Beer Bike ‘bragging rights’: meet the RPC coordinators

By Veronica Yang     4/1/25 10:41pm

As the energy and excitement of Beer Bike takes over, anticipation across campus is at an all-time high. 

Students are making adjustments to chugging strategies, time trials are underway and volunteers for activities are being rallied.

Planning for this year’s Beer Bike began the day immediately after the 2024 event ended. The Rice Program Council’s Beer Bike coordinators are the team behind it. 

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Wiley Liou, the Beer Bike committee co-chair, said the team’s work continues during the summer. 

“Throughout the summer, our focus is on setting dates for our countless meetings, getting our website and social media prepared, preparing our budget for the event and detailing the tasks each member will take on,” said Liou, a Baker College junior. 

Roles such as area coordinators and external track coordinators make up the procession of Beer Bike to ensure each aspect of the event is covered. 

Marilyn Gan, the Beer Bike concessions area coordinator, said the team worked hard to refine each detail from enacting safety measures to finalizing the budget well before fall semester started.

“I contacted various vendors and juggled quotes, until I was able to finalize everything. After spring break, I passed things over to Heather [Associate Director of Student Engagement] to wrap everything up,” said Gan, a Sid Richardson College freshman. “Now, I’m working on various instructions and things like allergen information sheets.”

While Beer Bike planning is a year-long effort, Liou said the final month is the last stretch where things get truly chaotic.

“The final month before Beer Bike basically becomes a full-time job,” Liou said. “I worked on assigning and contacting the nearly 150 volunteer shifts to make the event successful and on schedule. With roles ranging from breathalyzing to concessions, we’re extremely grateful for everyone who is giving up their time on Saturday to make everything run smoothly.”

This year, volunteer recruitment saw an unexpected surge in participation with new incentives like fine reductions. 

“We were asking for 10-12 [volunteers] per college, but ended up receiving 32 responses from one college, some actually being racers as well,” Liou said. “We ended up having to turn down some volunteers, which I don’t know if that has been done in the past.

“These last weeks before Beer Bike are when the RPC teams’ routines get thrown out...this organized chaos really embodies what Beer Bike is all about,” Liou said.

To ensure all volunteers and Beer Bike staff are prepared for race day, the coordinators conduct drills and practice runs, enlisting Student Center workers to act as first-time Beer Bike attendees. Liou said the drills were a moment of unexpected laughter. 

“It was both entertaining and informative to see all them imitate first-year attendees not knowing where to go as we tried to breathalyze and ‘check’ them in,” Liou said.

Gan said the long hours, stress and last-minute changes are all part of the Beer Bike experience.

“Being a coord has forced me to step out of my comfort zone. Serving as a Beer Bike coordinator has been so many roles wrapped into one, balancing responsibilities in graphic design, media management, event planning, public relations and recruitment,” Gan said. 

For Gan, the reward is simple: “Bragging rights.”

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