100 Days sponsor up in the air

By Rachel Marcus     9/23/13 7:00pm

Rice Program Council will not be financing 100 Days this year, according to RPC President Aisha Jeeva.

Jeeva, a Martel College junior, said the RPC budget had already been set when the Office of Alumni Affairs made the decision not to plan 100 Days.

"Our budget has been set since April, when the executive board sat down and planned for the year," Jeeva said. "We really are unable to fund [100 Days] .... It has never been our event, and we have never been linked to it."

---

---

Jeeva said RPC is choosing to stick to its original plan for its traditional events.

"We can't change what we're doing, pick up the slack and rearrange our whole year because of something someone else decided," Jeeva said.

According to Jeeva, RPC aims to strengthen its planning for Rondelet to revive that event.

"Our primary goal is to have Rondelet because we've received so many student requests asking for it," Jeeva said.

The Student Association, in its effort to find a way for the tradition of 100 Days to continue this year, asked RPC to consider the possibility of planning the event, according to SA President Yoonjin Min. Min said she understands RPC's decision. 

"I think [RPC] is really trying to revive Rondelet as this pre-Beer Bike event, and they've already bought into this idea, planned for it and are really excited about it," Min said.

According to Min, no campus organization has stepped forward to plan the event, and many are worried about the liability that has come to be associated with 100 Days.

Min said the SA is not currently planning on being responsible for 100 Days, either.

However, Min said the college presidents are working on finding a way to ensure 100 Days will still happen. Min said groups that could potentially host the event include the Future Alumni Committee - independent of Alumni Affairs - and a group of representatives from each college's senior committee.

Martel College senior Thomas Plackemeier said he is disappointed that 100 Days has yet to be planned.

"I think that 100 Days offers seniors a chance to celebrate their collective experiences over the past four years," Plackemeier said. "I'm disappointed that no organization would step up to carry on a Rice tradition [like 100 Days]."

Min maintains that 100 Days will happen.

"100 days [to graduation] will be marked in some way," Min said. "I don't know if the way it has been marked in past years is feasible for this year, but we also still have a lot of time."

---