The RMC is not a strip mall
The Rice Memorial Center is a gathering place for Rice students and staff. While dorm rooms and college commons are the usual leisure centers, the RMC is an oasis of relaxation in the middle of a stressful campus, especially for off-campus students, graduate students, faculty and staff.
But this week, this isolated oasis has been more like a crowded market full of gypsy panhandlers. Tables of women hawking crude jewelry have no place in our student center, even if they do pay the $100 per table per day fee. Nor do bankers, test preppers or 24-hour-gym peddlers.
If these moneychangers in our naptime temple were providing a service students, staff and faculty could use — say, free Red Bull, construction maps or ear plugs — or if there were no other places in Houston to shop, then maybe their crude capitalism would be tolerable. But at the time being, they provide no service except to their bottom line.
Students deserve a student center, not a strip mall. If the RMC needs money to maintain its facilities, then perhaps the colleges can contribute to a fund to buy back that space in the RMC and keep it clear for napping, hanging out, drinking coffee, doing homework and all the other collegiate pastimes. Until then, while other schools’ student centers have bowling alleys, arcades and movie theaters, we will just have to enjoy knock-off jewelry.
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