Beer Bike parade undergoing vast changes, new plan to be selected

By Matthew Sawyer     11/18/10 6:00pm

In recent years, the format of the Beer Bike parade has been the subject of intense scrutiny by student leaders and administration alike. With increased concerns about liability and rising costs to safely operate the event, we are forced to reevaluate the event yet again.Dean of Undergraduates John Hutchinson asked me to seek ways to ease concerns about the safety of the parade. I elected to approach the Campus-Wide Beer Bike Committee, which is composed of myself, the area coordinators, Rice Program Council executives and the college coordinators, to open a dialogue about this issue. The committee discussed several options and agreed that student input was absolutely necessary before any final decision could be made. Learning from mistakes made in previous years, we are seeking your input on how to best change the parade.

After discussing the parade at length with Dean Hutchinson, it has been made clear to me that a parade with three stops, as we have seen in recent years, is not acceptable. With this limitation in mind, the committee discussed the best way to maintain tradition and balance student and university interests. Together, we have come up with three viable options. The members of the committee have since had the opportunity to discuss and debate the various advantages and disadvantages of each option, which I now present here.

The first of the three options is similar to the format of previous parades, with two key differences. As in the past, the parade would start with a balloon fight at Founder's Court. It would then proceed down the south side of the Inner Loop (contrary to normal traffic flow) toward the intramural fields and Tudor Fieldhouse. The balloon fight would then recommence around the IM fields. Trucks would line up in an "L" shape on the Inner Loop and College Way, surrounding the IM fields. This would allow students to "battle" their friends at all other colleges as opposed to engaging only the colleges on either side of them.

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The obvious advantages of this plan are that it adheres to the tradition of students walking with their trucks between stops and allows for better fighting among the various colleges.

However, the cost of securing the parade will rise by as much as 10 percent due to incidents occurring in the past few years. Due to this rise in costs, fines on the colleges for violating parade rules would also have to increase. In the past several years, more than $6,000 has been paid in fines by colleges each year due to parade violations. Additionally, colleges would need to provide more security personnel to facilitate the safe movement of the trucks. Lastly, with this plan, we would likely see increased pressure from the university to address liability issues in future years.

In the second option, students and trucks will take different routes from Founder's Court to the IM fields. The students will proceed from Founder's Court through the Academic Quad toward the IM fields while participating in a cheer battle among the colleges, while the trucks will proceed along the north side of the Inner Loop toward the Barbara and David Gibbs Recreation and Wellness Center. The trucks will then turn left at the Rice Memorial Center and form the same "L" around the IM fields as in the previous plan. At the IM field, the students will rejoin their trucks and recommence the water balloon fight. The only difference between this plan and the first option is that the students and the trucks take different routes. The amount of water balloon throwing remains the same.

Several advantages present themselves with this format for the parade. First and foremost, security costs would be reduced dramatically, because fewer Rice University Police Department personnel would be needed to prevent students from interfering with the trucks' movement. Additionally, this could potentially allow for a rekindling of the original intent of the parade, which was to cheer the bikers on toward the races. The bikers could proceed to the track to prepare for the race after the cheer battle in the Academic Quad. This would allow the parade and the races to be integrated better than they have been in recent years.

However, this option does represent a change from the parade in years past. Additionally, students might have difficulty realizing they shouldn't follow the trucks and be confused by the two different routes. Finally, there is concern that the south colleges would have little incentive to join in the fight at Founder's Court because of their proximity to the balloon fight at the IM fields.

The final option is, admittedly, a radical change from past years. The colleges would meet in the Academic Quad to participate in a university-wide cheer battle, with students showing support for their bikers. They would then proceed to join their trucks at the IM Fields, where the water balloon fight would occur. Thus, the balloon fight would have only one location.

There are, surprisingly, several advantages to this plan. First, it would greatly reduce the security costs necessary to have a safe parade. It would also, as with the second option, allow the parade to go back to its more traditional roots as a way to cheer the bikers to the track. Also, soaking wet students would not have to walk across campus in unpredictable weather. Finally, it would greatly reduce the fines imposed on the colleges and allow that money to be spent elsewhere by the college coordinators.

With this plan, there are few concerns on the behalf of the administration. As a result, and most importantly, it is a plan that can be maintained in years to come. Lastly, it should be noted that this plan does not mandate activities before the water balloon fight. This plan gives the student body the unprecedented opportunity to add what it thinks would be best to the Beer Bike tradition.

However, there are disadvantages to this option. First, it is a radical departure from the recent history of the parade, a fact that cannot be ignored. While this plan does remove most of the concerns about last year's proposed fight, as RUPD and Rice Emergency Medical Services will have easily accessible ways of getting to students in need, some questions remain. Will students become more violent with a more prolonged fight at one location? Is it really a parade if there is only a single stop?

We now look to the entire student body to discuss these proposed options within your college and with your coordinators. No choice has been made yet. No choice will be made without the input of the student body. In fact, we have created a survey for students to submit their input, which can be found at "http://bit.ly/beerbikesurvey".

The committee feels that the process of deciding must involve the student body. We hope you will be active and open-minded in discussing these options since what we, as students, decide now will affect future Beer Bikes.

Finally, I would like to leave you with some great news. Over the past several months, I have been working with the administration to find a way to maintain the format of the races for Beer Bike. Dean Hutchinson and other members of the administration understood students' desire to fully incorporate our two newest colleges in the races without having to change our overall format. Originally, we thought we would have to divide the colleges and run heats or time trials. Instead, the Campus-Wide Committee and RPC have found a way to fund minor alterations to the track that will allow us to have the traditional single race in each of the divisions (alumni, women's and men's). This is due to the efforts of Jen Cooper, Dr. Mark Jenkins, Boyd Beckwith and the Campus-Wide Beer Bike Committee. We also appreciate Dean Hutchinson's willingness to consider new approaches and his continued support.

The opinions of the column are representative of the entire executive Beer Bike Committee.

Matthew Sawyer is a Sid Richardson College senior and the campus-wide Beer Bike coordinator.

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