Faculty senate makes Election Day 2024 non-instructional

The faculty senate passed a Student Association sponsored resolution on Feb. 1, making the 2024 presidential Election Day a non-instructional civic engagement day. Therefore, no classes will be scheduled on Nov. 5, 2024, a change that currently only applies to the 2024 academic year.

Faculty senate speaker Allie Kieffer, who led the vote at the meeting, said that despite some concerns over losing a day of classes, the faculty senate was largely in favor of the resolution.

“Faculty were largely, certainly, universally in support of supporting student voting and … removing barriers for students to vote. I think faculty across the board felt very, very strongly about that,” Kieffer said. “There was concern from some faculty about losing the day, because it’s not a small thing to lose a day out of the syllabus, especially [because] there’s some classes that only meet one day a week.”

David Messmer, a member of the faculty senate, said that the lost day of classes will not be made up.

“Ultimately, [the classes that meet weekly] are just going to miss that week,” Messmer said. “There was a proposed amendment that came up from one of the faculty members who was concerned about that … But every time someone raised the possibility, the complications that [followed] were probably more troublesome than just having the day off.”

During the 2020 presidential election, former Rice President David Leebron sent an email to faculty members calling for asynchronous classes and for no assignments to be due on Election Day. However, 2024 would be the first year for a completely non-instructional Election

Vivian Zheng, a Baker College junior, said that she appreciates that Rice continues to set a precedent for being lenient with coursework on Election Day.

“[The 2020 presidential Election Day] really was a day of civic duty and reflecting on voting, especially with that presidential election, so it’s not that this hasn’t really happened before,” Zheng said. “Also in 2022, President [Reggie] DesRoches sent out an email … to encourage staff to also make [midterm elections] a day with no classes or [have an] asynchronous [lecture].”

SA Treasurer Solomon Ni worked with SA Senator Olivia Roark to draft the resolution in 2021. Ni said the SA saw other universities enacting similar policies and wanted to bring that to Rice.

“We decided … to follow in the steps of other peer institutions, like Brown [University] and Columbia [University], that have designated Election Day as a holiday,” Ni, a Jones College sophomore, said.

Faculty were largely, certainly, universally in support of supporting student voting and … removing barriers for students to vote. I think faculty across the board felt very, very strongly about that.

Allie Kieffer FACULTY SENATE SPEAKER

Ni said that this resolution may help alleviate the long lines on Election Day that Rice has seen in the past.

“Voting times usually condensed around periods where people were free … like lunch and whenever all the classes got out at the end of the day, which led to long lines at the Sewall Hall voting location,” Ni said.

Roark said that she also considered how voting has become more difficult in Texas when drafting the resolution.

“I think with the trends that we’re seeing in voter suppression, particularly in Texas, it’s all the more important that we make it as easy as possible to vote,” Roark said.

“[Having] events that can apply to a diverse group of students with various sexualities and identities is in our best interest,” Salinas, a Brown College senior, said. “Consequently, we have some speakers taking about intimacy for students who identify as LGBTQIA+, polyamorous or survivors of sexual

Vieux said that she is excited to see SA Sex Week come together after months of planning with her committee and co-chair Liz Pan.

“We were able to connect with other student organizations like PERIOD@ Rice and Rice PRIDE, which is really great because of course collaboration [and] more outreach [mean] more inclusivity in terms of the types of events we [are able to] put on,” Vieux, a Baker College junior, said. “I am glad that we were actually able to have [this event] in the vision we had at the beginning of the year.”

Duncan College sophomore Kayla Peden said she is most excited to attend “Debunking Sex Myths” with OBGYN Dr. Dipika Ambani, run by SWEAT@ Rice.

“I should have gone to the gynecologist a long time ago,” Peden said. “I am curious to gain insight from a medical professional regarding physical wellness and sexual wellness.”

In addition to this event, SWEAT has partnered with the Baylor Teen Health Clinic to offer students free STI testing.

“There’s so many events we are excited for, but we’re most excited for

John Alford, a Rice professor of political science and a researcher in voting behavior, said that he does not expect this resolution to significantly increase voter turnout at Rice.

“We know from a variety of other kinds of efforts to increase voter turnout in the United States that the effects tend to be fairly modest,” Alford said. “A lot of the decision to vote and voting behavior is not just a cost benefit calculation. It’s also a kind of a promotional or community activity.”

Alford said that although he thinks this resolution is the first step to the SA’s mission of increasing civic engagement among the student body, there’s still more the SA and Rice’s administration could do to increase election participation.

“Among the important things about this [resolution] is the symbolism of the university saying, ‘We think voting is more important than ever in democracy,’” Alford said. “There can be some seminars about the election. You can have election launch parties in the evening [or] have food trucks over [by Sewall Hall], and [when] you get an I voted button you get a free taco … Make [election day] about the celebration of elections [and the] celebration of voting … I think people really get caught up in that.”

Although this resolution will only apply to the presidential election in 2024, Messmer said that he believes future elections may be designated as noninstructional days as well.

“You could just tell by the reaction in the room [at the faculty senate meeting] that we understand this [resolution] is probably not going to be a one off,” Messmer said. “ [With] presidential elections [specifically], I would be shocked if this doesn’t become standard practice.”

Roark said that she will continue advocating for non-instructional days during elections.

“I’m going to keep pushing until we get as many election days off as possible,” Roark said. “I think election days for presidential elections are the most likely to be consistent. I’m not sure about midterms, but we’re going to try.” the free STI testing day,” Han said. “During my time at Rice, I’ve gotten a lot of questions from my friends on when and where to get STI tested. We ran a preliminary survey on Fizz, which showed that more than 650 students who are sexually active have never been tested.”

Tony Balderas, a Martel College sophomore, said that he is glad that Rice community members are dedicating a week to promoting sexual health awareness.

“I think it is good to have sex week because a lot of people do not know much about specific aspects of sexual wellness,” Balderas said. “From my background, I never really learned about sex as a gay man in Texas. If people did teach about sex, it was always about straight sex.”

Naomi Halas was recently named University Professor, the highest academic title Rice offers. Halas, the only Rice faculty member to be elected to both the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering for her research at Rice, is the tenth person and second woman to receive the honor in Rice’s 111-year-history.

Halas, who studies how nanoparticles react with light, first came to Rice in 1989 after working at AT&T Bell Laboratories. She is also the director of the Smalley-Curl Institute. Most of her research has led to commercial work; one of her most prominent projects being non-invasive cancer cell treatment, in collaboration with current Dean of Engineering at University of Virginia Jennifer West, around 2000.

“We demonstrated that you can put the nanoparticles in the tumor, shine near infrared lights, lowering energy, so you’re not destroying DNA or anything,” Halas said “The nanoparticles would capture the light, convert the light to heat and then destroy the tumor by hyperthermia, just by raising it to a temperature where cells cannot survive.”

Halas’ work with nanoparticles and light has also extended to climate change, leading to the formation of a company called Syzygy Plasmonics in 2018. According to Halas, this company works to help decarbonize the planet and make inexpensive hydrogen, raising $76 million last fall.

“I feel so good about it, because so many people talk about the climate crisis. They talk about climate change,” Halas said, “It’s really satisfying to [have] something that’s going to work. And when this works, we don’t have to rely on the government to subsidize it, because it will naturally be available.”

Halas hopes her work across these fields helps increase scientific literacy, something she believes is scientists’ responsibility.

“If we do something we use public funds, we use taxpayer money. So we need to be able to explain the impact of our work to people who fund it, people who pay taxes, so they understand that if [their] tax money actually goes to my research lab, that the things I’m doing are actually going to improve lives,” Halas said, “That’s very much our responsibility.”

Halas said she hopes that her appointment will continue the increase of female representation both in her own field and other fields of STEM.

“I really look at the positivity of this, that we have so many female students, so many women who are getting a Ph.D., so many women who are looking for research careers, looking for professional careers,” Halas said. “Yes, there are more things to be done. There’s no question about that. But my professional life has really spanned a time [from] when it was very unusual for women in any position compared to now where it’s a really different thing. It’s a much more exciting and welcoming place for women at all levels.”

Halas said this accomplishment is particularly significant because of what it represents for her time at Rice.

“It means a lot to me, this wonderful honor,” Halas said. “I’ve really enjoyed the specialness of Rice and the outstanding students ... and my wonderful colleagues.”