SA approves special ballot, gender resolution

By Viola Hsia     12/3/24 10:28pm

Senate passed the special election ballot about divestment and investment transparency referenda Dec. 2., during its last meeting of the semester. Senate also passed a resolution, formally introduced on Nov. 25, recommending the inclusion of gender diversity statements in professors’ syllabi and a bill to expand student discounts around Houston.

Student elections director Natalie Wang said during the meeting that the ballot would have one question for each referendum. Originally, students could choose to support, oppose or abstain from voting. However, several members of the Senate and students present expressed concern on how abstaining votes would be counted for the required 20% student body vote. 

“How can we possibly approve this ballot without knowing what an abstain is [counted as]?” Simon Yellen, a Duncan College senior, asked at the meeting. “Until this is decided upon … it’s almost ridiculous to approve this ballot because we don’t know what an abstain vote is.”

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The option to abstain was then struck from the ballot; however, students will not be required to answer every question to submit the form. 

“Originally, we did have all of the questions as requirements that you have to answer before you submit, but we’re changing that,” Wang, a Will Rice College sophomore, said in an interview with the Thresher. “We got rid of the abstain option, and now, instead of making everything required, [not all questions are] required.” 

Senate also passed a resolution to require faculty to include a gender diversity statement in their syllabi. According to the text of the resolution, its creation was motivated by the fact that “the State of Texas has enjoined an interpretation of Title IX that denies protections for transgender and LGBTQ+ people, reinforcing fear within the queer community at Rice.” 

“The resolution really is for the students, because we want them to feel as comfortable as possible addressing professors, if professors are not addressing them by the correct names or pronouns,” Katherine Painter, vice chair of the SA DEI commission, said in an interview with the Thresher. 

According to Painter, the resolution will come to a vote in the faculty senate next semester.

“I’m so grateful that we passed with the unanimous vote. That gave me restored faith in our students, but I know that at the faculty level, there are a lot more structural changes that would need to happen for this to pass,” Painter, a Brown College sophomore, said. “We’re going to have to really fight those but we’re gonna do it. We’re gonna fight for the students.”

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