Rice ranks among nation’s top universities in Princeton Review’s ‘The Best 384 Colleges’
For the fourth consecutive year, Rice University ranks No. 1 in the nation for the best race/class interaction, according to student surveys for the Princeton Review’s 2019 edition of “The Best 384 Colleges.†Rice lofted into the top 20 in 13 different categories, the most in the university’s history. Rice ranks No. 2 for best quality of life, No. 3 for best college newspaper and No. 5 for happiest students.
Love vine sucks life from wasps, leaving only mummies
This story’s headline, which describes a strange discovery made by Rice researchers, grabbed the attention of reporters working for a variety of media outlets, from the New York Times to foreign radio networks. A plant called a love vine latches onto the tumor-like growths made by gall wasps, an example of a parasitic plant attacking a parasitic insect inside a shared host plant.
$6.6 million grant from Arnold Foundation to fund Texas Policy Lab at Rice
At a news conference outside the Texas Capitol, Rice’s School of Social Sciences and the Laura and John Arnold Foundation announced an initiative to work side by side with Texas elected officials and agency leaders to solve some of the state’s most pressing problems. The Texas Policy Lab, supported by a $6.6 million grant from the Arnold Foundation, will use cutting-edge research and analysis to offer measurable solutions for policymakers.
For a list of media stars for July and August, please see the last section of this report.
Government Relations
Government Relations hosts legislators, announces Texas Policy Lab
During July and August, Government Relations helped coordinate state Rep. Sarah Davis’ visit to the lab of K.C. Nicolaou, the Harry C. and Olga K. Wiess Professor of Chemistry at Rice, located in the BioScience Research Collaborative. Davis learned how funding from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas brought Nicolaou to Rice, which eventually led to the K.C. Nicolaou Research Accelerator, a joint research collaboration with AbbVie.
Government Relations helped arrange a number of opportunities to gain visibility and buy-in at the state and federal levels. The department led a meeting with NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine ’97 at NASA Headquarters in July, helped host state Sen. Larry Taylor’s visit to OpenStax Aug. 7, arranged for the Kinder Institute’s Kyle Shelton to testify to the House Committee on Urban Affairs in Houston Aug. 20 and helped secure Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush ’98 as a participant in a Texas Tribune panel at the Glasscock School of Continuing Studies Aug. 30. Finally, in partnership with the Laura and John Arnold Foundation, Rice’s School of Social Sciences and News and Media Relations, Government Relations organized and executed the public announcement of the Texas Policy Lab on the steps of the Texas State Capitol Aug. 30.
As things start to slow down at the federal level ahead of the midterms and as the interim session continues at the state level, Government Relations will continue promoting Rice’s experts and research interests across the state and in Washington, D.C.
University Relations
Summer 2018 was largely focused on supporting the work of the Rice Management Co. (RMC) and its development activities in Rice Village and the new innovation district in Midtown.
For the innovation district, anchored by the historic Sears building, University Relations has been active in organizing meetings for RMC officials with key community stakeholders as well as elected leaders in city and county government, the state Legislature and Congress.
In the Village, efforts are ongoing to coordinate with Houston Public Works on the announced plans for the reconstruction of Greenbriar Drive and University Boulevard so that new under-street utility infrastructure supports RMC’s future development plans and enhances safety, walkability and pedestrian appeal.
Through involvement in the Rice Village Alliance, the merchant association for businesses in the Village, University Relations is also taking a leadership role in helping the Village promote itself through the creation and distribution of a printed guide and by partnering with the Mayor’s Office of Special Events to bring Cigna Sunday Streets, a daylong pedestrian-oriented street festival, to the Village at the conclusion of Rice’s homecoming weekend.
Creative Services
V2C2 banners
New light pole banners, featuring Vision for the Second Century, Second Decade (V2C2) goals, were installed at the beginning of the fall semester. Designed by Creative Services, the banners highlight the seven objectives of the strategy. In addition to the seven goals, faculty and students are also featured in the series.
Scientia Lecture Series promotional card
Creative Services edited and designed the promotional material for this year’s lectures sponsored by Scientia, Rice’s faculty-led institute that promotes multidisciplinary engagement. The 2018–2019 Scientia Lecture Series tackles the topic of creativity, and experts from different disciplines are invited to talk about how their imagination works to address interesting questions and to pose novel ideas.
History Department poster series
To increase students’ awareness of the various history courses offered at Rice, Creative Services designed and edited a series of posters for the History Department. The “Go Everywhere, Meet Everyone†series features 11 prominent historical figures throughout time, and the subject of each poster aligns with topics being taught in the department’s classes this academic year.
Multicultural Community Relations
Rice at Large goes online
Rice at Large, the quarterly newsletter that highlights Rice’s outreach efforts, will be available online starting in September with the publication of the fall issue. The newsletter was previously distributed through mail to 2,500 community leaders at Rice and around Houston. By going online, the plan is to reach a wider readership. The fall issue includes a cover story about Carolyn Nichol and her work with the Rice Office of STEM Engagement, in addition to stories about summer programs for underserved communities.
Receptions welcome new black and Latino students
Multicultural Community Relations helped plan and stage two new student receptions, Aug. 11. Hosted by the Hispanic Association for Cultural Enrichment at Rice, the Rice Black Student Association and the Rice African Student Association, the events drew a total of 400 people, including new students, their parents, upperclassmen, faculty, alumni and staff. Attendees gathered to learn about life at Rice and to develop support networks for the school year.
Marketing and Digital Communications
The 'interwebs' dashboard
Engagements
This number reflects how many people were potentially reached through Rice websites and social media during July and August: 361,562
Impressions
This number reflects people who have read or been exposed to Rice via web efforts in July and August: 3,688,347
Followers
This number reflects people who have actively shared Rice web and social media content during July and August: 191,808
In July and August, Rice social media channels received more than 3 million impressions and more than 300,000 engagements. The overall engagement rate for both months was 9.8 percent. With the utilization of Instagram stories (a Snapchat-like feature built into the Instagram app), engagements and impressions grew significantly on Instagram. The O-Week coverage via Instagram stories was popular and received about 200,000 impressions and engagements. The overall engagement rate on Instagram for both July and August was 38 percent.
The most engaging story in July was the announcement of the new School of Social Sciences building with more than 17,000 impressions on Twitter.
The O-Week move-in video was the most engaging story in August with 2,202 engagements and 15,654 video views on Facebook.
The rice.edu hero slider received 8,663 clicks in July and August. The slider featured summer camp videos, a Rice Magazine story, O-Week coverage and Princeton Review rankings.
July’s most-clicked slider was a video about the Design Connect Create summer camp at Rice with 570 clicks. August’s most-clicked slider was the O-Week move-in video with 1,448 clicks.
Media Stars
History Professor Douglas Brinkley had the highest number of media mentions — 2,771 — during July and August, mainly for comments about President Donald Trump. Below are members of the Rice community who were mentioned in the media 10 or more times during July and August.
