or HOOTS, as it is more commonly known, was started by employees of the Facilities & Engineering and Housing & Dining departments in 1999. HOOTS is the result of recommendations made by the Campus Involvement Focus Team, which was organized to improve the working culture at Rice. F&E employees were looking for ways to reach out to the Rice Community in general and to the Housing & Dining staff in particular. The original idea was to hold social events such as tailgate parties to give employees of F&E and H&D, along with the Rice community, an opportunity to connect outside of their working environment. Facilites and Engineering has since evolved into Facilities, Engineering and Planning. All full-time employees of FE&P and H&D are members of HOOTS.
Since then, HOOTS has sponsored many tailgate parties and other events. It has also established the official Rice University FE&P/H&D Gift Fund. The organization can receive donations to this fund through the Annual Gifts Campaign and general Rice donations. The fund provides scholarships to the children of FE&P and H&D employees who are full time students at Rice.
HOOTS also provide scholarships for children of FE&P and H&D employees who are full time students at Austin College and Trinity University, and children of employees of the two departments who participate in Rice University's Summer School for Middle and High School students.