RPC increases budget

By Margeux Clemmons     9/18/08 7:00pm

Rice Program Council will see major internal changes this year, starting with a budget increase from $35,000 to $130,000. This budget will cover RPC's expanded roles, including the Passport to Houston program, formerly operated out of the Center for Civic Engagement, planning Homecoming and Willy Week concerts and organizing President David Leebron's and Dean of Undergraduates Robin Forman's study breaks. The increase in funding is part of efforts to include student involvement in planning large-scale Rice events and programs, Director of the Student Center Boyd Beckwith said. The three-year-old Passport to Houston program operated out of the President's Office for its first two years and came under the wing of the Center for Civic Engagement last year. In response to the CCE's desire to form a student advisory board for the program, the university instead reassigned the program to the RPC Arts & Entertainment Committee. As a result, the committee's budget increased from $6,000 to $48,000 this year.

"Instead of trying to keep up this extra framework [of a student advisory board], [having RPC run the program] gives students more input into both big Rice Night Out Events as well as the discounted events RPC originally organized," Beckwith said.

RPC plans to change the way Passport to Houston distributes subsidized and free tickets to the Houston Symphony, Alley Theatre and other Houston events. In past years, cultural committee heads passed out tickets directly to residential colleges, but this year, the heads will compile a list of interested students, who will be responsible for picking up their tickets at the information desk in the Rice Memorial Center. RPC plans to maximize student attendance at these events by making any unclaimed tickets available to interested students who were not originally on their college lists, Beckwith said.

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"Sometimes we take full freight for the tickets or the organization gives us the tickets with the goal of filling up seats, but we don't fill them," Beckwith said. "Then what incentive do [the organizations] have to continue their relationship with Rice?"

Last Friday's Houston Symphony concert was the first test for the changes, but the event was canceled due to Hurricane Ike. Beckwith and RPC are working to reschedule the event.

Several other committees are turning a new leaf in the way they are organized this year. Campuswide Programs, formed this fall, is a new umbrella to house RPC, Passport and the Brochstein Pavilion Advisory Committee, the latter of which is responsible for scheduling events in the TV lounge portion of the pavilion.

RPC also formed its Traditions Committee this year, which will plan Homecoming events, Willy Week, and both Leebron's and Forman's study breaks. The committee's $50,000 budget comes from Leebron's and Forman's offices and $10,000 for the RMC's 50-year anniversary celebration, a celebration of Rice CoffeeHouse, Willy's Pub and a performance by the magician Norman, whose information is available at www.normanmagic.net.

The Willy Week and Homecoming events include two concerts sponsored by the RMC and Brochstein Pavilion. For the Homecoming concert, students can vote on the RPC's Facebook page for their preferred artists. Among the top three artists are Hot Hot Heat, Gavin Degraw and The National.

RPC is still accepting applications for the Traditions Committee co-chairs, as well as for this year's Beer Bike coordinators.

Because the only temporary budget increase is the one-time $10,000 sum for the RMC's 50-year anniversary, RPC can expect its budget to remain stable at $120,000 in the future.

"This is an opportune moment to add events and increase [RPC's] budget," RPC college representative and college Cultural Committee chair Alexandra Espinoza said. "The changes address RPC's goal to make people aware of what it is that RPC does."

Espinoza, a Will Rice College sophomore, said that as a Cultural Committee head she is able to transfer the events RPC does not sponsor to her college budget and her involvement in the changed RPC makes her more aware of opportunities in the Houston community.

The next illustration of RPC's expanded domain, funded through the Passport program, will be a private reception at the Museum of Fine Arts Friday, Oct. 24 from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Beckwith said RPC's changes will give it a higher profile for students.

"I can't imagine any Rice student not knowing about RPC events this year," Beckwith said.

Beckwith said the RPC Facebook page has jumped from 50 members to over 300 members this year alone, after encouraging students to vote for an artist for the Homecoming concert.

The METRO Q-Card program, also part of the Passport to Houston Program and which allows students to use the Houston public transit system cost-free, will also boast several changes this year. The Q-Cards distributed last year which allowed unlimited fare rides to students have been deactivated. Since METRO could not manufacture Q-Cards for all students before O-Week, the METRO Money Cards will temporarily take its place. All students may pick up a METRO Money Card, worth $10, before Tuesday, Sept. 30, from their college coordinators, although new unlimited-use Q-Cards are also now available in the cashier's office.

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