VOLUME 110, ISSUE NO. 04 | STUDENT-RUN SINCE 1916 | RICETHRESHER.ORG | WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2025
Sarofim Hall adds to growing art corner of campus AISHWARYA RAMASUBRAMANIAN
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JULIANA LIGHTSEY / THRESHER Students paint in professor Natasha Bowdoin’s painting class in the newly-opened Sarofim Hall. The building is home to art and humanities classes.
Behind the Moody Center for the Arts and the Shepherd School of Music, a new art building has opened, rounding out what the website calls a vibrant district of art on campus. The Susan and Fayez Sarofim Hall officially opened in a ceremony on Sept. 11, and it already houses a number of humanities and art classes. According to Dean of the School of Humanities Kathleen Canning, construction began in fall 2024 and total building expenses were $76 million. “Sarofim Hall will house a vibrant and growing arena of arts teaching and learning and will foster innovations and collaborations that draw students from all schools at Rice, most notably engineering, architecture and the humanities,” Canning wrote in a statement. According to Rice’s donation website, the 94,000-square-foot building hosts a “state-of-the-art” film and cinema space, performance lab, adaptable classrooms, workshops and various other spaces intended to facilitate interdisciplinary art exploration. It was designed and constructed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro, led by Rice alumnus Charles Renfro ’89. Sarofim Hall is named after Fayez Sarofim and his wife Susan Krohn. Sarofim was the heir to his family’s fortune and known throughout Houston for his part-time ownership of the NFL team Houston Texans along with his philanthropy towards the arts, with the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts’ 2,650-seat Sarofim Hall being named after him.
SEE SAROFIM OPENS PAGE 4
New building opening ‘bittersweet’ as Houston artists remember Rice Media Center LINA KANG
FOR THE THRESHER The corrugated metal Art Barn — once home to a famed Andy Warhol exhibition — has turned to scraps, as the Rice Media Center was demolished. The newly-opened Sarofim Hall now stands in its place. The building, located where the Rice Media Center once stood for 51 years, brings a new culture for Houston-area artists and the Rice community. The Rice Media Center was established
in 1970 by John and Dominique de Menil, famous for their namesake Menil Collection. Both were major proponents of emphasizing the importance of art within Houston — specifically the value of cinema within the art world. This focus on making the Rice Media Center a home for Houston arts just as much as it was for Rice students made the establishment special for many aspiring artists in the city. Houston-based writer, producer and director Michelle Mower said the Rice Media
Center was her second home and was upset to know that it would be torn down. “When I walked into [Sarofim Hall], it was bittersweet,” Mower said. “But at the same time, I was just blown away by how beautiful it was, and it was very moving.” While Sarofim isn’t the Rice Media Center, Marian Luntz, curator of film at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, said she thinks it will become an art destination spot just the same. “I think that will benefit everything around it, so people could make a trip and
see the exhibition at the Moody Center, or maybe go to a performance across the street [at the Brockman Hall for Opera],” Luntz said. Randee Spittel-Ramsey, the executive director of Southwest Alternate Media Project, said that she hopes Sarofim Hall and its movie theater will bring a new day for the program for media studies and Rice’s involvement in the local cinema scene.
SEE COMMUNITY REACTS PAGE 12
AI policies change as new tools become available Statements on Charlie Kirk’s shooting spark discussion ADDIE WITTER
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Google Gemini, Google’s AI platform, made an appearance in Rice’s academic quad on Wednesday as a part of Google for Education’s national college campus tour to demonstrate its offerings in AI. The day included two “Gemini Academy” sessions for students and one “Lunch and Learn” event for faculty and staff. There was also a Gemini pop-up event in the academic quad. Gemini’s college tour is just one example of AI-focused companies increasing marketing towards college students. On April 3, CEO of OpenAI Sam Altman announced on X that students would have free access to ChatGPT Plus through the end of May. Two weeks later, Google announced free student access to Google AI Pro. Rice students’ access to AI includes the Gemini chatbot and NotebookLM, which is included in the university’s existing contract as a Google Workspace customer. “The decision to activate Gemini and NotebookLM within our Google Workspace
JAMES CANCELARICH
NEWS EDITOR
COURTESY JEFF FITLOW Google Gemini hosted events on campus Sept. 10. Rice students have access to Gemini’s AI chatbot. account came from the Rice AI Advisory Committee,” wrote Kelly Fox, the executive vice president for operations, finance and support, in an email to the Thresher. “[This was] with the objective of providing students, faculty and staff access to artificial intelligence tools that enhance productivity
and facilitate learning.” Rice is currently offering the “Accelerating Responsible AI for Education at Rice” program to offer grants and programming to faculty exploring and implementing AI into teaching and course design.
SEE AI POLICIES PAGE 3
Social media was awash with reactions after the killing of Charlie Kirk, a conservative activist, during a debate event at Utah Valley University on Sept. 10. President Reggie DesRoches weighed in with a statement of his own on Instagram and LinkedIn, decrying the violence. “Honest, civil disagreements has always made us stronger, while violence only drives us further apart and corrodes the values at the heart of this nation and our democracy,” the statement reads. DesRoches declined to comment beyond the initial statement.
SEE CHARLIE KIRK PAGE 2