even before the 2003 season, was an extremely successful coach. The players he had coached had been very successful in college and very successful in the Major Leagues. I think there was a great respect for that and so people were definitely listening to him.

Wade Townsend: If somebody is talented at what they do, understands how to think and how to teach that, then can teach anything. He could have been a great coach or a great teacher and literally anything.

Greg Mitchell: Coach Graham [thought] about things in a much more global [way] than just baseball. He would take examples from history, especially Texas history. He would come up with things that were, for college aged students, a little bit out there. You knew it was wisdom, but he didn’t quite know enough. That alone was enough to give him a sense of authority.

Wade Townsend: I consider [Coach Graham] more of a Zen Buddhist monk than a baseball coach.

The streak had reached 12 games, but the Owls’ next game was versus Texas, the defending national champions and the team that knocked them out of the CBWS the previous year. With the streak and CBWS seeding on the line, the team was determined to get a win.

This article has been cut off for print. Read the full article at projects.ricethresher.org.

DANIEL SCHRAGER SPORTS EDITOR

There wasn’t much fanfare the day Jeff Niemann was drafted by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, even though the 6’9” pitcher was the fourth overall pick of the 2004 Major League Baseball draft.

“The draft was the day after we lost to [Texas] A&M [University] in our regional, so it was pretty bittersweet,” Niemann said. “I went up to Rice to listen to the draft. And I was at the baseball field, in our little room we had one computer in. I wasn’t at my house, I wasn’t with my parents. It was me and [fellow pitcher] Wade [Townsend] up at Rice listening to this 2004 early-days-of-internet [broadcast].”

Townsend was taken four spots later, while another Rice pitcher, Philip Humber, one-upped Niemann, going third overall. According to Niemann, he had trouble believing that three teammates were taken in the first ten picks — a feat that has only occurred three times in league history.

“[It was] lightning in a bottle, crazy things,” Niemann said. “You’re living that moment in the present, at the same time being completely blown away by what’s actually happening. It’s real. But it’s, ‘There’s no way this is real, right, guys?’ We came in [to Rice] three years ago, and turned it into this.”

Niemann was dominant at Rice, especially in 2003, when he went 17-0 with an ERA of 1.70. But the minor leagues weren’t as kind to Niemann as his time at Reckling Park had been.

“I don’t think there’s any other industry that has a greater discrepancy from one level to the other one,” Niemann said. “Being a top pick on a team that was [a] 100 loss team when I was there early on, I was expecting it to move a little bit faster than it did. That led [to] some tough days.”

Niemann did crack the majors, after three-plus seasons, and after a fourth, he made the Rays’ rotation. The former Owl finished fourth in the 2009 American League Rookie of the Year voting after posting a 3.94 ERA. While he let up more runs the following year, his strikeout and hits-allowed totals improved in every year

Rice considered structural changes to athletics in 2004 but stuck with status quo

PRAYAG GORDY SPECIAL PROJECTS EDITOR

As Rice national championship of Trustees future of intercollegiate all, and if The study, consulting on the heels Faculty Senate. That report of Rice’s as McKinsey annual deficit — the relatively applicants level of rule-breaking to nonathletes. did find that did well as McKinsey sports entirely since all Consortium and the American had athletics offer four Division I-A moving to scholarship I-AAA and Division-III This article the full article

of his MLB career. But Niemann said that just when he had adjusted to the MLB, injuries took his career away from him.

“I had 92 starts in the big leagues, and I can honestly say that I actually, truly knew what I was doing for one of them,” Niemann said. “Then the next game, I broke my leg. And then the next time I pitched after that was when my shoulder went out.”

At first, the 2003 national champion said he had trouble accepting that his rotator cuff and labrum injury would end his career.

“We tried our damnedest for about a year and a half to rehab that shoulder and get it back to the point where I can go play again,” Niemann said. “You had your first [realization] where [you] say, ‘I’m still wearing a uniform, I’m going to have to have surgery, and that sucks.’ I was released by the Rays, I’m out there just as another guy. Then that realization is, wow, we can’t do this at all anymore, period.”

According to Niemann, one of the biggest challenges was fighting the urge to constantly work on his craft.

“The first couple months, you had that overwhelming feeling of there’s something I’m supposed to be doing right now,” Niemann said.

Niemann said he couldn’t even watch baseball at first, but that he eventually decided to stop dwelling on his injury.

“You can either use it as a crutch … or, you look at it like, ‘Well, that was a hell of a situation we put ourselves in,’ and we move on to the next thing,” Niemann said.

Niemann has since not only started watching baseball again, but has even tried his hand at coaching. He coaches high school baseball in Colorado, where he and his family moved early in the COVID-19 pandemic to spend more time in nature.

So far, Niemann said, his reunion with the sport he played for so long is off to a good start.

“It took me about five years to get to that point of being open enough to see how it felt, to see where me and baseball were at that point in time,” Niemann said. “As it turns out, me and baseball, we’re still friends.”

REASSESSING 2003: WHAT RICE’S ONLY NATIONAL 8 • WEDNESDAY, APRIL 19, 2023

Years after career-ending injury, Jeff Niemann and baseball are friends again

CHLOE SINGER THRESHER STAFF COURTESY RICE ATHLETICS Jeff Niemann throws a pitch during his time at Rice. Niemann was drafted fourth overall by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays before an injury ended his baseball career.

Going into the ‘03 season, there was definitely a sense of [or expectation] to win.

Greg Mitchell FORMER STUDENT MANAGER

THRESHER ARCHIVES Jeff Blackinton celebrates scoring a run during the ’03 season.

Rice baseball made its way to a championship in 2003, the Board Trustees commissioned a study on the Rice athletics. The report asked if intercollegiate sports had a place at Rice at so, in what capacity.

study, completed by the management consulting firm McKinsey & Company, came heels of a report conducted by the Senate. report highlighted the high costs athletics programs — which, McKinsey later determined, ran an deficit of more than $10 million relatively low SAT scores of athletic applicants and the disproportionately higher rule-breaking for athletes compared nonathletes. The Faculty Senate’s report that many of Rice’s student-athletes as students and as athletes.

McKinsey declared that dropping varsity entirely was too extreme, especially of Rice’s peer institutions in the Consortium on Financing Higher Education American Association of Universities athletics programs. Their report did “viable” alternatives: remaining in I-A and working to improve athletics, Division I-AA and shifting to nonscholarship football, moving to Division and dropping football and moving to Division-III with no scholarship athletes. article has been cut off for print. Read article at projects.ricethresher.org.

Editor’s note: This article contains references to jokes about suicide.

You won’t find former Rice pitcher Wade Townsend in a strip club because, as he says, there’s not enough competition in it for him.

“Some people are strip club guys, but that’s not me,” Townsend said. “I’m in for a competition. I’m not [here] for just an exhibition.”

Here are some places you might find him: Outside, where he likes to pee, according to his Twitter bio. In the woods, where he likes to meditate and shoot hogs. In his head, where he thinks he might be God, or maybe just Wade. (In his defense, he also thinks everyone else is God, or maybe just themselves.)

In old photos and on old Thresher sports pages, you’ll see him pitching for Rice’s 2003 national championship-winning baseball team. You’ll also follow his struggles and injuries in the minor leagues, bussing around the country hoping to make it to the majors while undergoing four major arm surgeries.

A few years ago, you would’ve found him hanging out with cartel members in Cabo, after his professional poker career led him to Mexico. And today on the internet, you’ll find Townsend playing online poker with cryptocurrency and tweeting about sex, suicide, grocery shopping, politics, transgender people, beer, Jews, Jesus (no relation) and occasionally Rice baseball.

These skills helped Townsend become a firstround pick in the 2004 MLB draft by the Baltimore Orioles. The organization waited months before reaching out to negotiate a contract — and when they did, the offer was almost half a million dollars below the slot value and not up for negotiation, Townsaid said. Rather than sign, Townsend opted to return to Rice, renouncing his college baseball eligibility and scholarship in the process.

The next year, Townsend was again selected No. 8 overall, this time by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. Over the following three years, Townsend struggled with injuries, resulting in Tommy John surgery among other operations. While rehabbing, Townsend began to pick up poker to make money during the offseason, before eventually traveling to compete in tournaments around the world.

“I started playing poker while I was hurt because I had nothing to do all day,” Townsend said. “I deposited $20 and then I ran that up until everything I’m playing with today.”

The same manipulation skills that helped him the field let Townsend clean tables playing Texas Hold ‘Em and “Sit And Go,” a type of oneon-one poker game that he still enjoys.

“I’m good at understanding what’s in other people’s heads,” Townsend said. “It’s about manipulating their emotions, manipulating what they believe about you and then waiting for people to make a huge mistake.”

created a loophole in the ban on online gambling in the U.S., which meant that Townsend could continue to gamble in the wilderness.

“I just enjoy sitting in the woods and having a garden,” Townsend said. “I shoot hogs and I eat them. It’s a great lifestyle.”

In addition to hunting, gardening and gambling, Townsend spends his days playing the role of Twitter provocateur. The blatantly offensive tweets often sent from his account are, in his words, intended to provoke conversation. One recently-pinned tweet reads, “It is sad because when hot chicks commit suicide you can’t fuck them anymore.”

“That’s just a true statement, unless you’re into necrophilia,” Townsend said.

But Townsend said his posts often start meaningful conversations as well.

“When you say things that are not controversial, necessarily, they’re just harsh … it starts conversations with people,“ Townsend said. “You finally have somebody they can [tell], ‘Listen, I’m offended by your post.’ And then we start talking about, [and] in the end of the story, they say, ‘I’m glad I had somebody to talk to.’”

A few hours after the Thresher asked Townsend about his offensive tweets, he replaced his previously pinned tweet with a new message: “I’m sorry for the things I said when I was sober.”

Six years ago, Townsend put away the chips for a while to ponder life.

The Thresher spoke with members of the 2003 Rice baseball team to hear firsthand accounts of the team’s trip to Omaha for the 2003 College World Series. Follow the Thresher on social media to see the video when it comes out next week. projects.ricethresher.org

Townsend, bald except for an occasionally braided mohawk, considers himself a game theory expert, dating back to his days growing up in Dripping Springs, Texas, where he played Scrabble, Yahtzee and gin.

“Me existing and eating is a product of me winning those games,” Townsend said.

There is an old cliché that “sports is just a game,” and Townsend has tried to put that proverb to the test.

“[Baseball] is just playing game theory, which I’m a master at,” Townsend said. “I see holes and how you can beat games. I’ve grown up doing that, so that was just all natural stuff for me.”

The mental edge that Townsend developed was employed on the mound, where he posted a career 23-2 record and 2.00 ERA for the Owls under former head coach Wayne Graham, helping them win the 2003 national title.

“I was always known as being kind of insane on the mound,” Townsend said. “Kind of crazy, yelling at the other team, starting fights, throwing at people. But I never yelled at umpires ever, and you know why? Because they’re human beings. Of course, they’re gonna screw you if you’re an asshole to them. That isn’t the way to manipulate people.”

After leaving the Rays, Townsend signed with the Toronto Blue Jays but suffered another injury. He decided to end his six-year professional baseball career and turn to the online casinos, competing professionally across the globe.

“Minor League Baseball is so miserable and awful,” Townsend said. “It’s just a terrible, terrible experience. Nobody’s trying to win … and it honestly drove me insane. I realized that I can travel around the world, seduce beautiful women from different countries, experience all these cultures, learn different languages, see cool things and meet friends all over the world.”

But then 2011 came. The United States banned online gambling and began to seize bank accounts, which today is known as the “Black Friday of Poker.”

To continue his poker career, Townsend decided to pack up and move to Mexico.

“When they shut down everything in the U.S., I had to figure out how to get [to Mexico], sign a lease, get bank accounts and do business in Spanish,” Townsend said. “There was almost a brain drain, as far as the poker world in the U.S. All the best players left.”

Wade Townsend

“I spent two years in the woods, just thinking,” Townsend said. “I went all the way into philosophy, religion and spirituality and popped all the way back out. I learned a lot, and now I have the ability to control time, which is related to Einstein’s relativity thing. When you’re aware of stuff every day, and you’re not rushed, you’ll find out time goes by way slower.”

During his spiritual awakening, Townsend, who learned a lot from his philosophical muse Alan Watts, said eventually discovered who he is.

“When you finally recognize who you are, it’s the greatest day in your life,” Townsend said. “I’ll give you the secret right? You are God. You put yourself here. You chose to be here. And you know why? Because omniscience is totally boring, there’s no surprises.”

One person to whom Townsend wouldn’t ascribe divine status is Rice athletic director Joe Karlgaard. When Karlgaard made the decision to get rid of Graham, Townsend voiced his disagreement publicly.

FORMER RICE PITCHER

“You talk about pearls before swine,” Townsend said. “You get rid of the only guy that’s won anything at Rice ever, who basically built and saved the athletic department, and [thenPresident David Leebron and Karlgaard] treated him like total dirt. They shouldn’t have [let his contract expire], and they sure as hell shouldn’t have disrespected him like they did.”

Although Mexico became a second home to Townsend, he still found it frustrating that the U.S. made a decision that ultimately hurt the future of the sport.

“I had to leave this bastion of liberty, America, to go play internet poker down there,” Townsend said. “The first word of Texas Hold’ Em is Texas, and you couldn’t play in Texas. I have to go to fucking Mexico. Not only that, I was smuggling drugs into Mexico, not the other way around. It was a total conundrum.”

While living in Mexico, Townsend had runins with cartels in Cabo, which he said didn’t fit their stereotypical portrayals.

“People don’t understand the cartel,” Townsend said. “There’s just cool dudes. The cartels are some of the shrewdest and wisest and most creative people you’re going to find. Everybody was there to protect you, to keep you from getting hurt, because the cartels own all the clubs and restaurants. You weren’t going to pass out in the street and wake up with your liver gone.”

After his days in Mexico, Townsend returned to the U.S. and settled down in the “middle of nowhere” on a family farm between Austin and Bastrop, TX. The evolution of cryptocurrency

Karlgaard declined to comment for this article.

Townsend has admired Graham, whom he compared to a Zen master, ever since his days playing for the long-time head coach.

If letting Graham go wasn’t bad enough, Townsend added, Karlgaard chose to ignore Graham’s suggestion to hire long-time Rice assistant coach Patrick Hallmark, who has since taken the University of Texas at San Antonio baseball team, which had never been ranked, to No. 25 in the country.

“Karlgaard fires Graham, which is insane, doesn’t listen to him about who to hire, which is insane, and hires Matt Bragga, who shit the bed as bad as you possibly could as a baseball coach,” Townsend said. “You take a program that’s world-renowned for excellence, and you literally turn it into a dumpster fire within three years.”

Despite his current disdain for the athletic department, Townsend said that he is still proud of what he and his teammates accomplished at Rice.

“We answered JFK’s famous question, ‘Why does Rice play Texas?’” Townsend said. “We kicked their ass, that’s why.”

NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP MEANS 20 YEARS LATER WEDNESDAY, APRIL 19, 2023 • 9

Video: Omaha in their

‘I have the ability to control time’: Wade Townsend talks baseball, poker, his spiritual awakening

own words See more of this project at

CADAN HANSON SENIOR WRITER

The first word of Texas Hold’ Em is Texas, and you couldn’t play in Texas. I have to go to fucking Mexico ... It was a total conundrum.

[Baseball] is just playing game theory, which I’m a master at. I see holes and how you can beat games.

Wade Townsend FORMER RICE PITCHER

COURTESY RICE ATHLETICS Wade Townsend pitching for the Owls. Townsend gave up baseball to become a professional poker player and now lives in the “middle of nowhere.”

Wayne Graham looks back at final seasons, start of program’s decline

PAVITHR GOLI ASST. SPORTS EDITOR

It is not often that a coach who led their school to win its first national championship in any sport is let go, but that was the case for former Rice baseball head coach Wayne Graham in 2018 when his contract was not renewed.

At the helm of the Rice baseball program for 26 years, Graham led the Owls to their only national championship in 2003 and seven other College World Series appearances. Graham, who was inducted

Bragga brought

into the College Baseball Hall of Fame in 2012, won 1,173 games during his tenure, transforming the Rice baseball program into one of the nation’s best during his time on South Main.

Graham’s exit from the Owls came as a surprise to him. As he told the Associated Press in 2016 — prior to his departure — Graham wanted to continue coaching, despite being over 80 years old.

“Clint Eastwood still loves to direct movies at 85, and he’s directing good ones,” Graham said. “Robert Duvall is [acting] at 85. If you’re doing something you really like, unless you’ve got something in retirement you’d like better, why would you change?”

According to Rice Athletic Director Joe Karlgaard, the decision to move on from Graham came around the end of the 2017 season.

“I can’t recall the exact month and year, but it was generally about a year out. You have to have some clarity on the future of the program,” Karlgaard said. “I had a couple of conversations with coach Graham about where he was with his contract and [that] we were going to move forward the

following year. I’m not sure there was clarity in his mind about it, but I began those conversations about a year [out].”

Graham said that he did everything he could to stay.

“You can’t fight the top,” Graham said. “Their decision is their decision. I certainly wasn’t asking for more money. There was no barrier [to me continuing] other than someone wanting change and thinking the program would benefit from a new face.”

Despite the accolades that he accumulated throughout his coaching career at Rice, Graham said his final years in Houston left a sour taste in his mouth. In 2017, Graham’s Owls went 33-31, the worst record at that point in his coaching career.

That season, the Owls entered the Conference USA tournament as the sixth seed out of eight teams. However, the Owls pulled together a miraculous string of performances to win the conference championship and put them back in the postseason.

This article has been cut off for print. Read the full article at projects. ricethresher.org.

Janish reflects on his unexpectedly long tenure with Rice

A lot has changed for Paul Janish in the past 20 years, but just by looking at him on a given weekend afternoon in the spring, you wouldn’t be able to tell. Rice’s associate head baseball coach mans the third-base coaches’ box, some 45 feet away from where he lined up for the Owls two decades ago, wearing the same number-11 jersey. But when he wrapped up his nine-year MLB career in 2017, the 2003 national champion said he had no plans to spend the next decade at his alma mater.

“I had the full intention of going [to] a position [I had] set up with some private equity guys that do real estate development,” Janish said. “[Former head] coach [Wayne] Graham asked me to come back and help coach, and I had to finish my degree … I was totally expecting it to be a one-year deal — help out the team, finish school and move on with the rest of my life.”

Then Rice let Graham walk at the end of his contract, and his replacement, Matt Bragga, asked Janish to stay.

“You just felt like there was a lot of convenience,” Janish said. “I’m from Houston, I obviously have a tremendous amount of vested interest in the university. If I had to do it all over again, would I do the same thing? I think so.”

Five years and another coaching change later, Janish still spends his days in the Reckling Park dugout. While he didn’t initially plan on coaching, he’s taken to the role of mentoring his players.

When athletic director Joe Karlgaard introduced his new head coach in June 2018, he had nothing but praise.

“Matt Bragga is the right person to carry on the terrific legacy and national prominence of Rice baseball,” Karlgaard said in his announcement.

Three seasons later, Bragga was relieved of his duties after failing to bring the Owls to the conference tournament for the first time since 1993.

The Thresher reached out to Bragga, now the head coach at Tennessee Tech University, directly and through Mike Lehman, TTU’s director of sports information. Neither Bragga nor Lehman responded to multiple requests for an interview.

Bragga amassed a 51-76-1 record in his three seasons at Rice. His difficulties may be attributed to the methods that had brought Bragga success in past coaching stints not carrying over to Rice, according to Paul Janish, a former Rice baseball star who has been an assistant coach at Rice since 2017.

According to Karlgaard, Wayne Graham — the legendary Rice baseball coach — was informed a year prior to the end of his contract that the team would be moving in a new direction. Graham had been Rice’s head coach since 1992.

Soon after the conclusion of the 2018 season, Karlgaard began the search for Graham’s replacement. Previous experience was high among his priorities.

“I remember thinking that, when you’re trying to replace the greatest head coach in Rice University history, you have to have a different mindset going into it,” Karlgaard said. “I was interested in seeing if we could find somebody who had head coaching experience and had a track record of high level success relative to their institution as a head coach.”

Bragga had been the head coach at Tennessee Tech University for 15 years by 2018. His tenure at TTU was successful — he won six conference championships in

his last ten years. In his final year, Bragga’s team finished one win away from the College World Series after losing a hardfought series to the University of Texas at Austin in the Super Regionals.

Bragga impressed Karlgaard with his ability to elevate less talented teams through a positive attitude, Karlgaard said.

“We were seeing what [Bragga] was doing with a resource base that was pretty limited [at TTU],” Karlgaard said. “[Bragga], as I remember throughout the interview process and during my interactions with him here, is just a relentlessly positive person, and that seemed to be a very attractive element.”

Although Bragga did not have experience at a small, private, academically strong institution like Rice, Karlgaard said that those concerns did not phase him given Rice’s history with out-of-house candidates.

“I know coach Graham grew up in Houston and grew up coming to Rice games, but he came from San Jacinto Junior College,” Karlgaard said. “[He] had had a high level of success at an institution that’s not a lot like Rice, so we’d had success with that model before.”

To Janish, Bragga showed enthusiasm while entering a new environment.

“Bragga was excited about the job,” Janish said. “The city of Houston and Rice University was not probably super familiar for him at the time, [with] the dynamics [of] a larger metropolitan area and of small academic private universities, so he had some pertinent questions about some of those things, but he was an energetic guy.”

Bragga implemented an analytics-based approach to the sport, according to Joshua Larzabal, a pitcher for the Rice Baseball team between 2017 and 2021.

“[Bragga] was a numbers coach,” Larzabal explained. “All of his practices were competition and everything was scored. Although, there were times where the scoring and leaderboards did not correlate to playing time.”

Under Bragga, the team adopted an offensive-minded strategy, thus being referred to affectionately as the “Slugging Owls.” In Bragga’s first year, the Owls had their highest home run rate since 2010.

This offensive philosophy was in contrast to Graham’s focus on pitching and defense during his tenure. Still, Karlgaard said that both approaches had merit.

This article has been cut off for print. Read the full article at projects. ricethresher.org.

“They have a lot of things going on, whether it’s school, girlfriends, family, whatever the case is,” Janish said. “There’s a mentor side of it that I appreciate about the college level … While they irritate you, they also keep you younger.”

Janish forgives his players, though — he said he and his teammates irritated Graham plenty of times during their playing careers.

“[On a team trip], six or seven of us rented mopeds and we’re riding the mopeds around and we knew, technically speaking, we weren’t supposed to be on them,” Janish said. “Sure enough, we saw Coach Graham’s wife, while six of us [were] riding the mopeds around Hawaii.”

Janish said all irritation was forgiven when the Owls performed on the field.

“We swept them,” Janish added, about that same Hawaii trip. “We didn’t really get in trouble.”

Janish matured by the time he made the majors though, lasting nine years across stints with Cincinnati Reds, Atlanta Braves and Baltimore Orioles largely due to what he brought to the clubhouse.

“I wasn’t really the most talented guy on any team I’ve ever played on,” Janish said. “I think in terms of [being] a teammate guy [in the] clubhouse, I have what I would call some intangibles.”

When he’s not coaching, Janish and his wife, also a Rice alum, spend their time raising their three children.

After all these years on South Main, Janish said his continued involvement with Rice is a product of chance as much as anything else.

“I don’t know why we’re still here,” Janish said. “But I’m glad that we are.”

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

10 • WEDNESDAY, APRIL 19, 2023 THE RICE THRESHER

I don’t know why we’re still here. But I’m glad that we are.

Paul Janish ASSOCIATE HEAD COACH

DANIEL SCHRAGER SPORTS EDITOR

MURTAZA KAZMI THRESHER STAFF

‘positive attitude,’ priority shifts to his disappointing tenure at Rice

THRESHER ARCHIVES Wayne Graham coaches during the 2018 season. THRESHER ARCHIVES

HONG LIN-TSAI / THRESHER EDITORIAL CARTOON Scan to see more

Matt Bragga coaches his team during his tenure at Rice. Bragga was let go after three disappointing seasons.

Cross Pollinated JAYAKER

ACROSS DOWN

Fall flowers or Texas homecoming items

Comedian Wanda

Programming pioneer Lovelace

Breakfast restaurant chain

Sound-related

Epic story

George Takei’s character in “Star Trek”

Tylenol and Advil competitor

Applaud, at a poetry slam

Marvelous

Unit of land

Affirmative response

Title for Judi Dench or Helen Mirren

Cheered, as a crowd

“If I Could Turn Back Time” singer

___ Kapital

Sits with the car running

Sore loser’s retort, as in a story by 49-down

Wes Anderson’s “Isle of ____”

Protagonist of “Solo”

“Cake by the Ocean” band

Select a choice few

Easy, in Ecuador

Common elementary sch. course for immigrants

With mi, a Vietnamese sandwich

“It’s a ____ __ chance”

Common song refrain for Britney and Bieber

Clumsy one

Skillful

Produces, or a hint for 20-across, 36-across, and 41-across

Southeast Asian country with capital at

Vientiane

Admiral Ackbar: “It’s _ ____”

Approximation words

Potato, in South Asia

Milk container

Bert and Ernie or Key and Peele

Signal disruptor, for short

Vandalized a car

If counterpart

Leebron lives up sabbatical

this notion, partly given the complexity of the United States religious configuration at the very founding of the nation.”

After 18 years as the president of Rice, David Leebron has been spreading his wings. During what he refers to as his sabbatical year, emphasizing that he is too young to be retired, his pastimes have included skiing and attending musicals. He also spends his time listening to Aretha Franklin and Bob Marley.

During his time off, Leebron has accrued one million vertical feet in total skiing.

“For me, there’s just something kind of magical about going down the mountains,” Leebron said. “It’s a tremendous amount of fun, and the scenery is fantastic … I would say that at the end of the day, that still leaves time to do reading and work and learning.”

Off the slopes, Leebron was a visiting professor last fall at Harvard University and Columbia University’s law schools. While in New York, he watched a few musicals, and strongly recommends “Some Like It Hot” for its “modern sensibility about sexuality.” He said he also enjoyed running into Rice students.

“I was actually quite close to some of the students who are up there. I was walking by [New York University] one day, and we had almost gotten past the corner and just heard this voice screaming, ‘President Leebron! President Leebron!’ out of NYU … It was a Rice graduate who had been a student in a course that I taught here who I’d recommended at NYU,” Leebron said.

The courses Leebron taught this past year have focused on religious diversity and the law, which he said he was partly inspired to focus on because of his identity as a Jewish person in Texas, as well as the recent Supreme Court decision to overturn the right to abortion.

The case is fundamentally driven by religion, according to Leebron, who cotaught a course on the legal framework of religious tolerance while at Rice.

“I tend to be pretty strong on separation of church and state, and people who say there is no separation of church and state in the Constitution are idiots. I guess you can quote me on that,” Leebron said. “It doesn’t literally say that, of course. But the whole historical foundation is built around

Leebron will return to Rice as a professor in the fall, where he will teach two courses: Religion and Democracy and Race and Law in the U.S. He said that discussions about these issues are a great opportunity for students interested in learning about the evolution of the law, particularly with less known Supreme Court cases.

“I hope I’ll have at least three students, and I hope they will have a beneficial experience,” Leebron said. “I always have fun interacting with my students, so I’m not worried about me.”

Leebron, who said that we currently have the worst collection of world leaders since the 1930s, considers governance to be inherently political, whether it’s leading a country or a university.

“Frankly, whether it’s the governance of a university or the governance of a country, we have to find ways that it can be guided by the values that are important to us … The question at the end of the day is, are the values of the institution — which is an abstraction, but it’s made up of a lot of different people — sufficiently aligned with your values? For me, over 18 years, I found a lot of that alignment,” Leebron said.

Beyond his impact on campus, Leebron is considering how he can further contribute to the world now that he is less constrained in the opinions he can voice.

As Leebron continues his postpresidency life, he’s committed to expanding his horizons.

“If you’re just spending time with the people who think like you, you’re not getting educated,” Leebron said.

“In between ski runs, sitting on the ski lift, that’s what I ponder, is how can I have some impact. I hope [to] make some kind of contribution.”

Catchall cat.

Disapproving sound

Savory Oaxacan sauce

Pointy boot accessory

Listened to Sam Smith or remained

Oft-separated egg components

Leg joint

Roof overhang

Slim

Biodiverse Indian state home to Indian rhinos

The DD in DDR

Petri dish filling

Orangutan or gorilla

Loaves for Reubens

Dadaist artist Jean

Blue _____ Mountains

Smells

Rapid growth of cyanobacteria caused by runoff

Pre-matriculation summer program for STEM students

Play caller

Thick slab

Summoning spell, for Hermione

Book supporter?

Site of many soccer injuries

Dutch cheese

Fabled

Golden Talon scavenges on campus

Normally, the steam tunnels under Rice are off-limits to students. But on Tuesday, April 6, as part of a scavenger hunt organized by a student group called the Order of the Golden Talon, two intrepid teams got the privilege of exploring the steam tunnels under Rice. Duncan College junior Ethan Peck, who was on the winning team, noted that this was one moment when the team had doubts about the hunt.

“We were like, ‘this is where we get murdered. Is this real?’” Peck said. “But finding the owls and things like that around campus was definitely pretty convincing.”

The scavenger hunt was a week-long affair involving clues pointing to hidden owl statuettes at different locations on campus. The clues were puzzles, drawn from a variety of academic disciplines and aspects of Rice lore. Student teams gained points through challenges, such as participating in acts of community service, building a functional owl house or baking an owl-shaped cake. Luey Garcia, who acts as head of the organization under the alias “Eye of the Golden Talon,” said that the hunt was meant to expose students to more of campus.

“There’s a lot of history to the Rice campus … and that’s something that I really wanted to emphasize when we were making all of the clues for the locations around campus,” Garcia, a McMurtry College senior, said. “There’s a lot of little structural quirks that people don’t often get a chance to really look at and appreciate for what they are. The Rice campus is extremely unique.”

That was one thing that winning team member Cameron Underwood appreciated.

“During COVID, we never really got that chance to really explore Rice in-depth,” Underwood, a Duncan College junior, said. “It’s just really nice to see all these things about Rice that you’d never heard about before.”

In total, around 30 students, arranged into six teams, participated in the hunt. The winning team collected 15 of the 54 hidden owls and were awarded the grand prize: a lunch with President Reggie DesRoches.

“I was honored and am always excited when I get the opportunity to spend time with students,” DesRoches said. “We had a great conversation over lunch. Rice students are so engaging and creative. Talking with them is one of the things I like most about my job.”

According to Garcia, this type of intellectual enthusiasm is one aspect of the Rice student body the Order of the Golden Talon aims to celebrate. Founded in 2019, the Order is an organization founded on intellectual curiosity and puzzle solving.

Garcia emphasized that the organization aims to promote this curiosity among the student body as a whole.

“Over the course of this next year, 202324, I think you’re gonna find that we’re a lot more involved,” Garcia said. “I would just keep an eye out for that.”

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

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 19, 2023 • 11 FEATURES

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KOLLI CROSSWORD EDITOR MICHELLE GACHELIN A&E EDITOR ADAM LEFF THRESHER STAFF MICHELLE GACHELIN / THRESHER COURTESY OF TYLER FOSTER

Senior Spotlight: Cindy Sheng explores new experiences by design

that Rice’s sense of community is what appealed to her most when she made her college decision.

“I love to meet new people here. I have a tradition with a friend where every Thursday I invite one guest that he doesn’t know to have tea with us, and he invites one guest that I don’t know,” Sheng said. “We end up having such meaningful conversations … It really reminds me of how special Rice students are because they’re all passionate about something.”

Sheng said that she has also formed many of her important relationships through Rice Coffeehouse where she’s worked since the spring semester of her freshman year.

Beyond her extracurriculars, Sheng plans to participate in Rice’s Ecostudio course this May, which will span three weeks in Paris, following her graduation.

“I’m excited for this program, because we’re looking at the environment through the lens of the arts,” Sheng said. “After that I’m planning on traveling a bit in Europe, staying with study abroad friends from Australia, and traveling with my family as well … Beyond that, I’m excited to just be home for a little bit.”

Cindy Sheng’s biggest passion is for design, whether it’s creating a campuswide organization, building ways to form connections with new people or her aspirations to develop products through user interface and user experience design avenues.

Sheng, a McMurtry College senior, discovered her passion for user interface and digital design during her sophomore year through a project with friends majoring in computer science.

“I loved how it paired analytical problem solving with creative, fast-paced thinking,” Sheng said. “I wanted to get hands-on experience, but I was surprised to find that Rice had no organizations [for UX design].”

Looking to fill that gap, Sheng created the Rice Design club, which aims to foster a community for Rice students interested in digital design to collaborate on projects.

Sheng credits her involvement with Rice Design as a formative part of her Rice experience, citing the club’s success in securing high member participation in events hosted on campus.

“Rice Design fills a specific niche that was untapped … A pretty big thing we do around campus is our merch drops,” Sheng said. “My role was more of a creative visionary director because we had so many talented people that were really passionate … It was a huge project that took a lot of abilities, and bringing all of that together was super fulfilling [and] probably one of my favorite things I’ve done at Rice.”

Sheng’s pursuit of design is more than just an extracurricular activity. She is graduating with a major in cognitive sciences and a minor in business, and intends to pursue product design. She spent her fall semester in Australia in a design and computing exchange program with the University of Sydney that she said has helped inform her future beyond Rice.

“It was a very integral part of my experience this year and has opened me up to the possibilities going beyond Rice … That also allowed me to come back to Rice with a less jaded perspective and a revitalized sense of excitement to meet new people,” Sheng said.

Sheng identified the connections that she’s formed throughout her undergraduate experience to be the most impactful outcome from her time at Rice. Originally from Florida, Sheng said

Upon reflecting on the aspects of Rice she’ll miss the most, Sheng identified intimate moments with her friends that have been fostered by the close-knit community she has found on campus.

Cindy Sheng MCMURTRY COLLEGE SENIOR

“I love walking around with somebody having a conversation [late at night] and just meandering through Rice campus. It’s such a nostalgic feeling for me,” Sheng said. “I feel very lucky now to be able to hang out with them all the time.”

Ink these tattoo and piercing shops into your calendar

HADLEY MEDLOCK ASST. A&E EDITOR

As the weather heats up and requires more tank tops to be worn and long hair to be thrown into ponytails, you might be realizing that more people have tattoos and piercings than you first thought. Whether this has now made you want your first ear piercing or third tattoo, the vital first step is figuring out where to get it done. Now that I have a few ear piercings my dad probably doesn’t like and a fresh new tattoo, I feel almost obligated to give you this list of shops to get your own body modifications done in Houston, if only so you can be as cool as me.

Houston Heights Tattoo

A week and a half ago I got my very first tattoo at Houston Heights, so I have to say this one holds a special place in my heart. Setting up an appointment was very easy, and my tattoo artist did a great job on my floral piece while also being fun to talk to.The shop itself is also very welcoming and well decorated, making for an all-around enjoyable experience.

This shop does have a $150 shop minimum, though, so it may not be the place to go to get that tiny infinity sign tattoo

on your ankle. Houston Heights also offers piercings with a variety of jewelry.

713 Tattoo Parlour

713 is definitely the place to go for piercings in Houston. While other shops may be a little less expensive, 713 is Houston’s only Association of Professional Piercers studio and has an extensive collection of jewelry to choose from. I’ve had two cartilage piercings done here, as well as many friends with the same. 713 is also well known for their tattooing, mainly touting artists that specialize in colorful, American traditional style. They also recently started permanent cosmetic and lash services.

Assassin Tattoo

Though I’ve never been, Assassin Tattoo was a shop recommended to me by many when I was looking for a place for my first tattoo. This shop has eight different artists, which means you’re bound to find one that tattoos in the style you want.

The Electric Chair Tattoo & Body

Piercing

I’m not going to try and make claims that this is the best one on this list, but it’s still a solid choice on the less expensive side. I got my second lobe piercings done

here that healed rather nicely, and I’ve had friends get rook and tragus piercings as well without much trouble. Their selection of jewelry isn’t very extensive, though, so you might want to buy other jewelry beforehand or switch it out once it’s healed.

The Electric Chair has also been tattooing since 1999, with great reviews, and the shop minimum is $80.

Ephemeral Tattoo

If permanent body modifications aren’t really your thing but you still want to look

cool for a short period of time, the madeto-fade tattoo shop Ephemeral recently opened up a store in Montrose. Using a “medical-grade bio-absorbable” ink, according to their website, the process of getting an Ephemeral tattoo is the same as a regular one, it just naturally fades from your skin in nine to 15 months.

These cost the same, if not more, than an actual tattoo of similar size, though, and I don’t think the tattoo looks the best during its fading phases. So, you might as well get some real ink in there instead.

12 • WEDNESDAY, APRIL 19, 2023 THE RICE THRESHER

LILY REMINGTON / THRESHER

Rice Design fills a specific niche that was untapped ... A pretty big thing we do around campus is our merch drops ... It was a huge project that took a lot of abilities, and bringing all of that together was super fulfilling [and] probably one of my favorite things I’ve done at Rice.

JULIANA LIGHTSEY FOR THE THRESHER COURTESY CINDY SHENG McMurtry College senior Cindy Sheng incorporates design into many aspects of her undergraduate experience, from founding the Rice Design club to creating her own path within Coffeehouse and EcoStudio.

Wiess Tabletop stages tragicomedy ‘Fun Home’

SHREYA CHALLA SENIOR WRITER

Wiess Tabletop Theatre’s spring production, “Fun Home,” will run April 21 through 23 at 8 p.m. in Wiess College commons. The Broadway show is a Tony award-winning production based on Alison Bechdel’s graphic novel “Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic.” It was the first show on Broadway to feature a lesbian protagonist, Alison Bechdel, played by three different actors at three different ages.

Drew Castleberry, who plays Medium Alison and is also one of the show’s producers, said that the show was chosen because of an overwhelming sentiment that theatre kids at Rice are tired of playing straight characters. According to Castleberry, there hasn’t been a single show done by a Rice theatre company featuring a canonically queer lead character during their time at Rice.

“There are a lot of queer people in the theatre community at Rice. Not only is Alison’s character queer, but her dad is queer as well,” Castleberry, a Wiess junior, said. “We wanted to give theatre students the opportunity to have an acting role that doesn’t require them to present as straight.”

Parker Blumentritt, the director of the show, said that the show covers intense topics like the main character coming out and society’s inherent homophobia.

“[The show] covers both the most positive moments of a young queer person’s life and some of the worst,” Blumentritt, a Sid Richardson College junior, said. “It’s set in the seventies, but a lot of people still struggle with a lot of the same things. It is still a really important story to tell.”

According to Jenny Pruitt, the executive producer of “Fun Home,” the show is

both heartfelt and funny, with fun dance numbers and emotional scenes.

“[My hopes for the show] are to tell a beautiful story, and also for queer people to have a story they can relate to, and to give people who may not be queer something that can educate them or give them a lens into someone else’s life,” Pruitt, a Wiess senior, said.

Blumentritt said her favorite part of her experience directing the show has been working with the cast.

“They’re all so talented, and hearing them sing and act and bring us all to tears in the middle of the run-through … it’s really special,” Blumentritt said. “It’s such a difficult show to put on and just seeing it come to life is really beautiful.”

Castleberry said that Wiess Tabletop Theatre has made an effort to respect that the script is based on a true story, and the director and stage manager have been

cognizant of the fact that the rehearsal process itself is hard on the cast, who are playing emotionally abused characters.

“This is a real person that we’re portraying, and they’re real family members. We want to do that justice … Rice theatre tends to shy away from dramas and typically do comedy, but we’re definitely breaking the mold here,” Castleberry said. “As an actor, you have to put yourself in that headspace … Shows like this stick with you, even after you take your costume off.”

Alayne Ziglin, who plays the 43-yearold version of Alison, said that even though the show is so heavy, the cast has made rehearsals a joy, and the show has been really special for them.

“For the first 19 years of my life, I wasn’t really ‘visibly queer.’ So being cast as someone who is so confident in her sexuality and in who she is really very affirming for me,” Ziglin, a McMurtry

College sophomore, said. “This is a show that I needed when I was in high school. Because even if your family is unsupportive, it shows that you can still push through that, you can still live a really fulfilled life and become confident in yourself.”

Castleberry said that “Fun Home” is closest to their heart, out of any production they have done at Rice, and everyone in the cast auditioned because it is a story that is so rarely told.

“I think the amount of dedication and personal investment in the story is so much more pronounced in this cast than any other production I’ve been in,” Castleberry said. “That really motivates us to do well, not only for our personal pride, but also just to make sure that we can deliver this message well [and] how we mean to, and have it really impact people.”

Outstanding Senior Award Recipients

Maddie Salinas, Brown

Mbonobong "MB" Usua, Wiess

Jayaker Kolli, Will Rice

Saanya Bhargava, McMurtry Cynthia Gonzales, Sid Richardson

Anesu Karen Murambadoro, Duncan

Nick Ess, Lovett

Marina Karki, Baker

Asha Malani, Will Rice

Dan Helmeci, Jones

Malaika Bergner, Martel

Dani Knobloch, Hanszen

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 19, 2023 • 13 ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

2023 Congratulations to all the recipients!

CALI LIU / THRESHER ‘Fun Home,’ Wiess Tabletop Theatre’s spring production, examines society’s inherent homophobia through the eyes of a lesbian protagonist.

Women’s tennis sweeps on Senior Day, men’s falls to SMU

Both Rice tennis teams held their annual Senior Days this weekend. On Saturday, the men’s team took a 4-2 loss at home against Southern Methodist University, putting their season record at 12-9. The following day, the women’s team swept Prairie View A&M University, to move to 11-8.

Saturday got off to a strong start for the Owls, who took the first two doubles matches to win the doubles point. However, the singles matches didn’t go as well, as SMU won five of the six matches. Freshman Kabeer Kapasi was the only Owl to win a singles match, which head coach Efe Ustundag said was a product of his resolve.

“When you only take one singles match, you’ve got to give some props to Kabeer,” Ustundag said. “It was a big mental battle … and I’m happy he was able to take the tie break and put a point up on the board.”

Kapasi said he learned from a string of recent losses.

“I learned some tough lessons in my past few matches, where I had to lead and kind of lost it,” Kapasi said. “I think today it was kind of the same, but I managed to get it back, so

I’m pretty happy.”

Kapasi also noted how the “super hot, super humid” weather negatively impacted him, but credited his team with helping him weather the subpar conditions.

Despite Saturday’s result, Ustundag said he is proud of how the Owls put up a fight.

“When you lose a match to a long-time rival, you’re never really satisfied with the match,” Ustundag said. “I’m definitely proud of the way the guys fought. That’s what we’ve been doing all year long: giving ourselves a chance, no matter who’s out there competing for us. I’m always proud of what we do out there.”

The Owls bounced back on Sunday, with Rice’s women’s tennis team winning 4-0 at home against Prairie View, putting their season record at 11-8. The Owls won all three doubles matches to take the doubles point, then swept the singles matches. According to fifth-year Diae El Jardi, the win was a complete team effort.

“We did pretty well today”, El Jardi said. “All of us – every single one of us; my teammates and coaches, everyone – just came out today and played really well and showed a lot of energy and effort… We won and it was a beautiful day.”

Head coach Elizabeth Schmidt said she was pleased with the results and how the team celebrated the final home matches of three seniors.

“I think it was a nice day celebrating our three players who are playing their final home matches here at Rice, so [I was] excited that we were able to get the team victory for Syd[ney Berlin], Diae [El Jardi] and for Maria [Budin],” Schmidt said. “[I’m] just grateful for everything they’ve done for our program.”

According to senior Maria Budin, the win was a perfect send-off for her and her fellow seniors.

“I think it was a solid performance from the whole team,” Budin said. “[It’s a] pretty emotional day, hard to quite believe it’s been

four years … [It’s] really nice to be able to celebrate with all the seniors.”

Next up for both teams is the Conference USA tournament. The men’s team will play the University of Alabama at Birmingham at home on April 21 at noon. That same day at 10 a.m., the women’s team will play on the road against the winner of the University of North Texas and the University of Texas at El Paso. According to Schmidt, the team is looking forward to their last chance to make a run at the C-USA title.

“We’re looking forward to the conference tournament,” Schmidt said. “This is our last hurrah at Conference USA, so we’re looking to go out with a bang … Every match is going to be a tough battle, and our team’s up for it.”

MBB’s Reed Myers: I hope to be an example for future Asian-American hoopers

The road to being a Division I basketball player is hard. It is even harder when you are an Asian-American. According to the most recent data from the 2019-2020 NCAA basketball season, players of Asian descent make up 0.4% of Division I Men’s basketball players. But growing up, that number never even came into my mind for a second. I just wanted to hoop.

I have always loved the game of basketball. I grew up watching my two older sisters play basketball, and I would go to all of their practices and games, wanting to be just like them. So it didn’t take long before I had a ball in my hand.

It’s kind of funny because my siblings and I grew up with parents who didn’t really have an athletic background. My dad is from Kansas City, and my mom was born and raised in Tokyo, Japan, before coming to the States before high school. Neither of them were star athletes by any means, and their professional careers strayed far away from the world of sports.

But when they had my sisters and me, they had us in sports at a very young age. And for that, I consider myself lucky because while my dad is white, my mom is Japanese, and a household centered around sports was not common where she grew up. She let her kids follow their passion for basketball, and I can’t thank my parents enough for that.

Basketball was always my favorite thing growing up. Because of this obsession, I turned into a pretty good basketball player in Arizona, where I ended up playing against some future NBA players.

No matter what was on my mind, or what I was going through, basketball was always there for me. I was a relatively quiet kid, but basketball brought out a different side of me when I was on the court. It was my happy place. It wasn’t until I got to high school that things started to change.

In my first week of high school, I remember a fellow student asking if I was a foreign exchange student. I remember embarrassingly muttering something like, “Nah, I grew up just down the street.” I quickly forgot about that encounter because I was still just trying to adjust to high school. But it wouldn’t be long before how I looked also affected what I loved doing, playing basketball. I was one of two freshmen to make my high school’s varsity team. We ended up winning the state championship that year, and I was named Small School Player of the Year by the local newspaper. But with those highs came the lows.

I remember having opposing student sections ask me, “Did you make your shoes before the game?” I remember running into the locker room at halftime on the road with opposing students yelling “chink” at me. I remember telling the school’s staff members about the incident. But what I remember most is what happened afterward: nothing.

I would speak up against what was happening, but nothing would change. It was then, as a freshman in high school, that I learned the brutal reality of what it is like to be an Asian-American hooper. No matter the player that I was, nor the achievements I earned, what would stick out most to people

was the way that I looked. I didn’t look the part.

I remember in high school reading basketball scouts describing me as “not quick” and “lacking speed,” while these scouts had never even watched me play. They had just seen what I looked like. While I do not have any evidence to back up this opinion, I truly believe that how I looked affected how schools recruited me.

Even though I was a two-time state champion, scored over 1,000 points in high school and scored over 20 points on countless shoe-sponsored club teams, I couldn’t even get Division III coaches to call me back. Even when I would outperform players in my same position, they were the ones who got the scholarship offers, not me. It always felt like I had to work ten times harder than the average player my age to earn the same respect.

I eventually found a place to play collegiate basketball at Rice, but I was reminded again that as an Asian-American hooper, you don’t look the part.

When I would tell fellow students that I’m on the basketball team, the most common response was, “oh, you’re on the club team?” When I would respond that I’m on the varsity team, it would usually be followed by an incredulous look and ‘really?!’ being said about two or three times.

During my career at Rice, I remember seeing all the teams we played against, and it became obvious that I was one of the only players of Asian descent at the Division I level. It’s honestly a crazy feeling going into opposing arenas for four years and never seeing anyone that looks like you out there on the court.

One of the most difficult things for me has been that no one knows what the experience is like. It’s like you’re isolated in your own world. I can’t relate or connect

with anyone who is going through or has gone through what I have been through because there is no one else.

Because you are one of the only ones in basketball, people don’t really know how to treat you or what to say to you. As a result, I have been called a chink, been told I’ve eaten too many dumplings and to open my eyes and make a shot. But at the end of the day, I don’t think these things were said out of hate. I believe that because I was in a sport where I didn’t look the part, people didn’t know how to treat me because they’ve never had to watch, play with, or coach an Asian-American hooper before.

As I step away from playing the sport I loved at such a young age, I’ve had to reflect. At times, being an Asian-American hooper can be so frustrating and isolating. But at the same time, it has given me so many wonderful experiences, memories and relationships that I’ll take with me for the rest of my life. And for those reasons, I can’t thank the sport enough for all it has done for me.

While very few people know what it is like to be an Asian-American hooper, let me tell you, the path is extremely challenging and requires a massive amount of perseverance. However, it’s not impossible. I hope that by being on Rice’s basketball team, I, a six-foot (at best) half-white and half-Japanese AsianAmerican, can provide hope to the next generation of Asian-American hoopers – a hope that I did not have growing up.

Reed Myers SENIOR WRITER

14 • WEDNESDAY, APRIL 19, 2023 THE RICE THRESHER

No matter the player I was, nor the achievements I earned, what would stick out most to people was the way I looked. I didn’t look the part.

COLUMN

[It’s] a pretty emotional day, hard to quite believe it’s been four years ... [It’s] really nice to be able to celebrate with all the seniors.

Maria Budin SENIOR TENNIS PLAYER

ANTOINE WILEY THRESHER STAFF COURTESY RICE ATHLETICS Diae El Jardi competes during a recent match. El Jardi and the Owls beat Prairie View A&M 4-0 on Sunday to send their seniors out on a good note.

Mckyla Van der Westhuizen’s last name is long, her philosophy isn’t

Van der Westhuizen said her javelin career has similarly clunky origins, unexpectedly born out of a deeply unathletic childhood.

the world, go overseas, especially if I could. I never knew javelin could throw me into another country.”

There are 280 McDonald’s stores in Africa. 230 of them are in South Africa, according to freshman javelin thrower Mckyla Van der Westhuizen.

“There’s like two places you can go in Africa,” Van der Westhuizen said. “South Africa, for one, because it’s like the America of Africa … Mauritius is also a great place.”

Van der Westhuizen hails from this McDonald’s hub, the “America of Africa,” specifically, Centurion, South Africa.

“I’m from Centurion, but nobody knows what that is, so I usually say Pretoria,” Van der Westhuizen said. “And people also don’t know what that is. So I

just ask them, ‘Do you know Cape Town?’ They say yes and I say, ‘Not there.’”

At the Victor Lopez Classic earlier this year, Van der Westhuizen claimed first place overall with her 56.68 meter throw — the fifth best mark in the country this season. Despite her performance, Van der Westhuizen isn’t under the impression that she’s had a particularly strong season so far.

“I’ve been a bit clunky,” Van der Westhuizen said. “Some of the conditions have not always been the best at my meets. I don’t really like to blame the conditions because I don’t like to focus on that, but sometimes it is unavoidable … I threw up in the car the day before I competed [at Texas Relays], so that was not the best way to impact your performance.”

“It all started in grade four, when I was really unathletic and absolutely useless as a child. Useless. I did not do anything. I didn’t touch sports,” Van der Westhuizen said. “Grade four, I was doing hurdles, actually. I wasn’t really good but I could hurdle the hurdles properly … The next year came around, and other girls figured out their technique. They also got faster, and I just didn’t. So I was like, ‘Nah, I don’t want to lose any more.’”

After some failed attempts bouncing around tennis, shot put and discus, Van der Westhuizen finally settled on javelin after beating out the rest of her peers’ throws. Stemming from a desire to win — or rather, to simply not lose – Van der Westhuizen said her javelin skills hovered around mediocre-level before switching coaches a few years into the sport.

“I excelled entirely in grade nine. At the end of the [year], I threw my first 40 meters … It was really far. I took the meter record, I got two trophies and I was just so happy. And I was like, ‘Oh, I’m gonna do this forever,” Van der Westhuizen said. “I just wanted to see

After being tossed 9,000 miles across the Atlantic Ocean, Van der Westhuizen said she’s adapted to the culture changes quite comfortably, albeit with a few exceptions.

“Back home, we drive on the left side, so I walk on the left side of any pathway. You guys drive on the right side of the road, so you walk on the right side,” Van der Westhuizen said. “Every time I come to a person, I immediately go left and they go right, so I always end up walking into so many people. It’s such an awkward thing.”

Despite her self-proclaimed lack of coordination, Van der Westhuizen’s clumsiness is firmly rooted in the dayto-day, her javelin skills unaffected by any sidewalk stumbles. Looking ahead to the rest of her time at Rice, Van der Westhuizen said she hopes to continue refining her technique and podium at nationals — perhaps even with her sights set on the Paris Olympics in the future.

“I love the sport and I just want to be better,” Van der Westhuizen said. “[There’s] not much to it. I don’t have some long-ass philosophy.”

Farewell to C-USA, the conference that was never supposed to last this long

There’s a trophy in the Rice baseball offices. It’s from 2006, the Owls’ first season in Conference USA. On the front, it reads “C-USA 2006 Baseball Tournament Champions.” On either side are the logos of nine schools.

The teams on that trophy look suspiciously like the American Athletic Conference that Rice is about to join. Five of the nine are current AAC members – although the University of Houston and University of Central Florida are about to leave – and two of the others, including Rice, are joining this year. Current AAC members Southern Methodist University and the University of Tulsa were also part of that conference, but don’t have baseball programs.

never supposed to last this long. The conference is a temporary stop for schools with their sights set on bigger conferences, or fallen powers trying to buy time before deciding what to do next.

you watched was forgettable. But when there was a good game or team or player, it was like discovering a great cultband that only you and your friends knew about.

This fall, when Rice joins the AAC, they’ll be going back to what is essentially just the C-USA that they joined nearly 18 years ago.

Conference USA made a lot of sense for the Owls at the time. It contained local rivals Houston, as well as a pair of nearby small, private schools, SMU and Tulane University. It was relatively concentrated in the South, and contained a handful of Rice’s former Southwest Conference foes. More importantly, it was a collection of former major-conference teams that, like Rice, were regrouping after the wave of conference realignments in the mid-1990s and early 2000s.

But those schools left, and Rice remained. Rice was left in a geographically confused conference of all large public universities, none of which were its historic rivals.

That’s the thing that Rice never seemed to understand. Their time in C-USA was

That’s what it was for Houston, SMU, Texas Christian University and several others. That’s even how it formed; when the Metropolitan Collegiate Athletic Conference dissolved, some of its members merged with the Great Midwest Conference to create Conference USA, in an effort to hold on to some semblance of their major-conference status. All but two of those original Metro Conference teams had moved on within a decade. It isn’t a permanent home, but Rice never seemed to get that memo. Only three of the conference’s 11 current schools have been members for more than a decade. Of course, Rice is one of them.

So the Owls are finally getting out, after 18 years of half-empty stadiums, inconsistent play and the one nationallyrelevant opponent per year in each sport.

The AAC makes a lot more sense for Rice, even if it’s just C-USA circa-2006 with a new coat of paint. It has more nearby schools, more small, private schools, more national prominence and a more lucrative TV deal.

With a current wave of realignment ongoing, there’s a chance that this iteration of the AAC doesn’t last more than a few years. But even if Rice is just jockeying for position before the next conference reshuffle, they’re in a much better place now than they would have been in C-USA.

That’s not to say Conference USA won’t be missed, though. Gone are the days of absurd promotions needed to

get fans into seats, of listening to ESPN’s Z-team call a game or tracking down a broadcast on some obscure streaming site. No longer will Rice athletics be able to get away with referring to an all-conference athlete’s high school team as the “Yikes” in his online bio without anyone noticing. And the Owls won’t spend any more Novembers looking forward to their annual volleyball conference title game meeting with Western Kentucky University – the best rivalry most college sports fans have never heard of.

This year, the Owls played the Hilltoppers to decide the conference regular season title. The five-set thriller was one of the most exciting games I’ve watched in any sport. But it was only available through a one-camera broadcast streamed on a Western Kentucky Facebook page.

Whatever charm C-USA had, that was it. Most of what you watched was forgettable.

But when there was a good game or team or player, it was like discovering a great cult-band that only you and your friends knew about. That’s a small price to pay for all the AAC will do for Rice sports, but it’s a price nonetheless.

Now, since I’m graduating next month, I know it’s tempting (see: not tempting) to read this as some sort of coded metaphor for me leaving Rice. I swear it’s not, though it has been a pleasure running this sports section for the past two-and-a-half years. Rice is off to better things. I am not. Goodbye.

Daniel Schrager SPORTS EDITOR

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 19, 2023 • 15 SPORTS

CARTOON *whistling sounds*

LIN TSAI / THRESHER

EDITORIAL

“Owl-American” HONG

Whatever charm C-USA had, that was it. Most of what

COLUMN

RIYA MISRA FEATURE EDITOR

I love the sport and I just want to be better. [There’s] not much to it. I don’t have some long-ass philosophy.

Mckyla Van der Westhuizen FRESHMAN JAVELIN THROWER COURTESY RICE ATHLETICS McKyla Van der Westhuizen competes at a recent meet. Van der Westhuizen currently ranks fifth in the country in the javelin throw as a true freshman.

THE BACKIES 2023

Did Not Stop the Steal Award

For Exceptional Achievement in Failure to Run Away with the Win

Winner: Dilf Hunter for receiving just enough votes to make Solomon Ni nervous

Runner-Up: Jones College Beer Bike for somehow placing lower than they did before challenging the results

Queen Elizabeth Award II

A Departure from Last Year’s Iteration, For Exceptional Achievement in Seeming Immortal But No Longer Being With Us

Winner: Cinnamon Rolls for silently disappearing from West Servery along with Chef Roger

Runner-Up: COMP 310

for finally being put to rest, ending a decades-long reign of terror over COMP juniors

Samsung Galaxy Fold Award

For Exceptional Achievement in Innovation Nobody Asked For

Winner: Academic Quad Redesign for the bizarre diagonal path that’s supposed to connect the North and South colleges?

Runner-Up: MurtPass because public tickets weren’t complicated enough already

Campus Hero Award

For Exceptional Achievement in Saving Us from Destruction

Winner: Luke Han for being the voice of the people in his noble advocacy for student safety

Runner-Up: ChatGPT for BSing homework answers better than you can BS homework answers

Fortified Marine Award

For Exceptional Achievement in Teaching Rice Students True Adversity

Winner: That Time Campus Flooded for bringing the rage of Mother Nature into the hedges and along the Inner Loop

Runner-Up: True Dog for forcing students to reckon with the brutality of life without their beloved Yoyo’s

The Backpage is the satire section of the

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LOOKING FOR A USED CAR

Rice alum looking for a used car. Anyone looking to sell their car after graduation, please email or call. (832) 264-1420. piano.bharrover@gmail.com.

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16 • WEDNESDAY, APRIL 19, 2023 BACKPAGE

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.