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March 23, 2007 > News > Rondelet cancelled

Rondelet cancelled

RPC blames low attendance, financial risk for spring formal’s discontinuation

By Lily Chun | Thresher Editorial Staff

Rondelet, Rice’s spring formal and a tradition since 1947, was canceled by the Rice Program Council this year due to dwindling attendance and a loss of profit over the last few years. Traditionally held during Willy Week, Rondelet usually makes less money than Esperanza, the fall formal.

Last year, Rondelet had a net loss of $3,000 after ticket sales.

“Last year, the numbers went down,” Formals Co-Chair Monisa Chakraborty said. We even had lower ticket prices in recent years trying to get students out there, but we’re only able to subsidize so much.”

Chakraborty, a Brown College senior, said competition with the Senior Gala and Archi-Arts are possible explanations for the decreasing attendance.

Additionally, Esperanza lost money this year, for about the tenth time in a row, so holding Rondelet would have been more expensive than in previous years.

“Doing the event is a big risk because you’re spending thousands of dollars in students’ blanket tax money,” Chakraborty said.

Chakraborty said last year RPC heard students did not really want a formal event.

“Even Esperanza has become a semi-formal event,” she said. “We tried to have an alternate event at Dave and Buster’s last year, and even that didn’t go too well.”

Sid Richardson College junior Shinhae Lee said not many people seem to go to Rondelet.

“I don’t think about going because it’s not as big as Esperanza,” she said. “It was never that appealing to me.”

Baker College sophomore Steven Ricondo said he was disappointed that Rondelet was cancelled.

“I was planning on going,” he said. “I heard they were putting everything in Esperanza, but I think it would be nice to have something in the spring.”

Rondelet replaced May Fete as Rice’s spring formal in 1947 and was held annually through last year.

Chakraborty said the spring formal could happen again in the future with more student involvement.

“There are only probably a handful of students who actually run all these events,” she said. “So it kind of becomes hard [to plan for Rondelet] with Willy Week, and RPC is in charge of Willy Week.

In the past, there have been more students involved, so it’s been easier. This is what happens when we don’t have enough manpower.”

Sid sophomore Reem Sabouni said Rondelet should be re-instituted with some changes.

“I think they should give it a facelift to try to give it more publicity,” she said. “They could find a cool venue. It’s really important that they have good music like hip-hop and reggaeton instead of the bad music at a lot of the parties. The biggest thing is that people don’t want to pay $25 to go to it.”

Chakraborty said the money saved from Rondelet this year will be used for Esperanza next year. Possible venues for Esperanza next year include the Houston Museum of Natural Science and Minute Maid Park.

End of article

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