Homecoming oligarchy
Rice students have a proud tradition of voting for preposterous homecoming kings and queens. When Rice was in the Southwest Conference, other schools marched their best beauties to the 50-yard-line for all to see, while we would give the crowds a refrigerator. For years, the results of our Homecoming Elections represented a grassroots effort by students to mock the outdated practice and promote the Rice zeitgeist. But now those grassroots have been replaced by Astroturf (see story, page 11).
Homecoming Elections should be an open democracy — students should be allowed to choose any candidate they desire. But the decision to ban write-in votes stifled this student voice. Furthermore, the switch to basing elections out of college commons excludes students who live off campus or do not eat at their colleges.
We find it quite disturbing that New Student Representatives, who have only been at Rice for two months, and an unelected Director of Elections, who spent last year abroad, have been put in charge of campus opinion.
Homecoming Elections should be run like every other election in the Student Association: candidates placed on a ballot after enough signatures are submitted, followed by online elections via preferential voting and a write-in option. This method would ensure that the homecoming king and queen elections truly reflect majority student opinion. But for the time being, the rest of us will have to wait while the SA clique decides homecoming court for the rest of us.
Homecoming king? Hah. More like homecoming despot.
Other opinion stories
- Ashby high-rise inconvenient but crucial
- Competitive healthcare necessary for quality
- E-mail failure, solutions
- Letters to the editor
- Night of Decadence: Friends don't let friends become rapists
- RUPD: Stop stealing
- Security should come before democracy in Pakistan
News
- Continued construction causes increased NOD security
- Former Indian President looks to the final frontier for hope
- Lawyers share perspectives at law panel
- Leadership through the lens of Leebron
- Massive server failure leads to campus-wide e-mail outage
- Newest proposed academic calendar features longer break, rescheduled finals
- News in Brief
- Rice receives $1 million for digital archiving project
- RUPD launches controversial anti-theft policy
- Wiess recognized for environmental sensitivity
Sports
- Football drops close shootouts
- Hanszen uses staunch defense to shut out Wiess 18-0
- Men's tennis concludes fall schedule in Austin
- Soccer suffers first loss in conference play
- Sports notebook
- Swimming starts season smoothly with double dual victories
- Volleyball takes on top team in C-USA tonight
- Women's cross heads to C-USA title meet as favorites
- Women's tennis finishes fall schedule
- Zivick leads the way at Chile Pepper Festival
Arts & Entertainment
- Bizarre Noise needs more dancing, less drama
- Book Club sheds chick flick conventions for original story
- Residential colleges go to war in new online strategy game
- RMC Visual Arts Coordinator mobilizes student art
- Verdi's Ball a performance of heartfelt story and skill
- Wilderness of disorganization at photo exhibit