The OU Graduate Student Senate requested Nov. 3, 2026, Election Day, and Oct. 9, 2026, the Friday before the OU-Texas football game, as the fall 2026 student holidays at its Thursday evening meeting.
According to the bill, the Student Government Association recognizes the importance of maintaining the Friday before the OU-Texas game as a university tradition. It also recognizes the role the holiday plays in providing student safety while traveling to Dallas for the game.
"Ultimately, the Red River Holiday is not merely a day off, but a strategic institutional measure that prioritizes student well-being and the University's cultural heritage," the bill reads.
According to the bill, SGA also recognizes voting in federal, state and local elections as an essential right of students and hopes the holiday will remove barriers to participation.
“Oklahoma has one of the lowest voter turnout rates in the country. In the 2022 midterm elections, only 40.1% of Oklahoman voters turned out to cast a ballot. This is 6.5% lower than the national average. SGA asserts that by providing a holiday for students on Election Day, more students will be able to participate in the electoral process,” the bill reads.
In accordance with Section 5.15 of the Board of Regents policy manual, the Undergraduate Student Congress and the senate have the authority to recommend one unscheduled day in the fall semester, which must be approved by the president.
According to the bill, SGA requests university administration grant a holiday for both Election Day and the Friday before the OU-Texas game.
"SGA feels strongly that by providing a holiday on both days, the University can demonstrate its dedication to civil engagement, democratic processes, cultural heritage, and community," the bill reads. "By providing a holiday on both days, the University can further its commitment to the values of excellence, opportunity and success, boldness, freedom of expression and civility, and civic commitment, as laid out in the University’s strategic plan."
On Tuesday, congress voted against submitting the Friday before the OU-Texas football game as the 2026 student holiday, breaking a decades-long tradition.
According to SGA Chief of Staff Henry Christiansen, it has been a 50-year-long tradition for the Friday before OU-Texas game to be submitted as the unscheduled holiday.
“We believe not only is it just celebrating the tradition that is the Red River Rivalry, this also gives people a chance to go down to Dallas for the game safely,” Christiansen said. “It’s busy traffic time down on I-35 so this gives people (an) extra day to go down… it gives them more leeway, especially in terms of assignments.”
Morgan told the Daily in a Wednesday phone call that this is a complex issue that needs student input.
“This isn't something we're just going to unilaterally decide. We'll go out to our stakeholders. We’ll see what they want,” Morgan said.
Graduate Student Senate Chair Summer Edwards said the first bill failed to pass through congress because the traditional standard for choosing the holiday was not followed.
At congress’s Tuesday meeting, Rep. Coleman Morgan raised concern that bodies of SGA’s legislative branch weren’t consulted on the bill.
“I appreciate you coming to congress to do this, but this is not an executive issue, so I think not consulting the Undergraduate Student Congress and Graduate Student Senate is a grave oversight,” Morgan said.
According to Edwards, the bill also failed to pass because congress members felt it would be worth it for the holiday to be on Election Day.
“Elections don’t happen every year, so there’s a lot of debate back and forth between which day would be preferred,” Edwards said. “It ultimately failed in Congress…However, we do need to elect a holiday to provide the provost so that he can let faculty know for the semester how to plan their syllabus and course schedule.”
The Board of Regents policy manual states SGA is required to submit the recommended holiday date to the university president at least two weeks before the recommended date.
Senate Ways and Means Committee Chair Sam Jensen, who authored the bill, said the senate worked quickly to put together the new bill after the original bill failed in congress.
“We sort of sprung into action to write this new bill to ensure that a holiday still happens, and to really show our support for both the cultural traditions here at OU and the constitutional rights and civic responsibilities of students here on campus,” Jensen said.
Edwards said members of congress, the president and the vice president have received threats as a result of the first bill's failure at Congress’s Tuesday meeting. She requested senators block and report comments of this nature.
“It’s been to the point of threatening hanging, lynching, storming, January sixth-ing the Conoco (Student Leadership Center),” Edwards said. “It’s all absolutely unacceptable and just discouraging, especially from peers, especially students that we are here to serve and try to make the best efforts to support.”
In a Thursday phone call after the meeting, congress Chair Caleb Robinson said SGA members took action in response to a social media post Thursday, which threatened a supposed meeting at the Student Leadership Center.
“They claimed they were going to come hang student congress at 6 p.m. in the Conoco Student Leadership Center. We had all of our members and staff get out of the Conoco at 5:30. We locked the doors, turned off the lights,” Robinson said.
Robinson said he has not seen anything like this happen within SGA during his four years and congress members have received threats via direct messages.
“We’ve seen threats, both to our members’ lives and to the safety of our meetings, like upcoming meetings, our final meeting on Tuesday,” Robinson said.
According to Robinson, Student Affairs staff will be present at the final congress meeting of the semester on April 28.
“Our hope is that, with the amendments to the bill, and with the addition of the fact that we are recommended OU-Texas as an official holiday, hopefully that quells some of this,” Robinson said.
Robinson said SGA leadership met to discuss communication failures and the association has seen a lot of internal resolution, and hopes administration will put consideration into both days being considered student holidays.
“I think there is value in both of them. That was, again, never really the intention to strip the OU-Texas holiday entirely. Our ultimate goal was to get both of them, so that’s stressful,” Robinson said. “Our hope is for the future.”
The senate unanimously passed the resolution.
This story was edited by Macey Thaxton.
