New Beer Bike initiative announced

By Jaclyn Youngblood     2/18/10 6:00pm

While Beer Bike is already a student-run initiative, the future of the event may include even more student voices. At a Student Association meeting Feb. 8, Baker College junior Diana Cahill presented a student initiative that would restrain the power of the campus-wide Beer Bike coordinators. The referendum stems from recent discussion about moving the parade - including the water balloon fight - to the football practice field. Cahill, a former Beer Bike college coordinator, said she was bothered by the absence of an established method for making changes to Beer Bike.

"The vast majority of control of Beer Bike is given to campus-wide and college coordinators, which is not a bad thing," Cahill said. "Beer Bike could not function without these people ... but there is no clause that says major changes should be held to the decisions of the students as a whole."

According to the text of the initiative, any major change to the format of the parade or the race must be put to a student vote and would require a simple majority to pass.

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There are two ways for an initiative to secure a spot on the General Election ballot: by vote of the SA Senate or through referendum. Anyone presenting a referendum must collect signatures from 5 percent of the student body to bypass the Senate and appear on the ballot.

Since Cahill collected over 160 signatures, the initiative will be on the ballot in the general election.

SA Parliamentarian Jonathan Stewart said a student's signature on the petition to put the initiative on the ballot does not indicate support for the content of the legislation.

"By signing this statement, it means you are in support of [the initiative] coming to a student vote," Stewart, a Jones College sophomore, said. "It doesn't mean you support it, necessarily."

According to Article II, Section 5 of the SA constitution, in order for a referendum to pass, it must receive two-thirds support from a quorum of at least 20 percent of the student body.

Stewart said even if the resolution were to pass, an action to modify the SA or RPC constitutions might not immediately take place.

"The minimum that will happen is the . student Senate would pass a resolution to kind of recognize this and formalize it," Stewart said.

On the opposite end of that spectrum, more drastic measures would potentially involve the SA amending its constitution to reflect the changes outlined in the referendum. These changes would then be imposed upon the constitution of the Rice Program Council, a blanket tax organization, because Article I, Section 6 of the SA constitution states that all registered student organizations' constitutions are subordinate to the SA constitution.

Though the proposed changes to the format of the parade were not implemented, they opened channels of communication between the campus-wide coordinators and the student body.

Cahill said she thought this year's campus-wide coordinators did a good job gathering student opinion and she did not introduce the initiative as backlash against them or future campus-wide coordinators.

"This [initiative] is just to make sure that if changes were to be made in the future, they would reference students again," Cahill said.

Many students have a problem with the spirit of the referendum, citing it as an overreaction to the recent debate about this year's Beer Bike parade.

"The content is real immature," Bakkalbasi, a Hanszen senior, said. "It's just bitterness toward what happened."

Martel College president Sean McBeath echoed Bakkalbasi's sentiments.

"This is an irresponsible way to handle the problem," McBeath, a Martel senior, said. "It sets a poor precedent for how students interact with the SA."

SA President Patrick McAnaney said an ideal function of the SA would be to serve as a forum to discuss changes in any capacity, not limited to Beer Bike.

"The most appropriate role ... would be as a facilitator, not a regulator," McAnaney, a Brown College senior, said.

Stewart added that the SA is a good starting point for any student organization wanting to engage students.

"The SA Senate is certainly a good place to open a dialogue," Stewart said. "It's a nice way to dispense information and have a dialogue with everyone involved on campus."

McAnaney and the college presidents penned a Letter to the Editor to that effect earlier this week (see letter) in opposition to this decision.

McAnaney also said the initiative put the SA Senate in an awkward position because it could come off as an attempt to seize power from registered student organizations.

"I don't think it's really appropriate for student referendums to the SA to be regulating student organizations," he said. "We're not interested in grabbing any power. We're not interested in establishing the ability to regulate any subsidiary organization."

Bakkalbasi said students voting in the general election should familiarize themselves with the text of the referendum.

"You really want to read this amendment before you vote for it," Bakkalbasi said.

Stewart said the most important thing for students is to understand the referendum.

"Vote honestly," he said. "Do you think this is a good thing or a bad thing?

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