SA senate proposes review of demonstration policies, student wage increases

By James Cancelarich     10/1/24 10:40pm

The Student Association senate asked the president’s office to review the new demonstration and postering policies with a commission including students Sept. 30. The labor commission also discussed raising the minimum wage of undergraduate student workers from $7.25 an hour, the federal minimum wage, to $15 an hour.

S.RES 05 criticizes revisions to the demonstration and postering policies that went into effect on Aug. 30. Matti Haacke, a resolution co-author, said that the policies were an administrative overstep and infringed on students’ right to speech.

“The demonstration policy and the postering policy do not uphold their own promises. They are both prefaced by saying that they want to uphold student speech,” Haacke, a Sid Richardson College senior, said during the senate meeting. “They want to uphold student safety on campus, they don't even follow their own prefaces… [so] the senate requests that both these policies be reverted to what they were prior to August 30.”

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The proposed commission would include four students, with at least one student from senate and at least one student from an organization actively holding protests. Four positions would be held by members of administration. Additionally, two professors nominated by the SA would also hold positions on the committee.

The labor commission also presented results from student surveys on student worker wages. Oscar Vietor, chair of the labor commission, said the median wage of undergraduate student workers was about $12 an hour.

“[$15 an hour] would be an increase of about $3 on average for all Rice students, and a significant increase for any younger [teaching assistants] or any workers for Rice departments,” Vietor said during the senate meeting.

Matti Haacke, vice-chair of the labor commision, said that their surveys indicate that the majority of the undergraduate population supports an increase in student worker minimum wage. Haacke said that the minimum wage increase would extend to workers of student-run businesses.

“Our goal is that Rice has enough money to subsidize those issues if the student-run businesses can’t do that without raising prices,” Haacke said. 

Vietor said that the labor commission is currently circulating a petition for the increase in minimum wage as the first part of their advocacy.

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