First-ever election block party draws crowds

By Sophie Garlick     11/5/24 11:40pm

A line stretched across the academic quad this Election Day. In contrast to previous years, however, the line was not for voting at the Sewall Hall polling location — it was for the first-ever election block party hosted by the Center for Civic Engagement.  The event aimed to encourage student voting and engagement in politics, complete with a bouncy castle, free food and a DJ.

Katherine Jeng, the event’s co-chair, said that she noticed a lack of civic participation among Rice students since her freshman year. She has been dedicated to increasing political engagement culture since then, she said.

“In 2022, my co-chair, Olivia Roark, and former Student Association President Solomon Ni championed a Student Association Senate resolution to the Faculty Senate to designate Election Day as a non-instructional day,” Jeng, a Hanszen College senior, said. “As a result of their hard work, we have our first-ever non-instructional civic engagement day.”

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Roark said that the event was part of an effort to make future election days non-instructional.

“Having worked with RiceVotes as a member of the Student Association to secure Rice’s first-ever non-instructional Election Day, it felt critically important to me that our campus community use this day to come together in the spirit of civic engagement,” Roark said. “We hope that … the block party will help to make Election Day a permanent non-instructional day in the future.“

According to Jeng, over 700 students, faculty, sponsors and donors attended the event, and more than 12 vendors, including Amy’s Ice Cream, Redbull and Kirkland and Costco Pizza, passed out free food. The experience for vendors went smoothly according to T.K. Oyedele, general manager of Amy’s Ice Cream. 

“We wanted to give, especially the young folks, an incentive to come out and make their voices known and heard,” Oyedele said. “Especially with the young folks, we want to encourage them early on to let them know that their voice matters and to make sure they have their say in what happens within our government.“

Ian Schechter, a Sid Richardson College freshman, said that the event was highly attended. 

“The event struck me because of how massive it was and how many people there were, lots of whom I knew,” Schechter said.

Katie Noonan, a Wiess College senior, said the energy in the quad was tangible. 

“It was very crowded,” Noonan said. “Rice students are always motivated by food, but there’s a very good turnout, and people seem really excited to actually get out and vote, and lots of people encourage each other to go vote if they haven’t.” 

Sowmya Viswanathan, a civic engagement representative for Martel College, said she volunteered to ensure voting accessibility for the Rice student body. 

“I think it’s a really successful event. It shows we really do deserve this day off because people are coming out, voting and then learning about all the different organizations that are here,” Viswanathan, a senior, said. “People do care, they do want to come out and talk about these issues and make an informed choice as a voter. That’s really important for our democracy, to have engaged and knowledgeable citizens who are making positive choices.”

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