Why we endorse Student Association candidates
As the Student Association elections roll around, so do our candidate endorsements. These endorsements are neither new nor novel. We’ve been writing them for years, alongside student-run and larger newspapers alike.
The Thresher doesn’t endorse candidates — the Editorial Board does. We keep our editorials and news coverage entirely separate. Rice is small, we know. When conflicts of interest arise, from personal relationships (again, Rice is small) to outside extracurricular commitments, Editorial Board members recuse themselves as needed. You’ll even see that in one of our editorials today.
Every year, the Editorial Board sits down with the candidates for contested SA executive positions to learn more about their experiences, interests and platforms. We collectively weigh the merits and flaws of each candidate, coming to decisions as a board. Endorsing a candidate doesn’t mean we believe in their platform unequivocally, nor does declining to endorse a candidate mean we disavow everything they stand for.
Meanwhile, our reporters — typically a team of assistant news editors and senior writers, never overlapping with the Editorial Board — cover the election as it unfolds in real time. Neither coverage influences the other. Our endorsements are opinionated; our reporting isn’t.
The Editorial Board is composed of section editors, the managing editor and the editors-in-chief, whose jobs are to know about and inform our campus community. At its core, this is why we write our endorsements: to inform you, our readers. Endorsements are not a mandate on how to vote, but rather a trustworthy opinion, written by student journalists knowledgeable about the campus community with the opportunity to ask candidates tough questions. At the end of the day, only one body can decide the vote — the students.
Editor’s Note: Thresher editorials are collectively written by the members of the Thresher’s editorial board. Current members include Prayag Gordy, Riya Misra, Nayeli Shad, Brandon Chen, Sammy Baek, Sarah Knowlton, Hadley Medlock and Pavithr Goli.
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