VOLUME 107, ISSUE NO. 12 | STUDENT-RUN SINCE 1916 | RICETHRESHER.ORG | WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2022
Tech layoffs, hiring freezes hit Rice community
U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo grapples with life, death and art BONNIE ZHAO
MANAGING EDITOR
NDIDI NWOSU / THRESHER
BRANDON CHEN
FOR THE THRESHER
As layoff and hiring freezes increase across the tech industry, computer science students and alumni are among those at Rice expressing concern for their current and future job prospects. In recent weeks, Elon Musk halved Twitter’s staff, Meta said it was firing 11,000 employees, Amazon announced plans to cut approximately 10,000 jobs and other tech firms such as Lyft and Stripe also announced layoffs. Charles Lussier, a Wiess College senior, said that he has noticed a shift in the recruiting process this year. “[Internships were] pretty much grooming you and investing in you and planning on giving you a return offer. That [was] kind of the culture beforehand,” said Lussier. “This year is completely different. Internships are no longer a guarantee that you’re actually getting a return offer.” Many companies have also been firing recent hires from the class of 2022, reducing salaries for mid level positions and instituting hiring freezes across the board. Recent Rice alum Abdelrahman Abouzeid (‘22) was one of 11,000 employees recently let go from Meta. “Working at Meta/Facebook has been my goal since freshman year, and I only got to spend a few weeks [in the Engineering Bootcamp] at the company before I was laid off,” Abouzeid said in a LinkedIn post. “I honestly enjoyed these last few weeks. I learned a lot, met some very smart folks and pushed code for production.” For recent international graduates like Abouzeid, the loss of a job also impacts their ability to stay in the U.S. While on the F-1 Visa, individuals have a grace period of
I would caution all the younger generations ... to be prepared to get fired. I think that’s going to happen to most of us, but we should not fret because at the end of the day, we can get up off our feet. Charles Lussier WIESS COLLEGE SENIOR
90 unemployment days before they must leave the country. Companies’ recent hiring freezes and slowdowns are also being seen by students in the recruitment process. “It’s very obvious,” Lussier said. “All the spots were on the [hiring] portal when we’re applying for stuff, and then they’re constantly closing up. I don’t know if that’s because they’re filling them quicker or they’re just closing them, but I’m assuming they’re closing them in light of the economy.” Michael Wong, a Sid Richardson College sophomore, said that there has been a general increase in student concern over finding internships in the tech industry, specifically working for one of the prominent American technology companies: Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Google (FAANG). “You definitely see a bit of panic,” Wong said. “We’re just trying to cast a wider net right now and just trying to apply everywhere. I think a lot of people that go into computer science specifically
want to work in industry. The mentality is, ‘FAANG, FAANG, FAANG. I gotta work for one of those companies.’ I think at this point it’d be a good idea to maybe not set my sights on, ‘Oh, I’m only going to be happy,’ or ‘I’ll only feel like I’ll be fulfilled if I work at one of those companies.’” Ann McAdam Griffin, director of employer relations at the Center for Career Development, said that while there has been a slowdown in the tech and software industries, overall job outlook for the Class of 2023 is still very optimistic. “The skills and competencies that a student with a major in computer sciences develop are sought after by a wide variety of industries, not only tech,” Griffin said. “Students at Rice, in computer science and all majors, have options for meaningful, challenging career opportunities.” CCD wait times for advising appointments are currently two weeks, up from the usual one week for this time of year, according to Griffin.
SEE HIRING FREEZES PAGE 3
Volleyball gets final chance to reverse the C-USA tournament curse CADAN HANSON
SENIOR WRITER
Even though they’ve won 48 of their last 50 conference regular season games, the Rice volleyball team has not won a Conference USA tournament since 2018. After three straight years as the conference’s runners-up, the Owls will finally look to reverse their fortunes in what will be their final postseason in C-USA. This year, the No. 22 Owls enter the tournament with an almost perfect conference record of 13-1, and 23-3 overall. According to head coach Genny Volpe, the
team is excited to jump into postseason volleyball. “We are very excited to be competing in the C-USA Tournament,” Volpe said. “It’s our last season in C-USA, and we obviously want a chance to win the tournament and earn the auto bid to the NCAA’s.” Each of their last three C-USA Tournament appearances have ended with the Owls losing to Western Kentucky University in the championship game. Although they continue to fall short of winning the coveted conference trophy, Volpe said that the past losses won’t impact the mindset going into the weekend.
“Nothing really changes for us,” Volpe said. “This is a different year, and a different team.” This year, however, is similar to previous years in that plenty of signs point to a fourth straight meeting between Western Kentucky and Rice. The two teams enter the tournament as the top two seeds, after going a combined 27-0 against the rest of the conference. In their lone meeting of the year, the Hilltoppers won a five-set nailbiter, ruining the Owls’ perfect conference record.
SEE VOLLEYBALL PAGE 11
America’s first Native American U.S. Poet Laureate, Joy Harjo, stopped by Rice’s Brockman Hall for a reading of her newly published poetry collection, “Weaving Sundown in a Scarle Light: 50 Poems for 50 Years,” on the rainy evening of Monday, Nov. 14. Following the reading was an on-stage conversation with 2022 Texas Poet Laureate Lupe Mendez, during which Harjo shared harrowingly intimate details of her view on art, life, death and loss. The opera hall was warmed by a packed audience of poetry enthusiasts holding the first edition of the celebrated poet’s new selection published this November, which consists of the best poems across decades of her influential career. Harjo began the night discussing her revelation of the symmetry and spiritual connection between her favorite art forms: poetry and music. “In our Muskogee Creek community, we have songs for everything,” Harjo said. “I think all of us did, and we’ve lost touch with that — songs for getting out, songs for making a good grade on paper, songs to help the plants, songs for grief, songs for joy. That is poetry.” Unsurprisingly, Harjo is also a musician herself. For the reading of one of her poems, “Grace,” Harjo rendered it as a song and performed the poem chanting in a slow, melodic tune. She later shares that her passion for music actually preceded her love for poetry. “I had no plans to be a poet, I was always an artist. I was not a word person, although I read constantly,” Harjo said. “[My journey started] when I heard Native poets and heard that they were writing about our lives, but in the small, well-crafted little moments. I just started writing, and it took over. It made no sense at all … but my poetry spirit is very strong.” Many of the poems Harjo writes grapple with the themes of loss and grief. Words carry strength and impact, Harjo believes, so she is intentional with her power to write poems and hopes to send positivity into the world.
[My journey started] when I heard Native poets and heard that they were writing about our lives, but in the small, well crafted little moments. Joy Harjo U.S. POET LAUREATE
“I wrote [“Creation Story”] when a beloved poet friend passed. But it was also about our country. It’s about a family. It’s about the importance, again, of words,” Harjo said. “It’s hard to write these kinds of poems … I was thinking about how this country will continue, how our families will continue given all of the assaults, the various discrimination, our children dealing with [drugs such as fentanyl] … and thinking about what kind of story is this and yet always believing in that thread of love that goes through everything.” This article has been cut off for print. Read the full article at ricethresher.org.