Activities & Organizations

Fiesta tradition continues

The 1951 “Frontier City” displayed has been a continued tradition at UH that dates back to the 1940s. Some on-campus parking lots will be shut down until April 1 so participants will have enough time to shut down their “stores.” | Houstonian file photo

Frontier Fiesta kicks off today in the Robertson Stadium parking lot, serving up a healthy dose of variety shows, carnival games and rides, live music and Texas barbecue.

Although admission is free for students, the festival seeks to raise money to fund 10 scholarships for UH students while showcasing the campus’ culture and diversity.

Fiesta has been a UH tradition since 1940, but was discontinued in 1959. Since the event returned in 1992, fiesta has served as an opportunity for organizations and students display their talents with variety shows.

This year, students will have an opportunity to score free food and prizes during the event, taking place today through Saturday.

Darren Randle, chief of staff for Frontier Fiesta, said the biggest change this year is the increase in the number of UH students involved.

“In the past few years, it would be just IFC fraternities and Pan-Hellenic sororities that would have their variety shows,” Randle said.  “This year we wanted every student organization — anybody who could get out here — to participate.  We don’t want it to be a single-access thing like Rodeo Cookoff is. We want it to be a whole UH thing and a city of Houston thing. We even extended a bunch of the deadlines so more people could enter.”

The result is the first-time Fiesta participation of groups such as the UH chapter of UNICEF, the Houston Students of Ethiopia and Eretria, as well as the Cougar Computer Science Club.

What hasn’t changed is the festival’s location, which has been a hot-button issue in the past because of the number of parking spaces lost for a week each year.

Commuter students returning to campus from spring break on Monday arrived to find Lots 12A and 12B completely fenced off in preparation of the construction of “Fiesta City.” Both lots will remain closed until Sunday, and nearly half of Lot 12A will remain closed until April 1 to allow students enough time to tear down their “stores.”

Director of Parking and Transportation Robert Browand said in an e-mail that because of the lot closures, students with economy parking permits may park in any student commuter parking spaces not designated as resident student lots through March 31. He also referred students to the Parking and Transportation Services Web site and twitter.com/UH_traffic for detailed parking information.

President of the UH chapter of the Delta Upsilon fraternity, Lucas Evers, whose variety show will include parts of Back to the Future, Star Wars and someone called Darth Piper. Evers said his group has had a great time working on the event and that the benefits of Frontier Fiesta for students and the community far outweigh any negatives.

“As the University is trying to move to a (Flagship status), we need this event as a flagship for school pride, tradition and unity,” Evers said. “The master plan of the University is working to stray away from a commuter campus, and moving Fiesta further away from campus is counterintuitive.”

Although he admits as a resident advisor, parking is not a pressing concern of his personally, Randle agrees with Evers that the event is so important to UH that it is worth the relatively brief parking inconvenience. In fact, Randle would like to see Frontier Fiesta return to the size it was in its heyday in the 1940s.

“I wouldn’t mind seeing (Frontier Fiesta) as kind of a post-Rodeo event and getting 100,000 or 200,000 people out here again,” Randle said.  ”We want to set high goals and I don’t think it’s impossible to do that.

“If we could get that much participation out here… I think that week of not having these parking spots, for the city of Houston and the University of Houston it would be really beneficial.”

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9 Comments

  • An event that inconveniences far more than it serves? A continuing problem of disrespect and lack of respect for commuter students? Sounds about right. For the 2 years I’ve spent at UH, much lip service has been paid to parking concerns, but things like this prove that the SGA, the organizers, and the administration don’t care about its student body.

    There’s tons of other places to hold this besides the biggest parking lot at UH. And to hold it during a week when many of us are in midterms, and punctuality and convenience is paramount to our semester grades, all for a great big fraternity party, is about one of the most inept, dysfunctional, flat-out stupid things I’ve seen at UH ever.

    People that don’t even go to UH know how bad our parking situation is. Our majority-commuter population continues to be pissed on, and this merely reinforces the notion that this is “Cougar High.”

    Congratulations UH, Frontier Fiesta, Greeks, and SGA.

  • Moving away from a commuter campus doesn’t excuse ignoring the fact that we ARE a commuter campus. If you want to hold it in Robertson, wait until we AREN’T a commuter campus. There’s just no logic to that.

    Your flagship for school pride shouldn’t be something that causes frustration, apathy, and a perception of disconnect with the larger student body. What are these people ON?

  • I think that it is important to keep in mind the traditions that we are trying to keep in place by using that lot for frontier fiesta.

    After working with many of the officials on campus about the parking situation and after living on campus at both the University of Houston and Sam Houston State, I have found that there are plenty of spaces to park both on campus and in the satellite lots for students you just need to be aware of where these spots are and arrive early enough to provide yourself with time to get from one place to the other. The way that parking works at the University of Houston is that parking lots and garages are paid for by parking passes and parking tickets and fees. The state provides no money for parking and the university does not raise money for parking other than these few ways, so money for new spaces is very limited. In the past few years the university has taken MAJOR strides to improve parking on campus. There are several new garages, and another one breaking ground this year. They have also improved the bus system and are continuing to make it useful to students.

    These issues have been thought and the university continues to think about them every day in committee meetings, budget discussions, and other assemblies. I have been to a University where there really is no room to create new parking lots near or around campus and the University of Houston is lucky to not be in that situation (yet).

    Thank you to the administration and SGA for getting it right these past few years and focusing more on helping students.

    • I’m just wondering why the burden of arriving to class early and parking in the satellite lots falls on me, when I’ve already PAID for my parking pass. Nothing in your post justifies holding the event in the parking lot when there are countless other spaces available. I’m only doing my junior and senior years here at UH, so maybe I speak from a position of ignorance, but I’m not exactly sure what “great strides” the University has taken to improve the parking situation in the recent past.

      There seems to be a school of thought that says building more dormitories will alleviate parking problems, as more students live on campus. I don’t know about you, but I think I can speak for a good portion of the people being inconvenienced by this glorified kegger when I say that I don’t live on campus for a lack of dorm space. Living on campus is NOT AN OPTION for most students. Why can’t people understand this? It’s incredibly arrogant and inconsiderate to think that this moderately successful fundraising event that doesn’t even need to be in the lot in the first place should take precedence over my parking that I paid for.

      How about this, after you raise money for whatever scholarships you have, hold a fundraiser to refund a week of everyone’s parking. That’s a pretty worthy cause considering how disrespectful the entire Frontier Fiesta, SGA, and Administration has been to the student body.

      If someone could provide a coherent explanation of WHY this event has to be held in the parking lot and not in the vast, open spaces of land in and around UH, I think that would go a long way towards deflecting the criticism of this silly event.

    • The problem is that the university continues to think instead of act. And I do not see how frontier fiesta benefits students other than costing them money to pay for a scholarship…we could just save the money and put it towards our education.

      The bus lines are terrible. In the time that you wait for the bus you could already be in class.
      “The way that parking works at the University of Houston is that parking lots and garages are paid for by parking passes and parking tickets and fees.” This leads to silly fines that are placed on students for the smallest things. And is yet another way for the university to extort money out of their students.

  • “I wouldn’t mind seeing (Frontier Fiesta) as kind of a post-Rodeo event and getting 100,000 or 200,000 people out here again,” Randle said. ”We want to set high goals and I don’t think it’s impossible to do that.

    By all means try to do that, Randle, but just not behind Robertson. Go to some empty field farther away from the parking spots and tear up the grass there, but don’t do it at UH, which is a university first and greek fun/post-Rodeo event fourth, fifth, or sixth. You’re a good booster, in the spirit of Houston boosters, but you should get your priorities straight first. Then again, you might not.

    “As the University is trying to move to a (Flagship status), we need this event as a flagship for school pride, tradition and unity,” Evers said. “The master plan of the University is working to stray away from a commuter campus, and moving Fiesta further away from campus is counterintuitive.”

    This statement has more problems than I care to name, least of which is that if the University wants to become flagship, sticking a western town with which fewer than 2% of the student population has any actual connection in the middle of it is not a good idea.

  • I think this is a great idea. UH is finally getting the ball rolling on becoming a more fun, spirited, and proud campus like the schools we unfortunately see on the shirts and hats of some of our own students (you know who you are). Some people simply choose to take a narrow and negative view of things, but i say to UH to keep on doing what you’re doing. Going back to the origins of being a city embracing event will pay huge dividends in the long run much more notable than the belly aching of a few people upset over some parking spots.

    • Where in ANY post does it say that the Frontier Fiesta shouldn’t be held? The only criticism is that it should not be in the PARKING lot. Is this the typical reading comprehension level of a UH student? That might explain a lot of the lack of intelligence demonstrated in the planning of this event.

  • There are plenty of other areas on campus to hold this event. I live on campus and can attest for the fact there are NO great strides being made to alleviate the parking problem. The sattelite area’s around the campus are unsafe and are not adequately patroled by UHPD. So that is not an option. Also since they chose to have it there then students should be able to park where ever a free parking spot is instead of having to choose between searching for a parking spot and being late to class, or getting ticketed.

    Many students do not attend frontier fiesta because it’s only fun for greeks. Students have to pay to do everything! And no there is no free food as stated in the article. We searched all over the place and there was no free food for students…as a matter of fact there was nothing free for UH students that wasn’t also free to the general public. Until frontier fiesta offers more incentives for students then they can continue to expect low attendance numbers.

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