BB coordinator set

By Henry Deng     9/16/10 7:00pm

With Beer Bike six months away, the Rice Program Council selected Sid Richardson College junior Matt Sawyer last week as campus-wide Beer Bike coordinator. At this point, RPC has set the definite date for Beer Bike at March 12. Despite acknowledging that he faces key challenges in preparing for the events, Sawyer stated his goals for this year. "Overall, expectations are that, while maintaining the traditions of the event, we can produce a safe event that will be a lot of fun for all those involved and more importantly, if any changes need to be made, then they will be made," Sawyer said.

One of the biggest issues Sawyer must address is the integration of McMurtry College and Duncan College into the race and possible expansion of the Beer Bike track. Expansion of the track has been discussed before, since Director of the Student Center and Campus-wide Programs Boyd Beckwith said that putting 12 racers on the current lanes at one time cannot physically happen given the space constraint and dangers involved. However, widening the track will not be possible this year.

"We cannot expand the track this year," Beckwith said. "[It's] too expensive; the university has denied our request. We put it forward as a capital budget request of about $200,000."

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Upon being asked about the options for McMurtry and Duncan given that the track would remain the same size, Sawyer would only say that there were a huge number of them. Neither he nor Beckwith would discuss specific ideas.

"I prefer not to discuss the options because I don't want to be biased or create havoc before being able to discuss it with the [Beer Bike] committee because they provide an influence and input that is extraordinarily important to me," Sawyer said. "I want to assemble a team of area and college coordinators before I decide on anything definitive."

According to Beckwith, Sawyer was selected from two candidates after a written application and an interview. More students usually apply, but nobody did so last spring when applications first went out. Beckwith said that no one internal to Beer Bike last year had a desire to apply, whether because of the hassles caused by rain during last year's Beer Bike or the amount of pressure coordinators experience every year.

Beckwith said that during the selection process, he sought a candidate who could run the show from the parade to the race.

"I was looking for someone with leadership ability who has experience with Beer Bike, who can work well with the rest of RPC, who understands the concerns of the university while wanting to maintain the tradition and the fun of the event," Beckwith said.

In the application, Sawyer cited his experience, including his involvement in eight Beer Bikes, the first in fourth grade when his parents were masters at Will Rice College. His parents, Dale and Elise Sawyer, are now Sid Richardson masters. Sawyer explained that his participation in event has varied from year to year.

"[In fourth grade] I participated in filling water balloons, and obviously not the drinking aspect, but I participated in the parade and I absolutely loved that aspect of it," Sawyer said. "I've chugged, biked, been in the parade, coordinated [at Sid], seen it from different perspectives."

This year Sawyer will face a challenge in the timing of Beer Bike itself. Last year, the parade and alumni races were held on March 20, though rain delayed the men's and women's races to March 28. This year, Beckwith said that everything will have to be pushed up about two weeks for logistical reasons.

Beckwith explained that because Beer Bike depends on the use of athletic bleachers, the event must be on a Saturday without a baseball game. There is only one Saturday with no home game between spring break and spring recess, so Beer Bike will be held earlier than in previous years.

Given that the possible dates for Beer Bike are so limited, any unforeseen difficulties, like the frigid downpours last year, could present a huge challenge. Both Sawyer and Beckwith agree that plans must be made in advance to anticipate events like inclement weather.

"A contingency [plan] has to have the race on the same weekend," Beckwith said. "The plan that was in place last year did not work well, and what they did have was not communicated well to the student body. It is not financially possible this year - it was a logistical nightmare last year."

According to Sawyer, the idea of well-laid plans ahead of time was one of the key items he mentioned in his interview for the campus-wide coordinator position.

"One of my goals was the idea of putting down specific contingency plans," Sawyer said. "My number one concern is tradition, but with that I need to maintain safety because the university does allow us to hold this event."

Someone who understands the task in preparing an entire campus for Beer Bike is one of last year's campus-wide Beer Bike coordinators, Nazish Malik, now a senior at Jones. At Sawyer's request, she sat down with him before he applied and discussed her personal experience with the position.

"We talked about how Beer Bike went down last year, leading up to it, the work involved, who would be good resources for him," Malik said. "We talked about issues in terms of dealing with the student population because there are always people who understand you or try to understand you, whereas there are some people who don't necessarily want to listen."

One difference between coordinating this year and last year is the fact that Sawyer will not have a co-coordinator. According to Malik, students can apply for the coordinator position either individually or in a team. Sawyer elected to apply individually, but last year Malik worked with a co-coordinator, Brian Henderson (Jones '10).

When asked about recommendations for the new campus-wide coordinator, Henderson talked about the resources at Rice to utilize. He mentioned the good basis of people on campus who have not yet graduated that Sawyer can go to, including area coordinators and college coordinators.

Also discussing her recommendations for Sawyer, Malik focused on the process of addressing changes.

"I think that if he's going to propose any changes, he should do it way ahead of time to give the student body time to think about it and plenty of time for there to be a discussion," Malik said. "Most of all, I really, really hope they come up with a good schedule in terms of how to incorporate the new colleges if we keep the same Beer Bike track.

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