VOLUME 107, ISSUE NO. 9 | STUDENT-RUN SINCE 1916 | RICETHRESHER.ORG | WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 26, 2022
DesRoches DesRoches inaugurated inaugurated
as Rice’s eighth president VIOLA HSIA
SENIOR WRITER
BRANDON CHEN / THRESHER As part of the inauguration, Rice organized a drone light show on each night of the festivities.
Trans students at Rice talk difficulties, community MORGAN GAGE
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Editor’s note: A student interviewed for this story was given the option of remaining anonymous due to currently pursuing restorative justice with another student. The anonymous student was given a false name, which has been marked with an asterix on first mention. What is community? For Marina Klein, it’s little queer people in your phone, chatting and exchanging compliments and advice in a GroupMe. “[People in the group chat are] so supportive … they’re always there for you when you need them to be,” Klein, a McMurtry College sophomore, said. “You can be there for them when you have the time as well, because that’s how community works.” From housing assignments, to using the bathroom, to the name on a student ID, some everyday aspects of the Rice experience come with additional challenges for transgender students at Rice. For Klein, being away from Rice over the summer gave them the time and space to reflect on their gender. When they returned to Rice for the fall semester, they said that they felt like they were having to “re-meet” people while actively redefining themself. “I [thought] this kind of makes sense as to why I was struggling so
Reginald DesRoches was officially inaugurated as the eighth president of Rice University on Saturday, Oct. 22. The ceremony, which followed a two-day series of events leading up to the investiture, included student and faculty representatives, in addition to delegates from around 150 universities and organizations. “The event marks a huge milestone in my career and in my life and the life of my family,” DesRoches said in an email to the Thresher. “It signifies what I have been able to accomplish because of the support so many have given me. It also foreshadows what is to come: opportunity for everyone and an exciting journey that I’m confident will take Rice to the next level.” After the initial procession, in which undergraduate delegates from all eleven residential colleges, members of the Graduate Student Association and faculty members marched, the ceremony opened with remarks from Robert Ladd, one of the four co-chairs of the Inauguration planning committee. “This ceremony marks an important and highly anticipated chapter for Rice,” Ladd said at the event. “All of us, the board, our faculty, our students, staff and administration, look forward to continuing and extending the achievements of the university under the leadership of Reginald DesRoches.”
much last semester [and] didn’t feel myself — it’s because I wasn’t seeing myself,” Klein said. “I realized that I didn’t really have time for that [reflection], or like the mental capacity for that at Rice … It’s almost like you don’t have time to be queer, if you don’t already have your stuff figured out, which most of us don’t.” While coming out has been awkward at times, Klein also said that people have largely reacted positively, though they wish conversations about gender and pronouns would be more normalized. Cleo Thompson, a Martel College senior, began openly identifying as non-binary at the start of their junior year. “I didn’t really start going by Cleo or being a little bit more gender nonconforming in how I dress until near the end of junior year,” Thompson said. “As a first-semester senior, that is still very much a recent change, so obviously I still run into plenty of people that I knew as a freshman [or] a sophomore who still call me by my dead name or just do not recognize me, which is dandy, because then I get to reintroduce myself.” Before coming to Rice, Charlie Maxson said that they found out that they were placed in Jones College – a college that didn’t have many genderneutral bathrooms.
SEE TRANS AT RICE PAGE 6
Fred Oswald, another co-chair, said the committee wished to create a ceremony that reflected on the legacy of previous presidents while simultaneously paving a new way forward for DesRoches’ term. “We definitely thought of how we seek to reflect on the important accomplishments and progress under President Leebron,” Oswald said. “But then we also wish to strike new ground. As we head into this exciting new future under President DesRoches’ leadership, [attendees] see that Rice is not about any one student, or any one faculty member or any one staff member. It’s really about all of us moving forward together.” The opening remarks were followed by the national anthem, sung by a graduate student at the Shepherd School of Music Tony Domino, an invocation from Reverend Rodney J. Armstrong, greetings from Student Association President Gabrielle Franklin, GSA President Joshua Moore, President of the Association of Rice Alumni Toya Cirica Belle, Chair of the staff council Korin Brody and speaker for faculty senate Alexandra Kieffer. “As president, we support your plans to develop Rice as an agent of change in the world through its contribution to knowledge,” Franklin said in her speech, “We know that this president will raise Rice to an institution that all of us can be proud to hail from, regardless of where we come from, what we study here and where we go next.”
SEE REGGIE PAGE 2
Roberts’ clutch goal gives soccer a storybook win on Senior Night CADAN HANSON
For the first 89 minutes and 55 seconds of the game, neither team could SENIOR WRITER find a way to score. A large part of the Junior defender Jaden Roberts picked scoreless spell was senior goalkeeper the perfect time for her first career goal. Bella Killgore, who notched her seventh With 10 seconds on the clock and the shutout of the season and contributed Owls’ Senior Night game tied at zero, three saves to the Owls’ efforts, including graduate forward Grace Collins lined up a crucial diving save in the 70th minute. According to for a corner kick and Killgore, the team sent it into a sea of didn’t play their Owls and Western best but was able Kentucky University to find a way to win Hilltoppers. The ball It sure looked like it when it mattered bounced to Roberts, was going to be nil-nil, most. whose shot found but what a great goal “I think we the back of the net, for Jaden … That’s a didn’t play that sending the Owls well as a team, but into celebration as Senior Night that they sometimes you just the clock hit zero. will remember. It was have to find a way After the game, a great way to send to win and wow Roberts recounted off a wonderful group what a goal from the dream goal. Jaden,” Killgore “The ball just that’s meant a lot to the said. bounced my way,” program. While they were Roberts said. “I unable to find the know my left foot Brian Lee net until the game’s is not the greatest HEAD COACH final seconds, the but today it worked out great. I think it’s like one of those Owls’ offense controlled a large portion dreams where you score on your senior of the game, with 13 shots, compared to night. All four years accumulated to this the Hilltoppers’ seven. one game, and it feels amazing. It’s very surreal, I can’t fully explain it.” SEE SOCCER PAGE 11