WEDNESDAY, MARCH 22, 2023 • 5
THE RICE THRESHER
EDITORIAL
Start by paying the students who need it most Student Association president Solomon Ni presented a motion during the March 20 senate to pay voting members of the SA essentially $8 every senate in session, which they are required to attend. Our new cohort of SA representatives near-unanimously shot the motion down. While we applaud Ni’s effort to compensate student leaders and aren’t opposed to paying leaders when possible, we have to acknowledge that current resources are limited and ultimately should be best spent to lower the barriers to access opportunities for low income students. A pay capped at $200 for an entire academic year for all voting members of the SA makes little difference in students’ lives compared to redirecting this fund towards needbased allocation for SA members. Divvying up limited resources equally between students doesn’t result in equal impact. First-generation low-income students are frequently at a disadvantage when it comes to their ability to offer up unpaid labor compared to their peers. Offering stipends for low-income students when
possible increases the opportunities for them to be involved on campus, as well as promotes inclusivity and brings more diverse voices to the table in our student organizations.
For FGLI students, financial accessibility is a barrier to participating in student leadership positions in the SA and beyond. By concentrating resources, we can remove those barriers and ensure everyone’s voice can be heard on campus. There is also something to say about the nature of the SA being a studentelected, voluntary government body. At a time when the student body is vocally questioning the efficacy of the SA and the downright purpose of its existence, we caution the SA against risking
increasing dissent for a slim chance of increasing internal engagement. The point of volunteer positions is to give back to the Rice community for that reason. This holds true for organizations outside of the SA as well. We hope we don’t lose sight of the value of volunteering for our community. As a general rule, organizations should direct their resources to the areas they will do the most good. Just looking at the statistics, the majority of Rice students do not need financial incentive to give back to our community. However, for FGLI students, financial accessibility is a barrier to participating in student leadership positions in the SA and beyond. By concentrating resources, we can remove those barriers and ensure everyone’s voice can be heard on campus. We need to think more critically and realistically about how we compensate student leaders. Working with what we have, we should dedicate resources to making student leadership positions accessible to students who might otherwise be financially unable to devote their time.
LETTER FROM THE EDITORS’ DESK
Mourning the slow deaths of campus traditions Several changes were introduced to Beer Bike this year, largely at the urging of administrators, in hopes of a smoother, safer race. While we don’t strongly disagree with any of the changes that were implemented, the process illustrates a broader push to strip away the traditions that make Rice Rice. A few weeks ago, members of pit crews across campus were asked to sign a contract stating they acknowledge Rice Program Council’s right to remove them from the track should they blow an 0.02 BAC on a race-day breathalyzer test, never mind the fact that it is legal to operate a 4000 pound motor vehicle with a BAC four times higher. Though the final BAC limit for pit crew has yet to be finalized, administrators also considered, but did not implement, requiring chuggers to be breathalyzed alongside bikers and pit crew. Necessary safety precautions are just that, but overzealous precautions endanger campus traditions. Continuing to discourage students with any level of alcohol in their system from participating in events will simply lead to those events’ decay. Forcing all students, not just bikers, to choose between the Beer Bike races and the Beer Bike experience is a waste of time and energy that comes at the expense of campus traditions. While we embrace students shedding the traditions that no longer suit the campus community and forging new ones in their place, that is different than admin-imposed
restrictions which lead to the slow dulling of traditions’ shine and their eventual deaths. Will we even hear Beer Bike croak in 20 years?
As long as there will never be a perfectly safe Beer Bike, which there never will be, campus is forced to make tradeoffs between safety and tradition. Recently, we think campus has leaned too hard toward performative percautions at the expense of preserving those traditions. Not to lecture about it again, but the very idea of public parties being public has withered. Since public parties returned after a COVID-19 hiatus, students compete for a spot in the line of a Google form — instead of having truly public parties with natural capacity limits — since ticketing and wristband requirements have been imposed. With no remaining COVID restrictions on campus, the impetus for selling wristbands
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has disappeared. Now all we have is 18-yearolds reselling free wristbands for a profit. These traditions were all reduced from their former glory in service of an administrative desire for “safety.” We don’t mean to minimize safety concerns. We’ve called for increased responsibility when drinking from our editors’ desk before. But decades of Rice students have made it through drinking, biking and college parties relatively fine, and when something goes wrong? We’re adults. That’s on us. But Beer Bike, with or without alcohol, is an inherently unsafe event. Bikers whipping around the track at high speeds is a recipe for disaster every year. The waivers all students on the track are required to sign is acknowledgment of that. Though less severe, the same holds true for public parties and a host of other college traditions, at Rice and beyond. As long as there will never be a perfectly safe Beer Bike, which there never will be, campus is forced to make trade-offs between safety and tradition. Recently, we think campus has leaned too hard toward performative percautions at the expense of preserving those traditions.
Ben Baker-Katz & Morgan Gage EDITORS IN CHIEF
EDITORIAL STAFF * Indicates Editorial Board member Ben Baker-Katz* Editor-in-Chief Morgan Gage* Editor-in-Chief Bonnie Zhao* Managing Editor NEWS Hajera Naveed* Editor Maria Morkas Asst. Editor OPINION Nayeli Shad* Editor FEATURES Riya Misra* Editor Sarah Knowlton Asst. Editor ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT Michelle Gachelin* Editor Hadley Medlock Asst. Editor SPORTS Daniel Schrager* Editor Pavithr Goli Asst. Editor SPECIAL PROJECTS Prayag Gordy* Editor BACKPAGE Timmy Mansfield Editor Ndidi Nwosu Editor Andrew Kim Editor COPY Jonathan Cheng Editor Annika Bhananker Editor PHOTO, VIDEO, & WEB Katherine Hui Photo Editor Cali Liu Asst. Photo Editor Camille Kao Video Editor Eli Johns-Krull Asst. Video Editor Brandon Chen* Web Editor DESIGN Robert Heeter Art & Design Director Anna Chung News Siddhi Narayan Opinion Alice Sun Features Ivana Hsyung Arts & Entertainment Chloe Chan Sports Lauren Yu Backpage BUSINESS Edelawit Negash Business Manager Anna Rajagopal Social Media Vanessa Chuang Distribution
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