Behind the Moody Center for the Arts and the Shepherd School of Music, a new art building has opened, rounding out what the website calls a vibrant district of art on campus.
The Susan and Fayez Saro m Hall o cially opened in a ceremony on Sept. 11, and it already houses a number of humanities and art classes. According to Dean of the School of Humanities Kathleen Canning, construction began in fall 2024 and total building expenses were $76 million.
“Saro m Hall will house a vibrant and growing arena of arts teaching and learning and will foster innovations and collaborations that draw students from all schools at Rice, most notably engineering, architecture and the humanities,” Canning wrote in a statement.
According to Rice’s donation website, the 94,000-square-foot building hosts a “state-of-the-art” lm and cinema space, performance lab, adaptable classrooms, workshops and various other spaces intended to facilitate interdisciplinary art exploration. It was designed and constructed by Diller Sco dio + Renfro, led by Rice alumnus Charles Renfro ’89. Saro m Hall is named a er Fayez Saro m and his wife Susan Krohn. Saro m was the heir to his family’s fortune and known throughout Houston for his part-time ownership of the NFL team Houston Texans along with his philanthropy towards the arts, with the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts’ 2,650-seat Saro m Hall being named a er him.
New building opening ‘bittersweet’ as Houston artists remember Rice Media Center
The corrugated metal Art Barn — once home to a famed Andy Warhol exhibition — has turned to scraps, as the Rice Media Center was demolished. The newly-opened Saro m Hall now stands in its place.
The building, located where the Rice Media Center once stood for 51 years, brings a new culture for Houston-area artists and the Rice community.
The Rice Media Center was established
in 1970 by John and Dominique de Menil, famous for their namesake Menil Collection. Both were major proponents of emphasizing the importance of art within Houston — speci cally the value of cinema within the art world.
This focus on making the Rice Media Center a home for Houston arts just as much as it was for Rice students made the establishment special for many aspiring artists in the city.
Houston-based writer, producer and director Michelle Mower said the Rice Media
Center was her second home and was upset to know that it would be torn down.
“When I walked into [Saro m Hall], it was bittersweet,” Mower said. “But at the same time, I was just blown away by how beautiful it was, and it was very moving.”
While Saro m isn’t the Rice Media Center, Marian Luntz, curator of lm at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, said she thinks it will become an art destination spot just the same.
“I think that will bene t everything around it, so people could make a trip and
see the exhibition at the Moody Center, or maybe go to a performance across the street [at the Brockman Hall for Opera],” Luntz said.
Randee Spittel-Ramsey, the executive director of Southwest Alternate Media Project, said that she hopes Sarofim Hall and its movie theater will bring a new day for the program for media studies and Rice’s involvement in the local cinema scene.
Google Gemini, Google’s AI platform, made an appearance in Rice’s academic quad on Wednesday as a part of Google for Education’s national college campus tour to demonstrate its o erings in AI.
The day included two “Gemini Academy” sessions for students and one “Lunch and Learn” event for faculty and sta . There was also a Gemini pop-up event in the academic quad.
Gemini’s college tour is just one example of AI-focused companies increasing marketing towards college students. On April 3, CEO of OpenAI Sam Altman announced on X that students would have free access to ChatGPT Plus through the end of May. Two weeks later, Google announced free student access to Google AI Pro.
Rice students’ access to AI includes the Gemini chatbot and NotebookLM, which is included in the university’s existing contract as a Google Workspace customer.
“The decision to activate Gemini and NotebookLM within our Google Workspace
account came from the Rice AI Advisory Committee,” wrote Kelly Fox, the executive vice president for operations, nance and support, in an email to the Thresher.
“[This was] with the objective of providing students, faculty and sta access to arti cial intelligence tools that enhance productivity
and facilitate learning.”
Rice is currently o ering the “Accelerating Responsible AI for Education at Rice” program to o er grants and programming to faculty exploring and implementing AI into teaching and course design.
JAMES CANCELARICH
Social media was awash with reactions after the killing of Charlie Kirk, a conservative activist, during a debate event at Utah Valley University on Sept. 10. President Reggie DesRoches weighed in with a statement of his own on Instagram and LinkedIn, decrying the violence.
“Honest, civil disagreements has always made us stronger, while violence only drives us further apart and corrodes the values at the heart of this nation and our democracy,” the statement reads.
DesRoches declined to comment beyond the initial statement.
JULIANA LIGHTSEY / THRESHER
Students for Justice in Palestine gather for fast
ABIGAIL CHIU SENIOR WRITER
Rice Students for Justice in Palestine fasted for 700 minutes on Thursday, saying they were representing the 700 days of genocide in Gaza. For part of the fast, SJP gathered in Ray Courtyard to collage, do traditional Palestinian embroidery and hear from guest speaker G. Daniel Cohen, associate professor of Modern European History.
Palestinian embroidery has loomed large, especially for Palestinian women, as an avenue of cultural resistance, even a political and economic tool. We are having that as part of this aspect of celebrating Palestinian culutre and showing all the ways Palestine continues to live and will continue to live.
Lauren Palmieri
SECOND -YEAR DOCTORAL STUDENT
The event was intended to coincide with the arrival of the Global Sumud Flotilla, which is an international maritime movement aimed at breaking the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip.
Students did arts and cra s and listened to music during the event, which the organizers said was intended to upli Palestinian community alongside representing the time of the genocide.
“We wanted a celebration of Palestinian culture and how Palestinian culture has persevered throughout many decades of
ethnic cleansing and occupation,” said Lauren Palmieri, a second-year doctoral student in the history department and one of the event’s organizers. “Even though Palestinians in Gaza are at risk of mass death, we are still trying to celebrate that aspect of how Palestine lives.”
Jorge Zazueta, a fourth-year doctoral student in the economics department, said the event was a choice to identify with the people of Palestine when people could choose to look the other way.
“It’s just an invitation to keep being conscious about our position in the environment at this university, being conscious about the limitations that we have as individuals, and how the only way to push through that is to come together as a group,” Zazueta said.
Zazueta said they feel they are in a time and space where people are afraid to be active, and clubs face tighter regulations on political protests and gatherings.
“We’ve entered this stage where anything that could be perceived as political speech has to be approved,” Zazueta said. “It’s di cult to push for divestment while also having to navigate this hyper-surveilled environment and trying to activate the student body.”
A Rice SJP Instagram post about the event listed the organization’s ongoing demands, which include an immediate cease re, ows of food and commerce to halt the famine and ending the blockade on international aid.
Zazueta said that they believe support for Palestine exists, but many students are hesitant to show it publicly.
“Our base is international, but international students are the ones that are [in the most precarious position], especially graduate students,” Zazueta said. “Because it is an anti-colonial struggle, people that are more in tune with this movement tend to be from outside of the country, so it’s tough to walk that line.”
One of the activities at the event was tatreez, a traditional Palestinian embroidery technique.
“Palestinian embroidery has loomed large, especially for Palestinian women, as an avenue of cultural resistance, even a political and economic tool,” Palmieri said. “We are having that as part of this aspect of celebrating Palestinian culture and showing all the ways Palestine continues to live and will continue to live.”
The event’s guest speaker, Cohen, spoke about the history of antisemitism, Israel and Palestine and how public
perception of the two has evolved over time.
The event was intended to be mindful of how the blockade is a ecting Palestinians, who are facing widespread starvation, malnutrition and disease.
“I don’t think we could ever really, truly understand the scale of it, and I don’t think we will for at least a few years,” Palmeri said. “ Obviously, we are in a privileged position here, sitting in a Rice courtyard and cra ing and joining in community, but part of it [is] operating with more awareness around what Palestinians are facing right now.”
The comments on the Instagram post were turned off after the post was shared. Some students expressed disagreement with the statement on social media, while others shared their support.
Student Association President Trevor Tobey posted a statement to the SA Instagram later that night, also denouncing the violence against Kirk. In the statement, Tobey wrote that campuses should remain a place for robust dialogue and respectful engagement.
“Every individual, regardless of their viewpoint, deserves the right to voice their opinions without fear of intimidation or harm,” the statement reads. “Our campus must remain a place where ideas can be expressed openly, respectfully, and peacefully.”
Ricky De Quevedo, a Lovett College sophomore, left a dissenting comment on the SA’s Instagram. In an interview with the Thresher, he said that he felt the SA is selective in what national issues they choose to comment on.
“While I understand the intention, and I deeply disagree with the actions taken by Kirk’s shooter, the Instagram post was more than just a condemnation of political violence,” De Quevedo said. “It was a message to Rice students that the SA will only speak out when violence targets those they believe are important.”
Dorian Echasseriau said they were
horrified when they first saw the news of Kirk’s death and the videos of the incident that began circulating on social media. When DesRoches and Tobey issued a statement, Echasseriau said they were surprised.
I would say there’s a very big difference between recognizing that an act of political violence and assassination is bad, and making that person a martyr and kind of relativizing their extreme political positions.
Dorian Echasseriau HANSZEN COLLEGE SENATOR
“The reactions have been very minimal in response to the Trump administration directly cutting their funding, in response to the conflict in Gaza right now, in response to any of the other murders that have been happening recently, in response to school shootings at high schools,” said Echasseriau, the Hanszen College senator.
Echasseriau, a sophomore, said they are considering introducing a resolution that would condemn what they call the “selective empathy” of DesRoches’ and Tobey’s public statements. They said that they view the statements as contrary
to what the students of Rice actually feel.
“I would say there’s a very big difference between recognizing that an act of political violence and assassination is bad, and making that person a martyr and kind of relativizing their extreme political positions,” Echasserriau said.
Tobey said that he felt compelled to release the statement because the tragedy occurred directly on a college campus.
“We obviously don’t speak out on every national controversy, but when someone is murdered in the middle of a civil conversation on a college campus, that’s directly tied to our mission,” Tobey said.
He described the controversy surrounding his statement as “confusing the principle with the person.”
“Universities exist so that we can debate and disagree and wrestle with difficult ideas, and you don’t have to agree with Charlie Kirk’s views to see that murdering him for expressing them is an attack on the very foundation of higher education itself,” Tobey said.
Rohan Dharia, the McMurtry College senator, said that he also viewed the statement as non-political.
“I don’t think the statement was made in a political context,” said Dharia, a sophomore. “It was made more as a statement about free speech and not about the politics of the situation.”
Dharia said the statement made sense because one of the SA’s goals is to protect the right of speech of every student. He said interpreting the statement as
political was misinterpreting the issues of free speech and open dialogue.
Tobey wrote in his statement on social media that the SA would continue to work to protect the free exchange of ideas with initiatives he said he had in place before Kirk’s shooting.
His initiatives will include proposing institutional neutrality for the SA and Rice, Tobey said. In addition, Tobey said he hopes to create a commission on academic freedom and free speech to create spaces for open dialogue.
Universities exist so that we can debate and disagree and wrestle with difficult ideas, and you don’t have to agree with Charlie Kirk’s views to see that murdering him for expressing them is an attack on the very foundation of higher education itself.
Trevor Tobey
STUDENT ASSOCIATION PRESIDENT
“We cannot cower in the face of this event,” Tobey said. “We have to double down and really have these conversations, because I believe that is the key to moving our democracy and our campus forward.”
KONSTANTIN SAVVON / THRESHER
A student at the fast makes a poster. The event, hosted by Students for Justice in Palestine, saw students turn out to celebrate Palestinian culture amid the war in Gaza.
FROM FRONT PAGE
CHARLIE KIRK
Chao College opens transfer applications, student weigh in
HONGTAO HU ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR
Non-seniors across the 11 residential colleges were randomly invited via email last Friday to ll out a transfer application to join Chao College, which is anticipated to open in Fall 2026.
The application had one question.
“Brie y tell us why you want to join the Chao College community,” reads the open-ended question in the transfer form.
Some students were surprised to receive the email.
“I was a little confused, to be honest,” said Andrew Chichester, a Duncan College sophomore. “I hadn’t really heard much about Chao at first. I thought it was a new servery.”
The college has been promoted by Dean of Undergraduates Bridget Gorman. Gorman urged students to accept the invitation to Chao in both an op-ed and a campuswide email last week. Some students, however, said they do not see the appeal of transferring colleges.
I like the people that I have already met here. I feel like I’ve got a community already. So I don’t see myself moving.
Daniel Eini
BAKER COLLEGE FRESHMAN
“I didn’t really care, because I knew that I was going to stay in my college,” said Marco Tan, a Wiess College junior. “Most of my friends are Wiess, so I don’t really see a big reason for me to transfer.”
Chao’s amenities were appealing to some students. The facilities include an all-electric servery with a robotic cooking station, a 3,000-square-foot roo op terrace and a 1,000-square-foot quad.
“It looks very nice,” said Daniel Eini, a Baker College freshman. “I’ll admit that, especially here [at Baker], where the facilities are a little run down, especially in Old Wing.”
For Colt Adams, a Hanszen College sophomore, transferring to Chao may make it possible to stay close to Rice.
“I’m worried about getting kicked off for housing my junior year,” Adams said. “Chao College represents the opportunity to potentially stay on campus for all four years.”
Housing is not guaranteed for all of the
over 400 undergraduate students who will become members of Chao when it opens. Chao will have about 300 on-campus beds, which will be lled by both current students and incoming freshmen.
“Starting in the 2027-2028 academic year, Chao will follow the typical pattern of having junior year as the standard o -campus year for undergraduates,”
Gorman wrote in the Chao College transfer email sent out last Friday.
However, housing isn’t the only draw for Adams.
“I think it would be cool to form a college culture, be part of that as a foundational member,” Adams said.
Students who decided against joining Chao also weighed its college culture.
in the 2023 release.
The university has also recently updated its AI guidelines. This past July, Provost Amy Dittmar and Fox released a statement on Rice News about faculty and sta access to Gemini and NotebookLM.
“This initiative re ects Rice University’s commitment to integrating cutting-edge technology to empower you with advanced AI capabilities across your teaching, research and administrative work,” Dittmar and Fox wrote.
Notable differences can be found in comparing these approaches to those at the start of the 2023-2024 academic year. In a 2023 provost communication, Dittmar and Paul Padley, the executive vice president for operations, finance and support, warned Rice faculty about data privacy.
“We cannot emphasize enough the importance of not using LLMs when dealing with sensitive data, including student records, FERPA and HIPPA [sic]-protected information, personally identifiable information, or research data covered by non-disclosure agreements,” Dittmar and Padley wrote
At the end of the statement, Dittmar and Padley revealed that the document was dra ed by ChatGPT.
“Note: The rst dra of this document was generated by ChatGPT4; the nal version di ers signi cantly from that rst dra but as we noted above, we must cite the use of this,” wrote Dittmar and Padley at the end of the statement addressed to Rice faculty.
I am concerned about skills atrophy and students’ critical engagement and agency vanishing.
Aysha Pollnitz ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF HISTORY
This year, O ce of Information Technology standards state that Rice faculty and sta can send con dential or sensitive information, including FERPA information, to Google Gemini, Notebook LM and Microso Copilot.
I’m worried about getting kicked off for housing my junior year. Chao College represents the opportunity to potentially stay on campus for all four years.
Colt Adams
HANSZEN COLLEGE SOPHOMORE
“I like the people that I have already met here,” Eini said. “I feel like I’ve got a community already. So I don’t see myself moving.”
Transfer applicants will receive a
“As you begin to explore these tools, please keep in mind: Always verify AIgenerated content to ensure it’s accurate. Be mindful of bias and copyright issues. Follow university policies on data protection, appropriate technology use and AI,” the July 2025 release read.
However, Rice’s embrace of AI raises questions over academic integrity and critical thinking in some professors’ minds. A recent study from researchers at the University of Reading found that some 94% of AI-generated work went undetected. Estimates from organizations like Inside Higher Ed report that 85% of university students used AI for coursework in the last year.
Aysha Pollnitz, associate professor of history, allows students to use AI in some of their assignments as long as they cite it. In her experience, though, AI is not good at certain tasks, such as interpreting complex topics or understanding others’ experiences, Pollnitz said.
“I am concerned about skills atrophy and students’ critical engagement and agency vanishing,” Pollnitz wrote in an email to the Thresher. “I try to create assignments that build students’ intellectual strengths, engage with and
decision on their admittance to Chao by the end of October. Those not yet invited still have a chance to transfer through a waitlist that will open this week on the college’s webpage.
According to Gorman’s op-ed and the Chao transfer form, the college is looking for students to ll leadership positions at Chao, including Orientation Week coordinators and the executive committee.
This transfer process is one step along the path of establishing Chao College, as the founding committee composed of Rice undergraduates has been working since January to create the college’s culture, colors, crest and mascot, along with the executive government’s structure and budgetary process.
I think faculty need more guidance on the expectations around this access. We find ourselves increasingly in uncharted territory — both policing AI and now potentially promoting it?
Sarah Ellenzweig ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH
improve on AI-generated responses, and that sca old long-range projects so that students can be proud of what they have accomplished.”
Sarah Ellenzweig, an associate professor of English, said that she was disappointed in the guidance on AI.
“I think faculty need more guidance on the expectations around this access,” Ellenzweig wrote in an email to the Thresher. “We nd ourselves increasingly in uncharted territory — both policing AI and now potentially promoting it? This feels like a contradiction.”
RENDERINGS BY HENNING LARSEN, KIRKSEY ARCHITECTURE
FROM FRONT PAGE AI POLICIES
Senate outlines upcoming special election and initiative fund
TOBY CHOU & AYHAM AL-GHOUL FOR THE THRESHER
The Student Association approved the final dates for an upcoming special election regarding the amendment and bylaw changes at Senate on Monday.
The election ballot will open Sept. 24 at noon. On Oct. 1, the election will close and results will be announced on Oct. 2.
Along with the approval of these dates, the SA approved rules for the election.
The rules will allow for electronic campaigning, but no partisan emails are allowed from student organizations or candidates. Neutral emails with instructions on how to vote are encouraged, and can be sent by student organizations or representatives.
In addition, amendments can only pass if they reach the 20% undergraduate voter turnout threshold. The previous attempt to pass amendments to the constitution failed due to an insufficient voter turnout.
Senate also unanimously approved the decisions of the Blanket Tax Committee on three new applications for the Fall 2025 Initiative Fund. The Blanket Tax Committee approved funding for Rice Undergraduate Marketing Association and Rice Cycling
and Triathlon Club and rejected Rice American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics’ request.
The initiative fund is used for events on campus that are “new and innovative,” according to the SA bylaws.
“The Blanket Tax Committee can make whatever definition they want for ‘new and innovative,’” said Jackson Darr, the SA treasurer. “In the past, it’s been very strict because there’s been a low amount of funding in the Initiative Fund, but because now we have over $140,000 to disperse, we’re being more lenient with that definition.”
Rice’s Chapter of AIAA requested $2,000 to construct a competition aircraft and participate in a competition. The request was denied.
“We didn’t see the scope as being something that could broadly impact the entire Rice community where every student could be involved if they wanted to,” Darr said. “That was our main rationale for rejecting that request.”
Rice Undergraduate Marketing Association, requested a minimum of $636 to host a marketing event night.
The Rice Cycling and Triathlon Club requested a minimum of $296 in order to host a campus-wide triathlon around the end of October or beginning of November.
Members of the executive board sit at Senate on Sept. 24. During the meeting, the Student Association discussed the upcoming special election and the iniative fund.
At career expo, international students face work requirement hurdles
RUBY
GAO FOR THE THRESHER
For many at Rice’s career expo this fall, signs saying “no sponsorship o ered” in front of companies may have been a recurring sight. For international students, they were a continuous barrier.
The Center for Career Development’s Career and Internship Expo was held from Sept. 9-10 for current and former students looking for jobs. This is the rst year that the event has been split over two days.
For Amra Amir, job restrictions for F-1 and J-1 visa holders preclude some desirable opportunities.
“The biggest challenge when it comes to nding a job is the visa issue. Many suitable
FROM FRONT PAGE SAROFIM HALL
“Our official relationship with Fayez Sarofim & Co. began in 1963. FSC remains an important investment partner for the Rice Endowment today,” wrote Chris Stipes, the university’s executive director of news and media relations, in an email to the Thresher.
“The fact that we’re getting better funding for more facilities and better studios just always invites people in,” said Joselyn Lwigale, a Hanszen College senior. “The more that people take classes and tell their friends about [those classes], more students will be interested in the humanities.”
I think it’ll encourage students to apply to Rice specifically in the arts and the humanities because now we have such an awesome space for it.
Joselyn Lwigale
HANSZEN COLLEGE SENIOR
“I think that [Sarofim Hall] is a really awesome space for arts students,” said Caroline Pollan, a Duncan College junior. “I think it’ll encourage students to apply to Rice specifically in the arts and the humanities because now we have such an awesome space for it.”
positions do not o er CPT/OPT sponsorship and therefore leave international students with no pathway to said positions.” said Amir, a Brown College junior.
Curricular practical training and optional practical training are the main forms of employment for student visa holders, without which they are ineligible to work off-campus.
For Yuna Jiang, a Jones College sophomore, U.S. internships with these opportunities translate well for post-grad opportunities in China.
“The CCD helps compile a list of companies that o er OPT/CPT so those can be your focus.” wrote Jiang, a business and managerial economics major, in a message to the Thresher. “Having some overseas work
The biggest challenge when it comes to finding a job is the visa issue.
Amra Amir BROWN COLLEGE JUNIOR
experience like [internships] makes you stand out more when you go back home.”
Jeffrey Teng, a Chinese international student majoring in statistics, said the US job market provides more opportunities in business.
“China’s job market has been hit harder by the economic downturn a er the pandemic compared to that in the US. Now some interns
get their internships in China just because someone upstairs pulled strings for them,” said Teng, a Brown College junior. “The US job market is much more dynamic, and can provide more chances especially for students in business and nance majors.”
“In China, bosses only want interns to do grunt work, so interns seldom get the chance to learn useful and professional skills,” Teng continued.
Despite the challenges in employment, Amir, a political science and sociology major, said she felt that Rice is supportive of her career goals.
“Rice o ers far more opportunities to international students,” Amir said. “Students who major in social policy bene t from abundant opportunities here.”
SUNNY YU / THRESHER
People gather at Saro m hall for the o cial opening. The arts hall welcomed students and community members on Sept. 11.
MO OGUNSOLA / THRESHER
GENERAL ELECTIONS TIMELINE & BALLOT QUESTIONS
Oct. 6
Last day to register to vote
Oct. 20-31
Early Voting
Nov. 4
Election Day
Dec. 13
Runo Election
HISD DISTRICT V
This is currently an open district with the incumbent retiring. It is a two-way race between Maria Benzon and Robbie McDonough. Trustees have lost some o cial power since the state takeover of HISD in 2023. However, both candidates believe they can change this. Benzon is running on restoring local control, reducing ‘test-and-punish policies’ and transferring spending from the administration to students. McDonough is running on ending the standardization of curriculum, stronger retention policies and the expansion of transparency in budgeting.
HOUSTON CITY COUNCIL AT LARGE
This is a special election meant to ll the vacancy in the city council, with 14 candidates on the ballots. The two candidates most likely to make it to the run-o are Dwight Boykins and Jordan Thomas. Dwight Boykins is a former member of the city council and is running on securing Houston’s water future, increased transparency with tax funds and creation of more transit. Jordan Thomas is a former chief of sta from the city council and is running on using public lands to help make housing more a ordable, narrowing lanes and requiring all city capital projects to have bus-stop amenities.
PROP 1 - SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION 18
This proposition would make it unconstitutional for the state to create a tax on capital gains, the pro t made from selling an asset. Texas doesn’t currently have a tax on capital gains, so this proposition would act as a safeguard against future policy.
PROP 3 - SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION 5
This proposition would deny bail for certain felons. This would be used for felonies such as murder, capital murder, aggravated assault resulting in serious bodily injury, aggravated kidnapping, indecency with a child and human tra cking.
PROP 17 - HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION 34
This proposition would allow the state legislature to give property tax exemptions to those who have property on the border between the United States and Mexico to use their own resources for border security technology.
PROP 14 - SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION
The proposition would allow for the creation of a new state-run medical research institute with a focus on dementia. It would also set aside up to $3 billion to support the research.
PROP 15 - SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION 34
This proposition would codify a parent’s role to be in charge of decisions affecting their child’s upbringing. The state cannot interfere without a compelling government interest. This could potentially give parents the ability to opt their kids out of public school curriculum concerning the LGBTQIA+ community.
Election dates and descriptions from Ayham Al-Ghoul
H&D meal swipe feedback session held a er last-minute cancelation
“This is a good idea, but they definitely need to be a lot more transparent with students.”
Nine days after a meal plan feedback session was canceled at the last minute by Housing and Dining, student food ambassadors sat outside Brochstein Pavilion on Sept. 10 to meet with their peers. Groups of students stopped by the table to voice their concerns.
Food Ambassadors are student representatives who communicate food preferences or concerns to H&D. Devika Dua, the FA for Seibel Servery, said the ambassadors are compiling the student opinions that were shared at the feedback session into a report for H&D.
They’ve been unclear with how the meal plan works. It was kind of sprung on us, which I don’t think was very fair to everyone.
Katherine Arquitt
WILL RICE SENIOR
“We know how students are feeling, which is completely valid, but the gap is that we don’t know what exactly to do to help,” said Dua, a Lovett College junior. “Through that [session], we were able to get really, really valuable feedback.”
Dua said H&D may have new improvements to the meal plan next semester based on student feedback.
Although they said they appreciated the opportunity to meet with the FAs, off-campus students Conner Schultz and Patiance Wiley said H&D should communicate with students directly regarding the new meal plan.
“It is easier for H&D to ignore Food Ambassadors than it is for them to ignore students who are talking to them,” said Schultz, a Will Rice College sophomore.
Wiley, a Will Rice junior, said a similar feedback session with H&D representatives is a necessary next step. She said their current strategy feels “a little bit like hiding.”
“Now that we have a little more understanding, we can come to them with less anger and more information,” Wiley said.
Schultz was one of the first students to speak with the FAs at Brochstein. He said meal plan enforcement needs to be standardized, as the current system is causing confusion for students.
“The places that H&D higher-ups go to a lot, like North, have really strict rules,” Schultz said. “In places that they don’t go, it’s a lot more relaxed. They don’t have any sort of policies. They are just enforcing stuff on their whims.”
Schultz said he was once yelled at for bringing a reusable water bottle into North Servery. After multiple student complaints, H&D placed water dispensers just outside the serveries. But Schultz said he worries they may be taken away.
“They have that [water dispenser] policy absolutely nowhere,” Schultz said. “They can just change it.”
Wiley discussed the anxieties surrounding the new meal plan with the FAs. She said off-campus students are afraid to ask their friends for guest swipes when they need them, since they are more likely to be turned away due to the new system.
Wiley also said the plan’s enforcement could create challenges for students with eating disorders. When Wiley took a second to-go box at a servery, she said an H&D worker monitoring the boxes told her to “not take advantage of it.” While she said the worker probably did not mean to offend, she still felt judged.
“Now we have to have all these comments about food,” Wiley said. “And that could be construed in certain ways to
people, especially when they have issues with that.”
I have to plan ahead a lot more and meal prep if I want to bring food. Or, I have to just break the rules and use my friend’s ID to swipe in, or ask my friend to go get something from the servery for me.
Bridget Hale WILL RICE SENIOR
Off-campus student Bridget Hale said the new meal plan has changed the way she eats at Rice.
“I have to plan ahead a lot more and meal prep if I want to bring food,” said Hale, a Will Rice senior. “Or, I have to
just break the rules and use my friend’s ID to swipe in, or ask my friend to go get something from the servery for me. Which really isn’t fair to my on-campus friends, to be asking them to do that every meal.”
Hale and her friends spent about thirty minutes with the FAs during the feedback session. Katherine Arquitt, a Will Rice senior who visited the table with Hale, said she is disappointed in the lack of transparency from H&D.
“They’ve been unclear with how the meal plan works,” Arquitt said. “It was kind of sprung on us, which I don’t think was very fair to everyone. It didn’t really give the people that are actually working in the servery time to learn the new system.”
Dua said H&D has given the FAs vague answers when asked why the meal plan was implemented.
“As Food Ambassadors, we don’t know,” Dua said. “And if we don’t know, that means the student body definitely does not know.”
JESSICA XU / THRESHER
ALEENA GILANI FOR THE THRESHER
LAKSHMI ARAVINDAN / THRESHER
Rice students should stop buying from American sweatshops
Vedant Khadiya BROWN COLLEGE SOPHOMORE
The clothes you see when browsing Nordstrom and Dillard’s, and even the ones you’re wearing as you read this, may have been made by people like Maria Pineda, one of the nearly 200,000 people currently working in the U.S. garment industry and subject to horrifying conditions.
In the documentary “Made in L.A.,” Pineda describes moving to Los Angeles from Mexico a er she turned 18 and hoping for a better life. She says in Spanish, “I thought it’d be di erent here … I was full of dreams.”
Instead, workers like Pineda, end up in the garment industry in Los Angeles or New York, working 10 to 12 hours a day. They sew threads covered in rat urine, sit in unsupportive chairs, deal with poor equipment and ventilation and are unable to eat or use the restroom.
If that isn’t bad enough, they don’t even get paid the minimum wage. In 2023, USA Today reported garment manufacturers were
paying workers as little as $1.58 per hour due to the establishment of a “piece-rate” system in which workers are paid by the number of garments that they sew rather than per hour.
The industry gets away with this abuse because companies prey on immigrants. While some workers have residency, many lack o cial documentation. As a result, requests for better bene ts or plans to report mistreatment are o en met with threats of deportation. In one instance, a worker tried to take a sick day but was told that “undocumented people don’t get sick days.”
While we aren’t the ones paying these ridiculous wages, we certainly contribute to the problem. Our demand for cheap clothes, especially in the era of Trump’s tari s, has put pressure on garment manufacturers to lower costs by mistreating their workers or not paying them.
As broke college students, we o en want the newest and cheapest clothing that helps us keep up with trends. In doing so, we fuel demand for sweatshop labor that keeps clothing cheap and stylish. That’s why we have to take action to put an end to American sweatshops.
Since our demand for quickly-produced,
cheap clothes fuels the abuse of immigrants across the United States, we have to remove that demand by boycotting unethical brands. But how do we know which brands are unethical?
I have created a document that contains a
Nobody coming to this country seeking a better life deserves to have their dignity stripped away just to make a living.
list of unethical and ethical brands committed to fair labor practices and sustainability, as well as places to nd other ethical brands. Remember that if it looks too good to be true, it probably is.
Another cheap alternative is to buy secondhand or thri from stores like Goodwill. For the clothes you already own, you can nd places to recycle them or donate them at local shelters and drives.
While the boycott can hold brands accountable, we also have to bring
attention to the abuse. The garment industry hides these sweatshops, so we need to shed light on them. Only then can we begin to hold brands accountable.
Additionally, we can pursue policy change, most notably by advocating for the passage of the FABRIC Act. Proposed by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and former Rep. Carolyn Maloney, this legislation would institute new workplace protections that would eliminate piece-rate pay, create new manufacturing programs and eliminate the current gaps in regulation.
Nobody coming to this country seeking a better life deserves to have their dignity stripped away just to make a living. That’s why I am calling on the student body to help put an end to abuse in the garment industry and stop buying from American sweatshops.
Editor’s Note: This is a guest opinion that has been submitted by a member of the Rice community. The views expressed in this opinion are those of the author and do not necessarily represent or re ect the views of the Thresher or its editorial board. All guest opinions are factchecked to the best of our ability and edited for clarity and conciseness by Thresher editors.
Ask a Rice philosopher: Do humans have free will?
Today’s questioner asks, “Do we have free will?”
When people are interested in free will, they’re usually thinking about something exciting: a power to make choices that is somehow separate from the rest of the universe. Call it “exciting free will.”
Imagine a choice: volunteer to give a presentation or stay quiet. If the laws of physics, together with the total quantum state of your body and surrounding particles, guarantee that you will volunteer, you don’t have exciting free will. To have exciting free will, your choice has to come just from you, not from physical processes working themselves out.
There is no free-floating willpower, wisdom or selfhood that doesn’t get drunk when you do, that doesn’t get concussed when you do.
The problem is that your brain is made of atoms (and ions, and so on), and your choice seems to happen in your brain. Your memories are in your brain, your beliefs are in your brain, your plans are in your brain and your emotions and instincts are there too. If your choice does not come from physical processes working themselves out, it cannot come from your brain. And so, it cannot come from your memories, beliefs, plans, emotions or instincts. It has to come from you, but it can’t come from any of the stu that makes you up.
Neurology tells us that injuries to the brain can deprive us of every psychological ability: no part of the conscious or unconscious mind seems immune. With an unlucky injury, we can lose the ability to see and imagine colors, movements or faces; lose all moral feeling; lose our ability to speak and understand language; and much
more. And that part of you that can step back and re ect and judge and shape your choices? That can be damaged by traumatic brain injury too (see the famous case of Phineas Gage).
The same lesson comes from everyday life. Alcohol, antidepressants, hormonal birth control, concussions, sleep deprivation and fatigue all a ect our minds through and through. There is no free- oating willpower, wisdom or sel ood that doesn’t get drunk when you do, that doesn’t get concussed when you do.
Some people take comfort in the idea that quantum physics says we are, at bottom, indeterministic. But since quantum indeterminacy does not give me the power to shake o a concussion and clearly assess what I should do while my poor physical brain is concussed, there is no exciting free will to be found in quantum physics.
If there turns out to be no exciting free will, what will be le ? The ability to make choices based on your memories, beliefs, planning, emotions, instincts and so on. That is, the ability to make choices based on mental states that are made out of brain states, an ability that only exists within the operation of the laws of physics. This is not exciting free will. It’s boring.
What kind of freedom would boring free will exemplify? Just this: When your choices come from your mind in the usual way, your choices are not coming from Tourette syndrome or obsessive-compulsive disorder, not coming from a nefarious device implanted in your brain, not coming from psychosis or sleepwalking, blind habit or knee-jerk re ex. It’s the power to act for your own reasons, on your own understanding of the world. It’s the power to do something nice because you’re kind, or to take full credit for a group e ort because you’re sel sh. That’s a boring kind of freedom, no doubt. It might also be the only kind we have.
Assigned reading: Strawson, P. 1963. “Freedom and Resentment.” Proceedings of the British Academy 48, 187-211. Extra credit: Sacks, O. 1985. The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat: And Other Clinical Tales. New York: Summit Books.
COLUMN
JOANNA LI / THRESHER
Dr. Tim Schroeder is a professor in the Department
TIM SCHROEDER PROFESSOR OF PHILOSOPHY
Student Association post on political violence rings hollow
Last week, Student Association President Trevor Tobey posted a statement on the o cial SA Instagram account condemning “political violence” a er the killing of farright political commentator Charlie Kirk. The statement a rmed that “every individual deserves the right to voice their opinion without fear of intimidation or harm,” and that college campuses must be “safe spaces for robust dialogue.”
It’s a sentiment that rings hollow when you consider what hasn’t earned a statement from the SA.
Over the past year, students across the country have faced political repression for expressing support for Palestine. At Columbia, New York Police Department o cers raided campus and zip-tied students in their own libraries. At the University of Texas at Austin, state troopers tackled students on the lawn. At Emory University, professors were brutalized. At the University of California, Los Angeles, counter-protesters violently attacked a student encampment overnight. None of those incidents — including the destruction of every university in Gaza — prompted an o cial statement from the SA.
Only now, with the death of a prominent conservative voice, does “political violence”
become worth mourning. The truth is, the SA’s sudden shi isn’t about political violence at all. It’s about what kinds of violence are considered acceptable and what aren’t.
SA’s sudden shift isn’t about political violence at all. It’s about what kinds of violence are considered acceptable and what aren’t.
The post was also issued unilaterally on the o cial Instagram account of Rice’s undergraduate student government. In a time of immense political tension, this kind of top-down communication erodes student trust.
At his presidential debate last year, Tobey emphasized that the SA should “not [take] explicitly political stances, because the student body is not unanimous on these issues.”
But neutrality only works if it’s consistent. You can’t claim to stand above politics while using your o ce to post a personal statement — especially when the post was made on
an account meant to represent all Rice undergraduates.
This isn’t just about the SA. It’s about a broader pattern of selective neutrality at Rice and in higher education more broadly.
If we’re going to talk about free speech and “the right to voice opinions without fear,” we need to talk about who gets that right and who doesn’t. That means acknowledging how students across the country — many of them Palestinian, Muslim, Black or undocumented — have been punished, doxxed, arrested and expelled for political expression.
It means recognizing that when student governments speak up only in defense of the powerful, they abandon their duty to represent students’ voices. And if student leaders want to comment on national politics, they need to do so responsibly — with accountability, transparency and consistency.
Otherwise, they’re not defending free speech. They’re just echoing power.
Editor’s Note: News Editor James Cancelarich recused himself from this editorial due to corresponding reporting in our news section. Arts and Entertainment Editor Arman Saxena recused himself due to involvement in Rice Students for Justice in Palestine.
A freshman’s totally unbiased review of campus dining
Are the glory days of Seibel over? Which servery reigns supreme now? I set out in search of answers by eating at every one and writing down my 100% objective opinion.
As a new student at Owl Days last April, I was surprised that one of the serveries was serving brisket. Was this the standard for Rice’s on-campus dining experience?
Months later, as an o cially matriculated freshman during Orientation Week, I was once again blown away, this time by the extravagant desserts (Dubai chocolate brownies) and dining hall food that for once didn’t feel like the same tasteless slop just repackaged and shovelled onto your plate. But considering there are multiple serveries, one question immediately came to mind: which is the best?
So, I started o by asking around. Seibel seemed to be the overwhelming answer. Naturally, I became curious. Did it really live up to what people made it out to be?
No. Despite the very large square footage of Seibel Servery and the illusion
of many options, I le with a plate of food so unmemorable that, quite frankly, I can’t be bothered to even recall what I got. Unfortunately, despite the spaciousness and overall look of the servery, it really does seem like Seibel Servery has been le in the past. So what do the others look like?
South Servery: They have a Wok on Rice section here! The food is all right, but the day I visited for a serious review, their birria and cheese pupusas were dry and basically inedible. Also, the ooring here is strangely reminiscent of a McDonald’s kitchen, something that I thought was a little unsettling.
North Servery: The lines get long here. Don’t even bother waiting for the Asian cuisine section during the lunch rush, though the food here is really good. I went on the day they were serving black bean noodles and stir-fried beef, which, in my opinion, was one of the best meals I’ve had all semester. I will note, however, that the pizza and fries here look tragic compared to everywhere else.
West Servery: The servery with the best design. However, their food options aren’t very eye-catching, nor do they taste good enough to stand out to me. Except for the pizza and fries, which — unlike at North — both look and taste good. They had chicken banh mi when I showed up for Munch, which
was a pleasant surprise. While the food has the potential to be excellent, the servery’s inconsistency a ects my rating quite a bit.
Baker College Kitchen: Baker College’s very own eatery! Its small size means it has barely any options to choose from, which is unfortunate because much of the food o ered was fried on the day I visited. Pray for the arteries of these poor Bakerites if this is a common occurrence. It does feel very spirited and homey, though, so extra points there.
If you want my rankings, from worst to best, they are: Baker, Seibel, West, South and North. Overall, while I do have some critiques about Rice dining, such as the rice being dry too o en or the inconsistency of the fries across the serveries, I always nd myself looking forward to whatever the servery I’m closest to at the moment has to o er. A huge thank you to all of the chefs and workers who run each of our dining halls and provide meals for us students. Please continue to make Rice dining the best it can be!
Editor’s Note: This is a guest opinion that has been submitted by a member of the Rice community. The views expressed in this opinion are those of the author and do not necessarily represent or re ect the views of the Thresher or its editorial board. All guest opinions are factchecked to the best of our ability and edited for clarity and conciseness by Thresher editors.
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controls Radio Free Sid from a 12th floor closet he calls “the
NOAH BERZ & TOBY CHOU FEATURES EDITOR, FOR THE THRESHER
Every Friday, Michael Kienzle takes the elevator up 12 oors to a “dingy closet they call the stacks” so he can load the a ernoon’s Radio Free Sid playlist. The closet doubles as personal storage for things he couldn’t t into his o -campus apartment — in addition to an iPod touch hooked up to two speakers, a back wall is lined with a Spec’s shopping cart, two stolen street signs and three baseball bats. “This is my domain. This is my little
retreat,” said Kienzle, a Sid Richardson College junior.
It’s a tradition that every Rice student, whether they like it or not, becomes intimately familiar with over their four years on campus. Each Friday, from 4 to 7 p.m., two giant speakers blast playlists curated by senior Sidizens over Rice’s roo ops and down into the tiniest crevices of campus. You might have heard Phoebe Bridgers bouncing o brick facades and coming at you from two directions.
The story of Radio Free Sid begins in
1975, when a few Sidizens decided to bring a speaker to their fourth oor suite so they could blast music and taunt students from Will Rice and Lovett Colleges. When Sid Rich’s president intervened, they moved the speaker to the highest point on campus: the roof. Finally, their magister confronted them. While the mockery stopped, the music didn’t, and in the fall 1976, the college purchased new sound equipment for the roof, o cially starting Radio Free Sid.
“It was a pretty powerful tradition,” said Robinson Vu ’90, a former Sid Rich vice president. “It was the signal that the weekend had started.”
Vu, now an assistant general counsel attorney for Rice, said the process of Radio Free Sid has changed throughout the years.
“I don’t remember a system,” Vu said. “People [were] just gonna go up, 20 people at a time, and bring their music and whatever they [wanted].”
Since the tradition has gained popularity and class sizes have expanded, the Radio Free Sid operator now uses an online randomizer to select who gets to pick songs for the week. Current operator Kienzle said he’s technically allowed to save a spot for himself, even though he’s not a senior.
“I’m probably gonna give it to a senior that’s never done it before,” Kienzle said. “The biggest thing with Radio Free Sid is the controversy over the choosing method for how people get picked to do it.”
Before he presses play, Kienzle said he’s required to give each submitted playlist a quick listen-through to make sure it’s compliant with Federal Communications Commission regulations.
Speeches and other non-musical sounds are banned from a ernoon airwaves. Last semester, a Will Rice Beer Bike jack involving whale sounds was turned down. Kienzle said he’s had to deny some song requests as well.
“Slurs and curse words are heavily discouraged,” Kienzle said. “If it’s very prevalent and obnoxious, I will have to be like, ‘Sorry, we can’t do this song.’”
In years prior, Radio Free Sid’s speakers
were sometimes used in campus protests. According to a December 2000 issue of the Thresher, a group of students used the equipment to play announcements and songs like Sonic Youth’s “Teen Age Riot” in protest a er Rice administrators wrested control of the student-run radio station, ktru, from the student body.
Joey McKeel, one of the DJs involved in the protests, said he felt proud doing his part in “standing up for ktru.”
“A er every few songs, we would go on the mic and tell people what the situation was,” McKeel, then a Hanszen College junior, said in the issue.
Abigail Zimmerman, a Sid Rich senior, said she’s been waiting three years to broadcast her tunes on Radio Free Sid. She describes her music taste as “sad, but with a fun beat.”
“I’ve told my friends that we all have to sit outside on the quad and listen to it,” Zimmerman said. “Everybody’s required to be there — bring your blankets.”
Zimmerman said some unexpected song choices still make it into the weekly playlists, and that’s part of what she loves about Radio Free Sid.
“Sometimes the music isn’t great … like one day, years ago, there was Minecra music,” she said. “Like, that’s ridiculous, but it’s just kind of awesome, and I feel like [it] re ects the wackiness of Rice.”
When plans for the new Sid building were drawn up in 2018, an outdoor speaker system a xed to its roof was a must.
AC/DC’s “Back in Black” — Sid’s uno cial anthem — still plays at the beginning and end of each session (it holds the number one spot on the speakers’ Spotify Wrapped), and the iPod that streams the Friday playlists carries sel es of operators past and present.
Since moving out of Old Sid, Zimmerman said keeping with tradition has remained a top priority for Sidizens.
“It can be easy to lose a lot of the tradition, and so it’s important to be really intentional about maintaining the culture,” Zimmerman said. “I think Radio Free Sid is one of those things that’s been maintained really well.”
Campus and community combine for Rice Chorale’s 9/11 memorial performance
dress,” Jaber said. “No one went to the World Trade Center that morning wearing a tuxedo or an evening gown.”
The Rice Chorale drew a standing-roomonly audience to their 9/11 In Memoriam concert last Wednesday in the Edythe Bates Old Recital Hall and Grand Organ. A er the nal notes of John Rutter’s “Requiem” rang out, there was a moment of silence followed by thunderous applause.
“We start and nish in silence. We silently leave the concert hall,” said Tom Jaber, director of choral ensembles for the Shepherd School of Music.
In its 23rd year, the concert also included singers from the St. Anne’s Catholic Community Adult Choir, which Jaber also directs. St. Anne’s Adult Choir members o en join in Rice Chorale concerts, but Wednesday was the rst time both ensembles joined in full.
Jaber said he hoped honoring the victims of the 9/11 attacks would strike a chord both on and o the stage.
“If music doesn’t make us feel something, I don’t know why we’re bothering,” Jaber said.
Everyone on stage was wearing a di erent colored shirt, which Jaber said was done on purpose.
“I didn’t want anyone wearing concert
Diane Anderson, a member of the St. Anne’s Church choir, said she’s performed in four 9/11 memorial concerts with Rice Chorale.
I think it’s important for young people to know that such an event did happen in recent memory, but especially because it happened before most of them were born.
Tom Jaber DIRECTOR OF CHORAL ENSEMBLES, SHEPHERD SCHOOL OF MUSIC
“9/11 was incredibly moving and just torturous at the time,” Anderson said. “[We do it] to never forget that solemn time.”
Berny Guerra Arthur, a new member of the chorale this semester, said he found the music to be touching.
“I really hope that the music moved some people in the crowd just as much
as it moved me,” said Arthur, a McMurtry College senior.
Jessica Lyublinsky was one of several Shepherd vocalists in the audience, though none sang in the choir.
“I’m here to support my colleagues, but also commemorate all the lives that were lost,” said Lyublinsky, a master’s student in vocal performance.
Jaber said the 9/11 concerts have a personal importance for him.
“I have a friend who is a survivor of the rst tower. He made it down from the 82nd oor,” Jaber said. “I think it’s important for young people to know that such an event did happen in recent memory, but especially because it happened before most of them were born.”
AMELIA DAVIS / THRESHER
Michael Kienzle
stacks.”
LINA KANG / THRESHER
Tom Jaber conducted the 9/11 In Memoriam concert for the 23rd consecutive year Wednesday
HANNAH GUO FOR THE THRESHER
Mini Museum
ACROSS
Touch lightly, as with a napkin
Passing trend
Texter’s “I can’t believe it!”
Purple yam used in some desserts
Id counterpart
“As American as apple ___”
The race we hold if it’s too rainy to bike
Rave music genre, abbr.
Whiteboard accessory
Wonderland visitor
Trips around the track
Cap
Discourage
Kind of year
Each
Full chromosome set
Singer Grande, to fans
Alternative to rst-class
Harry Potter’s best friend
Polished o
Aggressive language-teaching owl
It’s prone to being stubbed
Win, casually
Lincoln, to friends
“According to all known laws of aviation, there is no way that a ___ should be able to fly”
Animal that Draco Malfoy was briefly turned into
What runs down the Rio Grande Puts on, as clothing Run, as machinery
All right
Precious stone
Cooking instructions
Stranger Things character portrayed by Millie Bobby Brown ___ or nothing
What Shakira’s hips don’t do
Daydream ___ capita
Texter’s “I apologize”
Tore down, in HGTV terms, perhaps Not far
Puss not in boots?
Gar nkel of “Simon and Gar nkel”
Kanga’s Kid
Poetic tribute
Eyeshadow expert, abbr.
“Not me, not Hermione, ___”
Rice students design device for Parkinson’s
common medications are dopamine enhancers, but they are tough on the body and brain.”
Emmie Casey and Tomi Kuye are challenging the standard treatment for Parkinson’s disease with a glove aimed to be noninvasive, affordable and accessible to anyone.
The glove, which Casey and Kuye created as co-founders of Kinnections Foundation, sends tiny, randomized vibrations to four fingertips. While wearing it, patients can type, fold laundry and do other everyday tasks.
“The Parkinson’s community has been given some awful options,” said Casey, a Will Rice College junior. “Their options are really just seriously invasive, like medications or procedures. The most
The Parkinson’s community has been given some awful options.
Emmie Casey WILL RICE COLLEGE JUNIOR
The most popular treatment for Parkinson’s is deep-brain stimulation, which involves electrodes being placed in the brain and a control unit in the chest. The glove is different because it is a noninvasive option.
“It’s only your four fingers,” Casey said. “Little vibrations. It’s the same kind of motor sensation as how an iPhone vibrates.”
Casey and Kuye met when they were paired on a project in EDES 200, an engineering design course at Rice formerly known as ENGI 200. Since then, they have had mentors at Rice Nexus, Oshman Engineering Design Kitchen and the Liu Idea Lab for Innovation and Entrepreneurship.
“Speaking from personal experience, I had a lot of family members who had Parkinson’s but just couldn’t do anything because there was just no standard treatment for them back home [in Nigeria],” said Kuye, a Lovett College senior. “So this is just another way of getting affordable treatments everywhere in the world.”
The device has also sparked a sense of collaboration within the Parkinson’s community. Casey said she sent a glove to a Parkinson’s patient who brought it to his boxing group, Rock Steady Boxing, a fitness program designed for people diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease.
“It was so amazing to see the community that brought all these people together to try something new,” Casey said.
The group offered detailed feedback on how to improve the device, such as using a button instead of a switch, which Casey and Kuye incorporated into the design.
I had a lot of family members who had Parkinson’s but just couldn’t do anything because there was just no standard treatment for them.
Tomi Kuye
LOVETT COLLEGE SENIOR
“At the front of everything is getting their feedback, because we don’t have Parkinson’s, we don’t know their struggles [and] we don’t know the dayto-day,” Casey said. “Being able to talk with them … and really taking into consideration all of their opinions, views, struggles and all of that has been really a driving factor.”
As of today, the Kuye and Casey have received over 850 preorders for gloves.
“Having another option can be so pivotal to people,” Kuye said. “Our way of fostering is open source — for everyone, low-cost, affordable treatment is so instrumental in giving empowerment to take their care into their own hands.”
To create different options for giving back to the community, Casey and Kuye created Kinnections as a nonprofit. Publishing the design as open source means that anyone, including nonengineers, can recreate it.
“It’s a device that we hope is built for the community,” Kuye said.
ABIGAIL CHIU & ANNAMIKA KONKOLA SENIOR WRITER & FOR THE THRESHER
SKYLAR WANG / THRESHER
New Shepherd faculty focus on future of classical music
to consider the position of classical music within an ever-changing world.
The Shepherd School of Music has been without a tenured conductor since the passing of Larry Rachle in 2022. The school has brought in guest conductors such as alumnus Cristian Măcelaru ’08, music director of the Orchestre National de France, and Robert Spano, a four-time Grammy Award winner. But a er three years, Miguel Harth-Bedoya is here to take on the role.
“My understanding of the term classical music is that it sounds unknown, out of current times,” said Harth-Bedoya, distinguished resident conductor of orchestras and professor of conducting. “The term classical music is actually orchestral music, because we can play from any period.”
Harth-Bedoya’s rst concert with the Shepherd School Symphony Orchestra will include a genre-bending contemporary piece by Mason Bates, both a composer and a DJ.
“There’s a DJ plugged in this piece with a laptop,” Harth-Bedoya said. “The orchestra is the most versatile instrument because you can have any instrument be a member.”
Harth-Bedoya, an Emmy Award winner and Grammy Award nominee, said he hopes to foster the next generation of both professional and amateur music lovers through his teaching.
“What the future of music is, none of us know, because I had no idea that digital technology and broadcasting would exist at the level it does now forty years ago,” Harth-Bedoya said. “Who knows what else can come ahead and what innovations there’ll be.”
Matthew Loden, dean of the Shepherd School, said that in searching for new faculty, the school is looking for accomplished musicians ready to prepare the next generation of musicians for the future.
“When we think about what a great new colleague would look like, it starts with a real musical ability that’s demonstrated, like somebody who has been on the world’s concert stages,” Loden said. “We want people that are already at the top of their game, because we are a small school.”
This is not the rst time classical music has been signi cantly altered by external pressures, whether technological or political.
Loden recounted how new performance standards emerged in the early 20th century with changes in recording technologies, and how classical music has never been separate from historical events, even in this current moment.
Loden noted it’s especially important
“I think our obligation as musicians is ... to make sure we understand where are the opportunities, where are the distractions and where are the new tools,” Loden said. “Our faculty have to have a lot of important conversations to gure out: What do we need to be teaching?”
David Chan, a new professor of violin at Shepherd, started playing the instrument at 3 years old when his parents, both rstgeneration Taiwanese Americans, enrolled him in lessons.
Chan said that he, much like many children of immigrant families, have had their experiences with classical music in uenced by external pressures.
“If you look at people like Arnold Schoenberg and Erich Korngold in Los Angeles … they all ed Europe during World War II. That’s the common theme,” Chan said. “For most artists, all the experiences, all the joys and all the pains — having a child, losing a loved one — all deepen your art.”
To have a position at the Shepherd School and really become a link in a chain of support — it’s very meaningful to me.
Elizabeth Freimuth
PROFESSOR OF HORN, SHEPHERD SCHOOL OF MUSIC
Chan comes to Rice having been the concertmaster of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, the United States’ premier opera house, for 25 years. The orchestra is ranked alongside the Teatro alla Scala in Milan and the Royal Opera House in London in prestige. He has also been a long-time faculty member at The Juilliard School and the Manhattan School of Music.
“My experience talking to Shepherd School alumni is that they were thrilled with their experience here,” Chan said. “They felt incredibly supported by faculty and sta , and that’s rare.”
Elizabeth Freimuth ’98 said Shepherd’s tight-knight community is unique. As an educator, she said she seeks to use her experience in orchestras all across the country — including many years as principal horn of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra — to support students.
“I got to enjoy doing what I did on the
stage, but to have a position at the Shepherd School and really become a link in a chain of support — it’s very meaningful to me,” said Freimuth, the professor of horn at Shepherd.
Freimuth joined the faculty this fall a er former horn professor William Vermeulen resigned amid sexual misconduct allegations.
Hailing from Zelienople, a small farming town in Pennsylvania, Freimuth grew up in a household where the performing arts were essential. Her dad was the band director at her high school, and when it came time for college, she couldn’t imagine herself doing anything but playing music.
Freimuth said her undergraduate teacher greatly in uenced the way she viewed the world of classical music, especially as a woman in a male-dominated eld. As a mentor, she continues to nd herself inspired by him.
“My teacher taught at a school where there was a very large studio, and it was majority female, which was interesting,” Freimuth said. “He had a way of speaking that always suggested my future colleagues would be female.
“Even the subtle ways you in uence
a person as their mentor could manifest itself in positive ways for the future,” Freimuth continued.
Freimuth also said the classical music industry is facing a unique kind of challenge: The number of people with an exceptional standard of performance has signi cantly increased over the years, but the number of jobs available has remained the same.
“I think the number of really great players that are competing for those positions continues to increase,” Freimuth said. “If we’re going to continue that legacy, we have to acknowledge that that’s the case and do our best to prepare students for success in a highly competitive industry.”
Chan said a culture of pre-professionalism has altered what students prioritize in music education. The important thing for him, however, is to foster passion and talent.
“I think everyone would agree that the world is in a complex and di cult place right now, and I think the music industry is as well,” Chan said. “I really hope that my students are going to measure success not by whether they got that orchestra job, but hopefully they will leave here feeling like they’re better people than they started.”
MAX SCHOLL BACKPAGE EDITOR
ISAAC URE / THRESHER
New tenured conductor Miguel Harth-Bedoya conducts an orchestra rehearsal. The Shepherd School of Music has brought in several new faculty members this semester.
ISAAC URE / THRESHER
Miguel Harth-Bedoya will conduct his rst concert as tenured faculty Sept. 20.
UnoTheActivist turns Pub into a mosh pit
CHARLIE CRUZ STAFF WRITER
Rice Rap Club brought rapper UnoTheActivist to Pub Friday, drawing a packed crowd and kicking off the semester with moshing, crowd-surfing and free pancakes after the show.
Felix Hasson, president of Rice Rap Club, said planning the event took about three months and involved coordination with Rice University Emergency Medical Services, Rice University Police Department and the Student Center.
“There’s a lot of work that goes into hosting one of these events, especially because it’s entirely student run,” Hasson, a Lovett College senior, said. “We really wanted to have an event to kick off the year.”
Hasson said the booking came together through the connections of a recent graduate, former Rap Club president Thompson Corpus.
“He knows Uno’s manager personally through his brother … and we’ve had the idea of hosting a big event for a long time,” Hasson said. “Over the summer we were just talking and he was like, ‘maybe I could hit up Uno.’”
The night featured a full slate of performers. As an opening act, Texas artist Dilon Jude set the tone of the event and was followed by Moscato J — whose backflips and crowd-surfing drew loud cheers — before Texas DJ MC CANON kept the energy up with a short set of rap hits.
When Uno finally took the stage, Pub was already filled with students. He opened with “Astral Plane (High As Me)” before moving through fan favorites that had the crowd rapping along. For around 20 minutes, Uno kept the energy high, pacing on the Pub stage and calling back to the audience as students raised their phones and hands. Throughout the show, fellow performer Blvck London joined him onstage, amplifying the hype as the floor turned into a mosh pit.
“Rice had so much energy that I would expect from a public university,” Moscato J said. “It was phenomenal.”
Students said the atmosphere at Pub felt different from a typical Thursday, when Pub is normally at its fullest.
“The energy was amazing … people got into it and started singing the songs and dancing to it,” said David Uchime, a caregiver and Wiess College freshman. “It was an amazing atmosphere, amazing place to be.”
Atlanta-based rapper UnoTheActivist headlines a show
Martel College junior Danny Kardhashi said the show raised the bar.
“The energy was up for sure,” Kardhashi said. “I think it’s good for the culture.”
For some students, moshing was part of the appeal.
“There was a lot of people moshing,” said Will Rice senior Lindsey Frost. “I like moshing. I think people should mosh. We should have more mosh pits at Pub.”
Frost added that she wants Pub to host more specialized nights to bring in di erent groups of students, like a DJ battle.
Safety was also top of mind for organizers. Hasson said 13 caregivers rotated throughout the night alongside Pub staff, EMS and RUPD officers.
“There were no injuries as far as I know,” Hasson said.
At one point, part of the barricade at the front of the stage was briefly pushed loose by the crowd before being reinforced.
“The crowd was so lit that they ripped the thing that was holding the barricades together,” Hasson said. “Once they got pushed back for a second, the barricades were put back … there wasn’t a problem for the rest of
KONSTANTIN SAVVON / THRESHER
the concert.”
Students said those precautions kept the event enjoyable.
“I didn’t feel like there were any concerns,” said Priyanka Patel, a Brown College senior. “We had REMS and all the caregivers, and I didn’t think I felt unsafe.”
The night ended with a quieter touch: free pancakes.
“They had pancakes with maple syrup, and it was awesome,” Frost said. “They should continue to give free pancakes.”
Patel said the food made the night even better.
“It’s refreshing, honestly,” Patel said. “It elevated the experience having snack options available.”
Hasson said the Rap Club usually hosts listening parties for major album releases, but Friday’s turnout showed students are eager for larger concerts.
“In the history of Rice University, there have only been three rap concerts. Uno is the third,” Hasson said. “There’s not nearly enough appreciation for the genre. We just wanted to bring people
together and introduce that to campus.”
Students emphasized that there is a desire for events with known artists like Uno at Rice.
“Pub should definitely have more events like this,” said Eric Luo, a Baker College freshman. “Having independent artists will really improve the culture and the atmosphere.”
Kardhashi said collaborations across a variety of student groups could help broaden the lineup.
“I think Pub should find other clubs — Latin Club, other genres — to do collaborations with and get people to come out,” Kardhashi said. “It’s something that’s great for the culture.” Hasson said the show and turnout exceeded his expectations.
“I’m so happy … it’s amazing to see everything come out better than you planned it,” Hasson said. “I don’t know if first-year [students] will ever have a Rice event as good as that in their four years here.”
Arman Saxena and Julia Mickiewicz contributed reporting to this article.
at Pub on Friday. Over 100 students attended the event.
KONSTANTIN SAVVON / THRESHER
Moscato J opened the event, preceded by Dilon Jude and followed by DJ MC CANON.
KONSTANTIN SAVVON / THRESHER
Students made the event, sponsored by Rice Rap Club, a sold-out show.
The media studies major was introduced this semester, featuring classes in media history, theory and production.
“I just think that it will allow deeper and richer community partnerships, and also welcome members of the community onto the Rice campus as more than just an educational opportunity,” Ramsey said. “I hope that the cinema serves the same as the athletic facilities, where it just brings a wider community base onto the campus.”
While Rice Cinema found a temporary home in Sewall Hall in 2021, it was born at the Rice Media Center and has been showing lms since 1970s. Mower used to drive from the suburbs to see movies at the Rice Media Center, and she said she looks forward to doing that again.
“It’s just been a very long time and I’m really excited about the future of this, of the stories and the lms that they’re going to play at this theater,” she said. “I can’t wait.”
The Rice Cinema has been an important part of Houston’s lm culture for students to learn about lmmaking, but also learn how to be projectionists, Luntz said.
“If there are lms that are looking for a home in Houston, I know that many of them will end up at Rice,” Luntz said. “They will be engaging with Houston’s diverse community and our lm lovers for many years to come. It’s just thrilling that the building is now open.”
Michelle Barnes, co-founder and executive director of the Community Artists’ Collective, said she is looking forward to collaborating with Rice on a deeper level through Saro m Hall.
The Community Artists’ Collective is a Houston-based nonpro t organization that connects African-American artists
with educational and developmental opportunities. Barnes believes Saro m Hall provides exciting educational potential for the city’s young artists.
“Rice University is so incredible in its commitment to arts, culture and education that I have no doubt that there will be meaningful, credible programs that are o ered to enhance the educational experiences, both formally and informally, of residents and guests from out of the country,” Barnes said.
The new Saro m Hall will not only host community art events but also classes, including painting, printmaking, sculpture and photography. Community arts supporter Kristina Supamanee Spritzer, a University of Houston alumna, said the equipment at Saro m is impressive.
When I walked into [Sarofim Hall], it was bittersweet ... But at the same time, I was just blown away by how beautiful it was, and it was very moving.
Michelle Mower HOUSTON - BASED WRITER- DIRECTOR
“I hope that the students realize what a gi they have and have a sense of humility, because once they leave the academic space and transition into the art space, it’s a very di erent dynamic,” Spritzer said.
Co-founder of the Houston Media Conference and Executive Director at the Houston Cinema Arts Society Katie Creeggan-Rios said she is eager to see how
Rice will use the rest of the building.
“I think there’s a lot of potential for integrated arts and multimedia experiences utilizing both the theater and the lobby as the university decides how they’re going to utilize all of that space,” Creeggan-Rios said. “Something that we love to do is highlight the intersection of lm with the performing and visual arts.”
Saro m Hall is already slated to be a key venue for the Houston Cinema Arts Festival, Nov. 6-16.
“We’re just excited that it’s opening and that we’re able to be a part of it,” said Rachael Acosta, a co-founder of the Houston Media Conference and community partnerships and programs manager at HCAS. “They’re using it as a venue for our festival and future programming, and as an audience member, I’m excited to watch movies at Saro m.”
While Patricia Hernandez ’90, professor of art at Houston Community College and
the University of Houston, said that Saro m will become a top art institution with its equipment and architecture. She also believes the o cial name of Saro m Hall doesn’t do the building justice.
“[The name] makes it feel like another event space, but it’s so much more than that,” Hernandez said. “It is going to be about the student and student output. And now it’s going to be a place where the public gets a better look at what Rice artists can do.”
Mower said that she hopes that Rice students, along with the Houston community, will be able to explore what she believes Saro m has to o er to its maximum potential.
“When the theater opens, I want every student to make a commitment to go support the lms,” Mower said. “Go see the lms. I assure you, you will not regret it. It will be an experience that will change you and it will make you a better person.”
Big Thief’s “Double In nity” transcends sound and space
Only so many artists throughout history have been able to accurately encapsulate the mythology of life, death and everything in between with such enthralling effect. But, time and time again, the indie-folk band Big Thief proves worthy of this daunting task, meticulously sewing the gravity of these ideas together in their largerthan-life ballads. In their sixth studio album, “Double Infinity,” they do exactly this and more.
After a hiatus of three years, the band, consisting of the acclaimed vocalist-guitarist Adrianne Lenker, guitarist Buck Meek and drummer James Krivchenia, makes their anticipated return. For Big Thief, however, things are different this time
around. Tackling the departure of their bassist Max Oleartchik last year, Big Thief finds themselves grappling with the musical process as a newfound trio.
This transformation is sonically embraced, however, as “Double Infinity” attempts to do what no other album in their folk-rock discography has done before, with enchanting sounds that aim to deconstruct the gentle melodies audiences have come to know. Inviting 10 musicians alongside them, the album is expansive, fluttering with moments of the otherworldly and
Top Track: ‘Los Angeles’
shimmering with blissful jingles all throughout.
The album begins with their most awaited track, “Incomprehensible,” with raw lyricism that captivated fans for years through unreleased performances. The song takes a new form as the opening track. Having departed from the band’s acousticdriven sound, the studio version unveils itself with unfamiliar cosmic production and whimsical distortion. The songwriting details the beauty in allowing oneself to age in spite of society’s insistence otherwise. With sprinkles of adolescent-like wonder woven into the song’s prose, it sits in conversation with what seems like life’s most startling experiences, setting the tone for the rest of the album.
As the record jumps from track to track, sounds of laughter, the striking of a tambourine and Lenker’s own humming fill its gaps. In “Los Angeles,” all these components come together in a comprehensive embrace of undying love in all of its forms, which feels like an odyssey across time.
Similar themes of love’s sanctity are found throughout the tracklist, with “All Night All Day” exploring the spiritual nature of lovemaking without guilt or shame. Lenker gently sings and echoes to a tambourine’s continued strike, accompanied by a psychedelic ambience filtered through electronic chimes and synth.
At their sharpest, however, Big Thief isn’t afraid to rock out. In the track “Grandmother,” featuring the unconstrained vocals of ambient artist Laraaji following the song’s captivating intro riff, the band’s mantle of folk takes on a new meaning.
Lenker embraces the absurdity of the world and everything in it, alluding existence itself to a matter of ample
rock and roll to be reclaimed, so as not to allow our detachment to get in the way of living. She’ll “turn it all to rock and roll,” Lenker exclaims as the sounds around her increase their velocity in what can best be described as a mystifying rock assembly.
Just as rock and roll in all its messiness transcends the confines of its genre, for Big Thief, living is a reclamation of life itself, to similarly forego and transcend the shamedriven confinements we’ve all come to internalize. Even as shame surrounds aging, lovemaking and our own pits of darkness, all of these experiences compiled together are worth making our own through unyielding love. It’s simply all rock and roll.
In their closing track, “How Could I Have Known,” the album ties itself together, concluding with a melancholic celebration of love’s ability to voyage beyond life and death and our own inability to predict its power over our lives.
In “Double Infinity,” Big Thief finds themselves once again committed to the art of authentic storytelling of all the defining features that make us human. With a new sound, the band isn’t afraid of taking risks.
While it is certainly difficult to sustain the continued momentum of the zeitgeist following the success of their previous albums and poignant, stripped-down melodies, “Double Infinity” may feel mundane in comparison, as its upbeat psychedelic production remains unchanging throughout the album despite being sonically unique in every way.
Although this unfamiliarity may not sit well with some fans, the transitionary record’s abstraction in sound rewards revisiting, ultimately revealing a jam-filled gem.
ARMAN SAXENA / THRESHER
Saro m Hall opened to the public this semester, featuring new spaces and equipment dedicated to the arts.
“Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party” delivers what it promises
Hayley Williams is best known as the lead singer and frontwoman of the band Paramore, a staple of the early 2000s pop punk scene, but in 2020, Williams launched her solo career with “Petals for Armor.”
It was a stark departure from her Paramore sound, instead having a more art-pop style. She released “Flowers for Vases / Descansos” in 2021, again switching genres, this time towards a more folk sound, showcasing her singer-songwriter chops.
There was a problem looming over her in the form of a 20-year contract with Atlantic Records, signed when she was only 15. The contract expired in December 2023, and ever since, many fans have been anticipating what she would release as her first independent project.
complete loss of self-identity, through the tracks’ intense self-reflection. The album sequencing is evolutionary, as if Williams is building herself up after the titular ego death and discovering who she is again.
This idea of self-reflection is especially felt on the second track, “Glum,” where Williams — or rather, a personification of her depressive mindset — laments her present isolation and loneliness and longs to go back to a time when she was happy. Similarly, the title track focuses on her hometown of Nashville, Tennessee, and the changes it has experienced in the past few years.
She sings about her fears of the current state of the city and parallels such fears with her own dampened self-love. “True Believer” furthers this idea, focusing more heavily on the gentrification occurring in the city alongside problems like gun violence and hypercapitalist megachurches. The song still hangs on to the “ghost” of what the city once was — a conflict between the pride in her hometown and its political reality.
Notably, the opening track “Ice In My OJ” is an attack on the people who compelled her to sign her predatory contract with Atlantic Records and an elegy about her regrets over giving up so much of her life and autonomy over her own art.
Maruja’s “Pain to Power” is the protest album of today
Sometimes an album manages to capture the pulse of a movement. Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On” distilled the pleas for peace of the anti-Vietnam War era. Rage Against the Machine’s self-titled debut became a primal scream against the brutality of the Rodney King era. Kendrick Lamar’s “To Pimp a Butter y” became a rallying cry for Black Lives Matter.
What unites these works is not only their political anger but their sincerity. They are albums that refused to pander, instead transforming collective grief and rage into sound.
With “Pain to Power,” Manchester four-piece Maruja deliver a work that aspires to that same lineage. It is not merely a record of fury but a testimony of solidarity, a howl against oppression and a fragile prayer for peace.
In the shadow of the ongoing war in Palestine, “Pain to Power” reads as both documentation and exhortation, a reminder of what art can do when it is unafraid to name injustice.
The opening track, “Bloodsport,” is a manifesto in miniature. Tremolo-picked guitars and blistering drums lay the ground for lead vocalist Harry Wilkinson’s stark pronouncements: “Deafening with silence like our fucking spirit died.” The world he sketches is one where survival demands complicity, where violence and apathy intertwine.
as both elegy and a rmation. The song gestures to a politics of pluralism: not just resistance to violence, but a recognition of beauty in the multiplicity of lives.
Even when the record plunges into darker territory, as on “Born to Die,” the outlook is not nihilistic but re ective. “This life is temporary, why you holding onto youth?” Wilkinson raps, rejecting materialism and urging listeners to plant seeds for future generations. The song moves from slow melancholy into a sprawling breakdown indebted to progressive rock, post-rock and jazz, a sonic metaphor for how traditions and histories can be recombined into something new.
A year and a half later, on a seemingly random Monday in late July, Williams surprised fans by dropping 17 singles on her website. A month later, she dropped the same set of songs on streaming, this time adding one more track to round out the album’s 18-track length.
“Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party” as an album is strange, as exemplified by the unconventional rollout. It is an imposing record, packed full of unique, expressive production that floats between a variety of genres — from alt rock to trip-hop — made all the better by Williams’ expectedly impeccable vocals. Despite the variety of sounds present, it is remarkably cohesive with a common throughline of self-doubt, regret, unconditional love and reflections of the past. This album feels unified in its common theme of ego death, a moment of
Other songs focus primarily on the idea of unconditional love, and often the lack of reciprocation she received from past partners. “Disappearing Man” and “Dream Girl In Shibuya” are the best examples of this theme, and yet Williams still finds it hard to let go, further developing this complex relationship in songs like “Whim” and “I Won’t Quit On You.” The former describes self-sabotage and Williams’ inability to open up, while the latter functions as a slower love song about how, despite this estranged relationship, she will always be there for her beloved.
Continuing the theme of love songs, “Mirtazapine” is a love song for her antidepressants and her reliance on them.
The final track, “Parachute,” the only track unreleased prior to the full release, is a powerful declaration of her realization that she deserves more from a lover who has let her down, despite the fact that she “would have done anything” for them.
Williams delivers with her first record released from her contract, with a heavy-hitting album full of beautiful songwriting, all the while delivering a spectacular listening experience through and through.
Yet even in its bleakness, the song suggests that honesty is its own act of resistance. The chorus — “Complicit cross re / No vision, live wire” — implicates not only politicians or pro teers but also the listeners, caught in structures of violence.
If “Bloodsport” names the rot, “Look Down On Us” articulates the hope that might emerge from systemic collapse. Over ri s that lunge forward with punk aggression and saxophone lines that wail like sirens, Wilkinson pivots from denunciation to something like faith: “Turn pain to power, put faith in love / Be rm and loyal, in yourself put trust.”
The track evokes Rage Against the Machine’s uncompromising fury, but it swerves at the point of pure anger, insisting on love as rebellion. This paradox — ferocity in sound, paci sm in message — de nes the album’s moral core.
That tension is carried into “Saoirse” (the Irish word for freedom), the record’s gentlest track. Its refrain — “It’s our di erences that make us beautiful” — risks cliché, but Maruja deliver it with such conviction, layering soaring saxophone and melodic crescendos, that it lands
“Break the Tension” and “Trenches” return to rage, their ferocity distilled into tight, aggressive forms. “Break the Tension” indicts the cycles of vengeance and spectacle that dominate digital life: “Revengeful and toxic, the drama, theatrics.” “Trenches,” meanwhile, casts the struggle in explicitly revolutionary terms — “No revolution if you don’t think you’re a revolutionary” — while its chorus, “I’ll see you in the trenches,” echoes like a pact of solidarity. Then comes “Zaytoun,” an instrumental whose title references the Arabic word for olive, a symbol of Palestine. The track builds from plaintive voices into a swelling storm, a tribute without words that nevertheless speaks volumes. It functions as the album’s heart: mourning, but also refusing to look away.
Finally, “Pain to Power” closes with “Reconcile,” a benediction. “Change the way we look at things and the things we look at change,” Wilkinson intones, before the refrain urges, “Pray for love.”
A er the album’s restorms, the closer feels like stillness a er protest, a reminder that love itself is a form of resistance. Maruja’s sonic palette — the serrated guitars of post-punk, the free-jazz howls of saxophone, the atmospheric maximalism of post-rock — mirrors the multiplicity of their message.
This article has been cut for print. Read the full article at ricethresher.org.
ARMAN SAXENA A&E EDITOR
LAYNE HEATH FOR THE THRESHER
Top Track: ‘Look Down on Us’
COURTESY POST ATLANTIC RECORDS
COURTESY MUSIC FOR NATIONS
Top Track: ‘Mirtazapine’
Too many options? A closer look at the gun triple option offense
PATRICK SHUKIS FOR THE THRESHER
2025 has brought about a multitude of changes for Rice football as they’ve added a new head coach, starting quarterback and o ensive scheme. According to head coach Scott Abell, all of these adjustments come with one goal in mind: creating a winning football program and chasing Rice’s rst winning season since 2014.
The new o ensive scheme in question is the gun triple option, an o ense that Abell brought from Davidson College, where Abell holds the best win percentage in school history. This o ense operates out of the gun, or shotgun, where the quarterback lines up ve to seven yards behind the center. The other part of the name, triple option, comes from the three options the quarterback has on any given play: giving the ball to the running back, pitching it to the slot receiver in motion or keeping the ball and running.
This o ense comes with many advantages, ultimately allowing Rice to level the playing eld against stronger opponents, Abell said.
“You don’t have to block everybody,” Abell said. “I think one of the hardest things to do in football is consistently block people and consistently tackle people.”
Committing the o ense to one side of the eld allows the team to take some defensive players out of the play and combo block others. This is especially helpful to Rice’s new o ensive line, which entered the 2025 season with only two of the ve rst-stringers having previous collegiate starts.
Abell also cited the recruiting barrier of academic standards as an important piece of the puzzle.
“We can’t recruit like a lot of programs can recruit,” Abell said. “This gives us an opportunity to be a little di erent.”
The gun triple option allows the o ense to highlight its players’ quick thinking and decision-making skills on the eld. Redshirt sophomore quarterback Chase Jenkins is forced to choose an o ensive target more quickly than he would in a traditional o ense, and the rest of the o ense has to block correctly to gain signi cant yardage.
“It seems simple in nature, but it’s not,” Abell said. “It takes intelligent guys to run it.”
The gun triple option saw success in Week 1, as the o ense totaled 206 rushing yards against the University of Louisiana at Lafayette in a 14-12 win, despite being two-touchdown underdogs. Conversely, the o ense stalled out in Week 2, scoring only nine points against the University of Houston in a Bayou Bucket loss. The performance invited questions about whether this o ense can consistently score.
The main concern with the gun triple option is the lack of down eld passes that lead to explosive plays. When asked about the passing game a er the loss to Houston, Jenkins remained optimistic.
It seems simple in nature, but it’s not. It takes intelligent guys to run it.
Sc0tt Abell FOOTBALL HEAD COACH
“I was 11-for-13, which is highly e cient,” Jenkins said.
However, Jenkins was actually 10-for-12, and redshirt freshman quarterback Drew Devillier was 1-for-1. Jenkins and Devillier had a total of 51 passing yards against Houston, totaling under 100 passing yards through the rst two games of the season.
A point of criticism came in the game against Houston when Rice trailed 21-3 going into the fourth quarter. The o ense scored its only touchdown of the game, but the 75-yard scoring drive took six minutes out of the 15 that remained in the game.
When asked about the slow pace of the o ense and the team’s ability to make comebacks late in games, Abell conceded that high-speed o ense isn’t currently in the playbook.
“We gotta work really hard not to be in that situation right now,” Abell said. “Over the long haul, as we get more comfortable, we will have ways to come out of those de cits and make a run to close the gap in a fourth quarter like that.”
Abell urges fans to be patient, as improvements to the passing game are in the works.
“We have to run the ball more consistently to be able to throw the ball e ectively down eld,” Abell said.
He also mentioned that the program graduated its top six receivers last year, so developing these new wideouts will take some time. In the meantime, touches are getting spread around as Abell looks for his go-to o ensive targets. Six di erent receiving targets caught passes Sept. 13 as Jenkins and Devillier went a combined 12 of 19 for 114 passing yards in Rice’s 38-17 win over Prairie View A&M University.
As Rice prepares for conference play, Abell assures fans that the program is moving in the right direction.
“I hope our student body can get excited about how we’re gonna turn this into a winning program,” Abell said. “I think if they will give everything a chance, they’re gonna see an exciting football team out there and they’re gonna see an exciting o ense.”
At the end of the season, Abell expects to see his team in a bowl game.
“I’d be disappointed if we’re not,” Abell said.
Owls claim top spots at cross country invitational
ZAID RASHID FOR THE THRESHER
The women’s and men’s cross country teams both brought home team and individual titles on Friday at the 49th annual Rice Invitational.
“It was really a true race,” said Jim Bevan, women’s cross country head coach.
Junior Alex Gobran’s time for the women’s 4000-meter race was 13:35.0, nishing 26 seconds faster than second place. For the men’s 5200m race, senior Gus Gannon took home the victory with
a time of 15:36.1, nishing almost 25 seconds faster than second place.
“We’re keeping a heavy training load,” Gannon said. “We’re trying to target being strong later in the season.”
The invitational was the opener to the season and the only home meet for both teams. The runners are putting in hard work now and training o en so they are prepared for the end of the season, Gobran said.
“We’ve been training since we’ve gotten back to campus,” Gobran said. “Jim kind of has this build-off
throughout the season so that we peak at the right times.”
The men’s program returns to action Sept. 26 at Oklahoma State University.
“That course is incredibly hilly and should be cold,” said John Warren, men’s cross country head coach.
That event will be a longer race at 8000 meters, preparing the team for regionals.
The next race on the women’s schedule is the Chile Pepper Cross Country Festival Oct. 4 at the University of Arkansas.
“I’m excited to go back to Arkansas,”
Gobran said. “I think it is a really great course and the team usually performs well there.”
The women’s team placed fifth at last year’s Chile Pepper Cross Country Festival. Friday’s invitational served as a strong start for cross country ahead of the conference season and NCAA regionals.
The women’s and men’s programs will meet back up Oct. 17 at Texas A&M’s Arturo Barrios Invitational. Both teams will also compete at the NCAA South Regionals Nov. 14. Warren said he hopes his team nishes in the top ve or six at regionals.
“That’s a sweep for the Owls!”
HONG LIN TSAI / THRESHER
FRANCESCA NEMATI / THRESHER
Rice women’s cross country runner Alex Gobran approaches the nish line during a race at the Rice Invitational Sept. 12. Gobran nished in rst place with a time of 13:35.0.
CAYDEN CHEN / THRESHER
Rice quarterback Chase Jenkins hands the football to running back D’Andre Hardeman Jr. during a game against the University of Houston Sept. 6. The Owls utilize a gun triple option o ense in 2025.
Owls soar into conference play with winning record
ANDERSEN PICKARD SPORTS EDITOR
In search of momentum before opening conference play, Rice football hosted Prairie View A&M University in front of 22,260 fans Saturday.
The Owls defeated the Panthers 38-17, improving to 2-1 on the season. Rice is now 3-0 all-time against the Panthers and 12-0 all-time against Football Championship Subdivision teams from Texas.
Rice missed an opportunity to gain a valuable eld-position advantage early in the rst quarter. A punt attempt from the Owls traveled 66 yards, setting a careerlong record for junior Alex Bacchetta, but it was called back due to a holding penalty. Rice had to settle for a 51-yard punt instead, giving Prairie View the ball near mid eld. The Panthers capitalized on this miscue
and scored a touchdown to go ahead 7-0.
“In a game like that, you’re never quite sure what they’re going to give you when they come out, because they have nothing to lose,” head coach Scott Abell said. “We didn’t always contain [the quarterback], especially on third down, but a er the rst couple series, that rst group on defense played lights out.”
The Owls wasted no time erasing the early de cit, mounting a 12-play touchdown drive that lasted six minutes. Redshirt sophomore quarterback Chase Jenkins punched the ball in from three yards out, kicking o a stretch of three consecutive touchdown drives and ve consecutive scoring drives.
The Owls’ defense forced three more punts and scored o each one, taking a 24-7 lead into hal ime. One of the top plays on defense came from redshirt senior
a game Sept. 13 against Prairie View A&M University. The Owls won 38-17, improving to 2-1 in the 2025 season.
linebacker Andrew Awe, who sacked the opposing quarterback to force a fourth down. Awe led Rice’s defense with 5 tackles and 1.5 tackles for loss Saturday. He registered an 80.3 PFF grade, ranking in the 95th percentile of Football Bowl Subdivision defenders.
“It’s always fun to make stops,” said Peyton Stevenson, a redshirt senior safety, adding that the defense feels extra motivation on third down with a chance to end the opposing o ense’s drive.
Rice’s scoring e orts late in the rst half included graduate wide receiver Aaron Turner taking a 52-yard run to the end zone and redshirt junior kicker Enock Gota making a career-long 49-yard eld goal.
Turner was Rice’s leading nonquarterback rusher, nishing the game with 5 carries for 68 yards and a touchdown. The Owls saw modest rushing production from the running backs, led by redshirt junior Quinton Jackson, who had 9 carries for 42 yards and a touchdown.
A er the Owls’ rst loss of the season on Sept. 6, Jenkins acknowledged that a balanced rushing attack between himself and the running back group would allow the o ense to reach its full potential. He was pleased with the results on the ground Saturday.
“It’s all working together like a welloiled machine,” Jenkins said. “It comes in di erent forms, but it’s still all going to the same goal of moving the chains.”
Rice opened the second half with a quick score as Jenkins connected with redshirt sophomore receiver Landon Ransom-Goelz for a 34-yard touchdown. This was the rst touchdown pass of Jenkins’ career.
Jenkins nished the game with careerhighs in rushing attempts (21), rushing yards (124) and passing yards (87). He is the rst Rice quarterback to run for over 100 yards in a victory since Nov. 10, 2007.
“It was a really big night for Chase growing up,” head coach Scott Abell said.
Golf shoots 16-under in season opener
OLIVER STERN FOR THE THRESHER
Rice men’s golf saw their best opening tournament score in their season opener at the Argent Financial Classic, carding a 16-under at Squire Creek Country Club in Choudrant, Louisiana. Despite an overall score improvement of 22 strokes from last season’s opener, the Owls shared fourth place compared to last year’s third-place tie.
Besides the departure of Rice’s all-time stroke average leader Raghav Chugh and graduate student Nicholas Li, the Owls enter the 2025-26 season with a familiar squad led by head coach Justin Emil. One of two newcomers is freshman Raines Watson. Born and raised in College Station, Texas, Watson won the District 21-5A title in high school and fell just short in match-play of the U.S. Junior Amateur.
“The team has such a close bond, and I wanted to be a part of something like that,” Watson said. “Coach Emil is a consistent coach. He’s going to treat you the same regardless of how you play, and I looked for that in a coach.”
In the opening round of the Argent Financial Classic, Watson shot a 3-under-par 69, the lowest Owls score and the third best in the 99-man eld. He ultimately tied with Rice junior Jaivir Pande for 75th at +6 at the tournament’s conclusion a er shooting 76 and 77 in his nal two rounds.
“I really learned that every shot matters in collegiate golf,” Watson said. “I played solidly in the rst round, and we were in second place a er the rst day. But I made some bad swings in my next two rounds, and it cost us. You have to have full focus on every single swing.”
Through the transfer portal, redshirt junior Henry Daly found himself back at Rice
a er a promising freshman season in 2022. Daly joins Watson as the other new addition for the Owls, returning from a two-year stint with the 2025 NCAA Championship runnerup University of Virginia.
“Henry had hip surgery last year, but he came in early and was vocal and a strong leader,” Emil said. “He’s a really great guy in the locker room, and he’s actually leading our team in qualifying right now as we prepare for our next tournament.”
Daly compiled individual nishes of seventh, 11th, 12th and 13th as a freshman at Rice, and he will ll the void le behind by Chugh’s departure. In Daly’s rst tournament back since redshirting his junior year due to injury, he strung together three consecutive rounds under par to give him his 10th such round.
The team has such a close bond, and I wanted to be a part of something like that.
Raines Watson FRESHMAN GOLFER
Last year’s Argent Financial Classic individual champion, senior Lukas Boandl, was not able to defend his title, but he strung together three rounds of par or better and shot a nal round 68 en route to a shared sixth-place nish. Boandl’s 68 elevated him to third for most rounds in the 60s by a Rice golfer.
The Austrian native spent the o season competing in a variety of European golf tournaments and closed his summer with a third-place nish in the Austrian Stroke Play Championship.
“Lukas didn’t have his best stu in
“Chase had his best game yet, and I think he picked up where he le o [against the University of Houston].”
Prairie View added three points by the end of the third quarter, at which point Abell decided to pull most of his starters. Several members of the second- and third-string o ense and defense entered the game, including redshirt freshman quarterback Drew Devillier. Abell said his plan was always to get developmental opportunities for some of the depth players, rather than run up the score with his starters.
Devillier went 2-for-3 passing and concluded his only drive of the game with a 22-yard touchdown pass to redshirt senior receiver Tyson Thompson.
“Getting [Devillier] live reps in the o ense is huge,” Abell said. “He did a fantastic job.”
Jenkins said that the quarterback room is a close-knit group, so he enjoyed seeing Devillier execute a successful scoring drive.
A late score allowed Prairie View to cover the 28.5-point spread, but Rice still le the eld with a three-possession win at home. The Owls’ 21-point margin of victory tied their largest win ever against Prairie View.
Rice will embark on its conference schedule Thursday night at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
“We’re 2-1, but the ceiling is so much higher,” Abell said. “We’re heading into conference play with momentum and excited for the opportunity ahead of us.”
Thursday’s game will air in front of a national television audience on ESPN. It will be the rst time Rice has played a regular-season game on ESPN’s primary channel since Aug. 26, 2017, when they lost to No. 14 Stanford University at Allianz Stadium in Sydney, Australia.
The Owls are 2.5-point favorites over the 49ers, according to FanDuel Sportsbook. The odds for the Rice moneyline have been set at -140.
Louisiana, but he’s such a good player,” Emil said. “He still managed to get it going, shoot under par and grind out a great nish.”
Redshirt junior Davis Byrd demonstrated tremendous improvement as he posted his rst three-day score of even par a er scoring +8, +9, +14 and +20 in his four appearances last season.
“Davis is a really good ball striker, and he works extremely hard,” Emil said. “It was big for the team to have a guy like him come in and improve as much as he did, and he’s got two more years to go, so we’re excited about him and his potential.”
The Owls’ second-best performer from the opening tournament was sophomore Daniel Zou, who shot rounds of 69, 70 and 72 to nish at 5-under. Zou was named AAC Freshman of the Year last season and joined Boandl as an AAC All-Conference selection. Zou shot even par or better in six events last year, highlighted by a cumulative 7-under performance in the 2025 AAC Men’s Championship and a shared rst-place nish at the Bayou City Collegiate Classic.
The sixth member of Rice’s opening squad was Pande, who competed as an independent this week and tied with Watson for 75th place. Pande is coming o a season in which he had two tournaments of even par or better out of his nine appearances.
Emil said he believes momentum is building before the Owls y to Albuquerque, New Mexico to take part in the William H. Tucker Intercollegiate Sept. 19-20.
“The biggest strength de nitely is the culture of the team. We got a great group of guys who are all close friends,” Emil said. “The biggest room for improvement is just getting a little cleaner in our game. We just gotta play a little bit more e ciently and pick our moments a little better, which we struggled with at times in Louisiana.”
Rice Owls in the NFL
KATHLEEN ORTIZ EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Several former Rice football players appeared in games during Week 2 of the NFL season. Here are three Owl storylines to follow before Week 3 begins Thursday night.
Brant Banks, O ensive Tackle Green Bay Packers
Banks, who played at Rice in 2023 and 2024, made his NFL debut against former teammate and Washington Commanders wide receiver Luke McCa rey. Banks recorded four snaps on special teams in the Packers’ win.
Luke McCa rey, Wide Receiver Washington Commanders
While the Commanders lost the game, McCa rey had a 19-yard reception and a two-point conversion against his former teammate Brant Banks. McCa rey, who played for Rice from 2021 to 2023, had a 25-yard kick return as well.
Elijah Garcia, Defensive Tackle Detroit Lions
Garcia, who played for Rice from 2016 to 2021, had 19 defensive snaps and eight special teams snaps on Sunday against the Dallas Cowboys. The Lions lost, but Garcia recorded his rst sack of the season in overtime.
BEN SADOWSKI / THRESHER
Rice football players celebrate in the end zone during
BACKPAGE BREAKING: CHAO COLLEGE INFO LEAKS
• Mascot to be DUST MITE
• D.M.B.Y.D. (DUST MITES Breed Your Dad)
• Traditions:
• Beer Bike Water Balloon Fight: Chitizens (shi-ti-zens) crawl around in the grass. They don’t even have water balloons
• Baker 13 Defense: Cover the runners in DUST
• College Chants:
• We are the DUST MITES, in your bed! We are the DUST MITES, in your head!
• Fight, Chao, fght! Go DUST MITES!
• All common areas to be replaced by basement crawlspace
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The Backpage is the satire section of the Thresher, written this week by Charlie Maxson, Rykelle Sandidge and Max Scholl, and designed by Brandon Nguyen. For questions or comments, please email realricethreshero cial@rice.edu.
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