Rice University- Parties

dragon2owl
Sun, 24 Feb 2008 04:14:55 +0000

I am currently a sophomore at Rice and it is because of the college system I decided to come here (could have gone to UT, Notre Dame, Columbia, or Princeton). Beer Bike is a tradtion at Rice. It has been going on since 1957, “a friendly competition between the colleges; in short, uniquely Rice”. I am one of the Area Coordinators of Security for Beer Bike this year, so I know a lot about it. To start off, the week before the actual Beer Bike is called Willy Week. The week is full of events around campus, including a picnic in the academic quad celebrating William Marsh Rice’s birthday, Philharmonics performance, and pretty much just general fun. During the week, college “jack” each other. Last year my college took out the all the tables and chairs out of another college’s dining hall, put it out in the field in front of our college, and had lunch there. Jacks are so random and so fun. These things are organized with coordinators, and there are unjackable items and its all good fun. Now to Beer Bike. It occurs on a Saturday (March 15th this year) and before the race there is a huge parade with a water balloon fight. This is where my job comes in. Each college has prepared water balloons weeks in advance. Each college usually has made between 20,000-35,000 water balloons. The fight goes around campus. Each college has trucks with trashcans full of balloons. Each college is reguired to provide 20-25 people for security depending on the size of the trucks. Security is there to ensure safety, like when the trucks are moving. The parade/fight goes on for about an hour…and then its off to the races. There are three races, Alumni, Women, and Men. Each team (10, 9 colleges plus gruduate students) consists of ten bikers and ten chuggers. The race begins with the chuggers, women have to chug 12 oz and men 24 oz…of WATER! NOT BEER! After the chug, the biker takes off and women take 2 laps and men 3. It’s a relay race to the finish. The excitement is overwhelming. Each college has their themed/colored shirts on,many have dyed their har, war paint on their faces. It is the best thing ever! It takes alot of planning (atleast 5 months) and practice (seriously, we start practicing with the freshman during Orientaion Week).

On another note, Rice is a “wet campus”, meaning alcohol is allowed on campus. I mean, there are two pubs on campus. However, this does not mean that anyone can drink whenever they want. Rice is in Texas, and Rice has made it clear that the drinking age is 21. So we are not exempt from the law. Rice does believe that we are adults and we are old enough to make decision on our own and in no way takes this away from us. What we do in our rooms is our privacy, but if parties do flow into the halls, Rice takes this as a public party, and therefore has the right to take action. Just because there are parties going on with alcohol does not mean you have to drink. The poeple who don’t drink definetly out number the people who drink at Rice. Parties are always going on at Rice, both public(usually in a dorms dining hall with a theme and a DJ or live band) and private parties (in the dorm rooms). And everyone goes to the parties, even people who don’t drink. They are fun, and drinking isn’t a requirement to go to a party and drink. C’mon it’s college partying is going to happen, of course it’s not a “party school”, but just because it’s a prestigious school doesn’t mean it can’t have parties.

If you have other question, don’t hesitate to ask me!