Thomas wins SA presidency; Onwenu, Nghiem win races

2/22/16 3:51pm

Griffin Thomas will serve as the next president of the Student Association after winning the SA election with 53 percent of the vote over Jones College junior Joan Liu. Justin Onwenu won 54 percent of the vote to serve as the next SA external vice president, defeating Hannah Todd, who received 27 percent of the vote, and Brianna Singh, who received 20 percent.

Jodie Nghiem won a race for Rice Program Council president against Iman Khan 62 percent to 38 percent. The other subsidiary organization elections were uncontested.

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The student body approved Rally Club and Rice Catalyst as subsidiary blanket tax organizations to receive student funding, with each receiving approximately 70 percent of votes in favor. Rice Video Productions narrowly kept its priority access to student funding after 65 percent of the student body voted to remove its subsidiary blanket tax status; out of 1198 votes, RVP was 19 away from the two-thirds threshold that would remove its funding access.

After uncontested elections, Duncan College freshman Maurice Frediere will serve as the next SA Treasurer, while Hanszen College sophomore Komal Luthra will be the SA Internal Vice President.

Turnout was much greater than last year, with 1,532 students voting in the race for SA president and nearly 1,500 voting in the EVP race. No race received more than 1000 votes total last year except the presidential race, which Sid Richardson College senior Jazz Silva won with 566 out of 1,088 votes cast. Previously, in 2014, the general election had to be rerun due to ineligible voters casting ballots; the 1636 votes cast in the rerun were the most since at least the turn of the century, according to Ravi Sheth (Martel ‘15), who served as the SA president before Silva.

After subsidiary organization races which were uncontested other than RPC, Yasna Haghdoost will be the next editor-in-chief of the Thresher, Kalian Shi will be Rice Student Volunteer Program chair, Marcela Interiano will be University Court chair, Kira Chen and Matthew Cruz will be Campanile editors-in-chief, Katie Jensen will be senior class representative to the Honor Council and Lee Pelton will be KTRU station manager.

SA President Griffin Thomas: 809 (52.8%) Joan Liu: 723 (47.2%)	RPC President Jodie Nghiem: 853 (61.6%)  Iman Khan: 532 (38.4%)	U-Court Chair Marcela Interiano: 1333
SA External Vice President Brianna Singh: 291 (19.6%) Hannah Todd: 395 (26.7%) Justin Onwenu: 796 (53.7%)	Thresher Editor-in-Chief Yasna Haghdoost: 1332	Honor Council Senior Rep Katie Jensen: 1264
SA Internal Vice President Komal Luthra: 1336	Campanile Matthew Cruz & Kira Chen (1269 votes)	RVP Program Manager Kevin Li: 1247
SA Secretary Sonal Pai: 1351	KTRU Lee Pelton: 1278	RVP Station Manager Minoti Kale: 1251
SA Treasurer Maurice Frediere: 1312	RSVP Kalian Shi: 1321

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Referendum 2: Rally Club (pass)

Yes, to approve Rally Club as a subsidiary organization: 861 (70.2%)

No, to not approve Rally Club as a subsidiary organization: 366 (29.8%)

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Referendum 3: Rice Catalyst (pass)

Yes, to approve Rice Catalyst as a subsidiary organization: 871 (71.2%)

No, to not approve Rice Catalyst as a subsidiary organization: 353 (28.8%)

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Referendum 4: Rice Video Productions (two-thirds required to pass)

Yes, to remove Rice Video Productions from its subsidiary status: 780 (65.1%)

No, to keep Rice Video Productions as a subsidiary organization: 418 (34.9%)

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