University takes the wheel with shuttles to vote

By Richie Su     11/1/23 12:31am

Rice’s civic engagement organizations and the Student Association have organized shuttle buses to facilitate the community’s participation in the upcoming Houston mayoral election. 

From Oct. 28 to Nov. 3, voting shuttles will run every day from Rice to the Texas Medical Center voting center. The Rice Transportation buses will operate from 4 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. on weekdays and from 1 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. on weekends, in 30-minute intervals.

On Election Day, Sewall Hall will open as a voting precinct.

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Katherine Jeng, a Rice Votes democracy fellow, said the purpose of voting shuttles is to ensure eligible citizens have the opportunity to vote and to make the process more convenient and inclusive. Rice Votes is a campus coalition of staff, faculty and students focused on civic engagement.

“This year, we are strengthening the early vote shuttles so that any member of the Rice community can [use] a free shuttle to an early voting location,” Jeng, a Hanszen College junior, wrote in an email to the Thresher. 

Student Association President Solomon Ni said the shuttles make voting more accessible to eligible voters at Rice.

“I think voting [shuttles are] a way to make voting and exercising your civic duty more accessible,” Ni, a Jones College junior, said. “[The goal of the] Student Association and the administration is to equip students with the tools they need to be civically engaged and make it as easy as possible for them.”

It is important that students vote in this election, Associate Director for the Center for Civic Leadership Veronica Reyna said.

“This election is important for students to vote in because local government affects so much of our quality of life on a daily basis,” Reyna said. “Early voting provides the best opportunity to fit voting into students’ schedules [and] also helps alleviate long lines at the Sewall Election Day location.” 

Ni said they and other Rice staff members initially intended to establish an early voting location on campus instead of organizing voting shuttles.

“Originally, it was a dialogue around getting [an] early vote location on campus. And it’s really difficult to identify a location, so we did not have the most adequate amount of time to pursue it,” Ni said. “But the director of government relations, as well as myself, want to continue to push Rice to have [an] early vote location, because in 2020 we did have an early vote location at Rice Stadium.”  

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