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VOLUME 111, ISSUE NO. 07 | STUDENT-RUN SINCE 1916 | RICETHRESHER.ORG | WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2026

FIRED UP Jones College electrical fire disrupts utilities LINA KANG & RUBY GAO

THRESHER STAFF

An electrical panel fire broke out at Jones College around 10:30 a.m. last Wednesday, prompting an evacuation and disrupting power and water service across several buildings on the north side of campus, according to a campuswide Rice Alert email. At about 10:32 a.m., all students were evacuated from Jones’ dormitory and commons after the fire alarm sounded. The fire was reported in the basement on the south side of the college and was caused by an electrical spark, said Chris Stipes, executive director of news and media relations. The fire has since been extinguished, and no injuries have been reported. The buildings without power included Jones, Brown, Martel, Duncan and McMurtry Colleges, the North and West Serveries and the Student Health Services building, according to Stipes. Stipes said emergency crews, including the Houston Fire Department and the Rice Incident Management Team, worked to assess the damage and restore power and water service. As of 6:30 p.m. last Wednesday, power and water have been restored in the affected areas of campus, except for Jones South, which remained closed. Students who live in Jones South had relocated to other areas

around the campus, including the Main Street Residence, Baker College and Chao College. “I was studying in the [Brown] Commons when the power went out, and I called [Housing, Dining & Hospitality],” said Brown College Student Maintenance Representative Max Menchaca. “In our SMR group chat, we discussed everything that was going on.” Menchaca said about 20 minutes later, the Brown College Chief Justice showed him photos coming out of the steam tunnels of Jones. James Tilton, senior captain with HFD, said crews did not find an active fire at the scene, only smoke. The team shut off the sprinkler system, investigated the area and checked for any damage to the rest of the building. Firefighters are awaiting confirmation from the arson investigation unit. “The power went out before the fire was reported. I’d assume the other North college electricity and water was impacted before the fire but I’m not sure why,” said Jones President Ava Brazell. “We’re not sure who saw or called in the fire at this time.” Daniel Contreras, a Jones junior, said he heard what sounded like an explosion before hearing the fire alarm and seeing smoke in the area.

SEE JONES FIRE PAGE 2

COURTESY OWEN BUTTON Smoke rises from a steam tunnel underneath Jones College. An electrical fire last Wednesday caused the loss of power and water across North colleges, forcing some students into temporary housing.

Athletics secures 20-year naming Sammy meets modernity rights deal for football stadium AMELIA DAVIS

FEATURES EDITOR

ANDERSEN PICKARD

SPORTS EDITOR

WHAT’S INSIDE

Rice Athletics and First Community Credit Union have announced a 20-year partnership that includes naming rights to the football stadium. Interim Athletic Director Eric George introduced First Community Stadium as the new home of Rice football on Thursday. “The vision has always been about more than a new naming partner for our stadium,” George said. “It was an opportunity to establish a long-term partnership that would benefit the athletic department, our institution and the city of Houston.” In addition to securing stadium naming rights, First Community Credit Union will become the official financial institution of Rice Athletics. They plan to engage in financial literacy education practices across campus, establish internship programs for students and engage with the Center for Career Development to provide opportunities for students post-graduation. First Community will also offer special banking services and programs to Rice students, alumni, faculty and staff. Fans will

be able to carry Rice Athletics-branded debit and credit cards with access to exclusive events and perks. First Community President and Chief Executive Officer T.J. Tijerina said Rice will also offer higher education opportunities for his company’s employees. The partnership represents the first major announcement under George, who assumed his role following the departure of athletic director Tommy McClelland on Aug. 5. “We’ve been working on this for a long time,” DesRoches said. “It’s been in the works for almost a year, and it just so happens that it got finalized under the interim [athletic director].” George said he first met with First Community Credit Union leadership on the Monday after McClelland’s departure. “I was a little worried with the interim tag and some of the uncertainty of the future, what could happen,” George said. “But they came in, and it immediately felt like they were lifelong partners. We worked as quick as we could to get it done and have it ready for this season.”

DJ CULTURE AT RICE

SEE STADIUM RENAME PAGE 15

PAGE 8

Sammy the Owl has been a proud piece of Rice since the institution opened its doors in 1912. Sammy’s most famous misadventure may have been the 1917 incident in which he was kidnapped by Texas A&M University cadets, but the owl has a long and storied history that stretches far beyond what’s commonly known. However, in recent years, Sammy’s attendance on campus may have felt diminished. When Tyler Muse, the associate athletic director of external relations, was hired last November, he inherited a Sammy program that was hanging on by a thread. In fact, Rice had no mascot on staff — Muse had to reach out to contacts in the mascot program at the University of Houston in order to arrange people to substitute as Sammy. However, that was not a sustainable practice, and in order to return the mascot position to its traditional performers — Rice students — tryouts were held last April. The position was open to any student with a passion for Sammy. The only requirement was that

ACL: WEEKEND ONE

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they should ideally be at least 5 feet, 9 inches tall, or else they would be unable to see from inside the suit. Four students tried out for the position — and all four were hired. “We actually took every student to be part of the Sammy program — we didn’t turn anybody away,” Muse said. “My thought process here is like, ‘We have zero. So if somebody is enthusiastic, as long as they’re in good standing, we can find a part for them in the Sammy program.’” The students hired ranged from a freshman to a 40-year-old graduate student. The current program, including the hiring process, was built from scratch. Because of this, Muse sees the diversity among the students who play Sammy not as a weakness but as an opportunity — a source for ideas on how to improve the program. “They can do different things. Our MBA student wants to try to get Sammy more out in the community, go and visit hospitals and stuff,” Muse said. “The girl was very creative and she wanted to think [about] how to build out the character of Sammy.”

SEE SAMMY THE OWL PAGE 10

FAMILIES TAILGATE

PAGE 15

2 • WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2026

THE RICE THRESHER

Houston Fire Department trucks park near Brown College. They were called after an electrical fire at Jones College. FROM FRONT PAGE

JONES FIRE

“I live on the first floor, and I just heard an explosion type of sound, and I just heard the fire alarm, so I went out and I saw the smoke by that area,” Contreras said. Contreras said the evacuation was especially concerning because it occurred during the midterm season and his study materials were still inside. Brazell, a senior, said students living in the northern and central parts of Jones were allowed back into their rooms at about 12:39 p.m. “Students living in [Jones] South are allowed to briefly grab items from their rooms,” Brazell said. “As for students with midterms today, we are hoping the open line of communication is alleviating any stress they may be experiencing.” “North and West Serveries only served limited lunch items and their power was out when I entered them around 11:45 [a.m.] I

would assume the serveries served food from their morning preparation,” Brazell said. H&D later sent North college students a message stating that the North and West serveries would be closed for dinner service due to electrical and water changes. The fire has had a longer-term impact on students as well. A total of 125 students living in South Jones have been temporarily relocated since Wednesday afternoon. Of those students, 71 are housed in the Main Street Residence, 19 in Baker College, 12 in Chao College, five in Lovett College, and 17 in Sid Richardson College. Not all of the 125 students moved into their assigned rooms, according to Brazell. Grace Fei, a Jones sophomore, said the unanticipated move to Main Street Residence has been frustrating for her and other students who were temporarily relocated from their dorms, particularly because of the uncertainty surrounding how long they will have to stay. “Everyone’s dying to know and gain

insight or at least an estimate on the timeline, but Jones can’t really confirm anything,” Fei said. “Last week, I heard it’ll be until Sunday or Monday, but now people are saying it could be through this week.”

I live on the first floor, and I just heard an explosion type of sound, and I just heard the fire alarm, so I went out and I saw the smoke by that area. Daniel Contreras JONES COLLEGE JUNIOR

Despite the inconvenience of moving to Main Street Residence and concerns about its older facilities, Fei said she understood the decision to relocate students for their health and safety.

KONSTANTIN SAVVON / THRESHER

“I think it’s ultimately for our health and safety that we stay away from Jones due to the air quality and other health hazards,” Fei said. “I’m grateful that H&D gave us this temporary housing option and also assisted us throughout the entire process.” The move to Main Street Residence was extensive for students, as the residence provided only basic dorm furnishings, including a bed, desk and bathroom. Students had to bring their own bedsheets, blankets, pillows, towels, soap and other personal items, along with several days’ worth of clothing. As Rice worked to reconnect Jones South to the campus power grid on Tuesday, a planned power outage closed dinner service at North Servery and West Servery and munch and late-night dining at West Servery. On Tuesday, students temporarily housed in Main Street Residence and other areas were notified that they could likely return to Jones South the following day, according to an email from Jones Chief Justice Nina Yu.

KONSTANTIN SAVVON / THRESHER A student walks past a Houston Fire Department truck by Jones College as an HFD firefighter opens the door. Students in affected areas of Jones have been temporarily relocated because of the fire.

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2026 • 3

NEWS

Attempted assault on student in Wiess elevator, suspect arrested next day ABIGAIL CHIU

NEWS EDITOR

A female Rice student reported an attempted sexual assault in an elevator of Wiess College on Saturday at 10:40 p.m., according to a Rice alert. Rice University Police Department said the suspect was a dark-complected male; approximately 6 feet tall and in his early 20s; wearing a burgundy polo shirt, dark gray pants and white shoes; and did not appear to be affiliated with Rice University.

“RUPD started work on this investigation immediately sharing out a good description of the suspect via the original timely warning and was able to locate the video footage from the cameras

on campus quickly because of the prompt reporting by the victim in this case,” the alert read. Rice administration declined to provide further details.

Campus cameras, including both Flock cameras that read license plates and planned cameras to be installed in residential colleges, have generated controversy in the recent weeks.

RUPD started work on this investigation immediately sharing out a good description of the suspect via the original timely warning and was able to locate the video footage from the cameras on campus quickly because of the prompt reporting by the victim in this case. Rice University Police Department EMAIL ALERT

The suspect was seen running toward Main Street and was later detained by RUPD on Sunday around 12:44 a.m. with the help of Texas Medical Center Police. He was arrested and taken to the Harris County Joint Processing Center.

JAMES CANCELARICH / THRESHER RUPD sent out an alert for an attempted sexual assault in the elevator at Wiess College. The suspect did not appear to be affliated with Rice.

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4 • WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2026

THE RICE THRESHER

RSA continues Flock follow-up, advances student services and engagement SHRIJAYA BOLLAVARAM

FOR THE THRESHER

The Rice Student Association Senate continued discussions on campus initiatives this week, including a statement from Associate Vice President of Public Safety and Research Security Tam Dao addressing questions about Rice’s use of Flock cameras, as well as proposals concerning student food access, transportation and RSA engagement. Brown College Senator Neya Gupta and Sid Richardson College Senator Laylee Taghizadeh presented a written response from Dao addressing questions raised during the Senate meeting two weeks ago about Flock cameras. Dao said the Rice University Police Department uses 17 Flock Safety automatic license plate reader cameras primarily to monitor campus entrances and exits and investigate campus safety incidents. According to Dao’s statement, Flock does not use facial recognition and cannot identify or track individuals by characteristics such as gender or race. He also said vehicle data is automatically deleted after 30 days and that searches conducted by RUPD personnel are logged and audited. Dao also said RUPD does not use Flock data for immigration enforcement, has prohibited other law enforcement agencies with access to Rice data from using it for immigration enforcement and does not share the data with federal immigration authorities such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement. In the statement, he wrote RUPD “remains committed to maintaining a safe, welcoming, and protective environment for every student on campus, regardless of immigration status.”

I think communication is what we’ve been asking for this entire time, and so I think it’s great that it’s happening. I think our main frustration is that it’s taken until October 5 for it to happen. Bruce Hurley LOVETT COLLEGE PRESIDENT

Following the statement, students and college leaders pushed for the assurances to be reflected in Rice’s policies and communicated directly to the student body by RUPD. Duncan College President Meara McCarthy said Dao should try to reach more students with his statement. “It would be really great if he sent an allstudents email addressing these questions and concerns,”said McCarthy, a senior. “It’d be great to have just that sent to all students with FAQs.” Gupta said she and Taghizadeh have already discussed sending such a message with Dao and are working to make it possible. Lovett College New Student Representative Aaron Nielsen asked whether Rice could provide the “strict

RITU KANDI / THRESHER Brown College Senator Neya Gupta speaks into a microphone. Gupta shared an update on Flock cameras from Tam Dao, associate vice president of public safety and research security. data policies” referenced by Dao and whether future changes to campus security technology would be communicated to students before implementation. RSA President Chelsea Asibbey said RSA has repeatedly asked RUPD for advance communication about security changes rather than learning about them after the fact. “We need to get some things in writing,” Asibbey said. Eva McIver-Jenkins, Baker College New Student Representative also asked for evidence demonstrating Flock’s effectiveness. Gupta said Dao had previously provided examples of the technology being used in investigations but had not yet provided broader evidence of its effectiveness, and said that it could be something they could request to include in a report to be shared. In an interview, Lovett President Bruce Hurley said the statement was a positive development but came later than students and college leadership had hoped. “I think communication is what we’ve been asking for this entire time, and so I think it’s great that it’s happening,” Hurley said. “I think our main frustration is that it’s taken until October 5 for it to happen.” Hurley said he began meeting with Dao in August and wants RUPD to continue reaffirming its support for all students, particularly as state policies continue to affect universities and their students. “I think this issue won’t begin and end with this statement,” Hurley said. “I think, like I said, this statement is good, but it’s not like a close the book on this problem.” Hurley said he hopes the statement marks the beginning of more consistent communication between RUPD and students. “I just hope that through this, RUPD can be seen by all students as a service that can be used for people comfortably, and also a system that will keep us safe,” Hurley said. Senate also continued discussing the

RITU KANDI / THRESHER A student in Senate raises their hand as other college presidents and senators clap. Senate discussed Flock cameras, residential college snack pantries and shuttles.

proposed inner-college snack pantry initiative, with the conversation shifting toward implementation and funding. RSA External Vice President Rohan Dharia said each college has identified a potential location for its pantry, most likely a kitchen or other space with swipe access. Each college president would appoint a manager to monitor and restock the pantry. The cabinets would be funded through an existing grant, while food would be funded through a combination of Housing, Dining & Hospitality and the RSA initiative fund during the first year of the pilot. Dharia said the program is currently expected to cost approximately $1,000 per college per semester during the pilot period, though the amount has not been finalized with H&D. Dharia, a McMurtry College junior, said the initiative is intended primarily as an accessibility and affordability measure rather than a dedicated food insecurity program, providing students with access to food outside regular dining hours. He said individual colleges would have flexibility in how they structure and use their pantries.

Regardless of whether we call it a food insecurity initiative or not, it can and will have a positive impact on students with food insecurity as well as students without food insecurity. Rohan Dharia RSA EXTERNAL VICE PRESIDENT

“The beauty of the initiative is that it can be used for any of those things,” said Dharia in an interview with the Thresher. “This is a residential college snack pantry, and so it can be used however the residential college wishes.” Dharia said the initiative began last year as an effort to create an additional amenity for students while potentially helping students experiencing food insecurity. “Regardless of whether we call it a food insecurity initiative or not, it can and will have a positive impact on students with food insecurity as well as students without food insecurity,” Dharia said. However, students continued questioning whether the initiative is the most effective use of RSA funding for addressing food insecurity. Chao College Senator and Student Health Services Commission Chair Jake Pessin said the pantries would not be solving a problem on campus, as the larger food insecurity issues facing Rice students still continue. He pointed to the underfunding of the

Student Success Initiatives food pantry and suggested that the approximately $12,000 for the initiative could instead be used to support food insecurity programs or provide additional meal swipes. Dharia said he agreed that food insecurity remains a significant issue on campus, but said the snack pantry initiative is separate from those efforts. He said he had asked H&D whether its $500-per-college allocation could instead go toward the SSI pantry, but was told H&D already provides funding to the pantry and was not willing to provide additional funding. The snack pantry resolution remains under discussion and will return to the Senate next week. Gupta also introduced the newly established Parking and Transportation Commission, for which she was appointed chair. The commission will focus on improving shuttle frequency and communication about transportation services. Gupta said shuttles to the airports for Thanksgiving break are already planned and that the commission hopes to gather student input through a survey before potentially expanding the program during winter, spring or summer breaks. “One of the leading things that I want to accomplish is making sure that the piggybacking that was happening previously and the infrequency of the buses is resolved,” Gupta said. The commission also plans to examine the accessibility and accuracy of TransLoc, Rice’s shuttle tracking service, and explore creating a program to educate students about Houston’s METRO system and other transportation options. The Senate additionally discussed a proposed six-week pilot program offering a $5 Rice Coffeehouse voucher each week to students who participate in a quiz based on RSA-related content. The program is intended to increase student engagement with RSA communications. Senators discussed how to measure the program’s success, including how to account for participation from students who already regularly engage with RSA. Gupta, one of the Senators working on the bill, said the concerns raised during the discussion could help shape the proposal before it returns to the Senate. “I do think the five-dollar Chaus voucher program will be really important and helpful when trying to get more communication and get more inbound and engagement for the student body or the RSA,” Gupta said. Gupta said increasing student engagement has become a major focus of the RSA rebrand task force, which is also working to reconsider how RSA communicates with students. The proposal remains under discussion and will return at the next Senate meeting.

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2026 • 5

NEWS

Rice expands AI department with new Master of Artificial Intelligence program TOBY CHOU

ASST. NEWS EDITOR Rice is set to launch a Master of Artificial Intelligence program in fall 2027. This is Rice’s latest foray into the AI field, with the Bachelor of Science in AI launched in fall 2025 and the online Master of Data Science specialization in Artificial Intelligence launched just this fall.

It’s an academically interesting subject. And then given all of the impact that AI is having on society, it really seems like it’s time, not just for Rice, but most universities to cover AI as an academic discipline. Christopher Jermaine CHAIR OF COMPUTER SCIENCE DEPARTMENT

Christopher Jermaine, the computer science department chair, said Rice’s expansion into AI is both addressing demand as well as making sure the university stays at the forefront of innovation. “It’s an academically interesting

subject,” Jermaine said. “And then given all of the impact that AI is having on society, it really seems like it’s time, not just for Rice, but most universities to cover AI as an academic discipline.” As of 2026, there are 483 AI degree programs across all U.S. universities, with 229 of them being Master’s programs. Several top universities already have an MAI program, such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University and University of California, Berkeley. Compared to Rice’s Masters in Computer Science or Masters in Data Analytics, the MAI program is focused on AI architectures, training and deployment. Jermaine said while AI can be considered a subset of computer science, the computer science programs at Rice are far too all-encompassing to properly prepare students for all the challenges in the emerging AI field. “I think that still in the traditional curriculum, the exposure to AI is pretty minimal,” Jermaine said. “You might have taken a machine learning class, but this gives people the ability to have deep knowledge of AI.” Jermaine also noted that this masters program is not intended for students who are currently pursuing Rice’s undergraduate degree in AI but for computer science majors who are looking to further their education in the AI field. “The people that we envision being in this [program] would be someone with a

CS undergrad degree or an [electrical and computer engineering] undergrad degree with limited exposure to machine learning and AI, and then this gives you the chance to really learn it,” Jermaine said. “Bachelors of AI degrees are still quite rare. To be honest, I would say if someone had a BS in AI from Rice or another high quality institution, there’s probably not a reason to get a master’s degree.” There are 594 students at Rice currently pursuing a degree in computer science among both undergraduate and graduate students, while 20 undergraduate students are pursuing the new undergraduate degree in AI.

It feels like it was made for current demand, and I don’t know how popular AI will continue to be. Kaz Nam LOVETT COLLEGE SENIOR

Kaz Nam, a Lovett College senior and computer science major, said while they think it is good that Rice is responding to student demand with its expansion into the AI field, they are worried that the expansion is too rapid and does not take into account a potential crash. “I understand why it was made, but personally, I don’t think I’m interested. It

feels like it was made for current demand, and I don’t know how popular AI will continue to be,” Nam said. “I view it similarly to how software engineering was a couple years ago, where it’s not going to go away, but there is a current higher demand, and I don’t think it is sustainable.” Nam is currently planning on pursuing a doctorate in information science after graduation in the spring, with one of their goals being exploring how AI systems affect users — not necessarily deploying AI systems. Nam also said they disagree with Rice’s decision to create a standalone bachelor’s and master’s program for AI, believing that it can pigeonhole students into AI without giving them proper experience in the overall field of computer science. “I think that AI should have been a specialization of CS or a minor, because once AI crashes — and it will — I think that it’s going to corner people into having to find other fields,” Nam said. “Not having a general CS education that gives you a good foundation is going to be a little difficult.” Jermaine said he was excited for the MAI program to become more fleshed out, as the AI field develops rapidly. “Because of the technology and the concerns that people have about AI, and the use cases and the potential benefits — all those things are just different now than they were three months ago,” Jermaine said. “And I think there are a few fields like that.”

NHU CHU / THRESHER

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2026 • 6

THE RICE THRESHER

LETTERS FROM EDITOR’S DESK

We have bureaucratized ourselves into oblivion ANDREW RYNSBURGER

OPINION EDITOR

I think most Rice students were unsurprised to hear of its dismal free speech ranking. Perhaps it’s because we’ve bureaucratized our most fundamental and organic process of free speech: protest. Rice’s Policy 820, which governs demonstrations, requires that all protests receive preapproval from the administration and must generally be submitted 48 hours in advance. The policy codifies further restrictions on the frequency, time and place of demonstrations. They must not last longer than eight hours nor more than three consecutive days. You can only submit a demonstration request once every seven days. Protests can only be held in four specific locations on campus. These restrictions, namely requiring preapproval for even spontaneous demonstrations, are incompatible with the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. After all, speech delayed is speech denied. Rice is not a public university and is not required to comply with the First Amendment. However, its noncompliance with the most fundamental law of the land signals its disposition to uphold its bureaucracy even if it comes at the expense of freedom of expression. This policy stands out when compared to peer institutions. For example, Occidental College specifically states that spontaneous demonstrations are not subject to

preapproval requirements. Stanford University also allows spontaneous demonstrations in certain spaces without preapproval. The University of Chicago

These restrictions, namely requiring preapproval for even spontaneous demonstrations, are incompatible with the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. After all, speech delayed is speech denied. adopts a similar policy. Unfortunately, this antidemocratic demonstration policy is only one symptom of Rice’s unwieldy bureaucratization. It is notoriously difficult to create a new student organization. Students have hard deadlines they must meet each semester in order to register. The student leader and adviser must complete hourslong training and their constitution must receive approval from the Rice Student Association before they can form. Registration is crucial for student clubs because it allows them to reserve meeting spaces, invite guests to campus, organize tabling events and post flyers when they would otherwise be prohibited from doing so.

The effect of this bureaucratic red tape is that it discourages student organizations from ever forming. Students face similar barriers to inviting guest speakers to campus for their organizations once they form. Moreover, Rice’s bureaucratic behemoth has grown into an empire of 3,059 non-instructional staff, which collectively receive over a quarter billion in payroll annually. The more this bureaucracy continues to grow, the more sanitized the campus environment will become. Everything is about risk management and fear of liability. This hyperregulation is not only extremely expensive to maintain, but also guts the university of its organic

First off, students should not have to beg and plead permission to express their opinions in the public square — especially when in response to breaking news. Changing Policy 820 would be a first step in encouraging students to express themselves freely and openly. student leadership and culture. We need not raze the bureaucracy to the ground. But we do need to

ANDREW RYNSBURGER acknowledge the implications of this growing beast and act swiftly to rein it in. First off, students should not have to beg and plead permission to express their opinions in the public square — especially when in response to breaking news. Changing Policy 820 would be a first step in encouraging students to express themselves freely and openly. More than that, we need to start dismantling the bureaucratic barricades that stop students from engaging with each other to begin with.

CULTURE SHOCK

Students are falling behind. Who is there to help? ISABELLA BORRÁS

COLUMNIST

Rice claims its diversity as one of its greatest strengths — for example, the class of 2029 boasts a 13% international student population, a 52% out-of-state population and representation from 56 countries worldwide. Yet this diversity in origin inherently perpetuates a disparity in academic background and, accordingly, academic capital. What happens when thousands of incredibly ambitious students with highly varied academic backgrounds meet and compete for the same things? In my first week at Rice, I attended a seminar on inclusion and bullying. The students were told not to demean others who had attended public schools. I had not realized this was a point of contention, and my initial reaction was to insist that it shouldn’t be. However, after a couple of weeks on campus and navigating coursework, I’ve noticed that being a former public school student (from a rural area) has more of an effect on my college experience than I’d anticipated. In retrospect, it was evident from the beginning. My high school offered a very limited range of extracurricular activities and was critically understaffed. The people I interacted with were very homogeneous. I was often the only

person of color in the room, and I rarely ever connected with academia or industry professionals. My school did not prepare me to network, and I had a hard time adjusting to the frequent opportunities to do so here at Rice.

In my first week at Rice, I attended a seminar on inclusion and bullying. The students were told not to demean others who had attended public schools. I had not realized this was a point of contention, and my initial reaction was to insist that it shouldn’t be. My school also had no large-scale preprofessional clubs such as the Distributive Education Clubs of America, Mock Trial or Future Business Leaders of America, among others. Rice has its own version of many of these clubs, but they require experience to join, so they are virtually off-limits to students like me. When attending club fairs or being interviewed for organizations here, some students will have less on their resume

than others. It’s not a reflection of their capability, but their access to resources. My roommate Jordin Donaldson, who is also from a rural public school, experienced a similar frustration when she began taking COMP 140, a notoriously difficult class. She was one of the only students whose school offered no computer science or coding-related classes. Although prior coding experience was not required, she felt she had a much wider learning curve than students whose schools encouraged them to take the Advanced Placement course in computer science or even offered summer courses in related subjects. Donaldson said students in this class who have had school-sanctioned coding experience reported feeling at an advantage compared to others who have not. The challenges I’ve listed above aren’t insurmountable and can be overcome through perseverance. Some extra studying, a little bit of resourcefulness and a lot of determination can take you a long way. However, Rice has a lot it can do to lessen the load, too. The Center for Career Development already provides immense help to students seeking to build their preprofessional skills, network, search for internships or polish up on their interview skills. However, many students

are not aware of these resources, and the demand systemically outpaces the supply of one-on-one help.

The challenges I’ve listed above aren’t insurmountable and can be overcome through perseverance. Some extra studying, a little bit of resourcefulness and a lot of determination can take you a long way. However, Rice has a lot it can do to lessen the load, too. Rice could also offer optional, nocredit courses to strengthen skills like coding or data analysis. Rice students and faculty should keep in mind that having a campus with so much diversity means that learning has to look different for every person. Working harder in certain areas isn’t an inherent reflection of one’s capabilities, but might just be the result of their environment. We need to recognize that not everyone enters Rice on the same playing field.

Isabella Borrás is a Sid Richardson College freshman majoring in English. She’s passionate about exploring student culture and life on campus. Aside from doing her endless readings, Bella spends her time drawing, listening to music and making coffee.

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2026 • 7

OPINIONS EDITORIAL

Stadium deal presents opportunity to put community first Last week, Rice Athletics announced a 20year partnership that gave First Community Credit Union the exclusive naming rights to the football stadium, formerly known as Rice Stadium. The commercialization of our football stadium is bittersweet. On one hand, the new deal feels like we’re losing a bit of our personality. In a world of college athletics where everything is increasingly motivated by money, we took pride in our Rice Stadium and all of its rich history. On the other hand, we get excited and optimistic about the future of Rice’s sports culture when the university’s administration makes such a large investment in athletics. We lost our sacred stadium name, but we gained a commitment from Rice Athletics to invest more money in our student-athletes, athletic facilities on campus and the game day experience for our sports-loving community. It’s important that the momentum doesn’t end here. For this stadium deal to be an exercise in community engagement and not just a money grab, Rice Athletics needs to show its community members how much they care about them. For starters, we’d like to see the funds gained from this partnership contribute directly to the on-field product. The NCAA landscape has changed so much in recent years, and schools now have the opportunity to pay student-athletes to join their team. Our football team has lost seven consecutive games against opponents from the Football Bowl Subdivision (the highest level in college football), including four American Conference games. Rice fans want to see our football team win more games, and that starts with using the new source of revenue to fund NIL opportunities for high school and transfer student-athletes. Furthermore, we expect Rice Athletics to improve the fan experience. This is multifaceted and includes promotions and in-game experience. With a larger revenue stream, there is no excuse for Rice to limit

the perks it offers fans. Last year’s viral beer night was a great example of how the student body responds positively when the athletics department invests money into real promotions. In a similar sense, we were a little disheartened by last Saturday’s promotion: low-quality T-shirts with the stadium’s new sponsor plastered on them. The stadium itself could also use a facelift, and we acknowledge that this is in the works with the Gateway Project. We hope Athletics will encourage students and the greater Rice community to have a voice in how the new funds improve the upcoming, revamped version of the football stadium, whether it’s increased shade to get out of the Texas heat, more comfortable seats to encourage fans to stay for more than one quarter or cheaper concession prices to enhance the experience. It’s also important that Athletics explores avenues for improvement within other sports programs, and not just football. Rice must show a commitment to investing in all of its Division I varsity student-athletes with more NIL opportunities, improved facilities and other resources that support them on and off the field. This doesn’t have to come from the same football budget; we’d support naming rights deals for the other venues on campus if it means that Rice is improving the athlete,

student and fan experience.

EDITORIAL STAFF * Indicates Editorial Board member James Cancelarich* Editor-in-Chief Evie Vu* Managing Editor

Furthermore, we expect Rice Athletics to improve the fan experience. This is multifaceted and includes promotions and in-game experience. With a larger revenue stream, there is no excuse for Rice to limit the perks it offers fans. We’re excited to see what the future of Rice sports looks like, and we hope that the athletic department’s vision for growth is just getting started. Editor’s Note: Thresher editorials are collectively written by the members of the Thresher’s editorial board. Current members include James Cancelarich, Evie Vu, Abigail Chiu, Hongtao Hu, Andrew Rynsburger, Chi Pham, Andersen Pickard and Patrick Shukis. Pickard recused himself from this editorial due to corresponding coverage in the sports section.

NEWS Abigail Chiu* Editor Toby Chou Asst. Editor Ruby Gao Asst. Editor Lina Kang Asst. Editor OPINION Andrew Rynsburger* Editor FEATURES Amelia Davis Editor London Frey Crossword Editor ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT Chi Pham* Editor Cora Wareh Asst. Editor SPORTS Andersen Pickard* Editor Patrick Shukis* Editor Keya Patel Asst. Editor SPECIAL INVESTIGATIONS Hongtao Hu* Editor BACKPAGE Max Scholl Editor Will Howley Editor Rykelle Sandidge Editor Kyle Chen Senior Writer Caleb Song Senior Writer COPY Shruti Patankar Editor Julianne Ma Editor PHOTO, VIDEO, & WEB Konstantin Savvon Photo Editor Sarah Bradley Asst. Photo Editor Andrew Gingerich Video Editor Rachel Jeong Asst. Video Editor Megan Zhang Web Editor Fiona Sik Web Editor Varshini Loganathan Web Editor

KAIRI MANO / THRESHER A sign beneath the scoreboard boasts the stadium’s new name. Rice Athletics announced on Thursday a naming rights deal with First Community Credit Union.

Last Week’s Online Poll Results What are you doing for midterm recess?

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DESIGN Jessica Xu Art & Design Director Magnolia Hickey-Zamora News Sydney Chang Opinion Lisa Wang Features Alexa Bu Arts & Entertainment Kirstie Qian Sports Brandon Nguyen Backpage Richard Li Design Consultant BUSINESS Sivani Vasireddy Manager Alina Zhong Advertisement Rahul Santhanam Advertisement Makeen Shafer Distribution Manager Ary Rodas Social Media Manager

ABOUT The Rice Thresher, the official student newspaper of Rice University since 1916, is published each Wednesday during the school year, except during examination periods and holidays, by the students of Rice University. Letters to the Editor must be received by 5 p.m. on the Friday prior to publication and must be signed, including college and year if the writer is a Rice student. The Thresher reserves the right to edit letters for content and length and to place letters on its website. Editorial and business offices are located on the second floor of the Ley Student Center: 6100 Main St., MS-524 Houston, TX 77005-1892

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8 • WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2026

THE RICE THRESHER

Behind the booth: DJ life and culture at Rice

COURTESY OF WYATT RUTTER Will Rice College sophomore Wyatt Rutter surrounded by his friends while DJing at Perch.

RUTHVI TADAKAMALLA

FOR THE THRESHER

As the DJ blends the last bars of Prospa’s “Free Your Mind” into the next track, crowds of Rice students fall into a familiar routine: arms up, phones recording and voices singing louder than the speakers. The culture of DJing at Rice is a distinct feature of nightlife across a wide array of events, with student DJs from diverse backgrounds taking the stage. Lovett College freshman Alexander Grigoryan picked up his first DJ board more than a year ago, learning technical skills, reading the crowd and responding through music. Grigoryan’s deep passion for music influences his style, which is evident in his preference for playing house music for his crowds. “DJing itself is not that difficult. You can get a beginner's board and learn in a week, so anyone can be a DJ here,” Grigoryan said. “I enjoy DJing a lot to the point where I can do it alone in my room and I'll enjoy it. I don't need to have people there. I love [house] music: that's all I listen to.” This year, Grigoryan DJed a public event — which he set up with his peers — at Lovett’s Sky Quad. From then on, Grigoryan became known throughout his residential college as DJ 316, a nod to his dorm room number. At the event, there weren't many students; however, that didn’t affect Grigoryan’s mindset toward his craft. “Personally, when I'm DJing, I don't really care if I see people. But the optics are bad on a DJ if someone's DJing, [and] no one's there,” Grigoryan said. “In college, if nobody shows up to your

stuff, everyone thinks you're a bad DJ. Rice doesn't have much of a party scene, and there are a lot of restrictions on parties.”

I enjoy DJing a lot to the point where I can do it alone in my room and I'll enjoy it. I don't need to have people there. Alexander Grigoryan LOVETT COLLEGE FRESHMAN

Another rising DJ at Rice is Alina Zhong, a Wiess College senior and member of a DJ trio called Hello Kitty Bong. Zhong and their counterparts DJed at Pub at Rice for a beach-themed event. For their sets, they prioritize fan favorites, but also experiment with more alternative beats. Editor’s Note: Zhong is an Advertisement Representative for the Thresher. “Pub/publics are definitely more restrictive in terms of what you can play because it’s hard to satisfy everyone,” wrote Zhong in an email to the Thresher. “The unfortunate aspect of this is that a couple people told us that they enjoyed the more experimental part of our last set but understood that we couldn’t keep that style for the entire duration of the gig. On the other hand, when I played lessknown electronic tracks, people came up to me and requested I play something more mainstream. It’s something we’re still working on balancing.” Zhong also noticed that the culture of

Rice students toward DJs, especially at the beginning of this semester, has been different from what one might expect. “Rice nightlife feels sheltered from 'real' city nightlife (i.e., at bars and clubs), which has its pros and cons,” Zhong wrote. “It is frustrating when people lack a certain kind of party etiquette. When we DJed at Pub, underclassmen kept trying to climb on our table, come behind our booth, or give song suggestions. There are unspoken courtesy rules that aren’t universally communicated and/or learned.” While Zhong and Grigoryan are newer to the scene, Wyatt Rutter has DJed several events over the past two and a half years, providing the soundtrack to events at Pub, Will Rice College’s Perch and even in the greater Houston area. Rutter often books gigs through word of mouth, especially as he has developed connections with other DJs on campus.

It is frustrating when people lack a certain kind of party etiquette ... There are unspoken courtesy rules that aren't universially communicated and/or learned. Alina Zhong WIESS COLLEGE SENIOR

Rutter, a Will Rice sophomore, had friends who DJed last year before they graduated; now, he is friends with several

juniors and seniors who will invite him to play at events. At several events, Rutter and his peers collaborate on the board — going back-to-back — if they have the chance to DJ. “I have my Rice playlist of stuff which I know will hit here, and then I have a bunch of my own stuff or stuff which I think [is] more niche [that] a subset of people will like,” Rutter said. Unlike Grigoryan’s affinity toward house music, Rutter incorporates a larger variety of genres into his sets, including Spanish and what he describes as “white girl” music. Regardless of the crowd response he receives, Rutter concedes that a DJ’s goal is to make the crowd happy. Rutter described DJing at Perch, which is a private space, as giving him more freedom to experiment with and diversify his music than at public parties or at Pub at Rice. One of the most significant differences in the vibe of a gig, Rutter said, depends on the presence of administration. “It feels weird to have the administration there. I saw photos from the Sid [Richardson] public party, where they had chaperones, and it was like a middle school dance,” Rutter said. “At the off-campus or at the Perch events, it's a lot less restrictive, and it feels a lot more fun.” While DJing as a whole hasn’t been affected by administrative pressure, the overall vibes of nightlife at Rice have transformed from year to year, according to Rutter. One thing that is static is that DJing and music continually bring people and communities together. “If you're into music and you want to do it, it's definitely something worth doing,” Rutter said. “I've met a bunch of friends doing it. It's a super fun way to meet people.”

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2026 • 9

FEATURES

DOWN

Going in Circles 1

FOR THE THRESHER

ACROSS

LEO TSAI

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1 Feature of a Twitch livestream 5 Strip of wood 9 Fizz and GroupMe, for example 13 Villain’s enemy 14 Goldilocks bear who likes her porridge cold 15 Tactic, informally 16 “The jig is up!” 18 “Fingers crossed!” 19 “Yeah... that was a mistake” 20 Feature of a May-December relationship 21 ___ monologue 22 Outer’s opposite 23 Words said at the altar 24 Droops 26 Hawaiian garlands 29 Cathode counterparts 32 “Our ___” (Thornton Wilder play performed by Rice Theatre in October) 34 ___-cone 35 MS NOW competitor 36 Official whose shirt has the same color scheme as a crossword 38 “Live from New York” show, for short 39 Allow 40 Purple berry 41 Took the wrong way? 43 www.rice.edu and www.ricethresher.org, for example 45 Nabisco cracker brand 47 See 48-Across 48 With 47-Across, body part containing organs for hearing and balance 50 What the prefix “endo-” means 53 “Accept this gift!” 55 Boopable part of a pet dog 56 “___ is forever” (saying at Rice) 57 Feature of Rice’s campus depicted by this puzzle’s shaded squares 61 Corn 62 Part of a dog that wags 63 Currency whose banknotes have fake buildings on them 64 8 bits 65 Relaxing retreats 66 Soup, but thicker

1 X-shaped Greek letter 2 Jeans or shirt edge 3 Someone who doesn’t experience much romantic attraction, informally 4 Broadway award nomination 5 Fire indication 6 Notable features of onions and ogres, according to Shrek 7 Famous ___ (rhyming cookie brand) 8 T-shaped Greek letter 9 Super close behind 10 What seemingly always gets stuck at 99% during a computer update 11 Goldilocks bear who likes his porridge hot 12 Recipe part 15 Omen 17 Only three-letter element 20 The “A” of Q&A 21 “Not a big fan of this” 22 Composer Stravinsky 23 Word before “peace” or “child” 25 Faceplanted 27 Private 28 Vended 29 Org. concerned with advocacy 30 Time period 31 Hidden room in a video game, for example 33 Prefix for “new” 37 Unrigged 42 Fireflies and ladybugs, for example 44 What might happen before a blessing? 46 First flower to be grown in space 49 “Just Do It” shoe brand 51 Carols 52 Neither’s partner 53 ___ of the Unknown Soldier 54 Not here 55 Sound of appreciation at a poetry slam 57 “___ so over” (counterpart of “We’re so back”) 58 Openly gay, say 59 It’s mined in a mine 60 Comic book sound effect

Shows and where to go’s in Houston this October KAMILA EL MOSELHY

THRESHER STAFF

Houston's stages are busy this month, with plenty of plays, concerts and dance through the end of October. The list below covers many of the best shows, from a night at the opera to free events at outdoor venues. If you need to celebrate the successful passing of your midterms — or recover both spiritually and intellectually from the ordeal — a little Houston culture is the best way to do so. “Rhinoceros” at The Catastrophic Theatre One by one, the residents of a quiet town turn into rhinoceroses. One man refuses to join the herd. Eugène Ionesco’s absurdist play is about how easily people give in to the crowd. The play runs through Oct. 10. Tickets are pay-what-you-can with a $5 dollar box office support fee. "Cold War Choir Practice" at Main Street Theatre Roller disco, espionage and family tension share one Reagan-era story. The theater is in Rice Village, making it one of the easiest shows on this list to reach from campus. If you enjoy shows that can't decide between comedy, spy thriller or family drama, this one doesn't make you pick. The play runs through Oct. 11. Tickets range from $45 to $64. Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 3 at Houston Symphony’s Jones Hall Pianist Yefim Bronfman takes on a piece widely considered one of the most difficult piano concertos ever written. Think of it as the Olympics of piano, no TV required. The show runs Oct. 9-11. Tickets start at $67.

"Uhuru" at the Alley Theatre A group sets out to climb Mount Kilimanjaro with one rule: Everything must be Tanzanian. This satire is a world premiere, directed by Shariffa Ali, and runs 90 minutes with no intermission. You know the friend whose plan sounds great until the details come up? This is that plan — on Mount Kilimanjaro. Plus, it's a world premiere, so you can say you saw it first. The play runs Oct. 16-Nov. 8. Tickets range from $45 to $62. "Carousel" at the University of Houston’s Moores Opera House Rodgers and Hammerstein’s 1945 musical gave us “If I Loved You” and “You’ll Never Walk Alone.” It's the lowestpriced stage production on this list, which makes a classic Broadway score an easy budget pick. The musical runs Oct. 22-25. Tickets range from $10 to $20. "Susannah" at Wortham Theater Center Carlisle Floyd’s 1955 opera follows a young woman in rural Tennessee whose neighbors decide her reputation before she has a say. It's sung in English, which makes it an approachable first opera. The opera runs Oct. 23-Nov. 8. Tickets start at $26. "The Roommate" at the Gordy A recently divorced woman in Iowa takes in a roommate who won't talk about her past. The two-person play begins as a comedy about two very different women and takes a darker turn. If you met your college roommate on move-in day for the first time and wondered who they really are, this play takes that question a lot further. The play runs Oct. 23-Nov. 15. Tickets start at $25.

JENNIFER LIN / THRESHER

Mahler’s "Titan" at Shepherd School of Music Rice’s own orchestra performs Mahler’s first symphony, which opens in near silence and builds to an enormous finale. It's played by Rice students on campus and tickets start at $5, so it's an easy night out. If you’ve been meaning to try classical music, this is a perfect test run. The show runs Oct. 24. Tickets start at $5. "Haunted Mansion" at Miller Outdoor Theatre The 2023 horror comedy follows a widowed doctor and her son who move into a New Orleans mansion and find their new roommates have no plans to leave. Costumes are encouraged, and the outdoor screening in Hermann Park, only a short trip from campus, falls on Halloween night. Bring a blanket and a

costume and treat yourself to the easiest Halloween plan available. The movie will be screened Oct. 31. Tickets on the lawn are free, though required for covered seating. As additional incentive, several of the venues on this list offer student pricing. The Alley Theatre sells discounted student tickets with the code SCHOOL80, the Houston Symphony offers a $50 student pass for selected concerts and Houston Grand Opera sells $25 student tickets starting one month before each opening. Notably, some of the cheapest nights are close to home. Julia Bullock's recital at Brockman Hall is free, Mahler's "Titan" starts at $5 and Carousel at Moores Opera House runs from $10 to $20. Closest of all, the Miller Outdoor Theatre screening of Haunted Mansion is free and requires no ticket.

10 • WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2026 FROM FRONT PAGE

SAMMY THE OWL

The plan is eventually to expand the program, not only by increasing the amount of students available to play Sammy, but also to diversify their engagement opportunities until the program is equal to the dance team or the Marching Owls Band. Sammy could participate more regularly in halftime shows and sketches and even have a dedicated coordinator. One complication in Sammy’s participation in events is the necessity of maintaining the performer’s anonymity. Sammy follows a few rules to ensure the secrecy of their identity: no talking, no removing the head in an unsecured area and accepting the assistance of a handler, who helps Sammy navigate and ensures their privacy. Until 1995, the mascot selection was overseen by the Rice Student Association in annual spring elections, and the student to play the mascot was voted on by students. This practice may have been phased out following an incident where a student playing Sammy was tried by University Court on charges arising from disruption at a Nov. 9, 1995 football game against Texas A&M. After 1995, Sammy remained an elected student, but was thereafter formally accountable to the athletics department. The policy of anonymity, as well as the switch from student elections to tryouts, was instituted later. “My assumption is that … we keep the anonymity to protect the magic of Sammy,” Muse said. The Sammy performers are just as invested in the magic of Sammy. For one of them, at least, that’s the main reason they signed up to be Sammy. Like another one of the Sammy performers, he had previous mascot experience from high school when he tried out for the position. However, the draw of playing Sammy was rooted in his desire to share his Rice spirit. “I just want to make people happy, and I feel like Sammy lets me do that. When a little kid is really excited to see Sammy, or when an alumni gets to relive their college days for a moment, it's just really special to be able to give that to someone,” the student said. Even what might be considered a downside — wearing the suit — is nothing in comparison to having the opportunity to share the Sammy spirit. In his opinion, the Sammy suit is actually comfortable — notwithstanding the adjustment period to the temperatures it reaches on hot days, which in Houston is every day. “I feel like every gig, the first five minutes, it's like, ‘How am I ever going to get through this? The sweat's getting in my eyes. I can't see. Everything burns. I'm about to collapse.’ And then after that, you just get used to it, and it's fine,” the student said. His favorite gigs are those where he can make the most of his time in the suit to connect with fans. “I prefer just being around, instead of anything that is centered on one specific event,” the student said. “I feel like that way, I get to interact with the most people in the broadest scope.” Though he may be forbidden from talking, Sammy gets inventive. High-fives and hugs are go-tos, but on occasion, stronger gestures are necessary. “Sometimes you've got to break out the finger wag when someone's messing with you,” the student said. Over the years, those interactions with Sammy have made impressions on many students — some stronger than others. Hong Lin Tsai ’26, is one of those whose experiences with Sammy have left a lasting impact. Anybody who performs Sammy is a friend of his, he said, because Sammy was the first friend he made at Rice. “Back when I first met him during one of my very, very first football games, he took a look at me and saw that I had Sour Patch Kids and Powerade,” Tsai said. “He asked if he could have them, and I was like, ‘Sure, why not?’ And that became like a longstanding, four year long tradition where I always give him a bag of Sour Patch Kids and blue Powerade.” That fateful meeting was the beginning of a tradition, as well as the artistic pursuit

THE RICE THRESHER for which Tsai is known — creating Sammy stickers. After embarking his artistic career, Sammy was the beneficiary of his stickers as well as snacks. Now, as an alumnus, Tsai has signed a copyright deal with the office of public affairs and athletics in order to make sure his Sammy artworks are protected by Rice. He is currently in talks to have his merchandise available in the bookstore.

I just want to make people happy, and I feel like Sammy lets me do that. Sammy Performer Tsai has been one of the most vocal student advocates for the Sammy program, such as expanding its social media presence and getting others excited about the mascot through a Sammy fan account, online servers and workshops. “I think I brought more attention to Sammy than anybody else in the past [few] years or so, just because [of] how much love and attention I want to bring to him,” Tsai said. “At the same time, it's truly and deeply an honor, being able to work alongside him and being there for every step of his journey.” Through many rebrands and suit updates, as well as some rough patches — a suit reminiscent of a Furby, a live horned-owl Sammy dying tragically, and a feature in Playboy Magazine — the spirit of Sammy has remained the same: a mischievous mascot of the Rice student body.

COURTESY HONG LIN TSAI '26 Sammy commandeering a golf cart. The mascot is know for his mischevious character.

COURTESY THE WOODSON RESEARCH CENTER In this 1958 photo, Slimes, or new students, bow to Sammy the Owl at the Rice Institute's football stadium.

A Sammy from 1989, enjoying the company of his more realistic bretheren.

COURTESY THE WOODSON RESEARCH CENTER

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2026 • 11

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Through the storm, 3 ACL sets chart loss, healing, love WENSHI CHEN

THRESHER STAFF

As the afternoon darkened over Austin, gray clouds churned overhead and thunder echoed beyond Zilker Park. The wind swept dust from the ground and sent it curling through the air as the first raindrops threatened to fall, leaving the city under a dim, silvery haze. The stages, crowds and skyline seemed to lose their color until Austin resembled the opening shot of a black-andwhite film. Under an ominous sky, the 25thanniversary edition of Austin City Limits Music Festival opened Friday. It was fitting that the anniversary opened beneath a storm. Across the first weekend, three artists — Faouzia, Paris Paloma and Suki Waterhouse — carried that mood into sets about losing someone, losing a sense of self and discovering what remains. The weather seemed to follow along. Dressed in a flowing white gown inspired by a wedding dress, Moroccan-Canadian singer-songwriter Faouzia appeared almost luminous against the darkening afternoon. The image came from the world of her debut album, “FILM NOIR,” where romance unfolds through obsession, betrayal and theatrical violence. “LOST MY MIND IN PARIS” opened that story like a crime thriller: a smoky saxophone solo line, distant sirens, the city of Paris — one of romantic fantasy — cast as something far darker. The song follows a narrator driven to revenge after finding her lover with another woman, and Faouzia delivered its jealousy with the theatrical intensity of a classic femme fatale. In “PEACE & VIOLENCE,” the devotion grew almost apocalyptic as layered vocals made her voice seem to multiply across the field. Her upper register climbed higher as the accompaniment slowly receded, leaving her whistle notes suspended over the audience. Each rise in her voice amplified the emotion, as though her private obsession could fill the sky above us. “UNETHICAL” stripped away the theatrics and exposed the wound underneath. The song follows the exhaustion of remaining attached to a relationship that continues to cause pain, where love becomes something felt through the body itself. Faouzia sings of broken bones and a heart torn from the body, turning emotional hurt into something almost physical. Her voice moved from the fullness of her chest register into a delicate

head voice and soared again, enough to send chills through the crowd. Faouzia has described writing “UNETHICAL” as a healing moment, and onstage that vulnerability became one of the most cinematic images of the afternoon. The wind moved through her white gown as her voice climbed through the final chorus, the backing track softening beneath her. Then, just as the final notes began to fade, a cold drop of water struck my skin. Another followed. For a moment, it was hard to tell whether Austin had finally begun to rain or heaven had joined her in the heartbreak.

have to face the truth / That you never loved me,” she sang. As her dress swirled, the painted heart remained fixed at its center, a metaphor almost too neat for someone moving forward while still wounded. With “Good Girl,” a song about the pressure for women to discipline and reshape themselves for approval, Paloma brought that search closer to the body. Before beginning, she asked the crowd to move with her. Slowly, arms lifted across the field. Shoulders loosened. Bodies began to sway together in the rain as the rhythm traveled outward from the stage. She saved her most recognizable song,

WENSHI CHEN / THRESHER Zilker Park experienced overcast skies and rain as festivalgoers arrived Friday for Austin City Limits. By the time Faouzia left the stage, the sky had given in. Rain drifted through the park, soft at first, blurring the stages, crowds and the skyline as though someone had brushed water across the surface of the film. Out of that rainy haze came Paris Paloma. The British singer-songwriter crossed the Miller Lite stage in a muted blue dress that floated around her as she moved, and a painted red heart glowed at the center of her chest. The image felt inseparable from her second album, “The Fatal Flaw,” which traces the uneasy coexistence of beauty, fear, intimacy and emotional turmoil. She opened with “Stem the Flow,” sung from the lingering aftermath of a relationship that has resisted closure, where forgiveness, anger and longing share the same space. “I

“labour,” for the end. The 2023 song has traveled across social media as listeners recognized themselves in its portrait of the emotional, domestic and invisible labor women perform through everyday relationships. Its imagery draws on a wider world of feminist thought, transforming centuries of expectation into a song filled with frustration, exhaustion and gathering fury. At ACL, its meaning became physical as the crowd sang along. Feet moved through the wet grass. Hands reached into the rain. Thousands of separate voices gradually folded into one. After an afternoon of wounds, Paloma’s closer made room for those individual feelings to be shared. By Saturday, the darkness that had framed Friday had begun to loosen its

grip. Suki Waterhouse, the British singersongwriter and actress, brought a different chapter of the same story, one shaped by memory and discovery of love after life has changed you. She opened with “Supersad,” a 2024 song from “Memoir of a Sparklemuffin” that sent fuzzy guitars spilling across the field with the nostalgic energy of a ’90s coming-of-age film. She bounded across the stage, hair streaming behind her, turning resilience into something to dance to. “Back in Love,” the opening track of her third album “Loveland” channeled the energy toward feelings of warmth, its bright trumpet lines capturing the exhilaration of rediscovering a spark after recognizing life has changed. Then, “Notting Hill” retreated into memory. Named for the London neighborhood where she once lived, the song is a love letter to her former apartment, preserving a place that once held an entire version of her life. Beneath the open Austin sky, it felt like watching an old home disappear through the rear window of a moving car: familiar shapes shrinking until the road curves and takes them out of sight. Waterhouse closed with “To Love,” a 2023 single, and gathered the emotional journey of the weekend into one final moment. Its lyrics imagine the extraordinary luck of arriving beside someone after looking back at all the people and possibilities that could have led somewhere else. “While the world’s falling apart / You make it so easy to love,” she sang as the music swelled around her. She danced from one side of the stage to the other, reaching toward the barricade to give high-fives before throwing both arms into the air. Hands rose immediately around her, and for a few minutes, the space between performer and audience seemed to disappear. By the end of Saturday, the storm that opened ACL seemed woven into the story itself. Across the three performances, heartbreak became memory, memory became movement and love opened toward a future still unwritten. What lingered was how much fuller a person becomes through the people they love and the places they leave and the memories that continue traveling with them long afterward. Above the crowd, the Austin sky stretched endlessly onward. The clouds kept shifting, opening and closing around patches of light, as though the next scene were already beginning just out of view.

Charli xcx, Lorde and underscores power through rain and mud HONGTAO HU

THRESHER STAFF As the rain turned the grounds of Zilker Park into sludge on Friday, many attendees of Austin City Limits Music Festival were disappointed by the muddy weekend ahead. At least one person found a positive. “We aren’t allowed to take photos of the stage,” a cameraman said. “Now we have something to write about.” The rain broke as Rebecca Black performed to a jam-packed crowd on Friday afternoon, miring those outside the pavilion in mud while the lucky few under cover more cleanly enjoyed her set. Black, dressed as her “Age of the Exhibitionist” album cover, played all her hits — except the notorious 2011 single “Friday,” which numerous outlets deemed “the worst song ever” at the time of its release. For “TRUST!,” she twirled a red rope to the beat of the song’s whip sound effects, and the pitched-up refrain of “Sugar Water Cyanide” went over well with the crowd, as did “Miss Delicious.” Festivalgoers, who had by then dispersed throughout the mud around the venue,

cheered when she thanked her queer fans. “And the straights too,” she added. “You know your place.” The heavy noise of Turnstile’s “BIRDS” could be heard through the walls of the press tent. The band spawned a mosh pit, and as the camera panned across the participants, some were inspired to smear mud across their faces. The set was electric — the bass loud enough to rattle ribcages — and ended with the band tossing its sticks into the crowd. Even before she closed Friday night, the countless fans dressed in her merchandise throughout festival grounds made Charli xcx feel omnipresent. Her set featured pyrotechnics, fireworks and a flurry of costume changes. The best word for the set was oscillatory, shifting between club classics and anguished pleas to the camera. On “Guess featuring billie eilish,” her opening “You wanna guess” sequence included not one but two deliveries of underwear: a T-shirt machine spewed monochromatic panties into the air and backup dancers unzipped their pants to reveal “xcx”-stamped undergarments. Troye Sivan made a surprise appearance.

He performed “Le Boy” and “Party” from his upcoming fourth album “She’s the Best” to a receptive crowd. As the music of “No One Lasts Forever featuring David Cronenberg” faded into a low drone, Charli stood like a statue at center stage, surrounded by a fallen heap of backup dancers. On the screens flanking her, Cronenberg’s words repeated over their faces: “They are dead, they are gone, no one lasts forever.” Lorde, tender and technical in a gray Arc’teryx jacket and pants, closed the T-Mobile Stage on Saturday night. Standing amid a square of electronic pianos and DJ equipment, she opened with “Royals” from her debut album “Pure Heroine.” Working across her four-album discography, she sang “Favorite Daughter” and “Broken Glass” from “Virgin,” along with “The Louvre” and the first half of “Hard Feelings/Loveless” from “Melodrama.” She also echoed Charli xcx’s Friday night performance of “Girl, so confusing,” off 2024’s “brat,” with her own rendition of their collaborative remix, closing the song by dragging her cigarette. On Sunday, the drizzle-soaked crowd was

abuzz for underscores. She opened with two back-to-back hits, “Locals (Girls like us)” and “Stupid (Can’t run from the urge).” Many of underscores’ songs work by slogan, and in both, she led the audience into a raucous chant, hands bumping up and down in the air. On “Unlimited Love,” one of her newest songs, the title line — a screeching, staccato voice more synth than human — led to a question and answer with the crowd. “Unlimited what?” she asked, raising her mic. “Spoiled little brat,” a playful throwback to her first album, mixed rock chords with a high-pitched chorus as she pumped her guitar up at the crowd. One signature line from that song — “I’m a pop star, baby” — figured prominently in one of the next songs, “Baby,” accompanied by a surprise appearance by Danny Brown. Pop and rap collided as he and underscores strolled across the stage on the grating but catchy tracks. For the set’s finale, “Music,” fans in rain jackets and ponchos crashed into one another in a mosh pit that quickly formed and dissolved. “I feel like I had a religious awakening,” said Alice Zhang, a Brown College sophomore.

12 • WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2026

THE RICE THRESHER

Nonrequired Reading: Srinivasan on ‘common sense’ HANNAH GUO

THRESHER STAFF Ragini Tharoor Srinivasan rarely consumes media one thing at a time. The associate professor of English often has multiple books going at once. When she can’t sit down to read, she turns to podcasts while bicycling, shopping or folding laundry. That wide-ranging media diet reflects Srinivasan’s academic work, which spans Asian American and South Asian Anglophone literature, literary and cultural theory and questions of how humanistic knowledge is organized. In 2025 alone, she published three books, including her first monograph, “Overdetermined: How Indian English Literature Becomes Ethnic, Postcolonial, and Anglophone.” Banned Books Week, the annual national celebration of the freedom to read, runs through Saturday. Srinivasan, the director of English graduate studies, is teaching a course on banned books this semester — ENGL 111: The Politics of Book Bans, Challenges, and Censorship — which examines how conflict over what books can be read, taught and circulated reflects broader social and political conflicts. Her media recommendations similarly gravitate toward works that challenge what people take for granted, whether examining the Middle East, car-centric cities or the pressures of professional tennis. “Makdisi Street” A podcast hosted by brothers Saree, Ussama and Karim Makdisi, “Makdisi Street” brings perspectives from literature, history and international policy to conversations about the Middle East. Historian Ussama Makdisi, one of the hosts, has a direct Rice connection: He taught at Rice from 1997 to 2022 and was the first holder of the ArabAmerican Educational Foundation Chair of Arab Studies before joining the faculty of University of California, Berkeley. Srinivasan said she has become “devoted” to the podcast and especially recommends digging into its archive, which includes conversations with academics, writers and United Nations officials. “I have learned so much from the podcast

Ragini Tharoor Srinivasan, an associate professor of English, teaches a course on the politics of banned books. in terms of matters of history, politics and policy, and questions of translation and language,” Srinivasan said. “They’re fantastic.” “Death Panel” “Death Panel” became one of Srinivasan’s media “lifelines” during the COVID-19 pandemic, she said. Launched in 2018, “Death Panel” is a twice-weekly podcast examining the political economy of health — looking beyond doctors’ offices and hospitals to consider how public policy, disability, labor and economic systems shape who receives care and under what conditions. Hosted by Beatrice Adler-Bolton, Artie Vierkant, Phil Rocco, Jules Gill-Peterson and Tracy Rosenthal, the show has tackled subjects ranging from Medicaid and disability policy to the United States’ response to COVID-19. Srinivasan said the podcast pushes beyond familiar ideas about health care to question how rights, governments and collective responsibility shape the way Americans understand care. “It asks listeners to consider what it

means to be part of a society and what it means to care for others,” Srinivasan said. “Rafa” and “Federer: Twelve Final Days” Srinivasan’s recommendations are not limited to books and podcasts. She’s also a fan of tennis documentaries, having watched Netflix’s 2026 series “Rafa,” which follows former Spanish player Rafael Nadal through his final season on tour, and Prime Video’s 2024 film “Federer: Twelve Final Days,” on retired Swiss player Roger Federer, with her children. “We’re not necessarily tennis players,” Srinivasan said. “It was incredibly entertaining to get that view into the lives of professional athletes at the highest level.” Both the series and film carried deeply philosophical themes that resonated with Srinivasan and her children long after they watched them. “They were about [excellence] and about success, and about trials and about what it is to try to outdo yourself,” Srinivasan said. “They’re about ambition, and about rivalry.”

COURTESY IBRAHIM BADSHAH

“Life After Cars” and “The War on Cars” Srinivasan paired “Life After Cars,” a 2025 nonfiction book by Sarah Goodyear, Doug Gordon and Aaron Naparstek, with “The War on Cars,” the authors’ podcast that preceded it. Both works take aim at car dependence while examining transportation through questions of public policy, community and quality of life — concerns that Srinivasan said feel particularly relevant to students in Houston. “It’s also very much about the question, ‘what is a good life? How do we organize our communities and our cities?’” Srinivasan said. “The podcast makes me feel very energized and hopeful, and it makes me want to ride my bicycle.” Across her recommendations, Srinivasan said she is most interested in media that confronts received wisdom and ideas that often pass as “common sense.” “I am really interested in people who are doing that work in a way that is also engaging and fun and enlivening,” Srinivasan said.

‘Hamilton’ star Renée Elise Goldsberry to perform at Rice

COURTESY JUSTIN BETTMAN Renée Elise Goldsberry’s mother, Betty Sanders, earned her doctorate at Rice University in the ’80s.

GRACE WU

FOR THE THRESHER During the COVID-19 pandemic, it was hard to find someone who didn’t know “Hamilton.” When the musical arrived on Disney+ in 2020, millions of people met Renée Elise Goldsberry’s Angelica Schuyler from their couches. Now Goldsberry, who originated the role on Broadway, is coming to Rice. Goldsberry is slated to headline the onenight event “An Evening with Renée Elise Goldsberry” on Jan. 23, 2027 at the Morrison Theater in Brockman Hall for Opera. She arrives as a Presidential Visiting Guest Artist, the latest installment in Shepherd’s ongoing effort to bring major performers to campus.

Goldsberry, a Tony and Grammy Award winner, is known for far more than her role as Angelica. She made her Broadway debut as Nala in “The Lion King,” played Mimi in the final Broadway cast of “Rent” and was in the original Broadway cast of “The Color Purple.” Her television credits include “Girls5eva,” “The Good Wife” and “One Life to Live,” where her role as Evangeline Williamson earned her two Daytime Emmy nominations. The process for selecting a guest like Goldsberry is more deliberate than it might appear, according to Shepherd School of Music Dean Matthew Loden. The school looks closely at what its arts partners around town — the Houston Symphony, the Houston Grand Opera and various ensembles staffed by Shepherd alumni

— are already doing, he said, so as not to compete with them. Instead, Shepherd looks for artists who would “be really special in [Rice’s performance spaces] and could bring a kind of performance that Houston and the Rice campus wasn’t otherwise experiencing.” The Goldsberry booking, however, came together more by chance. In a casual conversation, Loden said President Reggie DesRoches had told him he had long known Goldsberry’s mother, who earned her doctorate at Rice in the early ’80s. Goldsberry, as it turns out, remembers being on campus with her mother as a child. That connection, Loden said, is what ultimately led Shepherd to reach out to Goldsberry.

There are rare artists who can get up [there] by themselves ... and just captivate you — she’s one of those. Matthew Loden

SHEPHERD SCHOOL OF MUSIC DEAN

Loden is enthusiastic about the upcoming performance, even though most details about the evening’s program remain under wraps. “There are rare artists who can get up [there] by themselves, or with a small band, and just captivate you — she’s one of those,” Loden said. “This isn’t the kind of thing

where it’s a Taylor Swift or Phoebe Bridgers show with lots of lights and pyrotechnics — it’s an opera hall. My expectation is that the way she presents herself in that space will be incredible, and it’s going to be a really exciting thing.” Loden said he hopes performances like this one will help students see the Shepherd School as an established destination for the arts. “We’ve got dozens of guest artists from around the world who come to the Shepherd School every year,” Loden said. “Not all of them are this profile, with a big public concert for 600 people, but some are.” Shepherd, Loden added, plans “to keep doing exactly this kind of thing so more people recognize the artistic resource we are for the community.” For students less familiar with Shepherd’s guest artist programming, the announcement has already sparked curiosity. Nicola Lubas, a Brown College sophomore and “Hamilton” fan, said the performance might encourage her to check out other Shepherd events. “Seeing that they have someone this big and this well-known is definitely interesting,” Lubas said. She said she’s looking forward to seeing a different side of Goldsberry’s work. “I don’t know much about what she does outside of ‘Hamilton,’ so it’ll be nice to see that.” To make the event accessible to students, Shepherd is setting aside 100 free tickets for Rice students. Paid tickets will range from $40 to $125. Tickets go on sale Oct. 16.

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2026 • 13

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Review: Mo’ Brunch serves plant-based Southern comfort MARIA ROHLFSEN

THRESHER STAFF

As a vegan living off three servings of tofu a day at the serveries, I knew I had to take advantage of my mom being in town for Families Weekend. Don’t get me wrong — the tofu and mock meats at Rice can be quite delicious, but the monotony was getting to me. I was in need of something different, something that would bring my foodie soul back to life. So, I decided to bring us to the completely vegan brunch spot Mo’ Brunch and Brews, located just a six-minute drive from campus. Mo’ Brunch and Brews is a Blackowned breakfast and brunch spot specializing in Southern-style comfort food. Its menu features everything from waffles, burgers, salads and pasta. I was amazed by all the options, but I eventually landed on the Coltrane Croissant Sandwich, containing breakfast sausage, eggs, tomato, sauteed spinach and cheddar cheese, served with a side of fries. My mom ordered the Shrooms & Grits Flight, a sampler of three types of their chik’n fried shrooms: hot honey, cajun remoulade and cajun cream sauce, on top of a cup of grits. She also ordered the Purple Rain mocktail, with hints of hibiscus, black cherry and lemon.

To share, we ordered a cup of their Lump Crab Gumbo, with the “lump crab” made from lion’s mane mushroom. When our food came out, it all looked too good to be true. The egg on my breakfast croissant and the sausage in the gumbo looked like the real deal. It was an astonishing sight, but I was assured it was all 100% vegan. I first dug into the gumbo, which came out piping hot and served with a scoop of rice. The lion’s mane lump crab was tender and meaty, and the gumbo was peppery and seasoned to perfection. The sausage was crisp and savory, and the okra, onions and mushrooms added the slightest degree of health to my meal.

As for my croissant sandwich, the cheese was melted and gooey, and the sausage patty was savory with just enough sweetness to create a harmony of flavors. The juicy tomato slices and sauteed spinach lightened up the sandwich, creating a nice blend of freshness with indulgence. The fries were perfectly crispy on

the outside, yet soft on the inside. Our waiter gave us a sample of their salsa verde, which elevated the sandwich even more. The grits flight, topped with various flavors and scallions, was a perfect combination of crispy mushrooms resting on a bed of smooth, buttery grits. My mom and I both agreed that the hot honey flavor was our favorite. Aside from the food being absolutely delicious, the ambiance was fun and lively. The outdoor patio was bumping funk and soul music; indoors, records lined the walls and ceilings. The waiter complimented us for making our plates “happy,” which here means totally licked clean. After he had cleared our plates, he explained the restaurant’s history to us. Husbandand-wife owners Courtney and Chasitie Lindsay, who also run Houston Sauce Co., originally planned a barbecue spot, he said, but switched paths after going vegan. It opened its doors on Juneteenth in 2021. Ever since, the restaurant has been a place for community, family and above all, delicious vegan food. If you’ve been wondering about trying more plant-based food, I would definitely recommend this spot. With their extensive menu, the choice is yours: you can go lighter with salads or quick

MARIA ROHLFSEN / THRESHER Located in Houston’s Museum District, Mo’ Brunch and Brews offers Southern-style vegan breakfast and brunch options. bites, or enjoy their more comforting, heartier dishes. It’s also located right in the Museum District, so there are plenty of activities in the area to explore.

Weekly screens and scenes: October in concerts: Five Local cinema picks, Oct. 7-13 Houston shows worth the time political landscape from the seventies to the present. In each section, a central figure in Ahangarani’s life is venerated: her father, teacher, uncle, best friend and daughter. Ahangarani provides a unique double perspective in this film, placing the shifts of her life in parallel with shifts in people and politics in Iran. “Rehearsals for a Revolution” will be screened at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, on Saturday at noon.

HAI-VAN HOANG / THRESHER

EVA RAMI

THRESHER STAFF To all Houston cinephiles: welcome to paradise — or, as you might know it, the Houston Cinema Arts Festival. Through Sunday, Houston is hosting the Houston Cinema Arts Festival, an annual celebration of independent and creative voices in film. Movie screenings associated with the festival will be held in independent and historic theaters, including Rice’s very own Sarofim Hall. Whether you’re interested in expanding your cinematic palate, preparing for spooky season or exploring the historic theaters of Houston, there’s something here for you. “Once Upon a Time in Harlem” (dir. William Greaves and David Greaves) Premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January and later selected for Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight, “Once Upon a Time in Harlem” was filmed by William Greaves in 1972 and completed as a documentary 50 years later by his son, David. Greaves’ film acts as a time capsule and tribute to the cultural tapestry of ’70s Harlem, with the central focus being the real-life conversations and interactions of artists and intellectuals of the era at a dinner party Greaves held at Duke Ellington’s Harlem residence. “Once Upon a Time in Harlem” plays at the DeLUXE Theater on Thursday at 7:00 p.m. “Rehearsals for a Revolution” (dir. Pegah Ahangarani) This film follows director Ahangarani’s life across five sections, weaving in Iran’s

“Who Killed the Fourth Ward? (Part I)” (dir. James Blue) Released in 1978, “Who Killed the Fourth Ward?” will be returning to the big screen at Sarofim Hall. In the documentary, director James Blue grapples with questions of socioeconomic discrimination, the intersection of class and race and the willingness of those in power to turn a blind eye. “Who Killed the Fourth Ward?” will screen at Rice Cinema on Sunday at 4 p.m. “Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother” (dir. Bassam Tariq) Set in Houston, “Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother” follows Latif (Mahershala Ali), a recently widowed hitman who struggles to reconcile his religious devotion and newly challenging role as a father to three children. Combining action with introspection, this film challenges archetypes and confronts themes of spirituality, family and grief. “Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother” plays at the River Oaks Theatre starting Thursday. “Little Shop of Horrors (Director’s Cut)” (dir. Frank Oz) A collaboration between River Oaks Theatre and Buchanan’s Native Plants, this showing of “Little Shop of Horrors” is the perfect kick-off to the Halloween season. When Seymour, a worker at a Skid Row flower shop, finds an unclassifiable plant, he names it Audrey II, after his co-worker, Audrey, whom he’s been pining after. However, Audrey II proves to be more than Seymour signed up for, sending him into a spiral of deceit and murder that he must race to escape. “Little Shop of Horrors” plays at the River Oaks Theatre on Saturday at 11:15 AM.

SAAYA ACCAPADI

THRESHER STAFF

Looking for something to take your mind off midterms, but not as far as Austin City Limits? While expertly crafted Rice Coffeehouse playlists hit the spot on occasion, a night out to see a concert may be the perfect solution this October. Sara Bareilles Known for her popular songs “Love Song” and “Brave,” pop-soul singer Sara Bareilles is an enticing performer who weaves narratives in every song, making it feel like a mature musical version of kindergarten storytime. Since it’s in a theater, it may be a great opportunity to break out the fall-weather, “Gilmore Girls”-esque wardrobe to combat the air conditioning and fully immerse in Bareilles’ siren voice. Bareilles plays the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts on Wednesday and Thursday at 8 p.m. Tickets start at $41. wave to earth There’s no better place to flaunt your performativity and order a matcha on the rocks than at indie soft-rock band wave to earth’s “the pieces tour.” The band is known for soft instrumentals, steady vocals, a calm vibe and a wired-earbud-wearing fanbase. Their concert seems an appropriate occasion to dress in the baggiest of jeans and prepare for a soulful in-person listening experience. Perfectly timed for the first night of midterm recess, this show may be the best way to kick off a 4-day relaxation spree. wave to earth plays 713 Music Hall on Friday at 8:15 p.m. Tickets start at $90. ivri If you’ve heard the TikTok sound that goes, “I’m right where you left me,” then you already know shoegaze singer ivri’s most popular song, “tower of memories,” though her catalog ranges further. This show may be the fix if you’re staying on campus and want an outing over midterm recess, or if discovering new artists is a favorite pastime. ivri plays the Bronze Peacock at House of Blues Houston on Sunday at 7 p.m. Resale tickets start at $80.

KARAN HANS / THRESHER Weezer Though it won’t be an escape from Houston weather to “an island in the sun,” you can hear those words sung live by attending Weezer’s “The Gathering” tour. The Shins and Silversun Pickups open. This concert is a convenient kickoff to the weekend and also a perfect way for student fans of rock to spend time away from campus before going back to the grind. Weezer plays the Houston Toyota Center on Friday, Oct. 16, at 7p.m. Tickets start at $80. MICO ’Twas the weekend before Halloweekend, and campus was quiet with not an event to be found. If you’ve already picked out your costume and are now bored out of your mind this weekend, consider attending MICO’s “Running From A Feeling” tour instead of scrolling on Instagram vindictively liking stories of people from the University of Texas at Austin going out. Toronto singer MICO delivers relatable personal reflections wrapped in a poppunk sound. It’s also slightly more affordable than most larger concerts, and the vibes are guaranteed to hit. MICO plays White Oak Music Hall on Saturday, Oct. 24, at 7p.m. Tickets start at $35.

14 • WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2026

THE RICE THRESHER

Lockdown defense not enough in conference opener

KAIRI MANO / THRESHER Redshirt senior quarterback Jacurri Brown reads the defense during Saturday’s conference opener against the University of Texas at San Antonio. Rice lost 16-14, falling to 1-4 this season.

ANDERSEN PICKARD

SPORTS EDITOR

New stadium, same result. Rice football opened the First Community Stadium era on Saturday with its fourth consecutive loss, falling to the University of Texas at San Antonio by a final score of 16-14. Just days after inking the first stadium naming rights deal in history, Rice hosted 16,739 people for the first of its eight regular-season games against an American Conference opponent. Offensive production was hard to come by, as the Owls recorded just 88 passing yards and 144 rushing yards in the loss. UTSA ran into similar challenges on offense with 148 passing yards and 166 rushing yards. Outside of their Week 1 win against Houston Christian University, a Football Championship Subdivision program, the Owls have yet to play a complete game on both sides of the ball this season. Head coach Scott Abell acknowledged this pattern and said he wants to see more consistency on both offense and defense.

“This week, the defense really showed up, and the offense probably has a little soulsearching,” Abell said. “As the head coach, I have to figure out how to get everybody to execute at a high level on the same Saturday.” The defense’s ability to force takeaways put UTSA in unfamiliar territory. Through their first four games, the Roadrunners had zero fumbles lost and one interception thrown. Rice tripled UTSA’s season turnover total with an interception and a fumble recovery. “This is a very, very good UTSA offense,” said graduate safety Daveon Hook, who was responsible for the interception. “The guys being able to bend but don’t break, that’s something we can really hang our hats on, but it doesn’t stop here.” Hook, who missed the first four weeks due to injury, posted an 87.6 coverage grade in his season debut Saturday, according to Pro Football Focus. That grade ranked 18thbest among 2,903 qualified Football Bowl Subdivision defenders in Week 5. On the offensive side of the ball, redshirt senior quarterback Jacurri Brown gave the Owls a fighting chance with his 17 rushing

attempts, 96 rushing yards and two rushing touchdowns. His 495 rushing yards this season rank second in the FBS. However, the rest of the rushing attack wasn’t able to find the same level of success as Brown. Running backs D’Andre Hardeman Jr. and Tyvonn Byars combined for just 40 rushing yards on 23 carries. Rice’s offense wasn’t the only unit that struggled against UTSA. Special teams concerns are mounting after redshirt senior kicker Enock Gota missed a 42-yard field goal. The three points that Rice failed to score on that field goal attempt could have been the difference-maker in a game that came down to two points. “We’re a team that needs to make field goals,” Abell said. “When you’re in onepossession games, which we have been nonstop, field goals are going to be very important. We’ve got to improve in that area.” Gota, who has converted two of his six field goal attempts this season, was replaced by freshman kicker Tommy Bauchiero for the final extra point attempt of the game. “Enock just needs to take a deep breath,”

Abell said. “We’ll get Tommy going. He’s going to have opportunities going forward.” In addition to offensive and special teams miscues, Rice hurt its chances of winning with seven penalties, including two delay of game infractions. This lack of discipline was uncharacteristic for Rice, which entered Week 5 with the sixth-fewest penalties per game in the FBS. “They’re unacceptable,” Abell said regarding the penalties. “The two delay of games when you’re struggling on offense, that doesn’t help you. We had numerous offside penalties on defense that kept drives going. We just can’t afford that. We’re a program that has to get a lot closer to right than not, because we’re young, we’re inexperienced.” As the conference schedule marches on, Abell’s program will look to regroup, win in all three phases and minimize penalties. Rice’s next opportunity to get back on track will be Saturday against East Carolina University. The Owls, who are seeking their first FBS win since Nov. 8, 2025, enter Week 6 as 10-point underdogs on the road, according to DraftKings Sportsbook.

Swim and dive hits the pool in quest for three-peat ZOE WINSTON

FOR THE THRESHER The Owls head into the 2026-27 swim and dive season with a target on their backs after winning back-to-back American Conference championships. “It always feels great to win,” said head coach Seth Huston. ”With that being said, it’s a new year. It’s a different team. A lot of the same members, but it’s a different team.” The Owls were named the conference favorite in the 2026-27 American Swimming and Diving Preseason Poll, as voted on by the league’s head coaches. Being selected as the conference favorite was an exciting achievement for the team. “It feels pretty amazing,” said sophomore freestyle/butterfly swimmer Lily Archibald. “It definitely gives us the confidence boost to know that we are capable of that kind of success.” Senior breaststroke swimmer Siiri Einio has experienced both those wins and understands how those titles have taught the team resilience and helped build confidence. “Both of those wins were unique in their

own ways,” Einio said. “We have a lot of confidence in what we’re doing, because we’ve been building these great routines that have brought us to those wins. We’re just going to continue on what we’ve been doing well these past years.” The Owls’ roster includes eight newcomers this year, all specializing in different events, including sprint and middistance freestyle, backstroke and butterfly. “Already, they’re adapting great and fitting in incredibly,” Archibald said. “I’m so excited to watch them shine at conferences. They’re all such great additions to the team.” Rounding out the new class are two transfers: sophomore Eva McIverJennkins who specializes in sprint freestyle and butterfly and junior diver Elizabeth Woollcott. Woollcott and freshman diver Olivia Aarseth fill out the third and fourth additions to the Rice diving team. Woollcott, a transfer from Oakland University, recorded top-10 finishes at the 2026 Horizon League Swimming and Diving Championships, placing fifth on the three-meter dive and eighth on the one-meter. Aarseth qualified for the 2025

USA Junior National Championships on the three-meter and won the platform event at the 2025 Houston Hoedown. “Now we have four divers. That’s gonna be a big difference,” Huston said. “They’re all capable of scoring and scoring very well. You can see there’s a lot of talent and a lot of ability.” Rice sponsored a diving team from 19751991. The team was discontinued due to issues meeting facility requirements when the NCAA changed its regulations. In 2024, Rice reinstated its diving team, which has grown over the past two years. The addition of two more divers will also help the team overall with scoring. “We would have never won without [a diving team] two years ago,” Huston said. Swimming and diving events are not contested individually. In a swim and dive events, the placement of a school’s athlete in an event gives the team a certain amount of points. The team with the highest amount of points at the end of the meet wins. All swimming and diving events must be offered and contested if any of the participating teams enter at least one eligible athlete in the event. If a school does

not have a diving team, they are unable to compete in the diving events and fail to earn those points, affecting their overall score for the meet. The rest of the team includes nine sophomores, seven juniors, eight seniors and one graduate student, all of whom bring experience to the roster. Over the summer, junior freestyle swimmer Ava Portello represented the United States at the 2026 International University Sport Federation America Games in Lima, Peru. Portello swam in the United States B Team relay as the No. 3 seed in her signature event, and helped the team finish second in the Girls 4x100 Long Course Meter Freestyle Relay. The Owls open their season with a home meet Friday and Saturday. “I feel like we really shine in our home pool,” Archibald said. “I know that a lot of our parents are coming, and we definitely have the confidence of the home turf. We’ve all been working really hard in the water and meshing really great as a team, especially with the new transfers and the new freshmen, so I’m just really excited to watch us all kind of flourish at a meet like that.”

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2026 • 15

SPORTS

Families Weekend tailgate gets thumbs up from parents SOHANA SCHNEIDER

FOR THE THRESHER

Even for parents who had never attended a tailgate before, Saturday’s Families Weekend festivities left them thoroughly impressed. “[Tailgating] is actually a very fun tradition,” said Sandhya Rajagopalan, parent of Wiess College freshman Riya Rajagopalan. “It has bonding. It also has people getting to know each other and knowing we’re all on the same team. We’re all rooting for Rice.”

It’s been really great meeting her after six weeks and seeing how she’s thriving and how now she’s a part of the community. Sandhya Rajagopalan PARENT OF RICE STUDENT

However, for Rajagopalan, the most meaningful part of the tailgate was spending it with her daughter. “It’s been really great meeting her after six weeks, seeing how she’s thriving and how now she’s a part of the community,” Rajaopalan said. For parents like Rajaopalan, who visited Rice for Families Weekend, the tailgate before Rice’s Saturday football game against the University of Texas at San Antonio gave them a chance to connect with and support their kids by cheering on the Owls. Featuring a NASA display where fans could touch a moon rock, a Rice Motorsports team race car, a jewelry stand, a live band, and catered barbecue for ticketed families, attendees had plenty to explore, whether it was their first tailgate or 10th. “I feel like Rice has rolled out the red carpet for the parents, and it’s really nice,” FROM FRONT PAGE

STADIUM

Rebranding the football stadium represents a core component of Rice’s Gateway Project, which will connect campus with Rice Village, modernize First Community Stadium into a premium destination for hosting events and enhance campus life. George said university leadership was careful and deliberate with their search for a partner, acknowledging that Rice Stadium has a rich history and spent its first 76 years without a naming rights sponsor.

KAIRI MANO / THRESHER Students and their families watch Rice football during Families Weekend. Parents said they enjoyed spending time with their children and attending the pregame tailgate festivities. said Cara Karra, parent of Hanszen College freshman Oliver Karra. It was the third year of attending the tailgate for Dyna Osuna and Alan Steele, parents of Hanszen senior Christian Steele. Their son keeps them coming back to Rice each year, and they enjoy the high spirit of tailgating culture. “It’s good to have something to go back to,” Alan Steele said. “It’s something that you can, you know, have pride in on a national level.” The tailgate was particularly special for parents whose children were directly involved in the action. Traveling from Huntsville, Alabama,

Jean Harrell got the chance to see her son, freshman defensive lineman Ian Harrell, play for the first time after dropping him off for training camp. Adorned with blue and white owl-themed face paint on her cheek, she said it means everything to see him play on the football team. “I’m proud of my baby,” Jean Harrell said. As the football players walked through the tailgate from their bus toward the stadium, they were cheered on by the Marching Owl Band, the dance team and the cheer team. For parent Bill Fisher ’94, seeing his son, Maxwell Fisher, a Sid Richardson College freshman, in the MOB reminded him of his

days playing the trumpet at Rice. “When I was here, [the MOB] was fabulous,” Fisher said. “It was a larger band than it is now, but it still seems energetic and active. We just came out and played and enjoyed ourselves, and hopefully gave enjoyment to the other folks.” Anthony Zacharek and Claudia Zacharek, parents of Brown College freshman Sara Zacharek, were most excited about seeing their daughter perform during the game. “That’s the most important thing — to support your child,” Anthony Zacharek said. “You have to support your child through everything. So, we’re very happy to be here for her.”

“It was very much a part of the discussion as something that we were conscious of,” George said. “Everything that’s happened here doesn’t get lost because the name changes. The stadium is still where we hosted the Super Bowl, where we hosted JFK’s speech. All the memories of the teams playing here don’t change because the name does.” Financial terms of the partnership were not disclosed. George and DesRoches both emphasized the importance of finding a partner that would both support athletics funding and engage the community beyond the playing field.

“At a place like Rice, we absolutely need the resources, but we’re going to do it in a thoughtful way,” George said. “As we look at jersey patches and other facilities, we want to do things that make sense for Rice as a whole while still getting the money that is needed to be competitive in today’s world and college athletics.” University leadership did not specify where First Community’s logo and branding will appear after the Gateway Project is completed. For now, the logo can be seen painted on the football field, which will give the credit union airtime

during the Owls’ game broadcasts. First Community Stadium signage has also replaced the existing Rice Stadium signage under the south scoreboard. “We like what Rice stands for and what it’s meant to the city,” Tijerina said. “When we had a chance to put our brand alongside their brand, it was such a great opportunity.” The stadium’s new moniker was on display Saturday, when football kicked off its first conference game of the season with a 16-14 loss against the University of Texas at San Antonio on Families Weekend.

EDITORIAL CARTOON

“Owl-American”

TOBY NGUYEN / THRESHER RICHARD LI / THRESHER President Reggie DesRoches, First Community Credit Union President and Chief Executive Officer T.J. Tijerina and Interim Athletic Director Eric George pose with a football helmet following Thursday’s partnership announcement.

“Is it too early to say we regret the investment?”

16 • WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2026

BACKPAGE

DEAR FUTURE RICE OWLS... A Letter From the President Sure thing! Here’s a warm and encouraging letter for prospective students, making sure to retain your usual voice: Dear Future Rice Owls, Welcome to the latest edition of the Prospective Students brochure! As I write this, you are already being looked down upon. Campus is currently in full swing, with O-Week now a distant impermanence: people are preparing to cheat with 20 others on an un-proctored exam, and 8 gay baristas are behind the Chaus counter on their phones, touching each other in secret. One of my greatest pleasures as President (with a $3 million annual salary) is to see this campus’s future bots botting. At some point, you will probably end up joining the MOB or, even worse, R2. However, around only 8% of you will have the chance to make it here (and of that, I’m sure less will be talented enough). My advice? Think about how at Rice, on the 13th and 31st of every month, you won’t need lube. We also know that Alzheimer’s non-profit you ‘started’ has already been abandoned not two months into your senior year. Have fun joining Kesem you cruel piece of sh*t. Very best wishes, Reggie (Reginald) Desroches

#12

STUDENTS WITH THE MOST REALISTIC BODIES

RACE-CLASS-CHINA RELATIONS

MOST BALDING SNARKY GRADUATE STUDENT CAMPUS BAR VOLUNTEER WHO RECEIVED WEEKLY WEDGIES DURING HIGH SCHOOL

5:1

100 +

STUDENT-TOFLOCK-CAMERA RATIO

EMPLOYERS OUTSIDE OF TEXAS WHO HAVE HEARD OF US

FUNNIEST SATIRE SECTION OF A COLLEGE NEWSPAPER

46%

PLACE TO SAY THAT THE COLLEGE YOU GO TO IS BROWN

OF APPLICANTS CHOOSE RICE OVER OTHER IVY-ADJACENT SCHOOLS

STUDENTS YOU’D FEEL MOST COMFORTABLE LOSING YOUR VIRGINITY TO (PRINCETON REVIEW)

APPLY! We are looking for lustful, vivacious, passionate lovers of life who have a thirst for knowledge and are horny for success. With the goal of attracting those who are intellectually beautiful but otherwise non-threatening, we take a vibes-based approach to enrolling students. And by that, we mean if you seem like the kinda kid who avoided smoking weed in high school because it “kills brain cells,” or like you ran your school’s partially-successful-but-ultimately-too-niche-memepage, you’ve got a great shot.

Connections You’ll feel it the moment you step on campus: a dull buzz of boredom, social awkwardness, and the distinct features of the average Rice student’s face. Rice has approximately 3 party spots including Fondren’s basement, from Perch to the Rice Victorian English Literature Club’s tea party LARPs at Cohen House. Along with extensive vomit from an electrical engineering major’s first time drinking and pick-up lines so awkward they seem to come straight from porn films, you’ll foster many deep connections during your time here before silently beefing with them and having an indefinite friendship break-up because both parties were too immature to talk about their feelings and too entitled to take personal accountability. It’s okay though, because you’ll still sit together at lunch with the same friend groups and act like everything’s okay while shit-talking them behind their backs.

Afford What if you were poor enough to go to Rice University? Rice offers a generously advertised financial aid package based on your absent parent’s three year old tax records. Recently, College Board has promised .01% of all profits ascertained by selling student data back to the university. These funds will, of course, be allocated to furthering the ION project. Similarly, we are introducing the Beautify Rice cAmpus Now, Duh Initiative (BRANDI). Need-blind doesn’t mean blind-blind. If suitably-diverse students with positive canthal tilt agree to feature on the thriving Rice University LinkedIn (467 connections), we will compensate them with Tetra and free tickets to football games. If you don’t lube up before a football game does it really happen? As a University, we’re committed to never settling another lawsuit for illegally conspiring to restrict financial aid and raising the cost of attendance by a minimum of $8K per year. That means if there are (ugly) students over-burdened by funding the destruction and rebuildingment of a “cozier” football stadium we will force them to purchase unlimited meal swipes. We will silence the not-quite-disenfranchisedenough!

Endeavor At Rice, we dream of fatter paychecks and reach for higher heights up the corporate ladder. We strive for success both academically–and, let’s pray, professionally–by coming together as one Body of Rice. Collaboration, not competition, drives us. We celebrate the unconventional approaches and the innovative solutions exemplified in all of our many Finance and Consulting clubs on campus. Let the forgotten GroupMes, the abandoned listservs, the un-unjoinable Slacks permeate into every single nook and cranny of your Rice life, reminding you every day of your switch from Anthropology to Mathematical Economic Analysis.

The Backpage is the satire section of the Thresher, written this week by Will Howley, Rykelle Sandidge, Max Scholl, Caleb Song and Kyle Chen, and designed by Brandon Nguyen. For comments or questions, please email realricethresherofficial@rice.edu.