By Thresher Editorial Board     8/30/22 10:35pm

Three years ago, in the pre-COVID world, there were only three public parties that charged for admittance. NOD and Y2K needed the money to hire extra security, and Architectronica charged because it wasn’t funded by a college and depended on the money from ticket sales to cover event fees. Now, we fear more colleges will charge for entrance to publics, a poor practice we urge socials to avoid.

Three years later, as publics finally return in full force, seniors who had a taste of the old, free publics find themselves perplexed by the new changes while reminiscing about the lost institutional knowledge of pre-pandemic Rice. But tradition isn’t the only thing that the new “pay for wristband” system is harming. Though $5 and under price tags generally wouldn’t prohibit any student from attending, it has sparked a growing resale market with wristbands being sold for upwards of $20. This resale market especially affects freshmen, who already feel social pressure to fit into college culture and are likely to buy these resale tickets even at an unreasonable price. Further, paying without clear justification to attend a public defeats the purpose of a “public” party.

Despite all of this, buying and securing wristbands doesn’t even guarantee adittance. Tickets are typically oversold, as in the case of Martel College’s public last Saturday, which results in extended lines and destroys the original purpose of charging a fee: limiting capacity. Three years ago, capacity issues solved themselves. With security monitoring the crowd inside, everyone could show up and line up; when the line felt too long, people simply left. Not to mention that most students do not intend on staying at a public from beginning to end. But being required to pay for admission and the extensive process required to secure a wristband might alter that, decreasing the number of overall students who are able to attend at all.

With the university expanding its student population, the issue of limited attendance at popular student events will only become more prevalent. Conversations surrounding how to preserve the old Rice culture and to ensure the same college experience for future Rice students need to be a focus for the administration and individual residential colleges alike.

Editor’s Note: Thresher editorials are collectively written by the members of the Thresher’s editorial board. Current members include Morgan Gage, Ben Baker-Katz, Bonnie Zhao, Hajera Naveed, Nayeli Shad, Riya Misra, Michelle Gachellin, Daniel Schrager, Prayag Gordy and Brandon Chen.

Comments like “What’s with the suit? What’s the occasion? Who’s getting married?” surrounded me as I strolled into my college commons one day last fall. It caught me off guard; why am I the only one dressed up on career fair day? My bioengineering friend quickly answered my question. “Why should I bother going to the career fair?” he said. “There’s no bioengineering companies there.” He’s absolutely right. But the problem extends beyond just bioengineering.

In the 18th Century, Immanuel Kant (often considered the central figure in modern philosophy) used the phrase Spaere aude in a 1784 essay titled “Answering the Question: What is Enlightenment.”  Translated from Latin, it means “dare to know,” or in some cases, “dare to be wise.”  Kant argued our inability to think for ourselves was due to fear, not due to a lack of intellect.  In the opening paragraph of his essay, Kant states “Have the courage to use your own reason—that is the motto of enlightenment.”

The Oscars may be so white, but Houston art isn’t — as long as you’re looking in the right places. It is all too true that arts organizations still fall short of creating accessible spaces with equitable representation of artists. For instance, white men still make up the majority of artists represented in prominent museums across the United States. Even with increased attention to elevating the work of women artists and an uptick in women-only art shows and exhibitions focused on the work of underrepresented artists, only 11% of permanent acquisitions by major American art museums from 2008 to 2019 were by women; of that 11%, only 3.3.% were by Black women artists. 

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