rst top 25 ranking since 2021
PATRICK SHUKIS FOR THE THRESHER
Just days after achieving their first U.S. Coaches Poll ranking in four years, No. 25 Rice soccer picked up two key wins against Florida Atlantic University and Grambling State University.
The Owls recorded a 2-1 victory over FAU in their second conference game of the season. In a back-and-forth contest, Rice ultimately emerged victorious with goals from graduate forward Leah Chancey and sophomore forward Camille Quarterman, as well as six saves from junior goalkeeper Kirsten Ruf.
Florida Atlantic put Rice on the defensive early in the match. Ruf kept FAU o the scoreboard with a pair of saves in the early
“[The ranking is] not how we measure ourselves. We measure ourselves by how good a teammate we are and how hard we work.
Brian Lee HEAD COACH
action. The Owls struggled to apply o ensive pressure through the rst 20 minutes, but their defense held FAU scoreless.
Following a de ected shot on goal from Quarterman in the 26th minute, freshman defender Jayden Jaeger’s free-kick assist gave Quarterman another chance to open up the scoring. Quarterman’s tap-in found the back of the net, putting the Owls ahead 1-0 in the 27th minute.
Quarterman’s fresh legs from o the bench sparked the o ensive action for Rice in the rst half a er a slow start. Head coach Brian Lee said the team’s strategy of frequent substitutions gave them an edge over the competition.
“It’s been kind of our mojo for the last couple seasons,” Lee said. “I really thought tonight Camille and Taylor Rish came o the bench and really changed the game almost immediately.”
FAU brought the o ensive pressure to begin the second half, but Rice’s defense handled the attack. A sliding clearance from sophomore forward Dayo Tennyson and a diving save from Ruf in the 55th and 56th minutes kept Florida Atlantic scoreless through most of the second half.
SEE SOCCER PAGE 14
after her goal against FAU.
Rice drops to bottom of free speech ranking
CHI PHAM ASST. A&E EDITOR
Rice University earned an “F” grade for free speech in the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression’s 2026 College Free Speech Rankings, which cited concerns over restrictive policies and student perceptions of campus climate.
The ranking is a downswing of 70 spots to rank 235th out of 257 schools assessed by FIRE, a nonprofit organization that advocates for free speech and civil liberties in educational settings.
FIRE cited two core problems: university policies restricting
constitutionally protected speech and widespread student perceptions that the administration does not support open dialogue.
FIRE’s “red light” speech code rating stems partly from Rice’s peer harassment policy, which the organization believes does not meet Supreme Court standards as set by Davis v. Monroe County Board of Education.
Rice’s policy defines harassment as “unwelcome conduct … that is based on a protected class” with “the purpose or potential effect of unreasonably interfering with an individual’s work performance or educational participation.”
Laura Beltz, FIRE’s director of policy
reform, said that Rice’s policy earns the organization’s worst rating because it “both clearly and substantially restricts freedom of speech.”
“While the Supreme Court requires that conduct be ‘severe, pervasive, and objectively offensive,’ Rice’s definition of harassment merely requires it be ‘severe or pervasive,’” Beltz wrote in an email to the Thresher. “In addition, Rice’s policy requires only that conduct ‘has the purpose or potential effect’ of harm, while the Supreme Court requires the prohibited conduct actually be unreasonable.”
Campus free speech, expression by the numbers
“Do
Rice returns to No. 17 in U.S. News Ranking
ABIGAIL CHIU SENIOR WRITER
Rice placed 17th on the recently released U.S. News and World Report’s national universities ranking list, tying with University of California, Los Angeles and Vanderbilt University, an improvement from last year’s No. 18 position. Rice has placed No. 10 and No. 12 on Niche and Forbes’ lists, respectively. Rice was also ranked No. 5 on USNWR’s list for Best Value Schools.
“These rankings re ect the strength of our mission and the incredible work of our faculty, sta and students,” said President Reggie DesRoches in a Rice News article.
FIRE Free Speech Ranking for Rice University
Rice was ranked 235th out of 257 schools. Rice’s 70-spot decline stands out among peer institutions.
“These achievements underscore our broader goal of advancing knowledge and serving society in meaningful ways.”
USNWR’s methodology combines data submitted by schools with thirdparty sources such as data from the U.S. Department of Education’s College Scorecard.
The most heavily weighted factors included peer assessment, graduation rates and rst-year retention rates.
In what has been called a “tumultuous” year for higher education, the rankings were relatively stable across top schools, with little movement through the top 50. Rice is continuing with its plan to increase enrollment and expand new o erings in arti cial intelligence and the arts.
“Rice delivers a student experience that is both intellectually rigorous and deeply personal,” said Amy Dittmar, the Howard R. Hughes Provost and executive vice president for academic a airs in a Rice News article. “Every Rice student graduates prepared to make a di erence. These rankings are a testament to that commitment.”
KAIRI MANO / THRESHER
Junior mid elder Eileen Albers hugs sophomore forward Camille Quarterman
School of Humanities renamed to emphasize arts
Rice renamed the School of Humanities to the School of Humanities and Arts in a move reflecting the growing emphasis on visual arts and creative writing, according to a Sept. 22 announcement by Kathleen Canning, dean of humanities and arts.
The name change follows the completion of Sarofim Hall, a proposed creative writing Master of Fine Arts degree, a new theatre minor and over 30 tenure and tenure-track faculty added in the school over the past three years.
Canning said while the administrative structure of the schools will remain the same, the name change reflects the chronic waitlists for visual arts and creative writing classes, recent changes and quality of Rice’s arts faculty.
“Rice is small, and we’re in a financially constrained time. The School
of Humanities has been extremely fortunate,” Canning said. “Student demand continues to drive [our efforts].”
Students can expect to see more opportunities to colloborate with professional artists, expanded facilities and programming and new pathways to connect the arts with broader aims.
Amy Dittmar
HOWARD H. HUGHES PROVOST
The School of Humanities and Arts has the second-largest number of minors after the School of Engineering. 8-9% of
students enroll each year as their first major. In Spring 2025, English and Arts made up 24% and 20% of Humanities and Arts students respectively, with 60% of English majors declaring the Creative Writing concentration, Canning said.
In the long term, Rice seeks to keep investing in the humanities and arts and create an environment for “world-class performance and creative scholarship,” Provost Amy Dittmar said.
“Students can expect to see more opportunities to collaborate with professional artists, expanded facilities and programming and new pathways to connect the arts with broader aims,” Dittmar wrote in an email to the Thresher.
Jinhong Shangguan, an art and art history double major, said he felt Rice’s art program was previously underrepresented. To him, the name change, along with the opening of Sarofim Hall, increases visibility.
“Before, a lot of our students were
doing their art at Sewall [Hall], sometimes even in the basement, so it wasn’t emphasized a lot,” said Shangguan, a Baker College senior. “The changing of the name emphasizes it and makes it more pronounced, which is great.”
The renaming also highlights the interdisciplinary nature of humanities and arts at Rice, where many students double major in arts and another field, or take interdisciplinary programs like medical humanities or politics, law, and social thought.
Mila Ashford, a materials science and nanoengineering major taking Beginning Drawing, said she was interested in art from a material science perspective.
“In our materials science class, we went to an art gallery,” said Ashford, a Baker sophomore. “The goal there was to observe how different materials are used in art throughout times and places, so that’s how art can be seen through many lenses.”
The Arc announced as major new addition to Midtown’s Ion District
PRASI DESAI SENIOR WRITER
Rice revealed plans to construct a new research and development space called The Arc in the Ion District in a news release Sept. 16. The nearly 200,000-squarefoot space is expected to be a “merger of technology and entrepreneurs in one place,” said Paul Cherukuri, Rice’s vice president for innovation.
The Ion, a building owned by Rice and managed by the Rice Management Company, rst opened its doors in 2022 as an innovation hub. Since its opening, the Ion has acquired numerous tenants, from restaurants like The Lymbar to companies like Chevron and SLB. Notably, numerous resources for startups and entrepreneurs are o ered at the Ion, such as the Rice Nexus and the Ion Investor Studio.
The new facility is set to begin construction in 2026, with completion anticipated in early 2028. It will be managed by Rice Real Estate Co. and Lincoln Property Co.
Ken Jett, president of Rice Real Estate, wrote in an email to the Thresher that The Arc aligns with Rice’s Momentous Strategic Plan, detailing the university’s goal to be a place of multidisciplinary collaboration.
“With rising demand for rst-class [Research and Development] infrastructure across Houston, opening The Arc at the Ion District addresses both Rice’s vision and a regional need for collaborative, scalable innovation space,” wrote Jett, who also serves as Rice’s vice president of facilities and capital construction.
According to the building’s website, the Arc is expected to have seven oors in addition to an underground parking area. The building will have lounge areas; tness facilities; and multiple spaces available for restaurants, retail stores and o ces.
The second oor of Arc has been entirely leased to Rice, according to the building schematic.
“We envision building on the success of the Ion building by adding more space for research led by our faculty and partnering with new corporate, start-ups, non-pro t and governmental entities,” Jett wrote.
Cherukuri said the creation of the Ion was intended to benefit those beyond Rice by building an innovation hub meant to benefit those both within and outside of Houston.
“One of the things universities have to do is do more for people beyond their population,” Cherukuri said.
The Ion building is part of the larger Ion District, a 12-block space intended to “promote equitable businesses, products, and jobs that re ect the diversity of ethnicities and enduring individualism,” according to the district’s website.
We envision building on the success of the Ion building by adding more space for research led by our faculty and partnering with new corporate, start-ups, non-profit and governmental entities.
Ken Jett RICE REAL ESTATE PRESIDENT
The creation of the Ion initially raised concerns regarding gentri cation in the nearby Third Ward area. Rice Management Company implemented the Community Bene ts Agreement in 2021, which allocated $15.3 million to initiatives such as a ordable housing, inclusivity in the technology workforce and community
capacity building.
However, the Houston Chronicle reported in 2021 that many Third Ward residents were still unhappy with this resolution. According to the Chronicle, the Houston Coalition for Equitable Development without Displacement noted that the plan was created and implemented without input from those in the Third Ward area.
“The Ion District has revitalized an underinvested area within the Midtown commercial district and continues to uphold its community-based commitments,” Jett wrote.
Cherukuri said plans have not yet been made to expand the Community Bene ts Agreement, but Rice will likely continue its commitment to “betterment of the world.”
The Arc is planned to house large labs and facilities intended to assist in scaling technologies from research to full scale, Cherukuri said. With the addition of larger labs, faculty are also expected to have o ces at the Ion.
Aditya Mohite is the director of the Plasma Foundry, a platform to advance plasma technologies, and a professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at Rice. He is one of the professors who expressed interest in moving.
Mohite said he is currently working
with Greentown Labs to develop a new facility to assist in translating lab research to larger-scale operations.
“We want to do not just fundamental research, but we want to do it at scale,” Mohite said.
At The Arc, Mohite said the proximity between academics, industry professionals and startups will help “close the timeline for product development.”
“This is the new model,” Mohite said. “Academic labs, start-up companies and scale-up facilities all should be co-located.”
Cherukuri said that the Ion is not just for professors and industry, but also for students.
To support this vision, Cherukuri said residential areas are also under development to provide affordable housing for graduate students who may work and research at the Ion.
“We want our students to have the benefits of engaging diverse communities in one location,” Cherukuri said.
Development in the Ion District will continue over the coming years, Jett wrote.
“The Ion District will continue to be developed over the coming years with spaces purposefully built to support the university and Houston’s innovation ecosystem and the regional economy,” Jett wrote.
HOPE YANG ASST. NEWS EDITOR
COURTESY RICE NEWS
New global a airs major bridges humanities and social sciences
AISHA KHEMANI SENIOR WRITER
Rice is launching a global a airs major and master of global a airs in spring 2026. The new program, housed in the political science department, draws on couses from 13 departments and requires four semesters of language study.
The major connects the School of Humanities and Arts and the School of Social Sciences, emphasizing cultural competency and applied learning.
Guillermo Rosas, chair of the political science department, said the political science and global a airs majors share a social scienti c foundation rooted in analyzing theoretically driven hypotheses with evidence. However, where political science emphasizes statistics, global a airs will include gaining pro ciency in a language other than English.
“Students in the Global A airs major build solidly on Political Science, but are also exposed to how a psychologist, economist, or historian would approach problems that appear at the intersection between the local and the global,” Rosas wrote in an email to the Thresher.
Global a airs is part of Momentous, Rice’s 10-year strategic plan, which aims to prepare students for leadership in an interconnected world and raise the university’s international pro le.
Ashley Leeds, former chair of the political science department and a member of the global a airs planning committee,
said a grasp of geopolitics is increasingly essential in an era where they in uence everything from climate negotiations to the price of a phone. Leeds said the program is designed to prepare students to compete in a global job market.
“We have so many businesses, as well as public policy entities and NGOs, that are operating transnationally and internationally,” Leeds said.
The program will emphasize breadth, drawing on a range of social science and humanities disciplines.
The curriculum will require four core courses and culminates in a senior capstone where students work alongside policy practitioners on real-world challenges, Leeds said.
Beyond the core classes, students will complete eight electives across the social sciences and humanities, with the option to focus on one of three tracks: global order, peace and con ict; global wealth and sustainability; or regional communities and identities.
Matthias Staisch, the program director, said the emphasis on language learning is about cultural competence and understanding.
“When we go abroad and speak English, of course we can get along, we can communicate about certain things,” Staisch said. “I can have meetings with my counterparts, but I’m missing out on so much without deeper language training.”
Aysha Pollnitz, an associate professor of history on the planning committee, said the language element was important.
CATHERINE ZHOU / THRESHER
“In a globalized, capitalist economy, capacities in intercultural communication aren’t ‘so ’ skills,” Pollnitz wrote in an email to the Thresher. “Knowledge of regional and transnational histories is a core competency for work in governmental, non-governmental and commercial organizations around the world.”
Staisch said he sees the interdisciplinary major as a catalyst to globalize the campus and expand student opportunities abroad.
One way Staisch said he is helping facilitate this development is by helping to strengthen the university’s partnerships with global institutions
such as Venice International University.
“The appeal of Venice International University is that it’s more or less like a global hub,” Staisch said. “You have more than 20 universities from all over the world — every continent except South America is currently represented — and you’re sitting in classes not just with your fellow Rice students, but with peers from across the globe.”
“The economic, cultural, political and social forces that shape our lives and society are global ones,” wrote Provost Amy Dittmar in an email to the Thresher. “This program is one way to help students future-proof their academic and professional pathways.”
Campus surveys show dissatisfaction with Student Association
TOBY CHOU & LILY NGUYEN THRESHER STAFF
The Student Association has released data from two student surveys: the Survey of All Students and the Senior Exit Survey from spring 2025.
Both surveys are administered digitally at the end of every school year, and the data collected represents the extent of student satisfaction with SA initiatives and campus life. Last semester, the SAS and Senior Exit Survey garnered response rates of 94.1% and 91.5%, respectively.
Regarding SA’s representation of student interests, approximately 60% of students said they had not seen signi cant impact, were not aware of SA initiatives or believed that SA was inadequate in representing student needs. Results show that the plurality of students
wanted SA to advocate for student concerns regarding dining, housing and a ordability.
McMurtry College President Berny Guerra Arthur said the lack of student participation has been a concern in previous years.
“This is something that has been seen in the past,” Arthur said. “One area of improvement could be making students more interested in the work the SA does. We need to emphasize that the Senate is open to all students.”
On the ability to freely express diverse viewpoints and engage in respectful debate, 70% of students felt that there is limited space and opportunity for open dialogue. Additionally, around 25% of seniors said Rice does very little to nothing to promote open debate.
The SA has promised to establish the Commission on Parties and Tradition in
response to a demonstrated disconnect between administration and students regarding public party regulations. Furthermore, a parking and transportation commission has been organized to bring down transportation costs and make parking more a ordable.
“We want people to hold us accountable to what the results of these surveys are,” said SA President Trevor Tobey. “We really do try to follow what the students care about and stick to advocating for the things that students tell us are important with these surveys.”
The Senate also voted to begin the special election for the constitutional amendments on Wednesday. The Senate approved the ballot, which will close on Oct. 1. The amendments plans to revise the blanket tax process, remove voting power from the executive team and remove voter
turnout requirements.
In addition, the amendments will give the president a veto power that can be overridden by a two-thirds vote by voting Senate members.
Senate unanimously approved the decisions of the Blanket Tax Committee on four new applications for the fall 2025 Initiative Fund. The committee approved funding for Hispanic Association for Cultural Enrichment at Rice and rejected funding for Lovett Theater, Rice Climbing Club, Rice University Figure Skating Club and Rice University American Society of Civil Engineers.
“Ultimately, we want these events to be open, “ SA Treasurer Jackson Darr said. “Every Rice student has to be able to attend an event if they want to, so we want it to bene t the maximum number of students.”
New traditions discussed at Lovett and Chao in preparation for move
CHAE MOON FOR THE THRESHER
With construction underway on Chao College, Rice’s 12th residential college, and a new building planned for Lovett College, students across campus are facing a cultural transition.
Lovett: Farewell, Toaster
For Lovett, change is bittersweet.
Lovett President Ayush Suresh described student reactions to the relocation as mixed. While he said students are excited for upgraded facilities, many feel the weight of leaving their signature riot-proof brutalist building, a ectionately named “the Toaster,” behind.
“Lovetteers have a strong a nity for the Toaster, and it’s really come to de ne Lovett culture for the last 58 years,” Suresh said.
Much of Lovett’s culture, from its chants to its merchandise, has been de ned by the architecture of the current building.
“Virtually all of our chants are toaster based,” wrote Jaemason Long, a Lovett junior, in a message to the Thresher. “It’s a bit sad that future students won’t be able to fully appreciate that part of our story and identity.”
The centralized commons has also long been a key component of community at Lovett, as Lovett lacks common rooms on each oor like Sid Richardson College or Jones College.
“A signi cant question is going to be raised on if oor culture will develop or if commons culture persists,” Long said. “The new facilities seem like a major upgrade.”
Suresh said that community remains at the heart of Lovett’s identity.
“The most important aspect of Lovett we are working to preserve is the strong, intertwined community that the Toaster’s Commons fosters,” Suresh said.
One place Anom Martinez said he will miss is the basement, which has a theater, music room and multiple event spaces.
“Although we are moving away from the Toaster, I believe we can still preserve the culture and traditions that Lovett has created over the years,” said Martinez, a new student representative.
The New Lovett Advisory Committee, comprised of representatives from each class, has been working to inform the design of new spaces.
“Spaces change, traditions change and culture changes,” Suresh said.
Chao: A New Chapter
While Lovett prepares to transfer a decades-old identity into a new space, Chao must build a culture from the ground up.
I believe we can still preserve the culture and traditions that Lovett has created over the years.
Anom Martinez
LOVETT NEW STUDENT REPRESENATIVE
In a slideshow shared by the founding committee, various ideas were oated for Chao’s traditions, most of which related to the family’s Taiwanese heritage. Celebrating a “Confucius Day,” having an “Asian Dragon Mascot” and hosting a dragon boat race during Orientation Week were three traditions from the slideshow.
Chao’s Founding Committee, which includes 16 students, two magisters and a resident associate, has been working to set the framework for governance, housing and support structures while leaving room for
the Chao itself to create a unique culture.
Ian Rodriguez, a founding committee member, said the process is heavily studentdriven and is focused on long-term stability with plans for a college constitution, student budget input and an endowment fund.
“Our goal is to establish traditions that unify students and make people feel like they belong from day one,” said Rodriguez, a Jones sophomore.
Prospective Chao transfer students are already imagining the possibilities for what Chao culture could entail.
“O the top of my head, I’m picturing late-night dumpling-making sessions in that shared servery with the robot wok chef or roo op pickleball tournaments with views across campus,” said Youngrae Kim, a Wiess College freshman.
Both Gorman and Rodriguez said the culture was going to remain up to students, while the founding magisters and RA will be present to provide guidance.
“Admin interference is minimal in the sense of dictating culture or traditions,” Rodriguez said. “Their role is very supportive, but decisions about what we want Chao to be, how the culture feels, what traditions matter, that’s in our hands, along with Chao students.”
Rice’s 15th annual hackathon draws student coders
HONGTAO HU ASST. NEWS EDITOR
William Bradford sat on his team’s air mattress, coding under two lights: the 2 a.m. fluorescents of the Rice Memorial Center and the blue glow of his computer screen, open to ChatGPT.
Bradford, a Louisiana State University freshman, was competing in HackRice 15’s Productivity and Education track, and was just about to begin another all-nighter.
“I probably slept the most,” Bradford said. “I got four hours. Neil over there, he got zero hours of sleep. He’s been running on, like, Red Bull, full time. And my buddy DJ, I think he went to the bathroom or something. He’s on one hour of sleep.”
Saturday was the second day of the three-day, 36-hour coding sprint of HackRice 15, where 500 students across the country competed for Meta Ray-Bans, miniature drones and electric scooters — prizes totaling over $10,000.
Bradford said he was feeling a fair deal of pressure as his team attempted to code an application to help individuals or teams work with increased productivity.
“We have to submit a rough draft in an hour thirty,” Bradford said. “Our back end has had a lot of issues. Neil spent pretty much the whole time working one thing, we just haven’t been able to get to work. So pretty stressed, I’d say.”
Bradford said that he came to the hackathon to gain more coding experience.
The hackathon featured a number of workshops with employers and technologies, as well as opportunities for networking.
Across colleges, HackRice is a smallscale hackathon. For Faith Zhang, one of HackRice’s directors, this showcased Rice’s welcoming atmosphere.
“I personally just feel like HackRice is very reflective of Rice’s culture in general,” said Zhang, a Wiess College junior. “You can talk to organizers pretty easily. You can make friends really easily. It’s the culture of care.”
AI had a major presence in the coding competition. However, dependence on it
varied among students as they raced to submit a presentation before the 9 a.m. cutoff on Sunday.
For Bradford, AI was an essential member of his coding team.
I probably slept the most. I got four hours.
William Bradford LSU FRESHMAN
“I use AI a pretty decent amount,” Bradford said. “Most issues I encounter, it’s usually one of the first things I go to.”
For the DocuLabubu team — a portmanteau of “doctor” and “Labubu” — members said that as they coded their telehealth assistant app, AI was helpful, but not all-encompassing.
“I think 90% of the projects are just going to be fully made with AI,” said Sai Chauhan, a University of Texas at Dallas
sophomore. “We might use AI for some core portions of our code, but all of it is an amalgamation of our own and AI’s.”
Chauhan said that human influences were important as “AI fatigue” grew in the U.S.
“People are getting fed up with seeing AI everywhere,” Chauhan said. “They want things that are natural to them.”
In the era of “higher quality AI code,” members of the DocuLabubu team stressed the importance of the “best idea,” not the “best overall product.”
On Friday, the first day of the competition, the team forwent coding to think up ideas for their project.
“We did the most natural way of ideating,” said Sunay Sheehan, a UTD senior and another member of the DocuLabubu team. “We literally walked outside.”
For the team, their main motivation for developing a winning idea was both the experience and resume-building.
“What you get out of it is the
experience behind it,” Sheehan said. “If you win, you get the prizes, and you’re able to put that in your resume to land another job — maybe at the same company, maybe a different company.”
The Hackathon brought 500 students, three alumni, and 23 companies to campus, including Capital One and Goldman Sachs as premiere sponsors.
HackRice’s winner was dosed, a healthcare app that aims to demystify prescription drug data.
“For ideation, we usually like to think of ideas and then put it into AI tools,” said Shreya Akula, a member of dosed and a UTD senior.
For DocuLabubu, their attitude towards competition matches their eponymous mascot’s smile.
“A lot of people are competing towards a prize or a position, to be on top of that podium at the end of the day,” said Sheehan. “But from past experiences, like being on teams, honestly, we’re friends. We’re, really, really close friends.”
Lovett changes o -campus year to juniors, from sophomores
LISA WANG THRESHER STAFF
Lovett College is changing the year in which students will likely live o campus. Students are only guaranteed on-campus housing for three years at Rice, so each year, the majority of one class of students is sent o -campus due to the lack of housing on campus.
In previous years, sophomores were kicked o campus through “room jack” – the process by which Lovett students get on-campus housing. Starting with the 2025-26 academic year, juniors will be kicked o campus.
“We had a long conversation last year about whether this was the best policy,” Lovett President Ayush Suresh said. “We kind of came to the decision that we felt like kicking sophomores o was less advisable than maybe kicking juniors o , because there’s a level of continuity that’s important for culture on campus, culture in the dorm, culture within the college.”
Brady Jones, a Lovett freshman, said that the change is positive because it gives students more time to build community before they live o campus.
“I feel like having one more year on campus is a very good way to help you get comfortable with living by yourself, making sure that you have a schedule all set up, helping you nd a good apartment or wherever you’re living o campus and help you nd roommates that you want to room with,” Jones said.
Suresh said the concerns about nding o -campus housing and roommates as a freshman were a driving concern in making the change.
“It’s a lot of pressure to put on the
JOCELYN CHEN / THRESHER
Students sit in Lovett’s lower commons. The college is planning on changing when studnets are kicked o campus from sophomore year to junior year.
freshmen,” Suresh said. “They might not have the contacts or know people who lived o campus who are willing to sublease, whereas sophomores going o campus have a little bit of an easier time because they have contacts.”
Mixed opinions have arisen from the decision, mostly due to the uncertainty for the students who are currently living o -campus this year.
“Honestly, it’s a little scary for me because I already had to go through the possibility of getting kicked o campus once and it was another added layer of stress for me during
mid-term and mid- nal seasons,” said Huri Kose, a Lovett sophomore. “To be going over that again is a little worrying.”
Despite worries, none of the current students at Lovett outside of the freshman class would be impacted.
In order to make this change smoothly, the current freshmen and next year’s freshmen will be part of the transition period.
This spring, all of the current freshmen will go through the housing jack. In spring 2027, the jack will be half freshmen and half sophomores. In spring 2028, only sophomores
will go through the jack to determine their junior year housing.
An email sent out in February by Suresh detailing the changes said the college is still working on a way to make sure students who go through the jack multiple times only get kicked o campus once.
Lovett will move into a new building next fall. In a Lovett-wide email, Suresh said he is working on logistics with Dean of Undergraduates Bridget Gorman to reserve beds in Lovett’s current building for extra housing during the transition year.
COURTESY CONNOR SCHULTZ
Students code in the Rice Memorial Center Grand Hall as part of the HackRice 15 competition. The event saw hackers from across the country spend day and night in the RMC while they rushed to get their projected nished on time.
The organization also agged Rice’s treatment of “hate speech” as problematic. While Rice’s policy states hate speech “does not cover speech that is ordinarily considered constitutionally protected,” Beltz wrote that there is no hate speech exception to the First Amendment.
Rice implemented additional restrictions on campus expression last August that de ne a demonstration as any gathering of one or more people that involves “communication or expression of views” likely to attract onlookers.
The revised policies also expanded faculty and sta authority to remove posters and other displays, while restricting permitted times and locations for public demonstrations. The poster removal authority speci cally references Rice’s harassment policy, which FIRE agged for restricting constitutionally protected speech.
University spokesperson Chris Stipes said Rice “is firmly committed to free expression as a core value of our community.”
“We continuously review our policies and practices to ensure they re ect both our values and our strong support for free speech and civil discourse,” Stipes wrote in an email to the Thresher.
Student Association survey data released Sept. 18 suggest the impact: only 31.5% of respondents said they strongly believe they can share their views freely or frequently engage in meaningful campus debates. Among seniors, this gure drops to 22.7%. The survey drew responses from 94.1% of undergraduates.
Jorge Zazueta, an organizer with Rice Students for Justice in Palestine, said while the new policies have expanded university authority dramatically, it is di cult to gauge how much they a ect broad student engagement.
“It’s not a very activated campus politically,” said Zazueta, a doctoral student of economics. “It’s tough to know how much folks are noticing these changes in the rst place because it’s not like there were a lot of protests going on, separate from SJP, before.”
Zazueta described surveillance extending beyond written policies. They said that SJP events “almost always [have] a RUPD presence,” even for non-political gatherings.
“When you’re requesting a space, there’s an option for whether or not you would like surveillance or support from RUPD,” Zazueta said. “SJP has always declined RUPD presence, and nevertheless, there’s always presence sent out.”
Faculty and Sta for Justice in Palestine holds monthly read-ins outside Fondren Library, but Zazueta said the administration has required formal requests for using public seating areas.
“Even if it were a vigil … because of the character of SJP as a political organization, almost any kind of event is considered a demonstration,” Zazueta
said. “It becomes unclear, the limits to which we’re just allowed to gather without triggering some mechanism to contain the event.”
An assistant dean sits in on all Graduate Student Association meetings, Zazueta said, sometimes intervening in discussions. Zazueta described “threats, or what administration might call suggestions,” warning international students away from discussing controversial topics.
It’s interesting that we are told both that silence is violence but also that disapproved speech is violence.
George Sher PHILOSOPHY PROFESSOR
“There has been a sustained campaign from the administration to create a fear of everything, but of political speech and participation in particular,” Zazueta said.“People are afraid to talk, and especially on campus.”
These pressures do not factor in FIRE’s speech code rating, which focuses on written university rules. But they may help explain a contradiction in Rice’s rankings: students do not especially fear o cial punishment — Rice ranks 23rd nationally for low self-censorship — yet they report feeling uncomfortable expressing their views and unsupported by administration.
FIRE reported that 81% of Rice students in a survey of 300 believed shutting down speakers is acceptable in at least rare cases.
Philosophy professor George Sher, who is writing a book on speech and autonomy, said this trend is symptomatic of the very issues that prompted his research.
“I was motivated to write it by the recent semi-normalization of such illiberal strategies as deplatforming and cancelling and using the heckler’s veto,” Sher wrote in an email to the Thresher.
“It’s interesting that we are told both that silence is violence but also that disapproved speech is violence.”
Sher said what distinguishes current free speech debates from previous eras is “the increased willingness to substitute righteous certainty for argument.”
Despite agreeing with FIRE’s policy critiques, Sher said Rice’s climate is not as hostile as the rating might suggest.
“Despite the low grade, I would judge that the actual free speech situation is better at Rice than it is at many — probably most — peer institutions,” he said, noting that FIRE recorded no incidents of notable speech controversies at Rice.
Institutions the organization ranked favorably, like Claremont McKenna College and the University of Virginia, recorded at least one controversy; the University of Chicago, ranked third, recorded three.
Student Association president Trevor Tobey called the “F” grade “alarming” and said he has plans for legislation on institutional neutrality and a commission to specifically review protest and poster policies.
“This calls for intentional action: safeguarding academic freedom through policy clarity, creating spaces for respectful dialogue across di erences, and ensuring campus leaders model engagement with people they don’t always agree with,” Tobey wrote in an email to the Thresher.
But Zazueta expressed skepticism about working through o cial channels, noting that student and faculty resolutions supporting divestment and opposing restrictive policies have been ignored by administration.
Instead, Zazueta said they advocate for a focus on building grassroots support among students and faculty to “hold their ground” despite administrative restrictions.
“While we continue to occupy those spaces and push in those formal channels, it’s important to continue to build our base and our political capacity to resist these changes directly,” Zazueta continued. “It should be clear on the ground, on campus, that these policies are unwelcome and that they aren’t going to stop political speech.”
Two-thirds of schools surveyed by FIRE received failing grades, but Rice’s 70-spot decline stands out among peer institutions like Cornell University, down 12, and Duke University, down 10. Tu s University and Carnegie Mellon University, both down 57, are more similar, while others like Northwestern University and Dartmouth College rose by 118 and 189 spots, respectively. FIRE noted Rice could improve its rating by revising speech policies and formally adopting institutional neutrality commitments.
Chao College recruits students, plans student government
LINA KANG FOR THE THRESHER
Chao College, Rice’s 12th residential college, is set to open in the fall.
The college’s founding committee is looking for approximately 170 rising sophomores, juniors and seniors to transfer, while the rest of the 300 beds will be filled with the new freshmen, according to new Chao College Resident Associate Tamara Jones.
For the 2026–2027 academic year, all students who choose to be on-campus transfers and are accepted into Chao will be guaranteed housing, regardless of class year. Beginning in Fall 2027, however, juniors will become the primary group assigned off campus, mirroring housing practices at most
other residential colleges.
Chao Magisters Luis and Angela Duno-Gottberg said the housing and transfer process will focus on creating a well-rounded student body.
“We’ve been very, very mindful of not creating any imbalances in the new community and in the communities that are feeding the Chao College,” said Luis Duno-Gottberg, also a founding magister at Duncan College.
During Friday’s Chao College Information Session, the members of the founding committee said the rooms will be singles and doubles with private bathrooms. They said they wanted to emphasize floor culture and will plan to sort students into floors better suited for them, with floors 2-5 being considered “midday,” or quiet, and 6-10 “midnight,”
or more social.
Elections for Chao’s first student government will be held in the spring alongside the selection of its inaugural Orientation Week coordinators.
Founding Committee member Elijah White said the government model was designed after reviewing existing college constitutions and bylaws.
“I don’t know that there’s a specific college that we pulled from the most,” said White, a McMurtry College sophomore. “But there are definitely aspects from McMurtry, aspects from Baker, aspects from Hanszen.”
White also said that Chao’s primary colors, which will be released later this semester, were intentionally chosen to differentiate the college from existing ones.
Founding committee member Ian Rodriguez plans to transfer from Jones College to Chao.
“I feel like I’ve really helped out on building up the college, and I want to continue that growth and on building that college as a whole,” said Rodriguez, a sophomore. “I want to be there for it.”
White is also planning on transferring and said he hopes to join Chao’s founding government to help shape the college beyond its initial structure.
“The founding committee has had a say in things like government and colors, which are exciting, but there’s a whole other aspect that’s untouched in terms of traditions and the day-to-day living of what it’s like to be there,” White said. “I’m excited to get that full-circle experience.”
KONSTANTIN SAVVON / THRESHER
A student makes a poster during the Sept. 11 fast for Gaza organized by Students for Justice in Palestine. Rice has dropped in its free speech ranking due to its hate speech policy and student fears over free expression.
New pedestrian infrastructure near Rice
Houston is famously unwalkable, and with our current anti-urbanist mayor John Whitmire tearing up bike lanes and suppressing popular road diet plans, that doesn’t seem to be changing anytime soon. In particular, cities across the U.S. are rushing to implement Vision Zero policies with the goal of eliminating tra c fatalities, while Houston’s new municipal government has deemphasized them.
These policies might seem lo y in a city that loses over 300 people to crashes every year, but it has been achieved for a year in Helsinki, Finland and seven years in Hoboken, New Jersey. The types of infrastructure needed to make this happen are already widely known by tra c engineers and described at length in modern tra c engineering guidelines such as NACTO’s Green Book. But while
the situation stagnates or worsens across Houston, things strangely seem to be improving in University Place. To illustrate this, let me walk you through my biweekly commute from The Nest on Sunset Apartments to my morning class in Duncan Hall.
Starting on Sunset Boulevard, the preexisting tree-lined median has been out tted with stepping stones for pedestrians stopping in the middle of the street. This means it now functions as a pedestrian refuge island; I only have to look one way at a time, and the crossing is faster and safer.
A block east on the reasonably secure sidewalk, the intersection with Cherokee Street has concrete bulb-outs extended into the roadway to slow cars and make pedestrians more visible, an engineering treatment known as daylighting.
A year and a half ago, before this was implemented, this intersection had the highest crash rate along the corridor, with 31 crashes from 2018-23 for an estimated annual average daily traffic of 3,566 vehicles.
Now, for probably the most visible change, the relocated High Intensity Activated CrossWalK beacon and raised crosswalk across Rice Boulevard. The impact of this simple engineering treatment on my level of comfort in crossing cannot be overstated, and both pedestrian safety treatments are thoroughly substantiated by empirical research.
Once I get on Rice campus, I cross a second raised crosswalk by the Ralph S. O’Connor Building for Engineering and
is a good start, but we need to do
Science and appreciate the new bike lanes installed by the North colleges. And I can get to Duncan Hall comfortably, knowing that by Houston standards, I have probably enjoyed nearly the best possible walk. I am thankful to the intentional design by Rice and the city of Houston that has made it so.
Ultimately, I hope that the pedestrian improvements I’ve admired along my walk are considered not as a finished project, but as a useful blueprint for making every walk in University Place, and eventually Houston, just as comfortable as this one.
But even this safe and comfortable walk further underscores the lack of pedestrian safety infrastructure across the rest of Rice and the surrounding community. The new HAWK beacon broke up what was once a mile-long stretch of unsignalized crossings from Main Street to Shepherd Drive, but the ⅔-mile stretch from the new light to Shepherd is still dangerous, and I o en make uncomfortable crossings in this area. Moreover, raised crosswalks work better in series, and raising the crosswalks at Rice Boulevard and Cherokee and Kent Streets, all of which are very popular crossings with Rice students, would have a positive
more
impact on the safety of the whole corridor. Raised crosswalks cost an average of $8,170 to install, which is almost trivial in infrastructure terms. Why don’t we also install some of these in the Inner Loop, especially at the popular crossings by McMurtry College, Fondren Library and Baker College? HAWK beacons are much more expensive, costing between $75,000 and $150,000, but it would be nice to see another beacon installed at some point in this gap.
And what about installing cheaper Rectangular Rapid Flashing Beacons — ashing pedestrian warning signs with proven e cacy — at crossings in the Inner Loop by Rice Stadium and the Gibbs Recreation and Wellness Center, where pedestrians o en have uncomfortable interactions with cars?
This is just the beginning. Rice Village, the Texas Medical Center and Boulevard Oaks could all use new pedestrian infrastructure. Ultimately, I hope the pedestrian improvements I’ve admired along my walk are not considered as a nished project but as a useful blueprint for making every walk in University Place, and eventually Houston, just as comfortable as this one.
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 fact-checked to the best of our ability and edited for clarity and conciseness by Thresher editors.
Rice briefs: Navigating pre-law at Rice with limited resources
At Rice, most professional tracks have well-paved roads. Pre-meds benefit from a renowned program and opportunities at the Texas Medical Center, the largest medical complex in the world. Engineering and computer science majors collaborate with NASA’s Johnson Space Center and Houston’s massive tech sector. Business students join consulting, case prep clubs and networking events that open doors to internships and job offers.
Then there’s pre-law, with not much of an end road in sight.
The numbers speak for themselves. Of Rice’s incoming freshman class in 2025, 52.98% reported interest in STEM or pre-med fields, 23.55% in business or economics and the remaining 23.47% fell into “other.” Somewhere in that “other” are the students considering law. The fact that law is unable to stand as its own category speaks volumes.
On one hand, the imbalance makes sense. Rice doesn’t have a law school. Our institutional identity is rooted in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. But while understandable, the lack of pre-law support is still a major problem. Students are not just missing prestige or recognition — they are also missing the resources that help undergraduates at other top schools compete for elite law programs.
Other universities, even STEM-heavy ones like Johns Hopkins and Duke,
maintain strong pre-law structures. Duke offers pre-law fellowships that expose undergraduates to legal coursework, mentorship and admissions preparation.
The University of California, Los Angeles connects undergrads to international courts, NGOs and government offices through its International and Comparative Law program.
Rice students have to piece things together themselves. A mock trial tournament here, a one-off info session there and hours of independent Googling in between. It is not just frustrating — it creates a gap in resources and equity. Students with family connections in law or prior knowledge of the process can still navigate it. But for first-generation or underrepresented students, the lack of structure can make a competitive law school feel out of reach entirely.
To be fair, Rice isn’t completely devoid of resources. Pre-law societies exist, but they tend to be broad and generalized. They don’t provide the kind of structured recruitment or alumni pipelines business clubs do. Social science classes or even the politics, law and social thought minor don’t carry the same built-in prestige or visibility other departments enjoy.
The Center for Civic Leadership is excellent for civic engagement and policy advocacy — valuable experiences, but not designed to prepare students for law school admissions. The Baker Institute offers scholarly research, but its opportunities lean toward graduate or staff researchers and can be less
accessible for undergraduates. Judicial practica and faculty mentorships exist, but they’re scattered and much more hidden compared to the highly visible STEM or business resources.
The problem is not total absence. It is inconsistency and invisibility. Without a defined pre-law culture, even the resources Rice does offer can feel disconnected and underutilized.
The problem is not total absence. It is inconsistency and invisibility. Without a defined pre-law culture, even the resources Rice does offer can feel disconnected and underutilized.
The difference becomes clear in comparison. At other top 20 schools, being pre-law has long been established in the undergraduate experience. Students graduate not only with strong GPAs and extracurriculars, but also with alumni mentors, LSAT prep and practical experiences that prepare them for law school. Rice students applying to the same competitive schools start a step behind.
Rice has already proven it can build a professional infrastructure quickly when it wants. The Doerr Institute
for New Leaders redefined leadership development on campus. Rice’s undergraduate business program was established only recently, but it is already becoming one of the nation’s most competitive. Pre-law could be next, if both the university and its students push for it.
This can’t fall solely on the administration. Students with an interest in law need to make that interest visible by building organizations, pushing for resources and creating a culture that the university can recognize and support. A stronger pre-law identity would show that law is not just a side path at Rice but a respected and competitive track. This column is part of that effort — a call to highlight pre-law voices and resources on campus so we can start building the culture that Rice still lacks.
Rice prides itself on cultivating leaders who shape society. If we want those leaders to thrive not just in labs and boardrooms but also in courtrooms and governing bodies, then investment in pre-law is needed. Until then, pre-law students at Rice will keep doing what they’ve always done: guring it out themselves.
Editor’s Note: This is a column that has been submitted by a contributor to the Thresher. The views expressed in this opinion are those of the author and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of the Thresher or its editorial board. All columns are fact-checked to the best of our ability and edited for clarity and conciseness by Thresher editors.
JACOB JORDAN BAKER COLLEGE JUNIOR
ALISHA HOU FOR THE THRESHER
COLUMN
Alisha Hou is a sophomore from Lovett College studying Political Science and Psychology with a minor in Politics, Law, and Social Thought on the pre-law track. She is passionate about building a stronger pre-law culture at Rice by connecting students to resources, opportunities and conversations about
Keep Rice traditions weird at Chao College
Rice has been increasingly cracking down on undergraduate student traditions and campus culture. With the upcoming addition of Chao College to the residential college system, we want to emphasize that traditions should continue to come from the students, not the administration. Rice administration has worked hard to provide exciting opportunities for students through large donations and sponsorships, but in recent years university-sponsored events have begun to surpass student-led events. Around 2,000 people attended last spring’s Moody X-Fest, a carnival of big brands and plastic swag created to celebrate the Moody Foundation’s $100 million donation, while ktru’s Outdoor Show, an event planned by and for Rice students since 1992, expected around 800.
Administration has also sought to impose limitations on preexisting campus traditions, requiring wristbands for publics and limiting the number of
We hope Chao undergraduates will continue to utilize unconventional wisdom in cultivating Chao’s college culture and traditions and Rice administration will leave space for students to be their weirdest selves..
permitted attendees at events. A post on Rice’s O ce of Admission’s Instagram page from last spring, which refers to “one of the biggest” Rice traditions as the “Rice Bike Race” rather than Beer Bike, shows that the administration cares more about preserving the school’s image than its traditions. Student comments on the post show the dissatisfaction with this
Senate scoop: The
This Monday’s Student Association open meeting was on the shorter side, but there were a few pertinent topics on the agenda, namely special elections and the Initiative Fund.
What is most concerning is the timing of the upcoming special election. Voting begins this Wednesday on four proposed constitutional amendments. I highly encourage all students to read through these proposals before voting.
The freshman class, the largest undergraduate class of Rice and over a quarter of the Rice undergraduate population, will be voting in this special election as well. To be clear, there is nothing wrong with freshmen voting. The concern is, will they really understand what they are voting for?
Like the word freshmen, the rst-years are “fresh” to Rice, its culture and its governments and have not experienced a full semester at Rice yet. Thus, encouraging freshmen to vote for fundamental changes to the Constitution without being fully informed of what they are voting for is an irresponsible move from the SA.
Instead, there should have been an
regulating and sanitizing of Rice culture. Some traditions broke rules before becoming hallmarks of the Rice undergraduate experience. In 1975, Radio Free Sid began with two students illicitly blasting music and insults at other colleges from a dorm balcony. Sid Richardson College’s president and magister both intervened; since then, it has become Sid Rich’s de ning tradition. Other traditions such as Baker 13 and McRice are also enjoyable largely because of their subversive nature.
In fall 2026, Chao College will welcome its rst cohort of undergraduates, and we think this presents an opportunity for students to think about what traditions are meaningful to them. We hope Chao undergraduates will continue to utilize unconventional wisdom in cultivating Chao’s college culture and traditions and Rice administration will leave space for students to be their weirdest selves.
SA is like a Birkin bag
awareness week to advertise what is being proposed, why it’s being proposed and the basic structures and powers of the SA. I feel it is nefarious to allow the largest class year to vote on something they do not fully understand. Since awareness has not been properly raised, having elections in the spring would be more sensible since freshmen will have more experience at Rice by then.
The SA is like a Birkin bag: from afar, you can admire it and believe what they say, but being a part of this club comes with many caveats, at times more exclusive than inclusive.
Watching many Rice organizations and clubs not getting their Initiative Fund proposals passed was also extremely disheartening. The Initiative Fund was advertised to the student body as a fund that will be more inclusive to all Rice students. With an increase in funding made possible
by cutting Blanket Tax Organization budgets, the only criteria was that the students requesting the fund should be coming from a Rice organization or Rice club.
Unfortunately, this was not the case in Monday’s meeting. Requests to use the Initiative Fund are still being held to the de nition of being new and innovative, and the funding must go to a speci c event on a speci c date that serves the wider student body. The SA wants more applications for the Initiative Funds, but with its current rate of rejections for already submitted applications, I propose that the SA explicitly make interested students aware of the criteria and make sure students know if they have met the criteria before even applying.
Overall, through my lens, the SA is like a Birkin bag: from afar, you can admire it and believe what they say, but being a part of this club comes with many caveats, at times more exclusive than inclusive.
Editor’s Note: This is a column that has been submitted by a contributor to the Thresher. 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 columns are factchecked to the best of our ability and edited for clarity and conciseness by Thresher editors.
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CORRECTIONS
In “Reading the radio waves: Radio Free Sid up close,” Robinson Vu is a member of the class of ’99. “Campus and community combine for Rice Chorale’s 9/11 memorial performance,” was written by Saahithi Sreekantham.
In “Rice Owls in the NFL,” Elijah Garcia plays for the New York Giants.
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COLUMN
ANANYA A. NAIR FOR THE THRESHER
Ananya A. Nair is a sophomore at McMurtry College. This column is the writer’s view on weekly Student Association Senate meetings. It is written to raise awareness and give information on these happenings to the rest of the SA members at large.
Freshman wins performative male contest, reflects on masculinity
SARAH BRADLEY / THRESHER
Competitors brought books, beanies and baggy pants to the Academic Quad to win the title of most performative male last Friday. Jack Fisher (second from right) won the competition.
CHARLIE CRUZ & RUBY GAO THRESHER STAFF & FOR THE THRESHER
Students showed o tote bags, vintage belts and matcha obsessions in hopes of being crowned the most performative male in the Academic Quad on Sept. 19.
A er seeing yers promoting the event across campus for over a week, a crowd of about 50 students gathered for Rice’s rst “performative male” contest.
Lora Wildenthal, the director of the Center for the Study of Women, Gender and Sexuality, said the event reminded her of a drag show.
“How do you perform not being a homophobic, heterosexual man?” said Wildenthal, also a professor of history. “Maybe the comic release is found in these layers of parody. It’s a straight men drag show.”
The winner of the competition was Jack Fisher, a Sid Richardson College freshman. Fisher suggested the satirical point of performative males can be connected to the bigger issue of how masculinity is de ned.
“It started as a satire, but I really do hope it opens a new light to certain issues and allows for it to almost become not a
satire,” Fisher said. “If we can open a new world where masculinity does not have to be de ned in a certain way, I think we’re looking at a better future.”
If we can open a new world where masculinity does not have to be defined in a certain way, I think we’re looking at a better future.
Jack Fisher SID RICHARDSON COLLEGE FRESHMAN
The event was organized by Mikeal Graham, who said he borrowed the idea a er seeing a friend’s medical school do it on Instagram.
The concept is part of a broader meme: In recent months, schools like the University of Pennsylvania, Yale University and Baylor University have staged similar contests.
“I just thought it would be funny,” said
Graham, a McMurtry College senior. “Males that perform for the attention of females can come show us what makes them the best performative males. Is it because they digest a lot of feminist literature? Are they an artist? Do they drink matcha?”
Graham said that the event also created a rare moment for students from di erent colleges to mingle.
“We’re really secluded in our residential college culture,” he said. “But if we can have congregated Rice events, it just helps di erent people meet each other and have something to talk about.”
Competitors strutted around the quad with props like “Pride and Prejudice” and Clairo’s albums. Fisher, who carried books and styled himself in baggy pants with a vintage belt, walked away with the most crowd applause and the uno cial title.
Darshon Singh, a Brown College sophomore, said he took inspiration from his female friends while preparing for the competition. He said he asked a lot of his friends for their most performative items, and then put on an attitude to try to impress women.
“I think it’s really funny,” said Isabella
Vergara Perez, a Sid Rich freshman. “People are cheering, people are having fun, just judging the guys. The participants are really funny — I really like how much effort they put into this.”
Vergara Perez said she heard about the contest from posters in Sid Rich and even helped a friend bring props for dramatic impact.
Sai Kasiraman, a Sid Rich freshman, said she believes that the rise of performative male culture will change how people think about gender issues.
“Performative male culture as a whole has de nitely, even if a little ironically, driven more attention towards women’s issues and women’s rights,” Kasiraman said.
Michael Dango, associate professor of English and director of the Program in Media Studies, said the nature of performativity could be explained by Judith Butler’s theory of gender performativity.
“We are all kind of performing gender all the time,” Dango said. “What happened when you have people intentionally performing gender is making us realize what we’re doing unconsciously all the time. And that can be a good thing for us to confront.”
Celebrates like Cam Newton
Places where 5-down is o en found
It may be to the face or on the wrist
Bad to the bone
Sleeper’s woe
Per person
A target, for Target
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Designation for Rice dorms
Jacket,pants,vest,shirt,tie,pocketsquare, belt,cu links
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401(k) alternative
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Tree with a single letter homophone
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International oil grp.
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Fixed one’s posture, perhaps
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2019 Tyler, The Creator release
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Rice research pilots sewerless urinals, graywater recycling to shrink campus carbon footprint
On the second oor of the Ralph S. O’Connor Building for Engineering and Science, researchers are testing a sewerless urinal that turns urine and ush water into clean water and liquid fertilizer.
Qilin Li, co-director of the National Science Foundation’s Nanosystems Engineering Research Center for Nanotechnology-Enabled Water Treatment, said that her team is leading this research effort.
“We started testing a urinal system where we capture urine and the ushed water and we extract clean water from that wastewater, and we also extract nutrients,” said Li, also a professor of civil and environmental engineering. “We extract the nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium to generate a liquid fertilizer, and then the clean water goes back to the urinal.”
Li said the urinal system can operate without connection to a municipal sewage system.
“The urinal can be truly what we call sewerless, so you don’t really have to have connection to a sewage system,” Li said. “That allows implementation in many di erent scenarios, with old cities in developed countries, but also places in the developing world where they don’t have sewage coverage.”
The urinal project is part of Rice’s broader sustainability e orts, which aim to reduce the university’s carbon footprint across campus operations. The initiative aligns with the university’s Climate Action Plan, which sets a goal to achieve carbon neutrality by 2030.
“If you look at the energy consumption for water, it is mostly used not to treat the water, it’s to transport water from the treatment plant to a customer,” Li said. “If you
can reuse the water locally, then you’re really eliminating that huge energy consumption for transmitting water.”
Li said that Rice is exploring smaller, distributed water treatment systems as an alternative to large centralized infrastructure.
Pedro Alvarez, NEWT’s founding director, said decentralized treatment can save energy by keeping the water local.
“That’s important so that we don’t have to deliver water over long distances through lengthy systems where the water gets lost or contaminated,” said Alvarez, also a professor of civil and environmental engineering. “A typical city spends 20% of its electricity moving water.”
Alvarez also said that a local decentralized water management
system would reduce water waste due to leakage. Currently, he said, about 16% of water is lost to leakage.
“Because we rely a lot on renewable energy — for example, light and photocatalysis — to destroy pollutants, we have a much lower carbon footprint,” Alvarez said.
By treating water locally, Alvarez said the degree of water ltration can be tailored to the speci c use of that water.
“If you’re going to use that water for irrigation of your lawn or golf course, or something else, then you don’t need to remove nitrogen and phosphorus because that could be a good fertilizer,” Alvarez said.
Applied to Rice’s campus, such systems could provide treated water for cooling towers, irrigation or
landscaping — reducing both energy consumption and chemical inputs while supporting sustainability goals.
Li said that because of the connection between water and energy, known as the water-energy nexus, managing water e ciently is crucial to reducing carbon emissions across campus.
Looking ahead, Alvarez said he not only hopes that Rice achieves carbon neutrality but also that the university becomes a hub for sustainability innovations that benefit human health and development.
“I think that Rice can become a one-stop [shop] to find solutions to complex water quality engineering challenges,” he said. “I always say that clean water can save more lives than doctors.”
SIENA DAMIANI / THRESHER
EMILY NGUYEN THRESHER STAFF
Rice Birding uncovers hidden lives of birds on campus
KONKOLA FOR THE THRESHER
It’s easy to miss two extra pairs of eyes staring down from a tree outside Keck Hall. If not for a group of 10 binocularholding students, they would have gone unnoticed.
Perched at the end of a low branch and enveloped on either side by scalloped leaves and criss-crossing branches are two eastern screech owls. Grant Parajuli ’23, an environmental engineering doctoral student, has led weekly bird walks with the Rice Student Birding Club for nearly two years, pointing out these hard-to-spot birds to other students.
“They’re going to be really obscured,” Parajuli said. “In these trees, if you follow these few branches all the way to the right, there are a couple of patches of blue sky. It’s in the lowest of those two.”
The birders convene at the Harris Gully Natural Area located near Wiess College every Friday at 6 p.m. No prior knowledge or experience is expected from participants: Extra binoculars are available for those who need them, and more experienced birders o en teach newcomers how to identify birds and use binoculars.
“We wanted to make birding as accessible as possible, even for people that have never thought about birding before in their lives,” said Sanjay Soni, president of RSBC.
During the club’s early stages, they focused on purchasing binoculars to give
out on walks.
Even with binoculars, it is di cult to spot the owls. For some observers, it took 15 minutes and multiple guided explanations from more seasoned birders to see the camou aged gray-brown tu s of an owl’s head.
We wanted to make birding as accessible as possible, even for people that have never thought about birding before in their lives.
Sanjay Soni PRESIDENT OF RICE STUDENT BIRDING CLUB
Once they did, delighted exclamations emanated from the growing crowd, now including a few passersby who grew curious about the students staring intently into otherwise unassuming foliage with angled-up binoculars and camera lenses.
“It happens more than you think,” Meghan Paral said of newcomers spontaneously joining the bird walks.
As Soni, a Duncan College senior, zoomed in on an owl’s expression with his camera, the group gathered to look through his view nder.
For Paral and Soni, both part of RSBC’s founding student group and
current executive board, the club has been a highlight of their undergraduate experience.
“I feel like I’ve done a lot of things at Rice, and this is the one I am most proud of,” Soni said.
As the walk began from Harris Gully, winding through a footpath along its outer perimeter, an overwhelmingly loud sound merged with conversations between birdwalkers. A mix between a cicada screech and the distorted doppler e ect of an ambulance siren, it built gradually until matching the volume of the human voices.
“Those are northern mockingbirds,” Parajuli said.
Mockingbirds, along with bluejays and cardinals, are common year-round sightings on campus. Birdwatchers o en hear them before seeing them.
“Mockingbirds can mimic sounds of their environment — car alarms, re alarms,” Soni said. “I have been tricked many times looking for a [particular] bird but it turns out it was actually a mockingbird.”
There are also two great horned owls who live in the oak grove behind Peter and Nancy Hu House. The pair has been on campus for the past three years, as long as Soni has been at Rice.
Other sightings include migrating birds. Hummingbirds are one of several species currently passing through campus during their migration north.
“Houston is a migratory highway for a lot of birds that will come up from South
America for the summer, then they’ll go back down for the winter,” said Paral, a Hanszen College senior.
For Sam Zhang, a Will Rice College freshman, the walks are a way to explore an interest in wildlife. Growing up in China, living in Canada and now attending Rice, Zhang said he has observed birds in various ecosystems.
“In the rst bird walk, you get an idea of what birds there generally are,” Zhang said. “And a erward, when you nd something that’s new, it feels like you’re discovering a new part of the ecosystem. I feel like that’s what a lot of people nd interesting about birding as well — the fact you can nd new species in familiar areas.”
RSBC o ers members the simple joy of noticing the o en-overlooked, Soni said.
I feel like that’s what a lot of people find interesting about birding as well — the fact you can find new species in familiar areas.
Sam Zhang WILL RICE
COLLEGE FRESHMAN
“We get to bring people together like this,” Soni said. “On a random Friday, when it’s still 80-something degrees outside, together we look at birds in the sun, and that’s just fantastic.”
ANNAMIKA
COURTESY SANJAY SONI
Rice is home to several bird species, including screech owls, ruby-throated hummingbirds and scaly-breasted munias. The Rice Student Birding Club takes weekly bird walks to look for native species.
R2’s 21st open mic lights up Ray’s Courtyard
New media studies major bridges criticism, creation
Lights swayed in the wind as students gathered in Ray’s Courtyard outside the Rice Memorial Center for R2: The Rice Review’s annual open mic night Sept. 18. Performers delivered original short stories, a “Veggie Tales” reenactment, stand-up ri s and even a death-metal reading of a poem, celebrating the release of the literary magazine’s 21st edition.
The open mic is R2’s signature kickoff event each fall, a chance to spotlight contributors from the previous year’s issue and spark interest in new submissions. But for many, the night is more than a showcase: it is one of the few times Rice students see the campus’s creative community on full display.
“We put on open mic night every year as a launch for our magazine,” said Rachel Parr, co-editor-in-chief of R2. “It helps us engage with the literary community at Rice and remind people how robust it is. On a campus so dominated by STEM, it’s important to remind people you don’t have to be just one thing. Some of the best writers and musicians I know are engineers, natural scientists or business majors who’ve kept their creative passions.”
The magazine is entirely student -run, from submissions and selections to design and editing. This year’s edition, released alongside the event, includes over 160 pages of poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction and visual art.
Parr, a Jones College junior, said the night drew an estimated 100 people at its peak. The crowd shifted throughout the evening as students stopped by to watch friends, eat snacks or take in the performances.
Jack Lee, a McMurtry College senior, performed with his band Maxwell’s Demon. Lee said the group had prepared an original song but improvised when the band realized they had no drums.
“My bandmate played guitar while I read a story from R2,” Lee said. “The reaction was fun — the MC called it thrilling — and I thought it went pretty decent considering it was last-minute.”
Other students debuted their own published work.
“I was the first performer and read an excerpt from my short story ‘Pyre,’” said Sarah Jun, a Brown College junior. “I was nervous and mostly relieved when it was over, but it was really cool to read while people followed along in the book.
Seeing my writing published — even in our student journal — means people have read and acknowledged it. As an English major, that’s a big accomplishment.”
Other audience members said they enjoyed the opportunity to engage with Rice’s artistic community.
“It’s really cool seeing the creative voices at Rice,” said Brannon Chapman, a Sid Richardson College freshman. “The crowd was friendly and willing to hear anything. …That makes it easier for people to get on stage.”
Chapman said the crowd’s attitude was a highlight of the event.
“There was a guitarist who restarted a couple of times,” he said. “The crowd stayed supportive, and she sounded great.”
Mason Kwon, a Sid Rich freshman, said the setting of the event added to its success.
“It felt cozy, almost like a cute bookstore with a whimsical vibe: trees, lights shifting in the wind,” Kwon said. “Everyone clearly wanted to be there.”
Some students said they arrived without expectations and stayed after being drawn in.
“I didn’t know anyone who was performing — I just dropped by,” said Diana Rudel, a Duncan College senior. “The energy was high, from improv at the beginning to heavy metal at the end. I’m glad I stayed.”
For R2 faculty advisor Ian Schimmel, that range of reactions is part of the fun of open mic.
“We talk about ‘literary citizenship’ — making space and platforming voices beyond our own to build an artistic community that sustains writing in general,” said Schimmel, an associate teaching professor of English and creative writing. “Events like this remind us Rice isn’t just a STEM school but a place of creativity and humanistic thought.”
For students like Jun, the night was also a personal milestone.
“I worked really hard on my short story and wanted it to be in R2,” she said. “Reading it aloud and seeing something come out of that effort — that was a really fun experience.”
For some, the event was their first encounter with R2. For others, it was proof of what already exists on campus: a creative community eager for more stages, Jun said.
“Once a year is hardly enough,” Jun said. “Events like this remind us what Rice students can do when we have the chance.”
ANGELICA HERNANDEZ THRESHER STAFF
Rice’s School of Humanities and Arts announced the development of a new media studies major and cinema and media studies minor in May as a part of their program in media studies. The major features an array of electives across 12 departments, o ering an emphasis on both media criticism and creation.
Michael Dango, director of the program in media studies, said the new major re ects the importance of media in modern society.
“ In our contemporary lives today, everything is mediated. It comes to us through TV, through the internet, through social media, through lm,” Dango said. “Especially in an age of misinformation, disinformation and other kind of social media problems. So in that kind of climate, we want to be able to critically study media.”
We’ve designed this major to be pretty loosely structured so that students can chart their own paths through it based off of their individual interests and passions.
Michael Dango DIRECTOR OF THE PROGRAM IN MEDIA STUDIES
The major requires students to take two introductory courses in lm and media studies and seven elective courses across three categories, ending with a senior capstone.
“ We’ve designed this major to be pretty loosely structured so that students can chart their own paths through it based o of their individual interests and passions,” Dango said. “At the same time, it’s important that students have a kind
of common foundation in the vocabulary needed to talk about lm and media.”
Students can focus on a particular area of interest through their electives, with over 100 options available in departments like anthropology, sociology, English and art. Dango said the major nishes with a senior capstone — a nal research paper, creative project or community placement.
“Having students pursuing these di erent kinds of projects, but being brought together in one space, allows you to learn from each other,” Dango said. “So if you’re making a lm, it’s great to talk to folks who are doing a research paper on lm and vice versa.”
Hayley O’Malley, assistant professor of art history, currently teaches MDIA 203: Introduction to Film and Media Analysis. She said the course is a great foundation not only for prospective majors, but for any student interested in lm and media.
“ Thinking about film as a language, what are the different components? And being able to not only enjoy, but think critically about the medium,” O’Malley said. “It’s a course that ranges across the full history of cinema from 1895 to the present across a lot of different cultural contexts and modes of production and genres.”
Dango said the Media Studies major encourages students to reexamine their relationship with the media they interact with and create.
“Being able to think about both the opportunities of media and the real crises of media is really important right now,” Dango said. “That’s why one of the things that we hope our major does is not only allow students to think critically about media and think creatively about making media, but also re ect on their own media consumption.”
“Especially as Rice is looking to prioritize and celebrate the arts … this major is very much in keeping with that philosophy of celebrating the need to think critically about di erent forms of media in our contemporary moment as well as empowering students to make new forms of media,” O’Malley said.
SELINA QIU / THRESHER
Michael Dango is the director of the Program in Media Studies.
COURTESY ERIC CHEN
Improv group Spontaneous Combustion plays a call-and-response game at open mic. Students gathered in Ray’s Courtyard for R2: The Rice Review’s 21st open mic night on Sept. 18.
CHARLIE CRUZ THRESHER STAFF
‘The
Summer I Turned Pretty’ S3 is ridiculous but addictive
CORA WAREH & YILIAN JIANG FOR THE THRESHER
From mid-July to mid-September, Wednesdays were for “The Summer I Turned Pretty” watch parties. Between 3 a.m. episode drops, iconic one-liners (“Belly, cacao is the bean”) and all-around subpar acting, the highly anticipated third season was certainly an ending to the adaptation of Jenny Han’s book series by the same name. Spoilers ahead.
The story follows Isabel “Belly” Conklin as she navigates a lifelong love triangle between Conrad and Jeremiah Fisher — two brothers — and chronicles their escapades at their summer house in Cousins Beach. The death of Susannah, the boys’ mother and a friend of Belly’s mother Laurel, in the beginning of the second season marks a turning point in the characters’ lives as they attempt to piece their lives together while wrestling with grief.
Shortly into the season, exuberant blonde Jeremiah multitasks apologizing for cheating and proposing to Belly, and for the next several episodes, they’re engaged. The cracks in their relationship quickly begin to show, with Jeremiah’s constant selfdeprecation and lack of direction forcing Belly into a motherly role. Belly takes on extra shi s and thri s her wedding dress, even canceling her term abroad in Paris to spend more time with her ance during his ninth semester of college.
The third season also explores evolving family dynamics, as Laurel and Belly butt heads in a mother-daughter showdown over the wedding; Belly’s best friend Taylor sacri ces her personal goals to save her mom Lucinda’s hair salon, causing us to wonder who is parenting whom; and Jeremiah’s dad
cuts him o over his irresponsibility and disowns Conrad for confessing his love for Belly the night before the wedding.
Ultimately, the wedding is called o , and Belly ees to Paris to discover who she really is without the Fisher brothers constantly lurking behind her shoulder, rebranding herself as “Isabel” and getting a bouncy bob along the way.
The theme of choice is a focal point of the show, and particularly in the season nale: Who will Belly choose — Conrad or Jeremiah? However, it is increasingly clear that Belly lacks true agency in her romantic life. She’s been conditioned to center her life around the Fisher brothers, a truth she acknowledges in her narration: “Susannah told me that when I was born she knew I was destined for one of her boys — Conrad or Jeremiah.”
leaves the audience (and Belly herself) wondering if nostalgia is the only reason they keep coming back to each other. Sure, Belly develops her own identity in Paris, but we can’t help but feel that Conrad’s reappearance, no matter how charming it seems, threatens to pull her back into a period of stagnation.
The show wants us to know that young women shouldn’t give up on their dreams, but now amends that parents don’t get to project these dreams, not even Susannah from beyond the grave. Belly’s choices are her own now, and Laurel recognizes this by supporting her daughter at her bridal shower.
The brooding oldest and his blueeyed younger brother are quite literally an inescapable curse; in the third season, when we think an ocean of separation and the introduction of the charming Benito (“sexy Latino Chalamet”) means she’s nally escaped the grasp of the Fishers, look who decides to show up on her front doorstep in a stalker-ish way intended to come o as pining: none other than Conrad Beck Fisher.
When the two spend a day exploring the city through Belly’s eyes, it’s sweet and awkward in a familiar way, and it feels like this new chapter of Belly’s life can include Conrad. At the same time, their reunion
The love story between Belly’s brother Steven and her BFF Taylor is a welcome break. Tech bro Steven and terri ed-ofcommitment Taylor feel like real people. Their relationship is about them, not about fate. When they decide to move to San Francisco together, we’re happy for them.
Amid its cheesiness, the show places female friendships in the limelight. When Belly chops her hair, we see a little bit of Laurel in her: stubbornness and erce independence. Taylor even becomes friends with Steven’s coworker Denise while mistakenly thinking he will ditch Taylor for Denise, the ultimate curly-haired icon.
The show is stubbornly Hallmarkesque and conveniently pairs all its Gen Z characters up. Belly and Conrad are endgame, and Jeremiah, who gets a redemption arc as an up-and-coming chef, gets with Denise at the last minute. Even if we thought these new relationships were healthy, the show wasn’t well-written enough to make us care. Also, let’s face it — a small part of us hoped Belly would choose herself. But wait — word on the street is that a “The Summer I Turned Pretty” movie is coming out, so we guess in a few years we’ll be tuning back into Cousins Beach for yet another summer.
Brochstein piece mixes pastries with surreal imagination
JOCELYN CHEN / THRESHER
SOFIA KALOFONOS FOR THE THRESHER
While studying in the Brochstein Pavilion before its 2024 redesign, Yifan Jiang entered a tunnel of caffeinated hyperfixation. Her mind began to wander. She imagined the sunlight hitting her eyes as the flash of a bunny running by and the noise pollution as a hurricane raging outside the window. Walking the tightrope between imagination and reality, Jiang conceived the concept for “Cafeteria.”
The mural, now on display at Brochstein, is the seventh installment of the Moody Center for the Arts’ “Off the Wall” series. Each year, one artist from the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston’s Glassell School of Art residency program is selected to design a sitespecific mural. With a background in surrealism and impressionism, Jiang brings her distinct voice to the project through a mixed-media approach.
Houstonian pastries were drawn digitally by Jiang and transposed onto
vinyl. She said the vinyl layer serves as a mundane advertisement for pastries, while a layer of acrylic paint represents surreal shadows that made the piece magical.
The pavilion itself sets the stage for Jiang’s vision. Surrounded by floorto-ceiling windows, the glass building glows with natural light and offers panoramic views of Rice’s oak-lined Central Quad. Minimalist furniture, white walls and a steady hum of conversation create an atmosphere where imagination can drift freely, Jiang said.
“It is a collection of all the little thoughts I had while sitting here,” she said. “They don’t exist, I guess, but in a way they do, at least in my impression or memory of them.”
Jiang is a self-described “diasporic artist,” and her work reflects a life of constant movement. Born in Tianjin, China, she spent her childhood traveling and moving between different countries, including Canada, New Zealand and Scotland. Through her travels, Jiang said she learned to understand diverse perspectives.
“Whatever you see as your reality is dependent on the culture and that changes how you see things fundamentally,” Jiang said.
From each place she visits, Jiang said she takes a slice of artistic inspiration. During her residency, she immersed herself into Houston’s Latino community, which she described as full of life.
While designing “Cafeteria,” Jiang visited Mexican cafes for inspiration. She enjoyed a range of pastry genres — including conchitas, caracoles and panaderos, all of which are featured on the mural.
When Jiang was younger, she said she wanted to be a biologist. While working
on her master’s degree at Columbia University, she took classes across visual arts, humanities and natural sciences, developing a passionate interest in scientific philosophy.
“I really like things that are deeply banal, because if you stare at them long enough they start to become insane,” Jiang said. “Everything simple can become magical.”
I really like things that are deeply banal, because if you stare at them long enough they start to become insane ... Everything simple can become magical.
Yifan Jiang VISUAL ARTIST
Jiang does not consider art and science as independent disciplines. Art, she said, requires constant experimentation, and science, at its core, is the pursuit of universal truths.
For Jiang, this constant rebalancing between disciplines mirrors her artistic process. Creating art requires her to dismantle assumptions and work through the uncertainty of discovery.
“You have this ship that’s at sea, and there are things that get proven wrong over time, and you just switch out the boards of your ship, but you’re always at sea and you don’t sink,” Jiang said. “You just try to keep afloat while you change everything and renew every theory. And eventually you arrive at the horizon of truth.”
“Cafeteria” will be on exhibit in Brochstein Pavilion until Aug. 23, 2026.
COURTESY NETFLIX
Yifan Jiang paints directly on vinyl to create “Cafeteria,” on view at Brochstein Pavilion.
minute to give Grambling a 1-0 lead.
Despite an FAU goal being taken away by an o side penalty in the 81st minute, FAU capitalized on another scoring chance just two minutes later. Florida Atlantic leveled the score in the 83rd minute, tying the game at one goal apiece.
With just four minutes to play, senior defender Carysn Martz drew a foul in the box and gave Rice the opportunity to score the deciding penalty. Chancey stepped up and netted the game-winner to give Rice the 2-1 lead.
“I slotted it to the corner, and [the goalie] didn’t even go, so it was a great goal,” Chancey said.
Rice held onto the lead as the nal score went 2-1, securing the team’s rst conference win of the season.
“I think coming out to the game, we know when to turn it on and we know when to go a er it,” Chancey said. “[The] rst twenty minutes maybe weren’t our best moments, but we know how to nish a game.”
On Sunday against Grambling State, Rice applied early o ensive pressure, but Grambling State drew rst blood. Coming o the counterattack, Grambling’s Liana Bryant had a well-placed shot in the sixth
Forced to respond, the Owls created o ensive chances with back-to-back blocked shots leading to three straight corner kicks, none of which gave Rice the equalizer. Nonetheless, the team showed a change in mentality as they looked for a response to the early Grambling goal.
“We were trying to keep our intensity high at the beginning, and we didn’t do it, but then we came back and got intensity, got back in the game,” Jaeger said.
It wasn’t until the 31st minute that Rice eventually broke through the Grambling defense. Freshman forward Laurel Kelley drew a penalty just inside the box, allowing Chancey the opportunity to tie the game with a decisive gametying penalty.
The score remained tied 1-1 through the rst 45 minutes, but some important hal ime adjustments from Lee gave the o ense new life.
“There was nothing more to say than hit the ball to your feet and go attack and go do what we do,” Chancey said. “We do it all the time in practice, we just gotta do it in the game.”
Rice’s o ensive attack surged in the early second half. A er a shot attempt by Quarterman was narrowly saved, Rice took the lead in the 63rd minute.
Chancey’s ninth corner kick of the day was tapped in by Jaeger to give the Owls a 2-1 lead.
“I practice [corner kicks] every day,” Chancey said. “They just curve into the back post, and I look for my towers. There’s two of them back there, and they just hit the ball in like they’re good at.”
We measure ourselves by how good a teammate we are and how hard we work.
Brian Lee
SOCCER HEAD COACH
In the 73rd minute, Rice’s 12th corner of the game produced another set-piece goal for Rice, their third of the match. This time, Chancey’s corner was headed in cleanly by junior mid elder Eileen Albers to put Rice ahead 3-1.
“Especially in the women’s game, corners are really hard to defend, and we’ve got some big, tall, good players,” Lee said. “Eileen’s really good in the air, Jayden’s really good in the air and Leah’s service is fantastic.”
Rice held onto the 3-1 lead a er
consistent o ensive and defensive performances. The team nished with 12 shots on goal, and Ruf had six saves once again, as Rice secured the come-frombehind victory.
“Being down and then coming back from being down is a really good motivator,” Jaeger said. “This is a team we should’ve been on top of at the beginning of the game, so we made sure to make up for it in the end.”
A er this week’s victories, Rice improved to 7-1-1 on the season and 4-0-0 at home. They will look to remain in the win column on Thursday in Philadelphia as they take on Temple University.
On Tuesday, the Owls maintained their ranking as No. 25 in the United Soccer Coaches Poll.
“I think the girls are happy about it, but they understand that doesn’t mean anything,” Lee said. “It’s not how we measure ourselves. We measure ourselves by how good a teammate we are and how hard we work.”
Chancey said that nothing about the team’s mentality has changed, but she’s excited to put the rest of the nation on notice.
“I don’t think it changed [our mentality] one bit. I think it just proved to everybody else how good we are,” Chancey said.
“Rice on three!”
HONG LIN TSAI / THRESHER
FROM FRONT PAGE SOCCER
KAIRI MANO / THRESHER
Rice soccer players stand for the national anthem during a game against Florida Atlantic University at Holloway Field Sept. 18. The Owls, ranked No. 25 in the country, won the match 2-1.
KAIRI MANO / THRESHER
Rice soccer goalkeeper Kirsten Ruf kicks the ball during a home game against Florida Atlantic University Sept. 18. Ruf was recently named American Conference Goalkeeper of the Week.
Rice named a host institution for 2026 March Madness
ANDERSEN PICKARD SPORTS EDITOR
March Madness is coming to Houston, and Rice will have a major role in the tournament.
The Harris County Houston Sports Authority announced Tuesday that Rice has replaced the University of Houston as the host institution for the 2026 NCAA Men’s Basketball Regional at Toyota Center.
The University of Houston was no longer a suitable option to serve as the
host institution due to the possibility that it would participate in the tournament next March. NCAA policy dictates that a program may not play in a regional tournament that it is hosting. By passing the responsibility to Rice, UH will now be eligible to play in the Houston-based regional, should they qualify.
An o cial HCHSA statement said that UH was replaced by Rice “to avoid potential impacts on tournament bracket placement.”
The annual men’s tournament comprises
Olympic goalkeeper,
JONAH TONTIPLAPHOL FOR THE THRESHER
This past o season, the Rice women’s soccer team made a high-pro le addition to an already decorated coaching sta Jane Campbell — a Stanford University soccer aluma, Olympic bronze medalist and current goalkeeper for the Houston Dash — joined head coach Brian Lee’s team as a volunteer coach.
“When the spot opened up, I thought maybe this is something I could swing and just really expand my knowledge of the game,” Campbell said. “As a player, you may think you know everything, but there’s so much that goes into it behind the scenes … I thought it was an opportunity I couldn’t really pass up.”
Lee had previously worked with Allysha Chapman, another Dash player, as a volunteer coach in 2019, and felt that Campbell was a good t to serve in a similar role.
“Allysha’s a lot like Jane in that she’s earned every step of the way, and had to ght, scratch and claw to put in an incredible amount of work to do it,” Lee said. “I was really looking for someone to play that same role again.”
While Campbell is internationally renowned for her goalkeeping skills, she said her experience navigating the various challenges of collegiate soccer as a student makes her well-equipped to coach at Rice.
“I think Stanford is very similar to Rice academically,” Campbell said. “As an athlete
seven rounds, narrowing down the eld from 68 teams to one champion over the course of several weeks. Rice will host the regional Sweet 16 and Elite 8 rounds at the Toyota Center, home of the Houston Rockets.
As the host institution, Rice will be responsible for providing sta and coordinating logistics of the two rounds within the South Regional.
“We are thrilled to partner with the Harris County–Houston Authority to host the 2026 NCAA Men’s Basketball Regional,”
wrote Tommy McClelland, vice president and director of athletics, in the statement issued by HCHSA. “Rice University is deeply grateful for the Houston community’s support. This is a remarkable opportunity to showcase our city’s passion for basketball and to demonstrate our commitment to being outstanding community partners, ensuring this event highlights the best of the City of Houston.”
The Sweet 16 and Elite Eight will be played on March 26 and 28, respectively.
Dash pro makes an impact in rst season at Rice
at a university like that, a lot of people on the outside think that athletics comes rst, but at these universities, it’s almost the opposite. It was stressful at times, but I think it really taught me at a young age how to time manage and get my priorities in check.”
Campbell said it can still get tricky to manage her time, but now she is balancing her jobs as a coach and athlete, not as a student and athlete.
“Coach Brian’s been so nice. I think he’s very, very understanding of what’s going on,” Campbell said. “He just says [to] come when I can, and I would love to be there every day, especially in training ... But it’s been super fun to be at the games and cheer on the girls and just be a resource for them.”
Campbell has been a unique resource for one student athlete in particular: junior goalkeeper Kirsten Ruf. In her rst season in goal, Ruf said Campbell has been helpful in this transition.
“It’s nice to have her around,” said Ruf, who has a 0.787 save percentage this season and won American Conference Goalkeeper of the Week Sept. 8 for her clean sheet against Lamar University. “As someone that has been playing goalie a long time, I’ve watched her play throughout her career on TV growing up. Just being able to see her work ethic and throughout her career has been pretty cool. She brings the element of professionalism.”
“Professionalism” was a common theme in descriptions of Campbell.
“I think she’s one of the most professional
players in the United States in how she operates,” Lee said. “Jane adds another dimension of being here in Houston and having U.S. national team experience.”
Campbell’s established role on the Dash has helped her foster an increased connection between them and the Rice team.
“I think with the Dash, a big goal of ours is to connect with the community,” Campbell said. “I hope that the girls see me not as this person in this big spotlight. I hope they can understand that I’m just a player like they are, and now a coach for them … I hope it brings us all closer together. That would mean a lot to me.”
The Owls currently sit at 7-1-1 and are ranked 25th in the country. This is the rst time the team has been ranked since 2021.
NCAA decision reshapes football transfer portal
ANDERSEN PICKARD SPORTS EDITOR
The NCAA announced Sept. 17 that it will eliminate the spring transfer portal window for football. College football will now have just one o season transfer portal window.
According to Chris Hummer of CBS Sports, the NCAA Administrative Committee initially proposed that the o season portal window would open Jan. 2 and close Jan. 11. However, no o cial decision has been made, and the discussion on length and timing is expected to continue through October.
For Rice football, an early-January transfer window would align with the program’s calendar.
“The earlier, the better, just so we can [get ahead of] identifying kids, building those relationships, getting them on campus, trying to get them to commit to Rice and then being able to get them into classes,” said Steven Jackson, Rice football’s general manager. “[Being] around for winter workouts and spring ball and really becoming part of the family is important.”
Jackson said that the NCAA weighed several options for a transfer portal adjustment and kept its member schools in the loop. Eliminating the initial offseason window and leaving the spring portal was on the table, but the NCAA ultimately decided to settle on a January window.
“We knew change was coming, or at least was on the table, and had an idea where it was leaning toward the end,” Jackson said. “They make decisions and then you’ve got to nd ways to be successful with them.”
Last o season, college football players
could enter the portal from Dec. 9 to 28, which was much closer to the end of the regular season and even overlapped with many programs’ playo games. The portal reopened from April 16 to 25. While players cannot enter the portal a er a window closes, they are permitted to remain in
the portal as long as necessary to contact other schools.
Shortening and moving the upcoming o season’s transfer portal window will give Rice an opportunity to lay the foundation for the program, Jackson said.
“Having your entire team together for spring ball and not losing guys a er spring practice is a big positive,” Jackson said. “It gives you more time to instill your culture, to create that family atmosphere and to build a real program.”
There will be additional factors and work for the program’s administrative sta , such as working on a tight deadline to get incoming transfers enrolled in the university. NCAA policy dictates that student-athletes must be enrolled in courses full-time to be eligible for practices and games.
“The timing of it is a little bit tough,” Jackson said. “To try to get kids here, it’s a very quick turnaround from the beginning of January to when classes start. It’s de nitely going to be a lot of work, but overall, we’re ready.”
While the length and timing of the o season transfer portal are changing, Jackson explained that the Owls’ approach remains the same: identify players who can impact the future of Rice football.
“We’re always evaluating, we’re always coaching, we’re always developing,” Jackson said. “We’re going to develop our young men to be the best version of themselves and be the best they can be to help us go out and win championships.”
KAIRI MANO / THRESHER Rice soccer volunteer coach Jane Campbell speaks with another member of the coaching sta following a 2-1 win over Florida Atlantic University at Holloway Field Sept. 18.
NHU CHU / THRESHER
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.