VOLUME 108, ISSUE NO. 23 | STUDENT-RUN SINCE 1916 | RICETHRESHER.ORG | WEDNESDAY, MARCH 27, 2024
Senate debates resolution to boycott, divest SA funds from Israel-aligned companies Measure to adopt BDS guidelines for SA spending faces legal questions
Public Publicparties partiesto toresume, resume, Martel Martelsundeck sundeckoff-limits off-limitsfor formorning morningparty party RIYA MISRA
Pub will stay 21+ through Beer Bike, become 18+ April 11
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Campus-wide public parties will resume in time for Beer Bike and Brown College’s Bacchanalia, Dean of Undergraduates Bridget Gorman announced in an email to students March 22. The sundeck will permanently be off-limits for Martel College’s morning party, and colleges will not be allowed to reschedule or host additional public parties this semester. Pub nights will remain restricted to attendees 21 or older through Beer Bike. Starting April 11, Pub general manager Maya Gerke said Pub nights will reopen to attendees 18 and older. Gorman had previously issued a ban on public parties, restricted Pub attendance and convened an alcohol policy advisory committee in November 2023, following the early shutdown of Wiess College’s Night of Decadence. The APAC met seven times between December 2023 and March 2024 to discuss “alcohol-related health/safety and behavioral patterns across campus,” according to their final report. Gorman
NDIDI NWOSU / THRESHER wrote that she will accept most of the APAC’s recommendations in full, which includes designating the sundeck off-limits. Martel’s Beer Bike Coordinators declined to comment.
The ability to drink on campus is a privilege, and not a right. Bridget Gorman DEAN OF UNDERGRADUATES
Publics and Pub All undergraduate events with an expected attendance of over 200 must have mandatory ticketing, the report wrote. Public parties with indoor and outdoor spaces will be limited to the indoor capacity to prevent “overflow.” Attendees must present their student IDs to cross-check with the
ticketing list. Holden Koch, Brown’s social coordinator and social vice president, said line management will be the biggest goal of Bacchanalia this year. He estimated capacity will be around 750 to 800 attendees, though they won’t organize an outdoor beer garden this year. “Our biggest goal is to try to reduce the amount of time spent in line and the amount of people in line,” Koch said. “[Last year], our line was really decorated and we think that really helped set the tone of … ‘Hey, you’re at a public, you’re not just in line.’” Prior to Beer Bike, each residential college is required to submit a written statement to Gorman about their strategy for enforcing alcohol safety. The APAC report recommends that Gorman and Pub “continue analysis of Pub capacity and access control strategies … but [feels] that details of any plans would be best informed by Pub leadership.” At time of
SEE APAC PAGE 2
‘They weren’t afraid of the stage’: Owls fall 70-60 to LSU in close March Madness opener KATHLEEN ORTIZ
THRESHER STAFF
In an arena with more than double the capacity of Tudor Fieldhouse, Rice women’s basketball forward Malia Fisher admitted that at one point the Pete Maravich Assembly Center in Baton Rouge, La., was so loud she couldn’t hear herself think. “It was a different environment, but you get used to it fast and then you just kind of acknowledge it and put it out of your mind,” Fisher, a junior, said. “That’s what we did.” Rice adjusted to the new arena quickly, and Fisher said there was never a moment she felt overwhelmed in Baton Rouge. Fifth-year guard Destiny Jackson said she even enjoyed the noise on the court. “We’re basketball players,” Jackson said. “We came to work. We came to
fight no matter who we’re playing. Just ready to get after it, and I think we did that.” Rice lost 70-60 to the defending national champions Louisiana State University on March 22 to end their season. Despite their loss, the Owls kept the game close, forcing 24 LSU turnovers and outscoring LSU in the second and fourth quarters. Rice surprised many on basketball’s biggest stage with a roster that will return all but one starter. “I thought we did a lot of great things, but the main thing that I’m proud of is that we never for one second quit or looked like we didn’t believe that we belonged in this game,” head coach Lindsay Edmonds said. Despite FanDuel Sportsbook having LSU as a 28.5-point favorite and the fact that 14 seeds have never won a game in the NCAA Women’s Basketball
Tournament, Rice was never down by more than 11. They trailed 30-27 at halftime. Edmonds said she couldn’t have been more proud of her young team. “They weren’t afraid of that moment,” Edmonds said. “They weren’t afraid of the stage. And I think we represented Rice on a national stage really, really well.” Edmonds has led the Owls to three winning seasons in her first three years at the school. This postseason
SEE WBB PAGE 11
SARAH KNOWLTON & MARIA MORKAS
FEATURES EDITOR & MANAGING EDITOR
A student resolution calling on the Rice Student Association to participate in the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement was presented at the Senate meeting March 25. The resolution is titled “Student Association Boycott and Divestment from Corporations Complicit in the Ongoing Genocide in Gaza.” Under S.RES 02, an ethical spending advisory board would monitor organizations using money from the Blanket Tax and Initiative Fund to ensure no SA-disbursed funds were spent at companies on the BDS list. The five voting members of the ESAB would include three senate members, the SA external vice president and a member of the Blanket Tax Committee. The Student Association oversees the disbursement of some $400,000 collected through Rice’s student activity fee, the Blanket Tax. Blanket Tax organizations — including Rice Program Council, University Court and student media organizations — receive yearly budgets, while other student groups can request one-time funds for events through the Initiative Fund. At the time of publication, the resolution calls for prohibitions on spending Blanket Tax money at companies that the BDS website says “profit from the genocide of the Palestinian people,” such as HewlettPackard, Papa John’s and Domino’s. “BDS is a nonviolent movement led by Palestinians with a decades-long history involving activists across the world,” the Lovett College senator and co-sponsor of the resolution said in a speech at Senate March 25. “The boycott targets listed in this resolution are based in the longstanding political work of the BDS movement.” Potential for legal uncertainties The resolution’s sponsors, the senators from Lovett and Brown College, said they were inspired by divestment resolutions at universities across the country, including the University of California, Davis, the University
SEE BDS PAGE 2 COURTESY RICE ATHLETICS Fifth-year guard Destiny Jackson looks toward the net as she dribbles up the court in the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament on Friday, March 22. Jackson’s last game with the Rice Owls was a 70-60 loss in March Madness to the defending champions Louisiana State University.