Competition prompts boba sale limits

By Naoki Shiba     9/25/14 6:58am

Rice University student clubs need to start looking for new fundraising ideas, due to new limits placed on boba tea sales this academic year. According to Rice Taiwanese Association President Tim Chang, three years ago the only clubs that sold boba tea were the Chinese Student Association and RTA. Chang, a McMurtry College senior, said when other clubs discovered the $200 profits boba tea fundraisers were raising, they started to sell boba tea as well, creating competition over boba tea customers amongst clubs.

“Last year, some days had clubs that double-booked, selling right across from each other, creating a huge overload on supply, causing some clubs to not always sell out,” Chang said.

Henny Halliburton, the business and events manager at the Student Activities Center, said she realized that previously allowing clubs to reserve boba tea sales on a first-come-first-serve basis was not fair to other clubs and, beginning this year, has been regulating the number of times clubs can reserve the right to sell boba. Halliburton said the regulation, which allows clubs to book for only one day of the week for one semester, is intended to allow more groups the opportunity to sell with less competition.

---

---

“I decided to [give] more groups the chance to sell,” Halliburton said. “That instead of having, for instance, RTA book for both the fall and spring, we would just have groups only book for one semester. Because we have the limit of one boba-tea sale per day, that allows us to have five groups in the fall and five different groups in the spring, rather than having five groups sell in the fall and spring.”

According to Halliburton, these rules were established to ensure clubs are able to sell out and are not competing with each other over customers. Halliburton said she has yet to see whether these rules will prove to be successful, but she knew something needed to be done.

“This is the first time we have done this,” Halliburton said. “I had so many requests for boba [sales], and I was already booked, so I had to change the policy to one semester to allow clubs like Camp Kesem and Rice [Ballroom] Team to sell, too.”

President of the Chinese International Student Association Zhifan Li said she was not aware of the new policies for boba tea sales. Nonetheless, Li said she does not mind clubs like Camp Kesem or Medical Humanities selling boba tea, despite it being thought of as a traditionally Asian drink.

“I understand that many clubs are doing it, because it is such an effective way of raising money,” Li, a Lovett College junior, said. “At the same time, people do need to come up with new ways of fundraising options. For example, another fundraising option that [CISA] has right now is [charging] a membership fee.”

CISA was not alone in being unaware of new regulations. According to Camp Kesem Volunteer Team Coordinator Meera Namireddy, Camp Kesem was not informed of the rule, but she said she is not currently worried about its implications on their fundraising efforts. Namireddy, a Sid Richardson College junior, said Camp Kesem has other ways of fundraising than selling boba.

“While boba tea sales do contribute to our fundraising efforts, we also rely on personal fundraising efforts from our executive board, counselors and general body volunteers,” Namireddy said.

David Lam, the vice president of the Vietnamese Student Association, also said he was not notified of the changes in boba sales regulations.

“I do think it’s fair from a more objective standpoint, because it’s a great consistent fundraiser for student organizations,” Lam said. “Although my opinion might be influenced by the fact that VSA only sells in the fall regardless.”

Lam pointed out that groups like Alternative Spring Breaks often sell boba in unconventional areas other than the Grand Hall, because they don’t have the need to book that location for an entire semester. Lam said he does not think that sort of competition would be affected by these regulations.

“Something I would like to see is for clubs that have a time reserved [who] decide to either not do boba that week or decide to stop selling for the remainder of the semester — somehow to allow other organizations to take their place,” Lam said. “I know this happens informally between some groups. I’m not saying there’s necessarily a need for a formal system either, but more so I think that inter-club support would drive competition down.”

Nonetheless, places like the Hoot are opening up new opportunities for student organizations to sell boba outside of the Grand Hall. According to the Hoot’s Facebook page, this semester the Hoot has partnered with 12 student organizations, including RTA and VSA, to bring students boba every Wednesday night to help support the student organizations’ fundraising efforts.

Because the selling of boba tea has become restricted, clubs will need to consider other fundraising options. According to Halliburton, those options have become more restricted due to new regulations set by the Houston Department of Health and Human Services starting from this academic year, which requires that food sold by clubs must not be homemade and must be individually, commercially wrapped. Halliburton said she has had to refuse many requests for the sale of cookies, brownies or doughnuts in the last month.

“Just last semester, we had girls selling donuts, and they were allowed to if they had their hair back and handed out donuts with tongs,” Halliburton said. “With the new regulations, that is no longer allowed.”

According to Halliburton, many groups have asked her what they can sell with the new rules in placed. Halliburton said she cannot give a definitive answer, yet some groups are indeed trying to find different items to sell, other than boba or homemade-baked items that were once so popular.

“Next week, somebody made a reservation to sell KIND bars. We’ve also had another group selling some type of Central American drink in a bottle,” Halliburton said. “It does limit the options, but we have to follow the rules of the Houston Department of Health and Human Services.”

---