Following the recent U.S. airstrikes in Syria, Rice News issued an expert alert for Baker Institute Director Edward Djerejian, former ambassador to Syria and Israel, which resulted in more than 950 placements on CNN and other media and in several Associated Press stories that appeared in more than 200 publications, including The New York Times.
Economics professor wins Rice’s top teaching award
In April, Rice News announced this year’s major teaching award recipients. Economics professor James Brown won Rice’s highest teaching award, the George R. Brown Prize for Excellence in Teaching.
Study on colds and loneliness garners media attention
A study led by Rice psychologist Chris Fagundes and graduate student Angie LeRoy found that people who feel lonely are more prone to report severe cold symptoms than those with stronger social networks. A Rice news release on the study garnered nearly 1,000 media placements, including in USA Today, Time, CBS News and NPR.
For a list of our March-April media stars, please see the last section of this report.
Government Relations
Rice experts share insights with state legislators
Rice Government Relations is keeping a close eye on numerous issues at the federal and state levels this spring. In Washington, D.C., immigration policies and research funding have been focus points. In Austin, we have steadily advanced legislation to provide funding for OpenStax, promote and facilitate social impact bonds, support Tuition Equalization Grant funding, address campus safety issues and protect the institutional autonomy of Rice.
With the biennial legislative session underway in Austin, March and April were active months for Rice experts affiliated with the Baker Institute. Russell Green, an economics fellow, testified about NAFTA; religion and public policy fellow Bill Martin spoke on decriminalizing marijuana; science and technology fellow Kirstin Matthews discussed immunizations; Vivian Ho, the Baker Institute Chair in Health Economics, weighed in on free-standing emergency departments; and Tony Payan, director of the Mexico Center, testified on transnational labor flows and commerce.
University Relations
A two-year project to redo Greenbriar Drive from Rice Boulevard to West Holcombe will begin this summer. University Relations helped negotiate a design that will preserve trees while improving pedestrian safety and traffic efficiency.
Once the Greenbriar project is complete, the city plans to work on University Boulevard from Main Street to Kirby Drive, which will affect Rice’s highest-traffic campus entrance as well as a number of its properties in Rice Village. University Relations has been heavily involved in public discussions of the project’s design options, which appear so far to reflect Rice’s priorities.
In addition, after a Rice professor was struck and killed by a METRORail train while crossing Fannin Street on her bicycle in February, University Relations led discussions with multiple stakeholders about improving pedestrian safety at the approaches to METRORail station platforms on Fannin at Sunset Boulevard and Cambridge Street. While improved pedestrian signs and pavement markings have already been made, additional changes are expected once the stakeholder group meets later this summer.
Creative Services
Who runs for mayor in America?
A study produced by the Kinder Institute and the Center for Local Elections in American Politics — edited and designed by Creative Services — examines data on municipal elections in six states to pinpoint the demographics of mayoral candidates and the characteristics of those contests.
Brochure offers an introduction to Rice
Creative Services provided design and editorial services to the Office of Admission in producing its “Rice 101” recruitment brochure. The brochure gives an overview of Rice’s campus, areas of study, research and experiential learning opportunities, student life and admission policies to select high school students.
Invitations celebrate Rice’s 104th graduating class
Working with the Office of Development and Alumni Relations, we provided design and editorial services each year to create invitation announcements and programs for the Rice commencement exercises. We also helped publicize receptions like this ceremony honoring graduates from the School of Social Sciences.
Multicultural Community Relations
MCR encourages millennials to seek public office
Nearly 200 young adults participated in “Millennials 4 Office 101,” a daylong seminar on electoral politics and civic engagement sponsored by Multicultural Community Relations March 18. Several local elected officials and community organizers offered the students advice and inspiration.
Alumna publishes children’s book
On April 5, the Society of Latino Alumni of Rice and MCR hosted a reading and book signing for Rice alumna Cynthia Garza, who published her first children’s book, “Lucia the Luchadora.” Garza’s book tells the tale of a female superhero blazing a trail in the Mexican lucha libre tradition.
Rice celebrates diverse communities with programs on mariachi music and Japanese architecture
Rice’s mariachi band, Mariachi Luna Llena, introduced a guest performer at its annual concert April 22, when Houston Independent School District Superintendent Richard Carranza sang a solo with the group before a crowd of 600 at Hamman Hall. Also in April, MCR and the Rice University Community of Asian Alumni (RUCAA) organized a lecture on Japanese architecture as part of a yearlong celebration commemorating 100 years of Asian undergraduate life at Rice. Houston architect Marta Rodriguez delivered the lecture, “Architecture for the Human: Through the Japanese Looking Glass.”
Marketing and Digital Communications
Hero slider draws attention to big news
The Hero slider on Rice’s home page attracted 26,496 clicks in March and April, when it featured 12 different videos. The slider directed people to major Rice News stories, such as alumna Peggy Whitson’s record-breaking trip to the International Space Station and Fortune magazine’s announcement that Rebecca Richards-Kortum had made its prestigious list of “World’s Greatest Leaders.” The latter was the most-clicked-on story, with 4,775.
Video highlights Rice’s success in supporting low-income students
Rice is one of five universities to be named a finalist for the $1 million Cooke Prize for Equity in Educational Excellence. To support its application for the prize, Public Affairs produced a video about one Rice student who receives the support needed to succeed. https://youtu.be/CQOcN8cbWog
Video series celebrates outstanding seniors
As we approach the end of the academic year once again, we are celebrating a few of our many outstanding seniors with videos depicting the exceptional learning and personal growth experiences that occur on our campus. We encourage you to share these videos on social media and in presentations to students, alumni and donors, as well as on your respective websites. The links to each video can be found on the Rice YouTube channel.
Thu Nguyen, a Wiess College senior majoring in chemistry and sociology, discovered her true passion at Rice. Nguyen launched Rice Paper, a Houston-based magazine that features stories from Asian-American artists, entrepreneurs, writers and photographers.
Senthil Natarajan, a Will Rice College senior majoring in electrical engineering, used his four years at Rice to explore his passions for sports and technology. He has created a startup, Ziel Solutions, which is developing a sensory sleeve for baseball pitchers to help reduce their risk of injury.
Monica Czausz, a Lovett College senior majoring in organ performance, says the organ is her voice. She has signed to Karen McFarlane Artists Inc., a major management company for concert organists.
Total reach
This number reflects how many people potentially were reached through Rice websites and social media during March and April: 8,676,148
Passive viewers
This number reflects people who have read or been exposed to Rice via web efforts in March and April: 745,848
Web advocates
This number reflects people who have actively shared Rice web and social media content during March and April: 111,250
In March and April, more than 111,000 brand advocates shared the Rice message, an increase of about 15,000 from the previous two months. Our message reached more than 8 million users through social media. The most-clicked-on story was about U.S. News and World Report’s ranking of 11 Rice graduate programs. This story reached 26,646 people on Facebook, where it got more than 550 reactions and 50 shares; it also prompted more than 2,000 clicks on rice.edu.
Nine videos were posted to the Rice Facebook page in March and April, which resulted in 48,232 views. A video congratulating NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson ’86 for breaking spacewalk records reached 26,711 people on Facebook and garnered 446 reactions, 117 shares, 14 comments and more than 11,000 views.
Douglas Brinkley had the highest number of media mentions – 1,236 – during March and April, mainly for his comments about American politics. He is a professor of history.
Below are the Rice experts who were mentioned in the media five or more times during March and April.
