Last week, the Undergraduate Student Congress voted against submitting the Friday before the OU-Texas football game as the 2026 student holiday after congress members proposed that Nov. 3, Election Day, would serve as a better student holiday.
In accordance with Section 5.15 of the Board of Regents’ policy manual, congress and the Graduate Student Senate have the authority to recommend one unscheduled holiday in the fall semester, which must be approved by the university president.
Sam Jensen, GSS Ways and Means Committee chair, said the Student Government Association passes a fall holiday bill annually, but this year’s bill failed for two key reasons.
“They had some procedural issues with the bill. Specifically, certain people had been listed on the bill as co-authors, even though they hadn’t been consulted and hadn’t had any hand in writing up the legislation, …” Jensen said. “The secondary reason they failed it is they wanted to ask for Nov. 3, Election Day, as a day off.”
In a Monday email to the Daily, Kesha Keith, Student Affairs chief strategy officer, wrote the recommendation will still follow the same review and approval process if more than one date is proposed.
“Final consideration would be guided by existing policy, which contemplates a single fall student holiday, along with institutional priorities and operational considerations,” Keith wrote.
Proposing two student holidays
Following the April 21 congress meeting, SGA leadership drafted a new bill recommending both Election Day and the Friday before the OU-Texas game as dates for fall 2026 student holidays. Senate approved the bill in its Thursday meeting, and congress is set to vote on the bill at its Tuesday meeting, the final meeting of the semester.
SGA Chief of Staff Henry Christiansen detailed the process that led to the initial Red River Holiday bill being voted down in a Friday email to members of SGA leadership, who had been listed as authors of the original bill. The email was also sent to the Daily.
Appointed chief of staff on Jan. 27, Henry Christiansen, wrote the position’s transition documents led him to believe swapping names and dates on last year’s bill would be sufficient for this year’s bill.
“As with any bill seen by the legislature, I should have gone ahead and discussed it with you all first. … It was my understanding that using the Red River Holiday bill from a previous year would suffice, and that it was standard procedure for this to occur, …” Christiansen wrote. “I trusted these transition documents to provide accurate information. There was no intent on my part to mislead you all or anyone else.”
Christiansen wrote that he personally believes Election Day is a more important day to schedule a holiday but also that he is a Sooners fan and understands the tradition of the OU-Texas holiday.
“I thank everyone, including Sam Jensen, for finding a creative solution to this issue, and I am hopeful that our bill will create a compromise that benefits all students even more,” Christiansen wrote.
Jensen said senate leadership wrote the new bill to address procedural concerns, congress’s concerns about Election Day and students’ concerns about the OU-Texas game.
“It is a little unusual for us to ask for two fall holidays, but essentially we recognize that, as undergraduate congress pointed out, Election Day is really important, …” Jensen said. “Our new bill says, ‘Hey, both of these days are really important to our students for different reasons, and we formally and politely request both of those days off.’”
Choosing the fall student holiday has long been a debate within SGA. In 2013, congress approved putting the holiday decision on the fall general election ballot to allow the student body to decide.
In a Friday email to OU Daily, Jensen wrote that the tradition of asking for a day off near the OU-Texas game is 55 years old, according to the SGA archives.
“The earliest reference I can find is a Congressional resolution from 1971 entitled, ‘A Resolution Concerning the Defeat of the Texas Longhorns’... In this resolution Congress asked the University to give them the Monday following the game off if OU beat Texas. It appears that the students got their day off, as OU beat Texas in 1971 with a score of 48-27,” Jensen wrote.
Congress Chair Caleb Robinson said recommending two dates for consideration is unprecedented.
“There had been talks in the past about officially recommending two holidays. We’ve never done that, …” Robinson said. “We decided that putting them both on the same bill is probably the best path. At the very worst, the president picks one of them, and at the very best, we brought attention to the fact that students want both Red River (Rivalry) and Election Day.”
According to Rep. Coleman Morgan, who is one of the 20 congress members who contested the original bill, many universities have Election Day as a scheduled day off.
“These other universities don’t have a one scheduled university holiday like we do,” Jensen said. My hope would be that the university recognizes elections as just an important pillar of our democracy, and just makes it a sort of blanket policy to allow faculty, students (and) staff to go participate in that process without us having to ask for a holiday for it.”
Community response
Students across campus weighed in on the importance of considering both days. Jimmy Hennesey, a chemical engineering junior, said having Election Day off is important.
“Personally, I would rather have the Election Day off than the Friday before OU-Texas, …” Hennesey said. “ My freshman year, I skipped my morning classes to vote. I can see it being a bigger issue than not being able to go to class because of OU-Texas.”
Hennesey said the OU-Texas game is important, and the Friday before the game could be impacted even if the day were not a student holiday.
“Even if the Friday before OU-Texas didn’t get canceled, I feel like a lot of professors would not hold classes. Or if they did hold classes, it’d be a review day,” Hennesey said.
Mary Sisk, an aviation first-year, said she understands the thought process in recommending both dates for consideration.
“A lot of the time, they’re trying to encourage students to vote more. I know there’s probably also going to be some discontent about it because a lot of people really like having that Friday off and going to see the game,” Sisk said.
Sisk said many students may skip the Friday before the OU-Texas game, even if it does not get approved as a fall student holiday.
“The Red River Rivalry is a huge thing for OU and Texas. It’s televised, there’s events everywhere, there’s a whole bunch of advertising for it. So having that Friday off typically means they can go a little earlier and see things, get all their stuff done and stay there for a little longer,” Sisk said.
Community backlash
According to SGA leadership, there was a negative community response across social media platforms following the initial bill’s failure to pass.
In a Thursday phone call after the senate meeting, Robinson said SGA members took action in response to a social media post Thursday, in which the poster threatened to come to a supposed meeting and cause harm to congress members, despite there being no meeting scheduled at that time.
“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 p.m. We locked the doors, turned off the lights,” Robinson said.
Christiansen said many posts on Yik Yak, a social media app that allows users to post and view messages anonymously, brought up student safety concerns.
“Even if it’s something that’s just posted on Yik Yak, there’s still some sort of sentiment behind that, and that’s not something to just cast off,” Christiansen said.
Morgan said he was personally targeted on social platforms and felt discontented that people would stoop to that level.
“For me personally, as the only representative that was named in that article where 20 others voted against the bill, I received some backlash on Yik Yak, some threatening messages on Instagram, …” Morgan said. “It was just disheartening to see that kind of stuff from my peers when I know I’m trying not to take away a day from them, but try to get an extra day.”
According to Robinson, Student Affairs staff will be present at the final congress meeting of the semester on Tuesday.
“We will have some of our Student Affairs staff there, just to make sure that there’s not really anything happening, …” Robinson said. “Our Student Affairs staff, George (Ahmadi) specifically, our adviser, he’s incredibly helpful, and they’re always keeping an eye on these things.”
In a Monday email, SGA adviser and Assistant Dean of Students K. George Ahmadi told the Daily the university supports student engagement and participation in campus governance, and behavior that threatens the safety of others is unacceptable and should be reported.
“The University is aware of concerns regarding messages directed at students and takes any report involving potential threats seriously. While we cannot comment on specific individuals or situations, the safety of all students remains a priority,” Ahmadi wrote. “Students are encouraged to report concerning behavior through established campus resources, including OU Report It! and the University of Oklahoma Police Department.”
Christiansen, Robinson and Morgan agreed that they appreciate when students respectfully reach out to SGA about concerns.
“I’ve received emails from my constituents, and they were very kind and they were just asking for some information, and of course, that’s more than welcome. Those are the emails I want. But when it gets to the level of threats, that’s too far,” Morgan said.
Robinson said if students knew they could reach out to voice their opinions, it might help mitigate responses to complicated situations.
“I would love to see more emails from students, and I’ve said this in the past. When we do our ‘Meet us Mondays,’ when we’re talking about ‘what’s one thing you want to see?’ I want more emails from students,” Robinson said.
This story was edited by Macey Thaxton. Mary Ann Livingood and Sophie Hemker copy edited this story.
