Platform

The Student Association President oversees appointments to the Sexual Violence & Sexual Harassment Policy Committee & Title IX Rewrites Committee. The purpose of Title IX is to ensure a safe and equitable learning environment for every student. The onus is on Rice to ensure that students are able to receive that. The new Title IX rules by the Department of Education were released on July 12, 2023 overturning some of the rules that made it almost impossible for survivors to pursue action through Title IX. Through the Rewrites Committee, I want to ensure that our Title IX policy is written with survivors in mind including ensuring prompt timeline for all stages of the process. We need to advocate for moving away from the current tribunal model that put in place by the previous administration and move towards an independent investigator model that does not re-traumatize survivors and places a standard of more likely on cases.

The Student Health Services & Wellbeing & Counseling Office provide a critical service to students and should be made more accessible. Pursuing the goal of accessibility I want to advocate for an online portal available to students to arrange appointments with SHS and the Wellbeing & Counseling Office. Other institutions have online portals available to their students and it is achievable here.

I believe that the Wellbeing & Counseling Office should provide specific services geared towards transgender and gender non-comforing students. The Wellbeing Office should have staff specializing in gender dysphoria and other gender issues instead of referring students off-campus. The QRC provides an invaluable service, but it does not provide licensed counselors that these students need.

This previous winter break, we saw Rice University state that they would not be providing housing over the winter break. This policy decision left students in a tough position especially those who do not plan on returning home during the break for various reasons, including international students. Students scrambled to find housing with Rice giving people listings to hotels and short-term rentals that they would have to foot the bill for. Students should not have to be put in such a position and I believe that winter housing should be provided to students who live on-campus. Look at the University of Houston, they expanded on-campus housing to include winter break back in 2017. H&D deserves a winter break and that is apparent at WashU where custodial staff does not work over the break while students are allowed to live on campus.goes here

The minimum wage in Texas is $7.25 per hour and is absolutely unlivable.I am from Arkansas where the minimum wage is $11. The cost of living in Houston is at least $16 per hour. Rice University should implement a minimum wage that makes student work worth students’ time. It is outrageous that one Rice department can pay $8.50 and another $18.50. This is a policy decision that needs to be implemented with student-run businesses in mind. Included in that is staggering a minimum wage increase every year.

Due to increasing likelihood that the U.S. Supreme Court will strike down affirmative action and other race-conscious policies, the Class of ‘27 may be the last class admitted that reflects those beneficial policies. The Student Association should press the Office of Admission to present a plan to ensure future classes are more diverse and representative of everyone’s background.

A syllabus is a guiding document between us and our professors about the course and how to handle certain problems that may arise during the semester. I believe that there should be a bereavement policy for students in syllabi to lay out specifically what students are entitled to when a loved one or family member dies. No student should have to mourn their loved ones and worry about working with the professor to accommodate for something unforeseen

Continuing on our commitment to civic engagement with a goal of making voting more accessible, the Student Association will advocate in the Texas Legislature to allow students to use their college ID as a valid form of voter ID in all elections. Living in a state that has placed continuous restrictions on the ballot means we have to advocate for credible goals that make the ballot more accessible especially to students at Rice.

The Student Association will also make it clear to all of our elected officials that we will not stand for any restrictions on reproductive rights. We will implore our elected officials to protect the privacy of people seeking a medicated abortion by mail and those who choose to go out of state for an abortion. We will push back on any attempts to restrict access to Plan B and other contraceptives because we believe that people know best about choices concerning their body.

As campus continues to increase the number of students it enrolls, more students will be seeking off-campus housing options. We will advocate for more renter protections in one of the least friendly states to renters in the country at the local and state level.

On the city and county level I want to advocate for protected bike lanes around Rice University and to Rice Village. This small improvement will allow more students to traverse the Downtown area without fear of being involved in a motor accident and make Rice Village more accessible.

I want to promote students from affinity organizations Black Student Association, HACER, and PRIDE to appointed positions across the Student Association. I want to make a concerted effort to reach out to these organizations and promote these positions. Making the Student Association accessible means starting with an Student Association that is reflective of people it represents.

Our governing documents should be accessible to the people. I intend to achieve this by reorganizing our Bylaws so those who rely on it, including the Senate and Blanket Tax Organizations are able to navigate it in an easy to comprehend way. The reorganization would also make it clearer for amendments to be made to the Bylaws.

All bills & resolutions should be made publicly available in an accessible way in a ‘legislation tracker’ that shows the sponsor, date introduced, what the legislation does, and status of each piece of legislation. These reforms, like reorganizing the Bylaws and making legislation publicly available are all in the goal of equipping students with the information to be able effectively advocate for themselves and others in the Student Association.

We need to value the time of those that lend their time to the Student Association, like Senators & Presidents, and maximize what we can do together. Some of the reforms I intend to implement is a semester timeline, similar to the one I provided for the Blanket Tax Committee, for Senators & Presidents so no one is caught off guard.

I want to create the position of Director of Labor to facilitate a better relationship between the Student Association and student workers, hearing their concerns. I believe the Student Association plays an important role in mobilizing support for student workers including support for them to unionize if they choose to. The Director of Labor would also charged with compiling a list of student worker positions and publicizing pay scales and salaries. This list would allow students to have more autonomy about the work they do especially if their campus job does not have pay parity with the other jobs on campus.

Working with the next Internal Vice President I want to create the position of New Students Director to manage the next generation of the Student Association including NSRs allowing the IVP to focus their efforts on managing the SA committees. The New Student Director would also be responsible

I want to host town halls throughout the year at the residential colleges to meet the people where they are and engage them in the Student Association and our projects.