Malik, Henderson to coordinate Beer Bike

By Juliana Serrano     5/14/09 7:00pm

Beer Bike may have just ended, but plans for next year's event are already underway. The campus-wide Beer Bike Coordinators for next year will be Jones College junior Nazish Malik and senior Brian Henderson.

Both Malik and Henderson have been involved in Beer Bike before: Henderson was security coordinator his sophomore year and parade coordinator last year, while Malik was Jones Beer Bike coordinator last year.

Henderson said his favorite part of Beer Bike is the race itself.

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"I love seeing each college come out and show its character in the race, the competitiveness, the silliness," Henderson said. "Each college has its own way of looking at the race."

Malik and Henderson said Beer Bike was very difficult to explain because the name isn't particularly descriptive.

"It sounds a little silly when you describe, 'Well somebody chugs and somebody bikes and in the end there's a winner'," Henderson said. "I always have a very hard time explaining not only what the event is and what the race is but why it's so exciting and such an important thing to many Rice students."

Henderson and Malik said they have many ideas on how to improve Beer Bike next year. Malik said she wants to start planning the event earlier.

"You really cannot procrastinate with Beer Bike," Malik said. "It is too big of an event."

Henderson said he wants to choose the area coordinators - other members of the campus-wide Beer Bike Committee that monitor parade and track security - earlier. Malik and Henderson said they want more communication between everyone, especially between the campus-wide coordinator and the college Beer Bike coordinators. Henderson said he also wants to bring back the Web site for Beer Bike, beerbike.rice.edu.

"The Web site over the past years has been a little neglected," Henderson said. "It tends to be updated a little bit late. I want to make sure the information is there and is there when it's useful."

He said he would like the Web site to include race schedules, Beer Bike day schedules, major track records and Willy Week schedules. Henderson said he and Malik wanted to make Beer Bike more of a part of Willy Week as a whole.

Henderson and Malik said they both think it is feasible to have the results of the races in the 30 minutes between the races and not after all the races have ended. Malik said that they would improve the lack of resources for the students such as food, water and bleacher space next year.

Although both are also very involved in Jones and even though they both have a lot of Jones pride, neither said they were going to favor any college during Beer Bike.

"Campus-wide Beer Bike Coordinators are just that: They're campus-wide," Henderson said. "Rice comes before my college and Beer Bike is Rice. Beer Bike is an event that's too important to let college biases get in the way.

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