The Rice Thresher | Wednesday, April 8, 2026

beer

RSA hosts bipartisan panel of former U.S. representatives amid debate over its role in voicing political opinions

AL-GHOUL THRESHER STAFF

Two former U.S. representatives came to Rice to tackle questions from public service to division in America on Friday. The discussion panel was hosted by the Rice Student Association in coordination with the Office of Access and Institutional Excellence, titled “Wisdom in Divided Times.”

In four events spanning two days, former Rep. Sam Coppersmith, D-Ariz., and former Rep. Chris Shays, R-Conn., discussed topics such as “Wisdom in Divided Times” and “Faith & Government” in the Baker Institute for Public Policy’s Kelly International Conference Facility.

The two congressmen were representing the Association of Former Members of Congress as part of their Congress to Campus program, which is meant to engage college students in bipartisan dialogues with teams of former members of Congress.

David Lee, the event moderator and former RSA chief of staff, said this event was motivated by the rising global position of Rice.

“A lot of the motivation for the event comes from the position that is in where Rice’s global position is increasing, and can have an impact on the world,” Lee said. “It’s important to model bipartisan discussion with multiple viewpoints.”

Lee also said the main goal of the event was to create hope for bipartisan dialogue on campus.

“We want to see Rice become a campus where people can exchange

A lot of the motivation for the event comes from the position that is in where Rice’s global position is increasing, and can have an impact on the world. It’s important to model bipartisan discussion with multiple viewpoints.

David Lee

FORMER RSA CHIEF OF STAFF

ideas,” Lee said.

Jack Fisher, a Sid Richardson College freshman, attended the event and said the RSA was not the proper organization to host such an event.

“This can be an area for other organisations to pursue, but it shouldn’t be done by the RSA,” Fisher said. “It toed the line between overtly political and not. Representation of the student body would be made easier if they didn’t concern themselves with politics.”

Last year, former RSA president Trevor Tobey got pushback for a social media post concerning conservative

influencer Charlie Kirk’s death. For weeks, the RSA debated passing an amendment restricting political speech, but ultimately failed to get anything on the books.

There are only a few bad apples. Even with people that I disagree with ideologically very strongly, they were there for the right reasons. They could’ve done things that would’ve made them a lot richer, but they believed that they could make the country better.

Sam Coppersmith FORMER REP. D -ARIZ

Chelsea Asibbey, the current president of the RSA, said she doesn’t believe the event contradicts past statements from the RSA on wanting to stay politically neutral.

“The event was more about civil discourse in polarized time. It was not the RSA taking a specific stance on any political issue,” Asibbey said. “People from both sides of the aisle were present to discuss how to have good conversations.”

When the roundtable was opened to questions from attendees, the discussion immediately veered into the present. Coppersmith and Shays were asked to share their perspective regarding the Iran war’s impact on the U.S.’s position in the global order.

Both Coppersmith and Shays argued the biggest impact will be the loss of international trust that the U.S has spent decades building.

“Our word can’t be trusted,” Shays said. “We need to start acting more like how the founders intended.”

Both then spoke on the topic of division in America. Coppersmith talked about his perspective on the moral character of congressional representatives. He said that he believed most representatives are genuinely good people, despite ideological differences.

Shays said that when he was a representative, there was more interaction across the aisle due to attending hearings together and participating in recreational activities together. He said part of the reason he thinks there is more division among representatives is due to how hearings are now televised, which allows people to watch them from their o ces.

He also said he used to play basketball with other representatives, which helped him forge bipartisan friendships. However, when he revisited the Capitol, the basketball court had been removed.

“There are only a few bad apples. Even with people that I disagree with ideologically very strongly, they were there for the right reasons,” Coppersmith said. “They could’ve done things that would’ve made them a lot richer, but they believed that they could make the country better.”

Asibbey said the RSA is currently planning to hold events like these more regularly as a part of a speaker series.

“Rice is a top-20 university; there is no reason why we shouldn’t have keynote speakers,” Asibbey said. “We hope that it would be a regular thing, that Rice students would regularly have access to hear differing perspectives on campus.”

LPAP dance instructor and animal lover dies at 69

or be correct, but sort of to grow and accept that you’re constantly learning.”

Jill Banta, a dance instructor for the Lifetime Activity Physical Program and the surrounding community, died on March 20. She was 69 years old.

A Houston dance instructor skilled in a variety of styles — her favorites being cha-cha and waltz — Banta began teaching in Rice’s LPAP department in 2006 and was a regular instructor at Neon Boots Dancehall & Saloon since 2019.

Banta was born on Nov. 16, 1956 in San Francisco, California to a missionary preacher of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

In the early years of her life, the family traveled regularly for missionary work, moving from Norway to Alabama to deliver their faith’s message — and leaving them without a definite place to call home.

Rick Banta, her brother, said she inherited her father’s kindness and her mother’s rigor.

“She had her dad’s heart; he was empathetic to a fault,” Rick Banta said. “But if you were doing something that she felt wasn’t right, she would call you on it every time.”

In the classroom, Jill Banta is remembered for her thoughtful criticism, always willing to correct a misplaced limb without judgment. Students say her dance instruction was one based on causal physicality — the fact that each choreographed step counts.

The most fundamental attitude that I think Jill had to teach is you will make mistakes. But that’s OK. The goal is not necessarily to be perfect or be correct, but sort of to grow and accept that you’re constantly learning.

Clayton Ramsey

CAPTAIN OF RICE BALLROOM DANCE TEAM

Clayton Ramsey, Rice Ballroom Dance Team’s captain, said Jill Banta didn’t lecture students on the correct manner to step, turn or leap.

Rather, she taught in the form of rhetorical questions, at times accompanying them in their off-tempo tendencies.

“The most fundamental attitude that I think Jill had to teach is you will make mistakes,” Ramsey said. “But that’s OK. The goal is not necessarily to be perfect

Ramsey also said Banta would guide students by asking if their steps would help them achieve what they wanted.

“Part of Jill’s approach was trying to say, ‘this is a thing that you can do, and I assure you you can do it no matter what your background is,’” Ramsey said. “Here’s why it’s fun to do, here’s why it’s exciting and special and will take you to interesting places.”

Jill Banta was also active in her community, whether as an instructor for Neon Boots or a foster parent for the animals around her neighborhood in the Houston Heights. Michael Stevens, a dance instructor who worked with her since 1990, said she was both a skilled dance student and teacher.

“She was a quiet but inquisitive person,” Stevens said. “As she grew and learned … she was so willing to share that joy with us.”

Before coming to Houston, she began dancing as a hobby while in high school in Alabama. She continued dancing throughout her degree at the University of Alabama and later worked as an accountant in Houston. There, she married the financier Donald Chadwick in 1995.

However, over time, Rick Banta said his sister gradually faded out of finance, eventually becoming a dance instructor after her divorce with Chadwick in 1997.

“Then, she went to [Rice] University and really enjoyed the camaraderie of teaching dance and the instructors,” Rick Banta said. “She truly enjoyed that those people were her family, and then she also had the neighborhood that she was in for 35, 40 years.”

Colleagues remarked that she carried a quiet professionalism into her work, taking the time to build bonds with the members of the Gibbs Recreation and Wellness Center administrative team.

“From the moment I began working with her, it was clear that she brought a deep level of experience, consistency and care to her role,” said Anatolia Vick-Kregel, the LPAP director. “I think she had a unique ability to make dance approachable.”

In this, she brought newcomers together, pushing them to ply their choreography into Rice Ballroom, which she sponsored, or to local Houston dance halls. Students who found her had the chance to become lifelong dancers — and lifelong partners as well.

Isaac and Evelyn Stecher, both Rice University alum, said they first met in Jill Banta’s LPAP class. They started training together outside of class and then at the Houston Swing Dance Society, which Jill Banta encouraged students to attend.

“We would just practice things that

we learned in Jill’s class, like footwork and solo jazz styles that we learned at HSDS … and we’d stay for a good hour, sometimes hour and a half afterwards,”

Isaac Stecher said. “Our first big date, when we were officially a couple — it was an event called Lindyfest put on by HSDS.”

When she had passed on the 20th of last month, and I was at her place, there were two chickens that were having a time right around her property. They were from the neighbors across the street, and they were making themselves at home.

Rick Banta

JILL BANTA’S BROTHER

After their marriage, they returned to Rice from time to time to retake one of Jill Banta’s classes.

“When she learned that we got married, she was like — she kind of didn’t know what to do with that information,” Evelyn Stecher said. “Our relationship

kind of started in her class, and we blame her for that regard.”

Jill Banta also raised feral cats since childhood and became a vegetarian in college, and her affection sometimes reached a point where “she loved animals, probably more than humans,” her brother said.

“She was kind of the cat and the dog lady for the Heights,” Rick Banta said. “She would grab anything that was hurt, she would spend $250, $350, $500 on a dog to get it up and raise it and be available for adoption.”

For much of her life, Banta was a reserved person, private in her personal affairs even to those close to her.

To students, she provided a 75-minute space for students to brave their dancing fears. To colleagues, she was dependable — a keen dancer who was caring in the workplace.

She lived quietly in a mid-century bungalow, furnished with books and animal feed. During the afternoons, she could be seen walking her dogs alongside her neighbors, sometimes well-dressed in a blouse but never ostentatious.

“When she had passed on the 20th of last month, and I was at her place, there were two chickens that were having a time right around her property,” Rick Banta said. “They were from the neighbors across the street, and they were making themselves at home.”

Senate discusses relay run and proposes Tetra Week

buildings on campus — including one closer to the south colleges.

With Beer Bike ahead, the Rice Student Association discussed future intercollegiate athletic opportunities, celebrated the advent of late-night studying in on-campus spaces and reworked the fine print on the Tetra donation resolution.

The Late-Night Study Spaces initiative has been newly launched in the Ralph S. O’Connor Building for Engineering and Science, with the guidelines for space use available on Instagram. RSA President Chelsea Asibbey said only the basement and first floor are open, and the space is not open to outside visitors.

“If you wreck it, you lose it,” Asibbey said. “And that’s not cute.”

External Vice President Rohan Dharia said the availability of the O’Connor Building may pave the way for other

“Try to tell people to use this, even if they might not need it,” said Dharia, a McMurtry College sophomore. “The more people that we can show swipe into O’Connor, the more study spaces we can start opening after that.”

Reeve Tarter and Jacob Gilbreth, members of the Rice men’s track and field team, introduced the new InterCollege 4x200m Relay. A team consisting of two women and two men will represent each residential college in the relay. The inaugural race will take place during the Fred Duckett Twilight meet on April 25.

Tarter, a Brown College junior, said the idea for the relay race was based on a similar race at Texas A&M University.

“It just gives students something else to look forward to,” Tarter said.

Gilbreth, a Jones College sophomore, said the relay was not open to current

varsity athletes, however.

“Anyone who is in [intramural sports] is welcome,” Gilbreth said. “We’re trying to make it more available to the regular student body.”

Gilbreth and Tarter said the RSA does not bear any financial responsibility for the event, but Assibey, a Baker College junior, also said they were working alongside the RSA’s Athletics Commission.

Martel College Senior Representative Vamsi Makineni re-introduced Senate Resolution 1 after speaking with Housing and Dining regarding his idea for a senior-underclassmen Tetra Week. If implemented, this new tradition would allow seniors with extra Tetra points to donate their funds to underclassmen via a raffle.

Makineni said H&D suggested directly removing funds from seniors at the end of their final semester and moving them

to the accounts of underclassmen. While efficient, Makineni said the introduction of a raffle system and physical coupons would promote student involvement within the college system.

“Although [H&D’s suggestion] has its advantages, I believe it will not add to campus culture at all,” Makineni said. “We’ve emailed H&D about, ‘Hey, we’ll go and talk to the vendors ourselves so you don’t have to’ … they’re still a bit hesitant.”

Elijah White, the Chao College president, raised questions about the viability of physical coupons. Martel President Rahul Herrero also raised concerns about varied student availability for ra es during the busy nals season.

Senate Resolution 1 will be further discussed as the implementation becomes more clear.

Twelve RSA commissions from previous administrations were renewed.

ABIGAIL CHIU NEWS EDITOR

Rice has admitted 2,984 applicants to the incoming class of 2030 as of the March 25 regular decision announcements, according to Yvonne Romero, vice president for enrollment and dean of admissions and financial aid. This represents a 7.7% admit rate from the 38,603 applicants.

This marks a slight decrease from the previous year, which saw a 8.0% acceptance rate of 2,948 applicants out of 36,791. From 2020 to 2024, the acceptance rate steadily decreased from 10% to 7.5% before rising slightly in 2025.

Former president David Leebron had announced a plan to expand the undergraduate student body by 20% in January 2021, which brought the campus from 4,000 to 4,800 undergraduates.

President Reggie DesRoches’ Momentous strategic plan targets growing the undergraduate population to 5,200 students by 2028, which would be around another 10% increase. The graduate population is also planned to grow, with a projected 9,500 total students enrolled by 2028.

Both Chao College and the new Lovett College building are set to open for the fall 2026 semester, increasing the total number of beds available on campus. Sarofim Hall opened in September 2025, and construction is ongoing for the new business school building and the Moody Center Complex for Student Life.

Rice also recently announced the Gateway Project, intended to connect campus to Rice Village and redesign the football stadium, which is expected to be completed in 2028.

Teach-in event addresses political organizing efforts

RACHEL JEONG FOR THE THRESHER

Rice and the University of Houston faculty held a teach-in titled “Organizing in a Time of Monsters” on Friday on campus to hear from scholars about how to understand recent developments in the Iran war, the ongoing Israel-Hamas war and recent U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement deportations.

The event title, which quotes a translated phrase commonly attributed to Marxist thinker Antonio Gramsci, gathered around 60 people in the Graduate Bubble to hear from the teach-in’s panelists, which included Abdel Razzaq Takriti from Rice and Sue Ferguson and David McNally from the University of Houston.

The event hoped to address a lack of collective action, which student groups and organizers like Rice Students for Justice in Palestine and the Grad Campaign said is partly due to a less safe climate for students hoping to organize.

Arman Saxena, a Lovett College senior and organizer with Rice SJP, said he noticed a difference in student mobilization between now and previous years.

Saxena referenced an investment transparency referendum and resolutions about divestment brought forward to the university administration two years ago. Saxena said the resolution received a majority vote in favor of divestment and the referendum received a two-thirds majority vote in the Rice Student Association general election. Despite these results, Rice administration decided to not move forward with either. Saxena said this caused a culture of dismay among students.

“I think there was a lot more movement in terms of students mobilizing, organizing, to go to protests, to go to demonstrations. At this time this year, there seems to be less of that sentiment,” Saxena said.

McNally, who was an activist and anti-Vietnam War organizer, compared current public opposition of the Iran war with past anti-war movements, citing an unspecified poll that claimed at least 60% of the U.S. population opposes the war with Iran. It is possible McNally was referencing a Pew Research study from March that found 61% of Americans “disapprove of Trump’s handling of the conflict.”

“Past anti-war movements would have given anything for that level of opposition at the beginning of a war,”

McNally said during the panel. “And yet, despite that public opposition, today, we have the weakest anti-war movement of my political lifetime.”

Amara Casassa, a second-year sociology student with University of Houston’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine who attended the teach-in, said many people are unsure of how to move forward with restrictions on free speech. Casassa also mentioned how recent ICE detainments and deportations have impacted speech.

“It makes it a really hostile climate to still be involved in organizing,” Casassa said.

Saxena also cited ICE as a potential cause of fear when it comes to being visible at protests.

“[For] a lot of people that I’ve spoken to that are undocumented or don’t have citizen status, there is a strong sense of lack of safety in more political spaces,” Saxena said. “A lot of people I know, either friends or friends of friends, are going through these situations with ICE, and I feel like [it] can be very dismaying, and can cause an atmosphere of fear and paranoia.”

Jorge Zazueta, an economics graduate student, was one of the teachin’s organizers. Zazueta is involved with Rice chapters of the American Association of University Professors and SJP, as well as the Grad Campaign. They said that during 2023, several campaigns being pushed forward in the Graduate Student Association were met with opposition from campus administration.

“Individual graduate students are often met with threats from administration or from General Counsel saying that you cannot have a political voice because it will threaten your future as a professional, as an academic or if you go into industry, it’ll threaten your job opportunities,” Zazueta said.

“It could threaten your immigration status, whatever it may be.”

Rice spokesperson Chris Stipes declined to comment.

Erica Augustine, a Rice history graduate student and another teachin organizer with the Grad Campaign and AAUP, spoke about the graduate student perspective on level of safety.

Augustine said a wave of firings in universities across the nation for political speech have affected graduate students at Rice.

“International grad students especially — but also all grad students — are definitely more reticent to engage in, quote unquote, political speech,” Augustine said.

bike beer

saturday, april 11 2026

the Thresher’s spectator guide

Website: https://www.riceprogramcouncil.com/bb/about

Instagram: @rpc_beerbike

E-mail: beerbike.rpc@rice.edu

event coordinators

RPC CO - CHAIRS, 2026 BEER BIKE CAMPUS -WIDE COORDINATORS TRACK AREA COORDINATOR MORNING ACTIVITIES AREA COORDINATOR JUDGES AREA COORDINATOR

AREA COORDINATOR Wiley Liou Baker 2026 Iris Rivera Jones 2028 Paul Yao Will Rice 2029 Evelyn Rodriguez Lovett 2029 Kate Yao Hanszen 2027

Gan Sid Richardson 2028

An McMurtry 2029

9:30 AM - 10 AM 10:10 AM - 10:40 AM 11 AM - 11:20 AM 11:30 AM - 11:50 AM 12:15 PM - 12:35 PM 12:45 PM - 1:05 PM 1:30 PM - 1:50 PM 2 PM - 2:20 PM 2:20 PM - 3 PM

Water balloon ght Parade begins Alumni Race, Heat 1

Alumni Race, Heat 2

Women’s Race, Heat 1

Women’s Race, Heat 2

Men’s Race, Heat 1

Men’s Race, Heat 2 Celebration, Cleanup

H EAT 1: Brown, McMurtry, Lovett, GSA, Baker, Sid Richardson

HEAT 2: Duncan, Martel, Jones, Hanszen, Will Rice, Wiess

colleges and themes

Scooby Brew: How Drunk Are You?

Formula Rum : Sweep to Survive Gin and Hamiltonic : Not Throwing Away My Shot

Star Pours : The Keg Awakens Pirates of the CariBEERan : Drunk Man’s Chest

FIFA World Chug 2026 : Take Your Shot

Curious Borg & the Man With the Yellow Flask

Borg Games: Drunken Pursuit

Fast and Beerious : Tokyo Draft

Whiskey Mouse Pub House : Come Inside There’s Rum Inside The Great Gatsbeer Gatsbeer: The Pouring 20’s

K-Hop Demon Hunters ft. the Soju Boys

Rice Program Council Beer Bike Committee Members 32 Race and Parade Judges 69 Years of Beer Bike

160 Beer Bike Coords and Captains

164 Number of Student Volunteer Shi s Served

720 Total Number of Bikers, Chuggers, and Pit Crew Members

Pepperoni Pizza (Contains milk, wheat, sesame)

Cheese Pizza (Contains milk, wheat, sesame)

Gluten-Free Cheese Pizza (Contains milk, eggs)

Whataburger (Contains gluten, soy, wheat, sesame)

Honey Butter Chicken Biscuit (Contains milk, wheat, soy, gluten, egg)

Gluten-Free Vegetarian Pesto Caprese Sandwich (Contains dairy, tree nuts)

Vegan Banh Mi (Contains gluten, soy)

With Beer Bike track change, student experience must be prioritized

Last week, Rice Program Council announced that the Beer Back track will be relocated to the Harris Bayou Recreation Field next year. Rather than coming from an official press release, the information was left to be disseminated by Beer Bike coordinators. Many students rightly have expressed concerns. We have some too.

This is not to say that this move should be completely decried. The new track is much closer to Rice’s residential colleges, and bikers need not worry any longer about drivers in the Greenbriar lot. We understand not all the details need to be hammered down, but before the asphalt is laid, some questions should be answered.

With Rice planning to expand its undergraduate population to 5,200 by

2028, how can the smaller location — a quarter of the size of Greenbriar lot — accommodate students? Where will the food trucks and other services be housed?

Another pressing question is how the track will coexist with the soccer and lacrosse fields. Safety is a concern for bikers, who may need to practice at the same time as scrimmages or games. For bikers going at top speed, sharp corners or bumpy roads can be the difference between victory and an emergency room visit.

Considering its proximity to the Harris Gully, a natural area critical for water retention, flood prevention and campus biodiversity, Rice will need to make sure to balance environmental concerns with the track design.

As changes are made to the location of

the track, we emphasize maintaining the coveted traditions that make Beer Bike special. Ultimately, the fact that the track relocation raises so many questions is a concern in and of itself.

The announcement of the Gateway Project, which will run through the current Beer Bike track, gave students little concrete information about the future of the track, and the opacity of RPC’s email fosters speculation over reassurance.

For upperclassmen, this may seem like yet another strike against the hallmarks of Rice culture. Current seniors are the last class to have experienced Wiess College’s infamous Night of Decadence public party before its permanent cancellation.

This year, the Moody Fest will have a DJ instead of a vocalist or band, in

what seems to be another mark against investment in student experiences for an event that is only 3 years old.

The relocation of the Beer Bike track — and many other changes to Rice’s student experience — has the potential to revitalize student participation and the Culture of Care Rice prides itself on. However, care involves coming face-toface with students’ needs.

Editor’s Note: Thresher editorials are collectively written by the members of the Thresher’s editorial board. Current members include James Cancelarich, Evie Vu, Abigail Chiu, Hongtao Hu, Andrew Rynsburger, Chi Pham, Andersen Pickard and Patrick Shukis.

Vu recused herself from this editorial due to involvement with Beer Bike planning.

Walk into any gym in Houston and you’re likely to see the same scene: people hauling around pre-workout tubs, protein shakers and supplement stacks to the locker room. Among those bottles typically sits creatine, one of the most studied performance supplements in existence and o en one of the most misunderstood.

According to a 2021 study in Nutrients, creatine is a compound produced by your body, naturally stored in muscle tissue. When you perform short, explosive movements like a heavy set of squats, a max weight attempt on bench press or even an all-out sprint to late-night dining at 10:55 p.m., your muscles burn through energy stores almost instantly. Creatine helps regenerate those energy stores, letting you get more repetitions and a quicker recovery.

Recently, creatine has also shown some cognitive bene ts. A 2023 study in Sports Medicine, along with a growing body of research, suggests that creatine supplementation may reduce mental fatigue and support working memory, particularly under conditions of sleep deprivation. For students preparing for midterms on four hours of sleep, that nding is at minimum worth knowing about, though researchers note the observed e ects are modest and the evidence is still building.

The students who would bene t most from taking creatine are those doing highvolume explosive training: powerli ers, rowers, sprinters, football players and

members of the Beer Bike teams. Endurance athletes like long-distance runners see fewer bene ts from creatine because it is not the limiting factor in aerobic performance. Recreational gym goers fall somewhere in between, with consistent training being the deciding variable, not the supplement.

The International Society of Sports Nutrition has recognized the sheer volume of rigorous research supporting creatine, while many products like preworkout blends are improperly dosed or lack transparency, according to a 2019 study in Nutrients.

For all that creatine is, it is not a protein powder, a fat burner or a muscle builder. It will not help you lose weight or transform you into an athlete overnight. If you are not regularly engaging in high-intensity training, you will see little athletic bene t.

A month’s supply of creatine monohydrate, the form with the most research behind it, costs $10 to $15 from major retailers like Amazon. According to the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, the creatine HCl and “bu ered” variants sold at a signi cant premium have not been shown to outperform creatine monohydrate in any meaningful way.

When selecting your creatine product, I’d recommend nding a creatine monohydrate powder with an NSF certi cation, meaning it has been independently tested and veri ed to be free of banned substances and safe for athletes.

Once you start, stay consistent and remember to take the supplement every

day of the week. Consistency matters far more than timing, and missing doses will only slow the process of reaching and maintaining full muscle creatine stores. As with all supplements, though, individual responses vary. It’s worth consulting with a healthcare professional before starting creatine, especially if you have underlying medical conditions.

As Rice students, we spend four years learning to evaluate evidence carefully — don’t forget to bring that habit with you to the supplement aisle. While other supplements

rest on limited evidence, creatine monohydrate is healthy, safe and e ective. For many athletes, it o ers incremental bene ts worth taking advantage of.

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.

An urbanist’s guide to Houston: Where Rice’s new electric shuttles can and can’t take us

JACOB JORDAN & NICOLAS COOKER THRESHER STAFF

In keeping with Rice’s overarching sustainability policies, the administration has begun experimenting with electric shuttles on campus. Following a successful pilot of the new vehicles in October 2025, ve Karsan e-JEST electric shuttles have now been rolled out on the inner and outer loop routes. In the rollout announcement, Rice’s Division of Operations touted the sustainability bene ts of these new vehicles and teased the introduction of an additional route to the Ion District. Environmentally, this is a step in the right direction, but it risks becoming a super cial x that masks structural issues with Rice’s transportation system.

These new buses mirror broader electri cation developments across the U.S. Local transit agencies around the country had purchased a total of more than 7,000 electric buses as of 2024, including Houston METRO, which in 2024 added electric buses to two of its routes. Personal electric vehicles are on the rise as well, with battery-electric vehicles now constituting 7.5% of all new car sales in the U.S.

In the last few years, a number of peer institutions such as Tulane University, Emory University and Johns Hopkins University have begun piloting their own electric shuttles. Not all of these projects have been successful. For example, at Emory, a feasibility study determined that the number of buses and non-revenue hours required would increase by 53% and 132% respectively due to the time required for charging. Non-revenue hours, which occur when a bus is operating but not collecting passengers, are especially important to minimize due to the impacts on operating costs and emissions.

Rice publicly committed to becoming carbon neutral by 2030. But ve years a er this bold promise, there has been

very little public tracking of how we’re making progress. Importantly, the O ce of Sustainability’s public tracker doesn’t track indirect (scope 3) emissions, which would almost certainly be aggravated by a switch to electric shuttles.

Despite this, we have seen some steps toward sustainability, such as buildings that meet LEED standards and successful student initiatives like composting at the serveries.

Like LEED-certi ed buildings and composting, electric shuttles are a salient example of green technology — their branding is clearly intended to demonstrate that Rice is committed to sustainability. Each bus is clearly labeled “100% Electric, ZERO Emissions.”

In reality, this likely just means there will be zero tailpipe emissions. There still exist substantial impacts from the lithium-ion batteries used in electric shuttles, and likely from charging, given that nonrenewable sources comprise about 60% of the Texas grid’s electricity generation. While Rice does have some of its own natural gas and solar infrastructure, it contracts with ERCOT for any additional electricity demand, so these impacts will still be felt.

Ultimately, while electric shuttles are absolutely a step in the right direction, there are many other structural changes needed to reach carbon neturality.

It’s important to note that electric shuttles are still a massive improvement over diesel shuttles in environmental terms. Their lack of tailpipe emissions greatly improves local air quality and health outcomes, and improves the experience for inner loop cyclists. Regenerative braking helps save energy in

stop-and-go inner loop tra c. They are also much quieter, reducing noise pollution.

But when these small improvements are being used as the icons of our sustainability directives, it feels a lot like greenwashing, the use of small sustainability initiatives to distract from a lack of systemic change.

So while electri cation can (and should) play a role in bringing us toward carbon neutrality, it can also mask the need for structural changes to our campus’s transportation system to meet those goals.

Beyond Rice, electric vehicles have been criticized for claiming to decarbonize the transportation sector while actually enabling unsustainable, car-centric cities and land use to persist. While Rice’s electric shuttles might be a great alternative to diesel buses, they shouldn’t be Rice’s only hope for decarbonizing its transportation infrastructure.

For example, Rice could add a protected bike lane to the inner loop to encourage more multimodal use of the street or, like the Gateway Project, repurpose some of its copious car-dedicated space for other uses. This could also include better integrating the campus with some of the METRO routes on its periphery.

Ultimately, while electric shuttles are absolutely a step in the right direction, there are many other structural changes needed to reach carbon neutrality. We can only hope that they serve as a catalyst for more change in Rice’s mobility infrastructure rather than a short-term Band-Aid giving the appearance of sustainability.

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.

Jacob Jordan is a Baker College junior studying civil and environmental engineering with a minor in environmental studies. Nicolas Cooker is a Martel College sophomore studying computer science with a minor in environmental studies. They believe that every Rice student should be well-informed about their built environment and have the knowledge necessary to advocate for their interests in and beyond Houston.

Senate scoop: From wasted Tetra to shared meals

MAX MENCHACA & ELI RISINGER FOR THE THRESHER

It is not uncommon for seniors to graduate with unused Tetra that ultimately goes to waste while underclassmen are le to ration their Rice Co eehouse drinks. Senate Resolution 1, under consideration by the Rice Student Association, proposes the creation of Tetra Week. This new campuswide tradition aims at redistributing unused dining points.

Seniors would have the opportunity to donate any remaining Tetra in their accounts, which would then be pooled and redistributed to underclassmen through a college-run ra e system. The redistributed Tetra would be issued as vouchers for use at select campus dining locations during speci c weeks.

By creating a structured way to redistribute these unused funds, the RSA is taking a meaningful step toward making campus resources more equitable and better utilized. Just as importantly, the program has the potential to foster stronger connections across class years, encouraging

seniors to give back to their residential college communities before they graduate. If implemented e ectively, Tetra Week could become something students look forward to as an opportunity to both give and receive.

While the goal behind Tetra Week is strong, its current structure introduces a level of complexity that may limit its overall e ectiveness.

What should be a relatively straightforward transfer of unused resources is a multistep administrative process involving senior donations, college-level coordination, Housing and Dining veri cation and a multiday ra e system. Each additional layer introduces opportunities for confusion, delays or inconsistent implementation across residential colleges.

Additionally, in the resolution’s current form, the Tetra will be assigned as vendorspeci c coupons to be used during a speci c week. This may unintentionally limit how useful the bene t is for students, as a student’s dining habits do not always align with a xed set of vendors, and forcing usage within those constraints, especially within a limited time

window, could make the program feel more restrictive than supportive.

For the program to succeed, it must feel easy to use. Seniors must be willing to donate meaningful amounts of Tetra, and underclassmen must be aware of and engaged with the process.

None of these challenges are insurmountable, and they should not detract from the value of the proposal itself. In fact, they present an opportunity to re ne the program in ways that preserve its strengths while improving its accessibility and impact. Simplifying the distribution process, allowing for greater exibility in how Tetra is used and exploring ways to better align redistribution with student needs would all signi cantly strengthen the program.

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.

EDITORIAL STAFF

* Indicates Editorial Board member

James Cancelarich* Editor-in-Chief

Evie Vu* Managing Editor

NEWS

Abigail Chiu* Editor

Hongtao Hu* Asst. Editor

Toby Chou Asst. Editor

Ruby Gao Asst. Editor

Lina Kang Asst. Editor

OPINION

Andrew Rynsburger* Editor

FEATURES

Amelia Davis Editor

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Chi Pham* Editor

SPORTS Andersen Pickard* Editor

Patrick Shukis* Editor

Keya Patel Asst. Editor

BACKPAGE

Charlie Maxson Editor

COPY

PHOTO,

Editor

Fiona Guo Social Media Manager

Megan Zhang Web Editor

Fiona Sik Web Editor

Varshini Loganathan Web Editor

DESIGN

Jessica Xu Art & Design Director

Magnolia Hickey-Zamora News

Sydney Chang Opinion

Lisa Wang Features

Alexa Bu Arts & Entertainment

Kirstie Qian Sports

Brandon Nguyen Backpage Richard Li Design Consultant

BUSINESS

Sivani Vasireddy Manager

Alina Zhong Advertisement

Rahul Santhanam Advertisement

ABOUT

The Rice Thresher, the official student newspaper of Rice University since 1916, is published each Wednesday during the school year, except during examination periods and holidays, by the students of Rice University.

Letters to the Editor must be received by 5 p.m. on the Friday prior to publication and must be signed, including college and year if the writer is a Rice student. The Thresher reserves the right to edit letters for content and length and to place letters on its website.

Editorial and business offices are located on the second floor of the Ley Student Center: 6100 Main St., MS-524 Houston, TX 77005-1892

Phone: (713) 348 - 4801

Email: thresher@rice.edu

Website: www.ricethresher.org

The Thresher is a member of the ACP, TIPA and CMA.

© Copyright 2025

ricethresher.org

Houston bridge to be renamed in Rice professor’s honor

YILIAN JIANG THRESHER STAFF

Richard A. Tapia has spent his entire life building bridges — not of concrete and steel, but of access, mentorship and opportunity for students in STEM. Recently, the Harris County Commissioners Court has chosen to honor his legacy in a more literal way: by renaming the Houston Ship Channel Bridge to the Dr. Richard Tapia Bridge.

Presented by Harris County Precinct 2 Commissioner Adrian Garcia, the resolution was passed unanimously by the Commissioners Court on March 19. Part of a billion-dollar infrastructure project slated for completion in 2028, the name change aspires to imbue the current structure with new symbolic meaning.

Located along the Sam Houston Tollway in East Harris County, the Houston Ship Channel Bridge spans the Houston Ship Channel to connect the communities of Pasadena and Baytown.

”It ties certain pieces of geography of the county and my precinct together,” Garcia said. “As I thought about Dr. Tapia in the work that he’s done, his mission, his life, his challenges, it all just came perfectly together.”

Since earning bachelor’s degree, master’s degree and doctorate in mathematics from the University of California, Los Angeles, Tapia has built an extensive list of accomplishments and titles in research and scholarship for his work in mathematical optimization, from being the first Hispanic person elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1992 to receiving the National Medal of Science from President Barack Obama in 2011.

At Rice, Tapia is a Max eld-Oshman Chair in Engineering and a university professor — Rice’s highest academic title that has only been awarded to 10 people in

university history.

Born in Los Angeles, California to Mexican immigrants, Tapia said he was raised in a household that emphasized education due to his mother’s dream for her children to attend college.

“I always remembered in the back of my mind my mother and father’s words, saying, ‘make the world a better place,’” Tapia said. “When I went into mathematics, most people in math didn’t do outreach, but I did. I said, ‘I’m going to help other people do what I have done.’”

Since then, Tapia has dedicated decades to helping students from underrepresented communities enter and thrive in STEM. In 1998, he founded the Richard Tapia Center for Excellence and Equity in Education, now known as the Tapia Center, which runs STEM summer camps for middle and high school students.

“My number one thing is working with the students and helping them to continue in science and education [like] I did,” Tapia said. “And I want more people like me to say, ‘Yes, it can be a part of me, like

it’s been a part of Richard.’”

Dhruv Koka, a Will Rice College freshman, attended Tapia Camps as a sophomore in high school. Koka said the opportunity to connect with camp directors and professors during the program was especially helpful.

“It provides you with a lot of connections that you actually can use during your time at Rice,” Koka said. “I met [Tapia] towards the end of the camp, where he gave a presentation, and we had the opportunity to ask him questions. He’s really nice, really down-to-earth.”

Paul E. Hand, executive director of the Tapia Center, points to Tapia’s perceptiveness and willingness to step in as characteristics that set him apart from his peers over a career spanning more than ve decades at Rice.

“He has supervised a very large number of Ph.D. students, a very signi cant fraction of which are women in underrepresented minorities,” Hand said. “He’s willing to take on that student that other faculty wouldn’t take on in order to get them to the nish line.”

Equally remarkable, Hand said, is Tapia’s ability to extend access to others while simultaneously furthering his own academic accomplishments.

“He’s both made significant mathematical contributions to the research community all while emphasizing broadening participation in STEM,” Hand said. “To do one of these things is hard enough, and for him to really have done both and to be a pioneer is even more impressive.”

Regardless of the extent of their relationship with him, those who have interacted with Tapia describe him as a man whose passion remains as alive today as it ever was.

“From the time I met Dr. Tapia … that fire in the belly has not diminished to any extent,” Garcia said. “You get him talking about why he created the Tapia Center, the importance of encouraging young people from all walks of life to recognize their potential, he just lights up and he just gets going.”

To cement Tapia’s legacy, the newly renamed bridge will display signage to spread awareness of his work, with an official unveiling ceremony scheduled for May. In addition, the Precinct Two logo will be updated to include the Dr. Richard Tapia Bridge to increase visibility of the initiative.

“We [will] do everything to make sure that in spite of whether I’m around or not, that people will look at that logo and start that conversation again about his work and his life,” Garcia said.

Although he was initially pleased by the honor, understanding the weight of its significance took time, Tapia said. Today, he views the renaming of the bridge as a way to bring visibility to his work and aspirations.

“If you ask me, ‘What does a bridge mean to you?’, I would say, ‘it means everything,’” Tapia said.

Inside student life through the lens of a TikToker

MUYIWA OGUNSOLA / THRESHER

Emma Yuan sitting with her phone, where she broadcasts everything from college life to her adventures around Houston for her viewers on TikTok. One of her videos on Baker 13 amassed over 4 million views.

WU THRESHER STAFF

For many people, researching what college life looks like consists of looking through brochures and campus tours — but Sid Richardson College freshman Emma Yuan is trying to change that by showing it in real time through 15-second clips.

When she began college in August 2025, she picked up her phone and started documenting everything on her TikTok account. Her content creation became a way to share both her transition to Rice and her experience exploring a new city.

“I started my TikTok account because

I moved to Houston from Maryland to go to Rice, and it was a really big transition,” Yuan said. “I wanted to document the things I saw or explored here in Houston as well as my journey throughout college.”

Yuan’s content doesn’t stick to one category, but rather takes a variety of lifestyle and college-related content. Her videos include day-in-the-life vlogs and Houston exploration videos.

“I usually just lm whatever I feel is authentic and genuine,” Yuan said. “If I have an opinion or question or if I am doing something exciting, I will share it.”

The variety in her content allowed it to reach a surprisingly broad audience.

Yuan’s followers range from prospective Rice students to locals in Houston and even viewers overseas, information that Yuan can see on her account’s metrics. Many of them turn to her videos to get an un ltered look at what college is actually like, a perspective which is in high demand: as of April 2026, Yuan’s account has amassed over 450,000 total likes on TikTok.

“My most famous video is the one where I talk about the Baker 13 tradition at 4 million views,” Yuan said. “It de nitely engaged a wide audience, and I had a lot of discussions in the comments.”

Beyond campus life, Yuan’s content also re ects on her adjustment to Houston. Coming from the East Coast, she captures the contrast she notices in Houston when navigating a new environment.

“A video I am really proud of is when I talked about the oil and gas industry in Houston,” Yuan said. “I feel like I coined the term ‘oil bros,’ which is like ‘ nance bros.’ Although I am not from Houston or Texas, I feel like I am integrating into the industry and landscape around here.”

Wiess College freshman Micayla Pang appears in some of Yuan’s videos as they spend a lot of time together exploring Houston and campus life.

“Emma and I like to go on adventures around Houston, and I am always with her so I get featured,” Pang said. “In one of the videos, we went to Lifetime Fitness and explored the gym there together.”

Sid Rich freshman Sophia Cho, another frequent guest star of Yuan’s videos, even hosted her during a trip back home to New Jersey. Through that experience, Cho said

she has seen how Yuan’s content resonates beyond campus.

“What she’s doing with social media is helping with brand awareness at Rice,” Cho said. “I think she would be great in marketing because she attracts a lot of attention.”

With a growing platform, Yuan says she wants to show Rice in a positive light while still being honest about her experience. Her videos serve as a guide to students who are curious about Rice and want to learn more about it.

“A lot of prospective Rice students would reach out to me and ask me about the social scene or what campus is like,” Yuan said. “I will always try to reach out to them or tell them about my experiences, and I try to interact with my viewers through my comments or replying with videos.”

TikTok has also brought unexpected perks along her journey. Yuan has been invited to events, worked with brands and met other creators in Houston.

“I don’t earn a large amount of money from TikTok, but I do gain partnerships,” Yuan said. “For example, Shipley Do-Nuts invited me to one of their Galentine events, which was really exciting.”

Yuan hopes to continue posting on her account and keep building her audience over time.

“I de nitely want to continue helping students who are thinking about coming to Rice,” Yuan said. “There are not a lot of people who post about Rice, which is another reason why I started. There are not that many content creators here, so I want to answer questions and share more of our traditions for the world to see.”

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Play our new daily mini on the Thresher app!

“___ _ stutter?”

Rufus lead singer Khan

A lot of it will be consumed on Saturday

Muslim religious leader

To do, in Mexico

What you don’t want in your hair

Believe that two characters should date

Justice Kagan

Mystery writer, for short Event that

about him

Classrooms tend to be full of them

With cheek

Humble

Casual shirts

What baby powder was once made of

“These aren’t the ______ you’re looking for.”

If they don’t pop when thrown, your college will get fined

Ridge of coral

First president with a Twitter account

Dry

Extra, for short

Turned out

A compact one may hold music

“If u ask me,”

Lower house of the Irish parliament

Overstaying one’s welcome

The Millennium Falcon’s resident Wookiee

Not haram

Computer producer

Anywhere else he’d be a ten

Spider or scorpion

Kurt’s boyfriend from “Glee” Mozart composition “____ kleine Nachtmusik”

Supply and demand course code

Musical to which “525,600 minutes” is a reference

Bulldoze

Sneaker feature

App where celebrities can sell personalized videos

Tremendous tits

Moral code

“The Stars and Stripes Forever” composer

(who has a phone named a er him?)

Like many dad jokes

Tenant’s agreement

Ousts

Collections of purchases

“The ____ is history!”

Uses a towel

British troops, to American revolutionaries

Did a shoddy job on homework, slangily 8-Down, for one

Mu e, as a laugh

A iction More

Graduation

of

For the plot: New fall 2026 classes to take at Rice

At Rice, every semester starts the same: convincing yourself that this one will be di erent. The urge to stop skipping 8 a.m. classes will subside; books will get read; and somehow, you’ll emerge more cultured, more intellectually curious and maybe even a little more employable. Whether you are looking to create your ‘new semester, new me’ schedule or have already given up on that hope, these brand new classes are worth a closer look for the fall semester, because not everything’s about the four-year plan.

ELEC 415: E cient Machine Learning

Instructor: TBD

Time: TBD

*Registration opens May 2026*

Nothing says “I’m planning ahead” quite like stalking a class before it’s even open for registration. This new course, created to satisfy Rice’s new digital health minor, is opening in May 2026. It’s open to students from all disciplines, whether that be engineering, computer science, statistics or pure curiosity. Its true distinguishing factor, however, is its intention: to teach the current methods of how large language models work today.

Instructor: Robert Alford

Time: Tuesday and Thursday, 2:30-3:45 p.m.

LING 331: Linguistics for Legal Purposes

Instructor: John Baugh

Time: Monday, 6-8:30 p.m.

LING 331 is a new interdisciplinary course that meets once a week and explores how language can be used in legal settings — from criminal investigations to courtroom testimony. Each class pairs a legal case or issue with the linguistic methods used to unpack it, so this is the rare course where discussion can quite literally help solve a murder. Students will look at real court cases, including ones where Baugh himself served as an expert witness.

Not every class needs to bu up the neural networks of your mind; some just need to bu er your GPA. While this isn’t technically a new class, Alford is making his return to campus a er discovering that retirement was really just a one-year sabbatical in disguise, bringing back the POLI 210 class that pre-law students and athletes both love. Sometimes, what you need is a reliable class, a familiar professor and the fabled promise of an easy A. Think of it as the semester’s equivalent of emotional support.

LALX 355: Culture and Sports in Latin/e America

Instructor: Jose Cicerchia

Time: Monday: 4-6:30 p.m.

American cultures, with topics ranging from soccer corporatization to ‘sports-washing.’

You’ll not only be able to justify streaming a game for homework, but also learn how sports act as a lens for broader social concepts. Plus, one class a week means fewer opportunities to accidentally oversleep.

CEVE 208: What Things Are Made Of: The Materials Behind Modern Life

Instructor: Shihong Lin Time: TBD

For anyone who has ever looked at a road, a building, a plastic fork from the servery or frankly anything in the physical world and thought, ‘How did this get here?’ — this class is literally made for you (pun intended). CEVE 208 digs into the materials behind everyday life: how homes are built, how transportation works and

the intimidation factor since the course assumes no prior engineering background.

ECON 489: Economics of Social Networks

Instructor: Matt Thirkettle

Time: Tuesday and Thursday, 2:303:45 p.m.

If you’ve ever wondered why your friends always somehow in uence everything from what you buy to who you date to what internship you want, ECON 489 has some answers. This course will examine how social networks shape our decisions — products, careers, relationships and eventually even parenting choices. Think of it as a scienti c explanation for how your friends’ choices slowly start to look suspiciously like your own. Unnerving, sure, but useful.

Sleepy Cyborg Gallery’s spring show is wide-awake

CHI PHAM A&E EDITOR

The rst thing you receive at Sleepy Cyborg Gallery’s spring show is a newspaper — more precisely, two folded sheets of newsprint with an illustrated oor plan and a numbered list of artists as a catalog in lieu of wall labels. You hold both, constantly re-orienting yourself as you cross-reference between the exhibited works and the printed matter in your hands.

If you want to know what you’re looking at, you have to work for it: Instead of being guided through a show, you navigate through the corridors of Saro m Hall. Along the way, you can also grab a hand-printed T-shirt or a Polaroid to take with you.

The show’s visual identity marks a departure for Sleepy Cyborg. A blurred hot pink circle dominates the printed materials, and forward slashes punctuate the gallery’s text like line breaks in poetry. The gallery’s present iteration, renamed Sleepy Cyborg during the pandemic to accommodate digital exhibitions, continues its predecessors’ interest in engaging the tension between physical and digital representation.

The insistence on tactile products — newsprint handouts and T-shirts — feels thoughtful and pointed. When arts engagement has largely migrated to phones and computer screens, where documentation for social media takes precedence over actual experience for many museum visitors, this is a show that wants to be held.

“sleepy,” co-organized by seniors Cal Mascardo, Alexander Jamu and Madeline Ansley around an open call, gathers 16 works from Rice undergraduates in media ranging from a steel pipe sculpture to a sound

There’s been a lot of spatial restriction, a lot of policy around where art should be placed in these student art areas. I think that’s somewhat contradictory to what the building should be promoting.

Madeline Ansley

SLEEPY CYBORG GALLERY CO - DIRECTOR

installation housed in total darkness. Now approaching nearly two decades of operation since its 2009 establishment under its former name Matchbox, the gallery’s current theme doubles as a self-examination in retrospect: What does it mean for a space called Sleepy Cyborg to call a show “sleepy”?

Chaus’s

Across the works on view, almost none depict sleep. They instead render consciousness at various stages of decay — tense, so ened, blurred, stretched past its natural give. Not quite sleep, but the minutes just before or a er, when the senses mostly work but are no longer faithful.

Viewers rst encounter a cardboardand-paint sculpture by Wiess College freshman Alice Xie, a bursting architectural fragment on a white plinth. One of the more formally intriguing works on view, the sculpture features rectangular volumes in brown, green, black and white battling for visual dominance, with the shadow it casts on the wall reading as an extension of the object itself.

Architecture graduate student

Ángela García’s three black-and-white photographs, printed as squares, place the same young woman in a eld of tangled, pale grass. In one she sits upright, staring at the camera. In another she lies back, eyes closed, the grass closing around her. The transition takes the show’s theme more literally than almost anything else on view: awake, then yielded.

The gallery co-directors deliberately expanded the show beyond Room 232, the o cially designated gallery space, wrapping the exhibition through Saro m Hall’s second- oor hallways and into the building’s central void. Ansley, a Hanszen College senior, said she views this as “leaking the institution.” At this present moment of heightened restrictions on campus life, the show’s spatial politics and refusal to contain student expression resonate aptly.

What the work is trying to do is reproduce — or enhance — the feeling of being taken out of your body, or at least questioning where your body is at.

Alexander Jamu

SLEEPY CYBORG GALLERY CO - DIRECTOR

“There’s been a lot of spatial restriction, a lot of policy around where art should be placed in these student art areas,” Ansley said. “I think that’s somewhat contradictory to what the building should be promoting.”

Mascardo, a McMurtry College senior, said their shared curatorial ambition was partially in hopes “that people might not even use Room 232 for a show for years down the road” — to set a precedent for studentorganized arts programming beyond designated space.

Their ambition nds its most potent expression in Jamu’s own installation — the show’s sixteenth and nal work and its philosophical centerpiece. You walk into a room — what appears to be a large storage or performance space — of near-total darkness. Standing on a leveled platform, a metal railing stops you at the edge of a drop. Below, unreachable, two speakers emit slowed, stretched audio. On the listener’s side of the railing sits a plywood structure

resembling a speaker cabinet, lit from above by a sole point of light.

A red exit sign pulses. A green LED glows from the stereo. The catalog entry reads: “what it must feel like to be in Boötes Void.”

“Using slowed-down music is a reference to Houston’s culture of chopped and screwed — DJ Screw in particular — and a history of how music has been treated in Houston,” said Jamu, a Duncan College senior.

The audio has been pulled past its natural give, until it becomes purely granular and textural — treating sound as physical material and engaging with the city through its sonic heritage.

The speaker-like plywood boxes are hollowed out and contain no equipment. The sound comes from elsewhere. You stand at the railing, believing yourself to hear something produced by an object that cannot be producing it.

“What the work is trying to do is reproduce — or enhance — the feeling of being taken out of your body, or at least questioning where your body is at,” Jamu said.

The Boötes Void — or ‘The Great Nothing’ — is one of the largest known empty regions in the observable universe. To invoke and draw formal inspiration from it for a student gallery space feels remarkably inspired, and the installation triumphs at making its a ective case: “sleepy” stretched to its furthest extension, past semantics, past rest, past unconsciousness, to approach the total loss of signal.

“sleepy” is on view at Sleepy Cyborg Gallery, located on the second oor of Saro m Hall, through Friday.

Espresso Yourself builds community with ‘junk journaling’

ANGELICA HERNANDEZ THRESHER STAFF

Calming music, conversation and cra s lled Rice Co eehouse on Friday as its Espresso Yourself hosted an open evening of junk journaling. Espresso Yourself, an undergraduate collective comprising the creative arm of the student-run cafe, collaborated with several other campus clubs to host the event.

Committee lead and Chaus keeper of co ee Asianna Junge, a Baker College junior, was in charge of planning the event. An avid junk journaler herself, Junge said she was interested in providing a space for creatives on campus to convene and unwind.

“The collaboration among all the clubs

was what really made it feel more special while we were planning it,” Junge said.

Getting everybody together and all doing this as a collective activity is very cool because it creates a community. Of course, it’s an activity that you could do alone, but it’s more fun to do together.

Ava McClung

LOVETT COLLEGE SENIOR

Participating student organizations included the Rice Undergraduate Marketing Association, Rice Design, Visual Artists at Rice and ktru’s art team.

For Junge, the space itself was part of the process. She said the students could push tables together, come hang out and make themselves feel at home.

“I think that just speaks to how we’re creating more of a third space on campus,” Junge said.

Aanika Porras, a Chaus KOC and Sid Richardson College junior, said the event was many attendees’ rst experience with junk journaling.

“I’ve never done something like junk journaling, but I thought this would be a good starting point to get into it and have a lot of supplies too,” Porras said.

“I’ve got a bunch of blind box scraps and stu , and I’m putting them with stickers, in a journal, along with some other cute designs.”

Attendee Ava McClung, a Lovett College senior, said she particularly enjoyed participating in an enjoyable — but usually solitary — hobby in a communal space.

“ It’s nice to know that so many other people are interested in this thing that I’m interested in, that I tend to do by myself,” McClung said. “Getting everybody together and all doing this as a collective activity is very cool because it creates a community. Of course, it’s an activity that you could do alone, but it’s more fun to do together.”

Editor’s note: McClung is the Thresher’s crossword editor.

Review: Stoner comedy ‘Pizza Movie’ caters to your dopey side

CORA WAREH THRESHER STAFF

“Pizza Movie” is slop served on a pie and topped with psychedelic visuals and an uncanny soundtrack. If you or a friend has a Hulu subscription and time to waste, why not dig in? Spoilers ahead.

Jack, one Gaten Matarazzo in his post-“Stranger Things” career, and Montgomery (Sean Giambrone) are roommates and fellow outcasts who desperately need some respite. Montgomery is obsessed with proving that he’s an alpha to his crush Ashley (he’s not), played by former “Andi Mack” lead Peyton Elizabeth Lee.

Rooming with someone who’s in with the football team and not just his pet butterfly, Lysander, should help, except that Jack has fallen out with them. As the mascot, he led the team on the wrong path during their naked run, an incident ending with all 50 being registered as sex offenders.

This is already a lot. Jack and Montgomery spend a good chunk of the movie getting beaten up, but I found it hard to view Jack as a victim. I know the movie is meant to be stupid. I realized this is exactly how it was meant to be watched.

Understandably, Jack and Montgomery are longing to escape their version of reality when some M.I.N.T.S. fall from the ceiling. Jack does some research and finds out that M.I.N.T.S. stands for Mind Igniting Neural Tuning Stimulants, and that these stimulants make you feel “like you’re floating on a cloud of lavender, being sung to by lollipop pixies.” Jack pressures Montgomery to take the M.I.N.T.S. with him.

At first, they feel nothing. Then they’re eaten by a hot pink creature and find themselves onstage: their hands singing, a clown assaulting them, a man named Juan telling them the baby he’s holding doesn’t like their performance. They come back to their senses in the shower.

Apparently, M.I.N.T.S. only offer a pleasant experience when you take it with pizza. If you don’t take it with pizza,

you’ll experience six different phases. The final phase is that “your worst nightmare comes to life and shoves a chainsaw up your ass.” Jack and Montgomery need pizza.

So does Lizzy (Lulu Wilson), who found the M.I.N.T.S. in Jack and Montgomery’s dorm earlier. Jack and Montgomery were her “first-month-of-school friends,” but that’s not why she was visiting — she was hanging out with their bullies, who came to their room to taunt them. They’re not really her people, though: They think she’s weird and are using her for her credit card.

Alongside Jack and Montgomery, she has to traverse two flights of stairs to meet Snackatron, the adorable robot delivering their pizza, in the lobby. This means going through the resident advisors.

The head RA, Blake, is the movie’s main antagonist. He’s pure evil. His plan

is to take the phones of the students he doesn’t like and submit requests on their behalf to transfer to Gralk Hall, four hours off campus. Being transferred there is a fate worse than death.

Jake, Montgomery and Lizzy’s trip brings them closer together and gives them the chance to make selfless

decisions. The themes of “Pizza Movie” are typical, though the plot is unhinged. Case in point: The butterfly Lysander, voiced by Daniel Radcliffe, saves the day by scorpion-kicking Blake.

When a battered Blake shows up for revenge during the drug’s sixth stage,

the group force-feeds him multiple M.I.N.T.S. Consuming more than one at once causes you to “see the true horrible nature of reality.” Blake sees two writers discussing how few college freshmen own pet butterflies — and his picture on the wall next to sticky notes saying “EVIL RA” and “SHITHEAD.” Knowing that he’s just a character in a movie, he walks away aimlessly, and Jake, Montgomery and Lizzy bite into their pizza before they get penetrated by chainsaws.

This movie is dumb and weird, but it knows what it is, which I applaud. It taught me that it’s possible for art to be meta without being too intelligent, and I’d recommend watching it with someone you can have fun being unintelligent with. “Pizza Movie” has a message about the power of friendship, too, but to be honest, I’m probably going to remember the movie as being about pizza.

Review: ‘SunForceOceanLife’ MFAH installation charts life’s rhythms

From the terrestrial scale of the interactions between the sun, sea and life on Earth, to the atomized individual life journeys of each mortal being, Ernesto Neto’s artistic practice embodies complex reflections on humanity in our massive world.

His installation “SunForceOceanLife” is back on view at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston after its initial 2020 commission. The Brazilian artist uses crocheted textiles and plastic balls to establish an immersive environment,

allowing visitors to directly interact with the materials. Visitors are allowed to take off their shoes and put on nonslip socks before climbing through the installation, following the natural twists and turns of Neto’s designed pattern.

Before entering the exhibition space, visitors first go through “Chromosaturation,” another installation by artist Carlos Cruz-Diez. The tunnel is divided into three lightsaturated chambers, each with a distinct LED filter that emits red, blue or green light, reflecting off the surrounding white walls. Walking through the tunnel, viewers are introduced to the intense

light and colors of the space, priming them for the colorful installation ahead.

Upon entering Cullinan Hall, the colorful crocheted nets hanging from the ceiling create an immersive visual maze; shades of vibrant red, yellow and pinches of green mix and overlap with each other, lightening the room with cheerful colors.

Neto’s crocheted installation hangs about 12 feet above the ground, with a natural, flowing feel reminiscent of the ebb and flow of ocean waves, reflecting the artist’s interest in exploring the interaction between the sea and the land.

However, unlike water or algae, which often recall cooler colors such as deep blue and green, the installation mainly features warmer colors. Thus, instead of explicitly echoing the concept of the sea, the lively colors evoke feelings of sunlight.

The suspended spiraling tunnel slightly wobbles as visitors move through it. Walking in the maze, one has to clutch onto the polymer strings on the sides, which serve as both as the enveloping crocheted walls and handrail. The shifting plastic balls underfoot, along with the installation’s suspended nature, form a sense of instability. Interacting with the work heightens one’s sensory awareness and the movement of the body.

The course of the installation resembles humanity’s journey on Earth, with the act of walking serving as the throughline between Neto’s constructed path and our own lives. The tunnel’s random spirals, shifting surfaces and uncertain footing create a sense of

unpredictability that can easily recall the uneven course of existence.

As visitors move through the unsteady tunnel, at several points, some paths are easier to navigate than others. These features make the installation feel not only physically immersive but also reminiscent of the choices and uncertainties that shape human experience.

Neto’s emphasis on participation makes viewers an essential part of the work. Because visitors travel through different routes within the tunnel, they move apart and then encounter one another again where the paths converge.

These interactions add a communal dimension to the installation. Across different phases of life, we meet new people and depart with others, just as inside the tunnel, we choose divergent paths but still meet each other at certain times.

Overall, “SunForceOceanLife” provides a delightful experience, offering a relaxed, entertaining time, especially on the weekends. Unlike walking through an art gallery and observing the artworks, the installation offers viewers the opportunity to shape their own experiences with the work in a personal and distinct way. At the same time, its playful and engaging design makes it not only thought-provoking but genuinely enjoyable. It is an exhibition well worth seeing.

Ernesto Neto’s “SunForceOceanLife” installation is on view through Sept. 7 at Cullinan Hall in the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

The Thresher surveyed 52 Beer Bikers. Meet them here:

Bikers’

What is your favorite Beer Bike memory?

“My sophomore year, I was on the chug team for Murt and my dad was on the Will Rice Alumni chug team. During the transition between heats, we passed each other crossing the track. It was a super nice surprise getting to hug him and get a selfie on the track before the race.”

— Arwyn St. John, McMurtry College senior

“Storming the track after Lovett finished not last for the first time in my Rice career.”

— Grey Beaubien, Lovett College senior

“Biking out to random spots with friends and exploring Houston.”

— Tommy Meng, Brown College freshman

“I did a triathlon with some bike team friends and it was so legendary. Shoutout Ironman 70.3 gang.”

— William Clarke, Duncan College sophomore

“I love when our team does night rides. It’s always more peaceful on the track, but somehow everyone is full of energy so the vibes are immaculate.”

— Sandra Alb, Duncan College sophomore

“The event itself is always great. All the hype building up to just a few minutes of giving it all you’ve got, and then cheering and supporting the rest of the team.”

— William Nacci, graduate student

More than a third of respondents (38.5%) are competing for the rst time this year. About 11% of respondents are competing for their fourth or fifth time.

Baseball drops weekend series, held scoreless twice

CALEB CARROLL THRESHER STAFF

A er narrowly winning the rst game of their three-game home series against the University of Texas at San Antonio Roadrunners, Rice baseball dropped the last two games of the series, failing to score a single run in 8-0 and 13-0 losses.

“We were humiliated the last two days,” head coach David Pierce said.

UTSA was ranked as a top 25 team in the country by Baseball America earlier this season and showed on Saturday why they are one of the highest scoring teams in the nation.

In Sunday’s contest, the Owls’ defense was able to escape jams in each of the rst three innings; most notably, the Owls held

UTSA scoreless a er the Roadrunners had the bases loaded with only one out in the rst inning.

Pierce pulled junior starting pitcher

Ryland Urbanczyk with just one out in the second inning despite not giving up a run; however, Urbanczyk gave up four hits and walked two batters in that short timeframe.

“He just wasn’t hitting the spot with any of his pitches,” Pierce said.

The Owls’ bullpen wasn’t able to hold o the Roadrunners permanently, though, as they exploded for 13 runs over the game’s nal four innings, including two home runs in a ve-run 5th inning. The game ended a er the 7th inning due to college baseball’s ten-run mercy rule.

“They’re a very good team, and they will expose you when you show weakness,”

Pierce said. “We showed weakness today.”

Pitching command was an issue with each of the Owl’s four pitchers as they walked ten batters in total. Rice’s pitching sta also threw multiple wild pitches and hit three UTSA batters.

We were humiliated the last two days.

David Pierce BASEBALL HEAD COACH

The Owls’ defense executed better when balls were put in play, but still committed three costly errors in the eld.

“You can’t give [UTSA] free passes, and that’s what we did all day,” Pierce said.

The Owls’ bats struggled, as the team recorded only two hits Sunday a ernoon. Rice not only failed to score a run, but they also failed to reach third base for the game’s entirety.

Despite back-to-back losses, the Owls emerged from the weekend 19-14 in Pierce’s rst full season, which is already two more wins than they had last year.

The series against UTSA comes towards the end of an eight-game home stretch at Reckling Park, where Rice is 4-3 thus far. The Owls will end their homestand on Tuesday with a game against Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi.

“We have to mature, get over [this loss] and be ready for Tuesday,” Pierce said.

Hall of Fame coach retiring after storied 40-year career

PATRICK SHUKIS SPORTS EDITOR

A er four decades of service, hall-offame coach Jim Bevan, the women’s cross country and track and field head coach, is preparing to retire at the end of the season.

Although he soon will no longer be a consistent presence on the field, athletes say the impact on the Owls’ program will not be forgotten.

Bevan grew up in Colorado and attended Adams State University, where two-time Olympic distance coach Joe Vigil mentored him as both an Division II track athlete and assistant coach.

“He was a tremendous man,” Bevan said. “He really took me under his wing.”

Vigil helped Bevan make the transition to Division I coaching at Rice, connecting him with former Owls head coach Victor Lopez.

“They had a commonality in that they believed in coaching education,” Bevan said. “Victor’s rst language was Spanish, and Coach Vigill spoke Spanish uently. Because of coaching education and the Spanish language, Coach Vigil could call Victor and say, ‘You should hire this guy,’ but in Spanish.”

Bevan came to Rice in 1986 as the women’s assistant coach. Success came quickly for Bevan, as he coached Diane Sommerville and Julie Jiskra to All-American honors in his rst ve years on South Main.

“Diane was third in the nation in the triple jump, Julie was fourth in the nation in the 10K,” Bevan said. “I think at that juncture you realize, ‘You know what, I know what I’m doing.’ And you believe in your system and what you’re doing.”

Bevan’s newfound con dence helped him to lead the 1994 cross country team to nationals and their only Southwest Conference women’s title in Rice’s history. In 2005, Bevan took over as head coach

for the Owls, winning Conference USA Cross Country Coach of the Year in his rst season at the helm. Two years later, Bevan would sweep the 2007 Conference USA awards for Indoor Coach of the Year, Outdoor Coach of the Year and Cross Country Coach of the Year.

The following year, Bevan accompanied Team USA long jumper Funmi Jimoh to the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics, where he continued his coaching overseas with one of his most talented athletes.

“[Bevan] was there along my journey, and it was just a logical progression to keep him on that journey with me,” Jimoh said. “And he knew me; that was helpful. There’s always the comfort of someone knowing you, taking you along that path.”

Jimoh said Bevan’s dedication to knowing his athletes on a personal level has played a huge role in his success.

“He has a desire to really know the individual outside of coaching,” Jimoh said. “He tries to do that rst before he tries to teach you anything technical. He is the embodiment of ‘They don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.’ That’s who he is.”

Bevan has seen continued success throughout his 21 years as head coach. He has won 14 Coach of the Year awards, coached 75 All-American athletes and was inducted into the Texas Track and Field Coaches Hall of Fame in 2025.

Bevan said he recognizes the importance of supporting his students outside of athletics — something he learned from Lopez, who instilled in him the value of athletes who pursue excellence on and o the track.

“Through Victor, I learned about Rice,” Bevan said. “I learned how to work successfully with the Rice student-athletes, because they do come here for both reasons. And they’re tremendous people. I really believe I work with the best student-athletes

in the world.”

Junior sprinter Barbora Malikova, who represented the Czech Republic in the 400m at the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics, embodies Bevan’s portrait of the Rice student-athlete. Malikova is now pursuing a graduate architecture degree to go along with her athletic endeavors.

“When I was going to grad school, I was looking for a place where people would understand that track and eld was not the only priority,” Malikova said. “It was very important to have people like Coach Bevan around to be able to do both.”

Malikova said she believes that coach Bevan’s approach provides a unique opportunity for student-athletes to focus on both athletics and education.

“In many schools, the transition between being mainly an athlete to also

trying to focus on the academic side would not be possible,” Malikova said. “I think Rice is great at that.”

Bevan said one of the most important aspects of his job is connecting with his athletes, and being there for them no matter what.

“The best ability is availability, and never give up on a kid,” Bevan said. “The secret ingredient is connecting and understanding where they’re coming from, and meeting them where they’re at.”

Re ecting on his time on South Main, Bevan said he is incredibly grateful for his time here at Rice.

“It’s truly been rewarding and an honor to work at Rice,” Bevan said. “They’re paying me to do something I truly love, and the reason I truly love it is where I work and who I get to work with.”

Men’s tennis beats ranked Tulsa and Memphis at home

OLIVER STERN THRESHER STAFF

The No. 57-ranked men’s tennis team closed out conference play with a pair of ranked wins over No. 72 University of Tulsa and No. 64 University of Memphis, nishing undefeated against American Conference opponents for the rst time in its four years of membership.

The Owls entered the weekend riding a seven-match winning streak, with their last loss being a 4-3 defeat to No. 9 Baylor University March 2. With the two wins, Rice improved to 13-6 overall and extended its combined winning streak against Tulsa and Memphis to four matches.

Rice opened the weekend with a 4-0 sweep over Tulsa, beginning with a strong performance in doubles play to secure the opening point.

The No. 48-ranked pairing of junior Petro Kuzmenok and senior Santiago Navarro earned a 6-3 win on Court 1, while

seniors Kabeer Kapasi and Yair Sarouk matched that result with a 6-3 victory on Court 2 to clinch the doubles point.

At the top of the lineup, No. 55-ranked Kuzmenok delivered a straight-set win, closing out a tightly contested rst set 7-5 before pulling away 6-3 in the second. Kuzmenok’s serve proved decisive throughout, highlighted by a late ace and a break to seal the opening set before he controlled the match from there. He was ultimately named American Conference Player of the Week.

Sophomore Gabriel Porras added another point for the Owls with a dominant performance, overcoming a late rst-set push from Tulsa to win a tiebreak 7-2 before cruising through the second set 6-1. Porras consistently dictated play from the baseline and capitalized on key break opportunities to put the match out of reach.

“I’ve been way calmer and managing the pressure better, especially in important

moments,” Porras said. “I just focus on one point at a time and make sure I’m always playing with a purpose.”

Kapasi ultimately clinched the match for Rice, battling through a three-set contest. A er splitting the rst two sets, Kapasi steadied himself in the decider, winning four straight games late to secure a 6-1, 3-6, 6-4 victory and seal the sweep for the Owls.

Elsewhere, Navarro rebounded from a rst-set loss to win the second set, while freshmen Rafael Botran and Noey Do each led in their third sets before play was halted following Rice’s clinch.

Rice followed its sweep of Tulsa with a 4-2 win over Memphis in a tightly contested match.

In doubles, Memphis won on Court 2 against Kapasi and Sarouk before Botran and junior Tommy Czaplinski evened the score with a 6-3 win on Court 3. Kuzmenok and Navarro then clinched the point with a 6-4 victory on Court 1, their 10th consecutive win as a duo.

Kuzmenok extended that lead early in singles play, earning a straight-set win on Court 1, 6-1, 6-4. A er controlling the rst set, Kuzmenok recovered from a 40-0 de cit while serving for the match in the second, winning four consecutive points to secure the victory and a 2-0 Rice lead.

Memphis responded with wins on Courts 2 and 4 to narrow the gap, as Navarro and Kapasi each dropped their matches. Navarro took the opening set before Memphis controlled the nal two, while Kapasi was unable to recover a er losing a tightly contested rst set.

Rice regained control through Do, who has been undefeated in his last six matches. Do dropped the rst two games of his opening set before winning ve consecutive games to take control. He later closed out a 6-4, 7-5 victory with three service breaks in the second set.

“He’s an unbelievable ghter,” head coach Efe Ustundag said. “When he’s able

to execute on top of that, he becomes a really tough player to beat.”

Porras, who has now won nine consecutive matches, clinched the overall victory for the Owls with a 6-3, 2-6, 6-1 win. A er dropping the second set, Porras regained control early in the third, building a multigame lead and closing out the match with consistent baseline play and timely breaks.

I’ve been way calmer and managing the pressure better, especially in important moments. I just focus on one point at a time and make sure I’m always playing with a purpose.

Gabriel Porras

SOPHOMORE TENNIS PLAYER

Botran also led in the third set of his match on Court 3 when play was stopped a er Rice secured the match.

Ustundag said he credited his team’s ability to perform despite unfavorable circumstances.

“We had to make so many changes,” Ustundag said. “We nished at 9 p.m. Friday night and came back out Saturday a er a long match. Their commitment, resiliency and adaptability were amazing this weekend.”

Looking ahead, the Owls will face No. 31 Southern Methodist University on Senior Day, looking to snap a ve-match losing streak against the Mustangs. The matchup is set to feature a test against the nation’s top-ranked singles player, Trevor

who boasts a 29-5 singles record. The contest offers Rice one final test before postseason play, as the Owls look to carry their momentum into the conference tournament.

BREAKING THE SILENCE ON BEER BIKE CHUG

Recently, the Backpage sat down with a current Beer Bike chugger who chose to remain anonymous. He spoke to us from the other side of a confessional we were all cramped in, and he used a voice changer during the interview.

Here is his story.

The Backpage is the satire section of the Thresher, written this week by Will Howley, Charlie Maxson, Rykelle Sandidge, and Max Scholl, and designed by Brandon Nguyen. For comments or questions, please email realricethreshero cial@rice.edu.