VOLUME 108, ISSUE NO. 12 | STUDENT-RUN SINCE 1916 | RICETHRESHER.ORG | WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2023
COURTESY DYLAN GLENN
NAYELI SHAD
Off the pedestal: Willy’s statue moved as academic quad redesign progresses
MANAGING EDITOR The Founder’s Memorial statue was removed from its pedestal Nov. 8. The statue is currently in storage and will eventually sit at the corner of Lovett and Sewall Halls in the redesigned academic quad. The Board of Trustees announced in January 2022 that the statue would be relocated and the quad would be redesigned. Images of the final design by landscape architecture firm Nelson Byrd Woltz are displayed on a poster in the Sallyport and between Rayzor Hall and Sewall Hall, two of the entrances into the quad that are fenced off until April 2024 for construction. The poster reads, “Moving forward together. Acknowledging our founding. Celebrating our evolution and growth.” Many elements of the final design mirror that of the first design proposed. Both designs have a curved path lined with trees stretching from Lovett Hall to Rayzor Hall, with Willy’s statue sitting
“The quad redesign activates a large on the ground by the Welcome Center and new gathering spaces in front of and open space that was not historically inviting for Fondren Library. gathering and The seating area reflection due to in front of Fondren scale as well as will have shade, The removal of the limited shade and Wi-Fi and power Willy statue, I think it furnishings, while outlets, University recontextualizing Architect George stands for change and Founder’s Ristow said. development and a sense the Memorial statue The new design of newness that I think away from the has added a brick formal center of plaza in the center Rice needs. the space, and of the quad with Sharon Low defining an area of benches and trees, HANSZEN COLLEGE JUNIOR similar prominence with the former base of the statue repositioned off the for a future major artwork celebrating Rice’s achievements since the university’s centerline of the quad and rotated. Ristow echoed the sentiments in the founding — notably the integration of the Board of Trustees’ original statement that student body,” Ristow wrote in an email to the quad redesign is intended to reckon the Thresher. Shifa Rahman ’22 coordinated the with the history of the university and make Down With Willy movement to protest the space more engaging.
RNASA reconnects with Indigenous community on campus the Kickapoo. Weston Twardowski, a professor in A&E EDITOR environmental studies and theatre, said Rice currently has less than 10 Native- that the Indigenous population in Texas is identifying students on campus, according also likely to be higher than census records to Catherine Clack, the associate provost show. Faced with a long legacy of violence in the 19th and 20th for diversity, equity century, including and inclusion. abductions of Houston, however, Native children, is home to over [Now] you’re seeing a forced assimilation 80,000 people and other abuses, who identify as lot of activity among American Indian youth Indigenous leaders many Indigenous people lost their or Alaskan Native who are really trying to culture and hid and is a city with reclaim that [and] really their identities, a deeply rooted Twardowski said. Indigenous history trying to reconnect with “A lot of and culture — these histories. Indigenous leaders though it’s a history I’ve talked to in often forgotten Weston Twardowski the state think and rarely spoken THEATRE AND ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES PROFESSOR the Indigenous about. population of the The Rice campus itself sits on the traditional state is way higher than people want to homelands of the Karankawa, say it is,” Twardowski said. “If you were Coahuiltecan, Atakpa-Ishak and Sana over in West Texas and Indigenous, it nations, and today, Texas is home to three was much safer to identify as Spanish in federally recognized tribes: the Alabama- heritage than it was to identify as Native.” Recently, though, Twardowski said Coushatta, the Ysleta del Sur Pueblo and
HADLEY MEDLOCK
there has been a movement of people reconnecting with their Texas Indigenous roots. The Karankawa, a tribe often written off as extinct in Texas history classes, is one of the tribes currently working to reclaim their Native culture and heritage. There has been a recent rise in people discovering long-lost and difficult stories of the Native heritage, he said. “The Karankawa are probably the most prominent [tribe] in Houston … and there’s been a real resurgence in people reclaiming that identity. But by the 1830s, or certainly the 1850s, history texts will tell you they were extinct. They were gone,” Twardowski said. “Certainly some had migrated out, but some still remained throughout most of Texas. [Now] you’re seeing a lot of activity among youth Indigenous leaders who are really trying to reclaim that [and] really trying to reconnect with these histories.” Twardowski, who first got involved in Indigenous studies
SEE RNASA PAGE 6
the presence of Willy’s Statue due to William Marsh Rice’s history as a slave owner and the segregated founding of the university. A coauthor of the Student Association resolution which called for the relocation of the Founder’s Memorial during the 2021-22 academic year, Rahman said they are glad to see the statue has finally been removed from its pedestal. “I do see that this is progress in the way that a legacy of white supremacy [and] enslavement is being decentered,” Rahman said. Still, Rahman said they are not completely satisfied with the movement of the statue next to the Welcome Center and that further demands by Black students should be met. Rahman mentioned the Task Force on Slavery, Segregation and Racial Injustice’s final report and the growth of the Center for African and African American Studies as examples of progress but called for the administration to do more.
SEE QUAD REDESIGN PAGE 2
Return of the Max:
Read more on page 2
GUILLIAN PAGUILA / THRESHER