VOLUME 108, ISSUE NO. 2 | STUDENT-RUN SINCE 1916 | RICETHRESHER.ORG | WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 30, 2023
Rice responds to Supreme Court decision on affirmative action BRANDON CHEN
NEWS EDITOR
JENNIFER LIU / THRESHER
The Supreme Court rejected affirmative action at colleges and universities across the nation in a watershed decision on June 29. Following the decision, President Reggie DesRoches and Provost Amy Dittmar wrote in an email to the student body that they were “disappointed” by the ruling and that their commitment to diversity does not shift, echoing a statement from March. Dittmar reaffirmed that Rice will adapt its strategies — within the confines of the law — to ensure a diverse and inclusive learning environment. “It is important that our students and prospective students can learn from professors and work in labs with research scientists who look like them,” Dittmar wrote in an email to the Thresher. “In recent years, we’ve hired our most diverse faculty classes, for example, doubling the number of Black professors in the past five years and increasing our female hires.” Vice President for Enrollment Yvonne Romero da Silva said that the Office of Admissions had about a year to anticipate the Court’s decision, and worked closely with legal counsel and university leadership to review the impact of the restrictions surrounding race in Rice admissions and initiatives. While the Court limited the ability of institutions to consider an applicant’s race in and of itself as a factor in admissions decisions, universities may still consider an individual’s lived experiences, including those related to their race, experiences of racial discrimination, or the racial composition of their neighborhoods and schools. Romero da Silva said that the admissions team has always been trained to consider each student as an individual. “Even though the Supreme Court ruling is not allowing us to track race in the [admissions] process, our team is already trained to look at those unique voices that
It’s not just you: August sets heat records PRAYAG GORDY
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
This August has been the hottest in Houston since at least 1969, according
to a Thresher analysis of weather data captured at the George Bush Intercontinental Airport. Through Aug. 26, daily highs have averaged 102.9 degrees, surpassing the previous mark of
101.4 degrees set in 2011. In fact, Houston has set record temperatures in 13 days through
SEE WEATHER PAGE 3
Houston’s heat wave is breaking August records
2023 daily highs, in red, have often exceeded 53-year extremes, shown in orange shading. Temperatures reached 109 degrees Aug. 24.
2023 daily highs
Extreme daily highs Above average daily highs Normal daily highs PRAYAG GORDY / THRESHER DATA COURTESY NATIONAL CLIMATIC DATA CENTER
students are bringing and to value it,” Romero da Silva said. “[They are trained to consider] the full lived experiences that might be underrepresented in the Rice community and to consider that in thinking about their achievements and what they’ve done and the voices that they can bring to campus.” Araceli Lopez, the executive director of Student Success Initiatives, said that she has seen an increase in enrollment of underrepresented students over time and hopes that students continue to feel welcomed and included at Rice. Dittmar also wrote that even with a diverse student body, faculty and staff, the university still has a responsibility to ensure that the students it admits feel like they belong and have equal opportunities for success. “We’ve been very intentional about recruiting more underrepresented students and minorities, whether that’s through socioeconomic status, race, ethnicity, geographical status or international students,” Lopez said. “I also think that our Rice Investment, coupled with our intentional efforts of who we’re recruiting and trying to get into Rice, provide an accessible education to more students.” Rice is going into its second year of being a loan-free institution, and hopes to be affordable through programs such as the Rice Investment, which awards full-tuition, fees and room and board to students with a household income less than $75,000 and full-tuition to students with a household income between $75,000 and $140,000. In 1996, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision in Hopwood v. Texas ruled that universities under its jurisdiction — including Rice — could not consider race in admissions. However, in 2003, the Supreme Court abrogated Hopwood in Grutter v. Bollinger, meaning that universities in the
SEE AFFIRMATIVE ACTION PAGE 2
‘Life is just a classroom’ SEJAL GUPTA
FOR THE THRESHER With a Rice Swifties GroupMe exceeding 500 students and a dedicated Instagram page to boot, it makes sense that when COLL 167 ‘Miss Americana: The Evolution and Lyrics of Taylor Swift’ opened on Esther, the first section filled up within the hour. Katherine Jeng, the instructor of COLL 167, said she has been analyzing Swift’s lyrics since childhood. “I would load up her lyrics onto my little iPad and just write all my favorite lines and what they meant,” Jeng, a Hanszen College junior, said. “That’s kind of how I started. I knew I wanted to be an English major back then. I just love analyzing poetry and analyzing music.” After hearing about other universities’ courses on Swift (see University of Texas’ “Taylor Swift Songbook” or Rolling Stone’s Brittany Spanos’ course at New
SEE TAYLOR SWIFT PAGE 7