Martel public stays first, Lovett postponed
Martel College's socials upheld their public party's streak as the first of the year by rescheduling it for Friday night. The public, usually the first Friday of the semester, was initially canceled due to Harvey.
Hurricane Harvey interrupted not only Rice students’ studies, but also an arguably more important aspect of college: their social lives. Martel College’s Don’t Mess with Texas Party was rescheduled to the same weekend as Lovett College’s Getcheroxoff Party, causing Lovett to move their party three weeks later.
Martel's Don’t Mess with Texas party, traditionally the first public of the year, was scheduled on the first Friday of classes. But Friday morning, after a meeting with Dean of Undergraduates John Hutchinson, Martel Chief Justice Gabrielle Falcon and President Dylan Dickens informed the socials that the party was cancelled due to Hurricane Harvey, according to Martel social Nisha Patel.
With the Texas party cancelled, Lovett College's Getcheroxoff party was scheduled to be the first public of the year, so the Lovett socials had to change their original event plan to accommodate a larger crowd than expected, according to Lovett social Emily Klineberg.
On Sunday, Sept. 3, Martel created an upset when they announced that they had rescheduled the Texas party to Friday, Sept. 8 — just one day before Lovett's party, making it the first public of the year again.
The Lovett socials said they were frustrated by this decision, since they had already scaled up Getcheroxoff.
“More people meant that [Lovett socials] also had to change [their] budget so that we could order more food and drinks, T-shirts and party favors in time for everything to arrive,” Klineberg, a sophomore, said.
Patel, a sophomore, said the change was an unavoidable scheduling problem caused by the number of publics early in the year.
“We knew that there were parties every week, pretty much so we’d have to double-book with someone,” Patel said.
Patel said when the Martel socials realized Friday was open, they thought it would be a good idea to host a public after Screw-Yer-Roommate.
According to Patel, the administrative leadership that handles public parties — including the magisters and the Rice Program Council — liked the idea of having a public that night, since in past years many have attended a large private party after Screw. They thought this would be a safer environment due to presence of Rice University Police Department, Rice Emergency Medical Services and caregivers, Patel said.
On Tuesday, the Lovett socials announced on the Getcheroxoff Facebook event page, using capitalized letters to spell out an expletive directed at Martel, that "unFortunately dUe to some reCent scheduling concerns regarding this weeKend," the party had been moved to Sept. 30.
“The decision was made primarily on the fact that fewer people would be inclined to attend Getcheroxoff on Saturday after attending Martel’s Texas party,” said Klineberg.
“It’s too much effort to find clothes to fit the theme of two different publics in the same weekend,” said McMurtry sophomore Lauren Loh.
But Patel said it would be fun to have two publics in one weekend, especially after a long week of being inside. The Martel socials did not want Lovett College to move their party and had been planning on attending Getcheroxoff, she added.
Judging from the amount of memes on Facebook, after all the back and forth, it seems that the colleges don’t hold too much animosity towards each other. Klineberg remarked that the anger towards Martel is “mostly just a joke at this point.”
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