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Our Vision for the Next Century
Priorities and Initiatives
A. Enhance the Quality and Value of Education
and Scholarship at Rice
B. Strengthen the Faculty
C. Expand and Strengthen our Interactions
"Beyond the Hedges."
In its final report to the President, the Rice University Strategic Planning Committee in February 1997, proposed a vision and a set of goals and initiatives to guide the institution into the next century. The Committee's report was the result of two years of concentrated effort, involving representatives of all Rice constituencies: faculty, students, alumni, staff, and Board members. Following intense discussions at an all-day retreat in March 1997, the Rice Board of Governors endorsed the recommendations of the report and asked the university administration to develop a plan for implementing them. What follows is the implementation plan that the administration developed in response to that directive. At a subsequent planning retreat in November, 1997, the Board discussed the plan, and at their regular meeting in December, 1997, they approved it as presented here. In this plan for implementation, we (1) restate our vision and goals for the future, (2) prioritize our strategic initiatives, (3) estimate the amount and sources of funds required, (4) outline an implementation time-schedule, and (5) assign responsibility for execution of each initiative.
Our Vision for the Next Century
Our vision of Rice in the decade that lies ahead is of a very high quality and distinctive university that uniquely combines the best attributes of a residential undergraduate college with the intellectual vitality of a research university, unquestionably the best between the Atlantic seaboard and the Pacific coast. Our ambition is to make Rice one of the leading private institutions of higher education in the nation. Rather than emulating others, the path that we will follow to achieve that end is distinctive and bold. We will implement initiatives that viewed individually may appear modest but which in their totality will establish Rice as a new archetype for excellence.
In realizing this vision, we will build on the institutional values that have served us well during our first hundred years. Pursuit of excellence in education, research, and service to the community will remain our basic mission.
We will use our small size to advantage, being careful to select only those initiatives where we have a reasonable expectation of satisfying the highest standards. We will deploy our financial resources in ways that will enable us to attract the best faculty and students. We value, and we expect, superb teaching and outstanding research. We are dedicated to scholarly preeminence, to the intimacy of a small residential college, and to interdisciplinary breadth within the context of robust traditional disciplines. Finally, we believe that there is enduring value from active engagement with the world "beyond the hedges."
The following guidelines will shape our actions:
Priorities and Initiatives
"Rice: the Next Century" recommends implementation of thirty-four strategic initiatives over the next ten years. Here, we consolidate these initiatives into a framework for implementation under three general headings, each of which is of equal importance in terms of overall priorities and planning: (A) enhance the quality and value of education and scholarship at Rice, (B) strengthen the faculty, and (C) expand and strengthen our interactions "beyond the hedges." Although these three headings are coequal in terms of their importance for achieving the level of quality we desire for Rice, the initiatives under each heading are listed in priority order. In addition to prioritizing these action items, this document presents our estimate of the source and amount of funds needed to accomplish them, lays out a timetable for their implementation, and, where appropriate, identifies the individuals responsible for their execution. Additional details are contained in the appended charts and tables.
A key element of our strategy is to focus our resources on a limited number of programs wherein we can achieve the greatest impact and where Rice can make a unique contribution. This approach emphasizes investment in broad thematic areas that cross traditional departmental and divisional boundaries. The academic environment at Rice is highly favorable for success in the pursuit of this goal, both because our small size and collegial environment are conducive to interdisciplinary work and because we have a strong track record for responding quickly and decisively to emerging opportunities in the field of ideas.
We have been markedly successful, for instance, in fostering linkages across the disciplines to take advantage of synergies among our faculty through interdisciplinary centers and institutes. This practice is well exemplified by the newest of these, the Center for Science and Technology Studies, linking the humanities, natural sciences, engineering, and the social sciences. Other significant examples include the Center for the Study of Cultures, the Computers and Information Technology Institute, and the Institute for Biosciences and Bioengineering. Inter-relationships between our programs in nanoscale science, computational engineering, and biomedical engineering are illustrative of our efforts to capitalize on linkages across fields. Nanoscale technology has multiple applications across many scientific and engineering disciplines, applications that we are exploiting in our teaching and research programs through the new Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology. Moreover, concepts developed in computational engineering are highly supportive of our efforts in nanoscale science, while biomedical engineering complements significant areas of research in the "wet" side of nanoscale science. In the social sciences, the linkages between the Baker Institute and the School of Social Sciences have in only three years catapulted Rice into the front ranks of those universities studying domestic and international policy issues. The new Center for the Study of Languages brings together in a single unit the technological and other resources that will facilitate innovative methods for foreign language instruction. Similarly, the emerging center for composition and analytical thought will extend resources for effective communication across disciplinary and divisional boundaries.
New initiatives in emerging areas will further foster interdisciplinary cooperation and infuse the academic life of the university with new ways to organize ideas and approach teaching and research. For example, our plans for a university-wide undertaking in natural resources and the environment dovetail closely with new directions in engineering, economics, political science, the Jones School, and even the humanities. The areas of cognitive sciences, cross-cultural studies, and the economics and politics of regulation will each involve multiple departments in at least two different schools. Beyond Rice, there are significant opportunities with other institutions, such as the collaborative ventures between the Jones School and the Baylor College of Medicine and between the Baker Institute and U.T. Houston Health Science Center. Similar collaboration can be expanded between the Baylor College of Medicine and between Rice engineering and science and the Baylor College of Medicine in biomedical engineering.
We expect that, over the next five years, we will establish
at least two new interdisciplinary centers. Currently, we allocate $1.6
million of university funds to support fourteen institutes and centers,
including the Baker Institute and the Center for Technology in Teaching
and Learning. Our strategy is to use university funds as a support base
with the expectation that they permit the faculty to leverage research grants
and contracts which, in time, become the primary source of funding. An endowment
of $6 million would be required to support an annual operation of $300,000,
sufficient to support one or two additional centers. Under the general guidance
of the president and in consultation with the faculty, the provost and the
deans have responsibility for the establishment of new centers and interdisciplinary
institutes.
A. Enhance the Quality and Value of Education and Scholarship at Rice.
Rice has always enjoyed an excellent reputation for the quality of education that it delivers to its students and for the quality of students who enroll. While that reputation is well deserved, competition from all quarters for the best qualified students is increasing year by year. Rice is committed to maintaining the very high quality of our students at all levels of study. Our success in attracting and retaining these students, however, requires that we improve the quality of the educational experience that we provide while continuing to provide affordable education.
1. Make Rice a more attractive option to a wide range of the best students.
The following initiatives are aimed at further augmenting our ability to recruit the best students to Rice:
We reject the tuition strategy of other highly selective
private universities. We plan to continue the course of guaranteeing tuition
in real terms for entering students, and barring major dislocations in securities
markets, we plan to reduce the rate of increase in tuition for entering
students. The average indebtedness of 1996 Rice graduates was $7,519 about
half the national average of $13,788 (including loans from colleges, financial
institutions, and government, but excluding loans taken out in the parents'
names). Our low indebtedness results from our comparatively low sticker
price and from the average 40 percent discount we provide through financial
aid. Additional endowments would make possible a more generous need-based
financial aid policy. Based on the current cost of attendance of $20,506
for entering freshmen, each full scholarship would require an endowment
of $410,000. To endow ten such scholarships in each of the next six years
would cost $20.5 million by the year 2004. Tuition setting is the responsibility
of the vice president for finance and administration, under general policies
laid down by the president. Admission and financial aid are administered
by the dean for admission and records under the oversight of the provost.
Recreational life at Rice comes under the purview of the vice president
for student affairs.
2. Strengthen the college system.
The college system is a unique component of the Rice undergraduate experience, as a focal point of students' intellectual life outside the classroom. The colleges are also a superb venue for exposing students to a varied and heterogeneous peer group, often for the first time in their lives. Maintaining and strengthening this important asset is a key element of our strategy for the future. The college system currently accommodates about two-thirds of all undergraduates, and not all college facilities are competitive with those of our peer institutions. We need to provide on-campus housing for a much higher proportion of our students. Equally troubling, faculty have in recent years become markedly less involved in the life of the colleges than in the past. This past year we took steps to increase faculty involvement in the colleges, but more needs to be done. The following set of four initiatives are therefore intended to strengthen the college system:
The budget currently provides $886,000 to support the college masters, including
stipends, teaching release, leave, relocation, office support, and endowments.
Financing the new colleges will require fundraising, the use of existing
reserves, and revenues from operations. Program planning in the colleges
is the responsibility of the college masters, under the guidance of the
vice president for student affairs. Responsibility for building projects
rests with the vice president for finance and administration, and financing
is the responsibility of the vice president for finance and administration
and the vice president for advancement, all under general guidance of the
president of the university.
3. Strengthen general education for undergraduates.
To pursue Rice's commitment to a liberal education, the faculty and the administration are developing a broad program of general education as a required component of the degree plan of every Rice undergraduate. Two important portions of this new initiative--those related to English composition and foreign languages--are already being implemented within our current base budget. The innovative new Center for the Study of Languages is funded in FY 1998 at $252,000. This funding will need to be supplemented by new resources for language training and English composition to finance a possible required freshman seminar. Implementation of the freshman seminar would require an estimated additional $22 million in endowed funds over the next six years. We will also pursue enhanced research opportunities for undergraduates and new alternatives to the old foundation courses. These initiatives will all cost additional dollars to implement. We will seek to move forward, through reallocation of current revenues to accomplish them. The responsibility for implementation of the revised curriculum is the joint responsibility of the faculty, the provost, and the deans in consultation with the president.
4. Strengthen our library.
The recent Report of the Library Planning Committee outlines a much-enhanced role for the library as a central resource for Rice, the region, and the nation, using traditional and emerging technologies. To serve this broader mission, we have already committed $1 million from our current operating budget over the next five years to upgrade the undergraduate collection, and we are planning substantial enhancements of the library's programs and facilities. The most significant of these enhancements will be program and collection development amounting to an estimated $21.5 million over the next six years and a major expansion of the library facility between the fiscal years 2000 and 2003, estimated at $35.9 million. We must also undertake further renovation of the existing facility, which will cost an estimated $1.9 million. A new library for the Shepherd School will not only enhance our offerings in music, but will also liberate scarce space in the main library facility at a cost of approximately $3.6 million. We must continue to provide within the library easy access to information resources for all of our students and to be responsive to their evolving technological needs for performing class work and in conducting research. Responsibility for these initiatives rests with the vice provost and university librarian, in consultation with the president, the provost, the deans, the vice president for information technology, and the vice president for advancement.
5. Enhance learning through information technology.
The technologies of chalk, pencils, and books have strongly influenced the ways universities acquire and share knowledge. Now information technology promises to change profoundly the ways in which our faculty teach and students learn. For Rice, the strategic import of information technology lies in the enrichment of the intensely individualized, personal, and often private style of learning we value so highly. But to gain the most from these powerful new tools, we must develop new ways of integrating students, teachers, and technology, while at the same time making most efficacious use of traditional information resources. If we can do this, we can:
By vigorously pursuing these aims, we will support the core purpose of the university--the promotion of a singular style of learning and investigation. And the technology we develop for knowledge management will support our research activities and enhance our administrative processes.
To support the strategic plan of the university, we will balance a set of interlocking investments in people, technology, and traditional library resources. Much of our current success with technology stems from the integration of staff from Information Technology and the Fondren Library on divisional teams that support the academic and administrative programs of the university. To keep pace with advancing technology, we need to strengthen continuously the technical staff of these teams. And we need to add people highly trained in academic disciplines to help faculty integrate electronic and conventional resources in new learning environments. The augmented support teams will help us retain faculty in their unique role as creators of the "magic of the classroom." Our current effort to transform language teaching with technology shows the power of this collaboration.
The advance of information technology poses complex investment choices for Rice. A devotion to an overarching strategic goal--the support of a singular style of learning and investigation--will make these choices easier and sharply reduce the problems of managing our information technology portfolio in the years ahead. In FY 1998, Rice is spending $1.4 million through the capital budget for electronic classrooms and campus infrastructure improvements. We intend to raise $7 million to fund this activity for fiscal years 2000 through 2004. The vice president for information technology is responsible for the administration of technology on campus, with guidance from faculty, the deans, the provost, and the president.
6. Further internationalize scholarship and instruction at Rice.
The Center for the Study of Languages is only one component of a comprehensive program for enhancement of the international perspective of Rice students, especially undergraduates. The recent addition of six new faculty positions in Latin American and Middle Eastern Studies represents another component. The Baker Institute, our area studies programs, programs of study abroad, visiting professors from other countries, cooperative arrangements with foreign universities, staging of major international conferences at Rice, and closer ties with Houston's many immigrant communities are also valuable vehicles to inform students and to prepare them for careers of international scope. In FY 1996, we provided roughly $140,000 in financial aid for students participating in study abroad programs. In addition, we forego tuition for students studying abroad in programs based at other institutions. Anticipated enhancements in support of financial aid for study abroad would require incremental endowed funds of $7.5 million over the course of the next six years. Responsibility for international students at Rice and for study abroad is the responsibility of the vice president for student affairs as well as deans and provost, under the general guidelines of the president.
7. Upgrade the athletic facilities for Rice students.
Today's students are more likely than ever to subscribe
to the view that a healthy body is an important complement to an active
mind. Whether they be used for intramural, or recreational or intercollegiate
purposes, our athletic facilities must be maintained and upgraded where
necessary to enable us to compete with other institutions for the best well-rounded
students. Although our existing athletic facilities have served the university
well through the years, in many cases they are no longer adequate. Immediate
attention will be devoted to renovating existing facilities for intramural
athletics and, where necessary, to building new ones. A practice gymnasium
is currently planned at a cost of $2.1 million. Additionally, the construction
of improved intramural facilities is estimated to cost $16 million. The
proposed convocation and conference center can serve multiple functions,
not only as a basketball and volleyball court for intercollegiate games,
but also as a venue to facilitate our outreach programs, as noted below.
Eventually, new investments will be required to upgrade our swimming pool
and tennis and squash courts. These projects, however, are not included
among our highest priorities. We also need new facilities for hosting intercollegiate
basketball, volleyball, and baseball events. Responsibility for student
athletic activities rests with the vice president for student affairs; oversight
of intercollegiate athletics rests with the athletic director.
B. Strengthen the Faculty.
The reputation of any university derives primarily from the quality of its faculty. Improving the quality and international reputation of Rice requires an intellectual environment that is attractive to the best minds in the country. It is essential that we recruit faculty who are excellent teachers and scholars and who also understand and draw on the connections between teaching and scholarship. With the rapid diversification of fields of study and research, it is essential to recruit faculty who have the intellectual depth to adapt to academic, social, economic, and technological change and who thereby show promise of being productive scholars and teachers throughout their careers.
Since the recruitment of new faculty is one of the principal means by which the future intellectual directions of the institution are determined, we must give close attention to strategic priorities when hiring each new recruit. Additionally, our small size requires that we give first priority to those areas where we can achieve the greatest level of excellence. Therefore, every vacancy within the ranks of the tenure-track faculty must be viewed as an opportunity to refocus the academic program and to move in new directions. Primary oversight responsibility for this task rests with the provost and with the deans who, together with the president and the faculty, must develop and articulate the strategies and goals of their school, thereby ensuring that each new hire moves the school and the university closer to fulfilling our vision for the future.
The following initiatives, which are listed in order of priority, are intended first and foremost to strengthen the faculty:
1. Develop and improve the overall quality of Rice faculty.
a) Hire additional faculty in selected areas of greatest impact at a rate of 1% per year over the next decade, over and above the normal faculty turnover.
A modest net growth of the faculty in carefully selected areas would be a catalyst both for enhancing established areas of excellence at Rice and for developing new ones. At present, the tenured and tenure-track faculty at Rice number 446, so that a one percent increase would require the addition of four or five faculty per year. (This growth will be over and above the effort currently underway in the Jones School, where a doubling in the size and scope of the School's programs will require special initiatives outside of the general rate of growth elsewhere in the university.) The current faculty themselves are an important source of guidance in determining where growth should take place. We will continue to rely upon departments and interdisciplinary faculty groups to develop and propose initiatives that produce the greatest benefit for the university as a whole. How the broader university responds to new initiatives will depend strongly upon the effectiveness with which current resources are being used. This strategy has important advantages. It targets support where it is likely to have the most impact and rewards those who take the initiative and invest their talents, imagination, and hard work in making the case for additional support.
The cost of even modest growth is substantial and is best met through the generation of increased endowment from gifts. Assuming faculty members cost between $75,000 and $150,000 annually, each such position would require new endowed funds of between $1.5 and $3 million. Over a six-year period, the addition of four new faculty annually would require new endowed funds of $45 million. Responsibility for identifying areas of enhancement would rest with the president, the provost, and the deans; primary responsibility for fund-raising would rest with the vice president for advancement under guidelines from the president.
b) Rejuvenate our faculty: Increase the turnover rate of faculty by implementing a selective program of retirement incentives.
Normal faculty attrition at Rice is between fifteen and twenty per year of full-time tenure-track and tenured faculty. This rate of turnover is too small to ensure the type of faculty rejuvenation the university requires as we move into the new century. Increasing the rate of turnover would create opportunities to bring to Rice faculty who are trained in more recent methodologies and practices within their disciplines. Equally important, the university can, through the careful harvesting and reallocation of vacant faculty lines, redirect scarce resources into areas of growth in instruction and research. A study is underway to examine different types of incentives to make retirement more attractive, thereby increasing the rate of senior faculty turnover. The university Benefits Committee and an ad-hoc faculty committee will advise the administration on the specifics of this plan, which will in any case contain both financial and non-financial incentives (such as office space for retirees). At present, there are approximately 115 faculty members who would qualify in FY 1999 for retirement incentives, based on age and years of service. Assuming 25 percent participation of eligible faculty members and depending on the incentive package offered, the one-time costs of this program might approach $4 to $5 million. If we factor in standard hiring delays for the replacement faculty, however, the net cost after two or three years might be in the range of $2 million. Our current thinking is to fund this one-time expense from Funds Functioning as Endowment (FFAE). Facilitation of this program is the responsibility of the president and provost, with assistance from the vice president for finance and administration.
c) Provide more competitive salaries and other support to attract and retain top quality scholar/teachers.
To ensure that we can recruit the best new people and to counter offers from other institutions attempting to lure our best faculty away, we must be able to offer highly competitive salaries and other supporting amenities. Research stipends, support for graduate students, the quality of our undergraduates, enhanced laboratory facilities, matching funds, and housing assistance are often critical items in determining which institution wins in contests for gifted faculty members. Moreover, we now budget $2 million in direct research support for faculty--in the form of stipends and matching funds--and $4.8 million in graduate student stipends and travel. Adding four research stipends per year would require an additional endowment of $2 million each year, growing to $10 million by the fifth year, when there would be a total of twenty stipends for research. Faculty salaries and the allocation of research stipends and matching funds are set by the president and provost in consultation with the deans.
In addition, Rice must remain competitive in terms of the electronic resources that it provides faculty and students. Such resources range from the desktop computers to ready access to the web and the library, and a primary focus for the foreseeable future will be the development of technology as a resource in the classroom and in the residential colleges.
d) Implement a program to help our faculty become more proficient teachers.
We will establish teaching resource centers to help both new and existing faculty improve their teaching effectiveness. A model for such centers exists in the Allison Sarofim Distinguished Teaching Professorship Outstanding Teaching Award that has had great success in the humanities. The current income of $43,349 supports one distinguished professor and six fellows. Expanding the program to the other academic divisions would cost an additional $250,000 per year, requiring new funds totaling approximately $1.5 million over the six year period from FY 1999 to 2004. The divisional deans will be responsible for this program, in consultation with their faculty.
e) Introduce a visiting scholars program.
An increase in the number of visiting and part-time scholars can improve markedly the intellectual life of the campus while minimizing long-term commitments. In addition, visiting positions often furnish ideal opportunities to look over prospective new faculty. Visiting faculty are especially valuable in fields where the pace of change is rapid, as in computational engineering, nanoscale sciences, and health studies. At present the country has an abundance of exceptional academic talent, and a rare opportunity exists to bring more of the nation's finest scholars to Rice. Rice currently pays for visiting scholars through the reallocation of faculty salary dollars associated with vacant positions and from endowments specifically intended for visiting scholars. We propose that the number of these appointments be augmented at a rate of three per year over the next five years, so that by the end of that period there would be an additional fifteen visiting scholars on campus each year. Each of these positions might be funded by an endowment of between $1 and 1.5 million, requiring total new endowed funds by the year 2004 of approximately $25 million. In addition, new endowed funds can be leveraged by using them together with current resources to support six or more visiting scholars per year. Responsibility for developing this initiative rests with the provost and the deans, while university advancement has the task of raising the new resources that will be required.
2. Strengthen our graduate programs and enhance the opportunities and amenities for graduate education at Rice.
Strong, well supported graduate programs along with bright energetic students, both undergraduate and graduate are important factors in attracting and retaining outstanding faculty. We recognize that, because of our size and commitment to quality, we can not support the broad range of graduate programs characteristic of larger research universities. Rather, we seek international distinction in a small number of carefully selected areas. The following initiatives are intended to strengthen our graduate programs of instruction and research and thereby to improve our ability to attract and retain outstanding faculty and students, both graduate and undergraduate:
The costs, schedule, and responsibilities for recruitment
of new faculty are discussed in items 1a and 1c above. The decision to build
a new graduate house has already been made, with financing through a third
party. At present, we spend $4.8 million from university funds for graduate
stipends and travel. A five percent increase in stipends would require an
endowment of $5 million. In selected areas, graduate student research and
teaching opportunities could be addressed through targeted reallocation
of existing stipends. The responsibility for allocation of graduate stipends
among the divisions rests with the vice provost for research and graduate
studies, in consultation with the provost and president.
3. Improve the physical space in which faculty and students work.
To compete successfully for superior instructional and
research faculty and to best serve the academic needs of our students, Rice
must provide office space, laboratory facilities, classrooms, and library
resources appropriate to the needs of a distinguished faculty. At present,
our first priority among capital projects is to build a new Humanities Building
and to renovate existing buildings for the Humanities. These two initiatives
will take place sequentially, and their combined cost will be an estimated
$37.5 million. Library improvements, discussed above on page 6, will require
over $41 million to complete. Additional critical major projects for the
next decade include renovating the old chemistry building (estimated at
$28.1 million) and expanding the Jones School (estimated at $44.2 million).
Anderson Hall is also under consideration for expansion and renovation;
the costs for this project are anticipated to be $17.8 million. Programmatic
planning for new academic facilities is the responsibility of the provost,
in consultation with the deans and faculty. Financing new facilities is
the responsibility of the vice president for finance and administration
and the vice president for advancement, under the guidance of the president.
C. Expand and Strengthen our Interactions "Beyond the Hedges."
From its beginnings Rice has played an important, and often little appreciated, part in the life of Houston and the surrounding region. A high priority of the current administration has been to expand the presence of Rice within the Houston community, and in national and international affairs. In recent years, community interaction has advanced to a new level as a result of an extensive program of Continuing Education, the Jones School's Executive Development Program, the Architecture School's involvement in Houston redesign efforts and in local architectural projects, the Baker Institute's international conferences, a full calendar of concerts and recitals at the Shepherd School of Music, exhibitions in the University Art Gallery, presentations in the Media Center, and outreach programs in particular. Rice now boasts 29 outreach programs for improvement of public education K-12. Yet there is still much to be done if we are to be perceived for what we in fact are, namely, an institution that has much to offer the larger community and that has a strong commitment to active engagement beyond the hedges.
We believe that this increased extramural involvement can
be a source of educational enrichment for the university at many levels.
It is important, however, that our efforts to form cooperative links with
the community reflect our greatest strength -- namely, dedication to instruction
and scholarship of the highest order. What we do beyond campus boundaries
should grow naturally from what we regularly do within them.
1. Strengthen existing partnerships and forge new ones.
Opportunities abound within the greater Houston metropolitan
region and beyond for instructional and research collaboration with other
institutions, especially the many high quality institutions of the Texas
Medical Center, NASA, the University of Houston, and other universities,
and such organizations as local museums and the symphony, as well as the
Houston business community. The new executive MBA Programs and the executive
development program at the Jones School will be important vehicles for strengthening
our activities beyond the hedges. New partnerships with other institutions
could be jointly funded activities or classes can be provided by Rice with
financial support from the benefiting institutions.
2. Enhance programs for continuing education.
With the completion of the recent external review of the
School of Continuing Studies, the value of this set of outreach educational
programs has been once again affirmed for Rice. A key recommendation of
that review was to bring the School more closely into the orbit of Rice's
broader academic mission. Ample opportunity exists to expand the programs
to reach an ever-widening circle of people for whom Rice can be a primary
source of continuing education and lifelong learning. In FY1998, the School
of Continuing Studies will collect $3.7 million in fees in support of its
outstanding programs within the broader community and on behalf of Rice.
3. Strengthen our outreach program for public education.
With the establishment of the position of Associate Provost
in 1996, the University reemphasized its commitment to reaching out to the
public education sector as a primary constituency. At the present time,
nearly thirty outreach initiatives focused on K-12 public education are
underway at Rice. We are committed to increasing both the number and the
vitality of those undertakings to ensure that the resources of the university
are brought to bear on solving the problems of educating the youngsters
of our community in the coming century.
4. Expand the use of technology in creating a "virtual Rice," an expanded network of Rice faculty, students, alumni and friends to encourage life-long relationships among the wider Rice community
Given the tremendous rate of growth in the volume and scope
of services available on the world-wide web, each year witnesses a doubling
or trebling in the number of people who use this powerful tool for business,
recreation, and general communication. The explosion in network communication
is irreversible, and Rice is moving aggressively to take advantage of it.
"Virtual Rice" already exists. Our alumni especially our recent
alumni are already conversant in the use of the web for work and for keeping
in touch with their families, their friends, and their professional associates.
As educated members of society, they are far more likely than most to welcome
a link to their university community, to the friends whom they met here
and to their faculty and advisors who have helped shape their lives. Today,
we matriculate students to Rice not simply for a four-year experience. We
admit them for a life of learning. With the growth and wise use of the electronic
network, we are well positioned to be able to keep this growing cadre of
graduates in close touch with their alma mater. "Virtual Rice"
is as yet an untapped network of tremendous potential. Our task is to ensure
that it grows in ways that are consistent with our institutional mission
of quality education while providing the fullest possible access to the
resources of the university to all members of the Rice community for a lifetime.
5. Further internationalize our programs of study and research, including the possible establishment of a campus abroad.
We have taken steps to internationalize programs: through
the recruitment of faculty of quality beyond the bounds of the United States;
through the coordination and centralization of efforts to facilitate the
arrival of visiting scholars from foreign countries; and through the promotion
of study abroad programs. Opportunities for establishing a presence for
Rice in other countries will be likewise pursued as occasion arises to do
so, with due consideration of the appropriateness of the programs that would
be hosted there and of the costs to Rice of mounting such initiatives relative
to their benefits.
6. Plan and build a convocation center of sufficient size to accommodate large international academic conferences and host special events in drama and the arts, intercollegiate athletics and special conferences for a broader community, such as the Baker Institute's Annual Conferences.
With the emergence of Rice as an institution of national and international preeminence, the frequency and size of conferences of national and international importance staged on our campus can only increase. It is fitting that we undertake to build a facility that will accommodate a wide range of events in a fashion commensurate with the quality of education that we have already attained and the level of recognition to which we aspire. In addition to hosting activities of benefit to the broader community, the convocation center will also serve as the venue for indoor intercollegiate athletic events and for all-university ceremonies for the on-campus Rice community. The new convocation center is estimated to cost $36.5 million.
An annual 5% price-rise factor has been applied to the costs of all capital projects in this plan, beginning with 1998.
Operating costs in this plan are quoted in constant 1997 dollars.
Go to Implementing
"Rice: The Next Century" Table of Contents
Go to Preface
Go to President's
Introduction
Go to Table
1: Summary of Funds Required
Go to Table
2: Funds Required to Enhance the Quality and Value of Education and Scholarship
Go to Table
3: Funds Required to Strengthen the Faculty
Go to Table
4: Funds Required to Strengthen our Interactions "Beyond the Hedges"
Go to Table
5: Funding Priorities
Go to Graph
1: Funds required for Endowments, Programs & Capital Projects
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