Faculty Orientation

Outreach: Office of the Associate Provost

Introduction

Along with a growing number of universities across the nation, Rice understands its responsibility as a citizen of the Houston community and beyond in preparing the next generation of leaders for increasingly complex societal and professional environments. Guided largely by a long standing faculty commitment to outreach, the position of Associate Provost came on line in August 1996. The Associate Provost provides coordination and leadership in two areas: (1) faculty and staff outreach to K-12 education, and (2) recruitment and retention of a diverse student body. Although Rice has achieved a measurable degree of success in these two areas, much remains to be accomplished in leveraging its recent success into long term gains for Rice, its students, and the greater Houston community. Faculty and staff are encouraged to employ their expertise to further the Rice outreach commitment .

Outreach

Forty-eight educational outreach initiatives presently operate under Rice sponsorship. Many involve collaborative relationships with K-12 teachers, schools and school districts. Some include relationships with other institutions of higher education.

The primary vehicle for coordinating these efforts is a loosely structured group called the Rice Educational Outreach Forum. Established in June 1997, the purpose of the Forum is to: (1) advise and assist the Associate Provost in facilitating information and resource sharing, coordination, visibility, and collaboration among existing initiatives, (2) enhance all initiatives with a cohesive organizational structure, (3) assist in defining and developing new initiatives based on the mutually beneficial needs of the University, the educational community of Houston and beyond, and (4) assist in pursuing funding for current and new initiatives.

Membership in the Forum is open to all members of the Rice community who are actively engaged in ongoing or frequent educational outreach initiatives. In addition, a fourteen-member Outreach Council, drawn from among the Forum members, provides the Forum's leadership in assisting the Associate Provost. The Council meets monthly while the Forum convenes at least once each semester. Those interested in the Forum should contact the Associate Provost's office.

Recruitment and Retention

Rice has enjoyed significant success over the past three years in recruiting top students from groups that have remained underrepresented throughout Rice's history and in higher education generally (including African Americans, Latino/Hispanic, and Native Americans). In 1995, for example, Rice was first in the nation in the one-year increase in the percentage of blacks in its freshmen class. However, the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeal's decision in Hopwood v. Texas and the Texas attorney general's interpretation of the decision have created serious challenges to Rice's goals to create and maintain a culturally diverse, scholarly learning environment.

Working cooperatively with academic and administrative units across the University, the Associate Provost continues to access the situation and to provide guidance in the development of policies and strategies that would facilitate Rice's diversity goals within existing legal constraints.

Click here to view Rice's statement of commitment to cultural inclusiveness.

Go to Rice University Office of the Provost Home Page