Nair, Sandhu vie for IVP in upcoming SA election

By Hongtao Hu     2/26/25 12:05am

Ananya Nair and Sohani Sandhu are running for internal vice president in the Student Association election. 

Sandhu is running on a platform of revitalizing New Student Representative and SA commission projects, such as the Gender, Diversity, and Equity statement recently added to all Rice syllabi.

“Having had experience as an NSR, as a [Diversity, Equity and Inclusion] Commission [chair], working with the SA for the past three years, I think I have a good feeling of what needs to be changed and how to change [how the SA is run],” said Sandhu, a McMurtry College junior. “I want to make sure that in the future, the SA commissions can be more impactful, that NSRs can have jobs go to completion.”

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If elected, Sandhu said she promises to support SA projects — such as printing credits —  that can take multiple semesters to implement.

“NSRs, senators and presidents leave after their one year term, so sometimes their projects get abandoned,” Sandhu said. “I think that’s just a huge waste of advocacy that could be happening. That’s a huge lost opportunity.”  

Nair runs with the goal of expanding SA access to students. 

“I’m running for IVP because that’s a direct way I can influence [the SA] and increase awareness of it,” said Nair, a McMurtry College freshman. “I want more volunteer opportunities for all student members to have a proactive role in the SA.”

If elected, Nair said she aims to accomplish this goal by doubling the number of NSRs for each college.

“Two would be during this fall semester, two would be in the spring semester, but [the fall NSRs] would continue in their commissions of interest,” Nair said. “I would like to increase the amount of NSRs so more freshmen have the opportunity to learn about their overarching student government.”

Sandhu said she also aims to increase transparency between the SA and student body. 

“In the past, a lot of the SA’s efforts have been towards laying down the foundation for the SA … and it’s gotten to a point where we can finally actually work on how we’re being visible to the student body,” Sandhu said. “I want to increase the visibility of our commissions, as NSRs, as senators, as presidents, as the SA by responding to people saying, ‘Hey, I have this problem,’ by asking ‘Can we fix it?’ And more often than not, we have the ability to do that.”

Nair said she also hopes to expand meal options for students.

“I think it’s really basic, but I think we all want flavorful food. We have the budget to do it,” Nair said. “In addition, I want to make [servery meals] more inclusive for different dietary restrictions, making more options for vegetarian, vegan, kosher, halal, gluten free and many more meals.”

Drawing upon her experience as the DEI Commission chair, Sandhu said she wants to open up student input towards commissions.

“Within the DEI commission, a lot of the work we’ve done in the past is because people have come up to us and given us ideas of things to fix, and then we went ahead and tried to fix them, for example, the gender diversity statement,” Sandhu said. “I want to provide that foundation of support so that in the future, every commission and every NSR knows that they can bring up their ideas and that they will be addressed.”

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