Beer Bike parade to include increased RUPD presence
Seth Brown
Issue date: 3/12/10 Section: News
While some colleges are prepping for Beer Bike by filling up water balloons and practicing their chugging, a select few individuals are focusing on ensuring the parade is a safe environment.
Although the Beer Bike Parade has kept its trucks and water balloon fight, there will be several other format changes this year. The parade will follow the Inner Loop past the north colleges, in the opposite direction as in the past, due to construction at the south colleges, and will feature an increased security presence.
Assistant Dean of Students Boyd Beckwith said the increased presence of Rice University Police Department officers during the race is due to safety concerns that arose in previous years.
"In the past, students were having to handle other students with abusive behaviors," Beckwith said. "RUPD has to defeuse those kinds of situations. I think it'll make it easier for us to have a safer parade."
Beer Bike Coordinator Brian Henderson said the officers would not conduct sobriety testing, but rather would deal with individuals who endanger the safety of the event, ensuring that students did not harm themselves on the new James Surls sculptures (see story, page 1).
"We're trying to increase the overall effectiveness of event safety to ensure that no one is impaled on the sculptures," Henderson, a Jones College senior, said. "The average student probably will not notice the added police presence."
RUPD Major Dianna Marshall said there will be about 20 officers along the route who will pull out students in violation of parade rules. A supervisor on a golf cart will then record the name of the student and take their picture. Marshall said she hoped this would make it possible for fines to be incurred against individuals instead of against colleges, as has been the case in the past.
Although the Beer Bike Parade has kept its trucks and water balloon fight, there will be several other format changes this year. The parade will follow the Inner Loop past the north colleges, in the opposite direction as in the past, due to construction at the south colleges, and will feature an increased security presence.
Assistant Dean of Students Boyd Beckwith said the increased presence of Rice University Police Department officers during the race is due to safety concerns that arose in previous years.
"In the past, students were having to handle other students with abusive behaviors," Beckwith said. "RUPD has to defeuse those kinds of situations. I think it'll make it easier for us to have a safer parade."
Beer Bike Coordinator Brian Henderson said the officers would not conduct sobriety testing, but rather would deal with individuals who endanger the safety of the event, ensuring that students did not harm themselves on the new James Surls sculptures (see story, page 1).
"We're trying to increase the overall effectiveness of event safety to ensure that no one is impaled on the sculptures," Henderson, a Jones College senior, said. "The average student probably will not notice the added police presence."
RUPD Major Dianna Marshall said there will be about 20 officers along the route who will pull out students in violation of parade rules. A supervisor on a golf cart will then record the name of the student and take their picture. Marshall said she hoped this would make it possible for fines to be incurred against individuals instead of against colleges, as has been the case in the past.
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