EVP candidate Brianna Singh advocates for more approachable Senators, off-campus outreach

According to Brianna Singh’s platform, people are only as good as the community they live in, and she believes she can make the Rice community better as External Vice President. She served as a Hanszen College NSR and was Environmental Committee Co-Chair her freshman year. Currently, she serves as the SA Secretary.
As EVP, according to her platform, Singh hopes to encourage students and organizations to come to SA to advocate for change, to push senators to work on sustainable projects to impact Rice and to expand Rice’s standing in community beyond the hedges.
Singh is currently working on a resolution that reassesses how clubs are registered, approved and renewed. Singh said the idea for the resolution stemmed from her work on the the clubs approval committee, where she was struck by the high number of club applications.
Singh also mentioned in her platform that she wants to encourage senators to work on “sustainable, well-informed projects with impact on the Rice campus.”
“What I heard about a lot of the Senators’ projects this year is that they had a hard time finding topics they’re interested in,” Singh said. “I want to encourage more Senators to have office hours at their colleges so they can stay informed about what students are interested in and talking about problems students are facing on campus.”
Singh said another important issue to her is connecting with the Houston community. Singh said she advocates for more involvement in Houston since Rice gets so much community support through programs like Hedgehopper, a program where local businesses offer discounts to Rice students.
“We want to support the community around us because we get so much community support from them,” Singh said. “I’d like to expand the Hedgehopper program to more places Rice students go to. Right now it has a lot of places in the Village, and I’d like to keep expanding that.”
Singh also said she hopes to get the campus further involved in Houston politics.
“Another way to engage in the community would be with political activism,” Singh said. “That doesn’t mean the SA needs to pick a side. It would be interesting to have speakers come in and talk about both sides of an issue. You can get engaged with your community leaders who can make a change at the Houston level.”
More from The Rice Thresher

Startup incubator unveiled in Ion District
The Rice Nexus in the Ion building was opened to the public Feb. 14. The Nexus will assist selected faculty, student and alumni startups with office space and industry mentorship, free of charge.

Rice testifies for lawsuit against ‘devastating’ federal funding cuts
Rice joined 70 other universities supporting a lawsuit against the National Institutes of Health, which may reduce research funding by billions of dollars. A Feb. 7 NIH memo announced a drastic cut to indirect costs, which covers overhead for research institutions; including funding for lab spaces, water and power bills and paying subcontractors, according to testimony from Provost Amy Ditmtar.

‘Collateral damage’: Houston’s top horn musician allegedly harassed Rice students for decades. And the school knew.
Rice University’s famed horn professor William VerMeulen abruptly retired last spring amid a swirl of sexual misconduct allegations. But dozens of students and industry insiders say “the administration has known for 30 years” — and failed to act.
Please note All comments are eligible for publication by The Rice Thresher.