NEST360° wins $15 million from MacArthur Foundation
NEST360° won $15 million through the MacArthur Foundation’s inaugural 100&Change competition and will continue to raise money for its visionary effort to end preventable newborn deaths in Africa. Rebecca Richards-Kortum and Maria Oden headed Rice’s team.
Rice breaks ground for Music and Performing Arts Center
Rice’s Shepherd School of Music held a ceremonial groundbreaking Dec. 7 for a new building that, together with Alice Pratt Brown Hall and the adjoining plaza, will form the Rice University Music and Performing Arts Center.
Several news releases from Rice ranked among the top 10 most popular for 2017. Research by Rice engineering students who created a machine-learning algorithm that was “very good” at predicting epileptic seizures was the top story on Science360 News. Solubility research was No. 2 for university releases on the Department of Energy’s Office of Science website. Research on concrete made Futurity’s top five. Also, Glasstire cited 2017 as a “seismic year” for the arts at Rice.
For a list of the media stars for the year, please see the last section of this report.
Government Relations
Government Relations engages on tax reform
On the Nov. 2 introduction of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act in the House of Representatives, Government Relations immediately began advocating to protect Rice’s interests. The House version contained many problematic provisions for higher education, while the Senate version was far less threatening.
Chief among Rice’s concerns were proposals to levy a new 1.4 percent excise tax on the net investment income of certain private university endowments, eliminate private activity bonds and count graduate students’ waived tuition as taxable income, among others. Working closely with the Rice graduate student community, several higher education associations, other large private universities and our allies in Congress, Government Relations worked during the seven weeks of debate to improve the massive piece of legislation.
While the higher education community was largely successful at getting several of the most threatening provisions removed from the bill — including the taxation of graduate student tuition waivers and the elimination of private activity bonds — a few remained in the version passed by the House and Senate and then signed by President Donald Trump Dec. 22. Although the excise tax on private university endowments is now law, Government Relations is continuing to work on mitigating the damage that tax could inflict on Rice’s faculty, staff and future students.
University Relations
Rice United Way campaign sets new record
The 2017–18 Rice United Way Campaign eclipsed its $250,000 goal by 14 percent, setting a new fundraising record of $285,026 and qualifying Rice for the Chairman’s Division, United Way’s top-level giving society.
“In the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, when the need in our community is greater than it ever has been, it is important that Rice employees step up and give back,” said President Leebron, the honorary campaign chairman. “I am immensely proud and grateful that so many of our campus colleagues did so, and gave so generously in addition to the many ways we helped the community during and after the flooding.”
A total of 936 campus campaign contributions were received, paced by FE&P, which had 145 donations and a divisional participation rate of more than 53 percent. The School of Social Sciences led the campus with nearly $30,000 contributed. The School of Engineering had the most lead donors and Club 21 donors. Three campus divisions achieved 100 percent campaign participation: the Dean of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies, Investments and Public Affairs.
Creative Services
Creative Services produced posters and collateral material for the Economics Department to promote the fall RISE Distinguished Lecture, featuring Vernon L. Smith. Smith was the fifth Nobel laureate to speak as part of the yearly series, held in the fall and spring. RISE was established to create an environment for research and teaching that enhances Rice’s role as one of the leading institutions for the study of economics.
This fall, Creative Services edited, designed and produced Enquiry, the magazine for the Wiess School of Natural Sciences. Produced once a year, Enquiry features faculty news, research highlights and stories, and undergraduate research and recognition. Many of the magazine’s stories are written by Rice students from a variety of academic disciplines.
To promote a new spring course, Spatial Humanities: The Social Lives of Buildings, Creative Services produced a flyer for the Humanities Research Center. Open to undergraduate and graduate students from all majors, the course was designed to examine the architectural, urban and social spaces of early modern France (1500–1700).
Multicultural Community Relations
Rice welcomes new black faculty and staff
The Association of Rice University Black Alumni and Multicultural Community Relations welcomed new black faculty and administrators to Rice at a reception on Nov. 14 in Farnsworth Pavilion. The event drew 100 alumni, faculty, students, staff and community members. Among those honored were Reginald DesRoches, the William and Stephanie Sick Dean of the George R. Brown School of Engineering, and James Tate, RUPD chief of police. President David Leebron gave remarks and was accompanied by Dean of Undergraduates John Hutchinson and chairs from various academic departments.
Rice mariachi conducts free workshop for high school students
Rice's Mariachi Luna Llena, with the help of MCR, conducted an all-day free workshop Nov. 18 for 65 high school students. The students were treated to voice, trumpet, violin, guitarrón and guitar lessons, along with lunch, a talk about college readiness and a campus tour.
Acclaimed author joins 100 Years of Asians at Rice celebration
In partnership with Inprint, MCR organized a Nov. 13 reading that featured Pulitzer Prize-winning author Viet Thanh Nguyen. The event was part of the yearlong 100 Years of Asians at Rice celebration. The reading was preceded by a dinner at the president’s house, where board members of the Rice University Community of Asian Alumni enjoyed a meal with the author. President Leebron gave the welcome remarks to a sold-out crowd at Stude Concert Hall.
Quarterly meetings serve to inform Rice and Houston communities
The quarterly K-12 council meeting on Nov. 8 featured a series of speakers: Anne Papakonstantinou, director, Rice University School Mathematics Project; Judy Radigan, director of teacher preparation, Glasscock School of Continuing Studies; James Tate, RUPD chief of police; and Cynthia Wilson, chief of staff, Houston Independent School District. On Nov. 16, Quianta Moore, a Baker Institute fellow, presented to 30 community members at the BakerRipley Gulfton campus about the value of early childhood education. The presentation was part of MCR’s quarterly Community Dialogue Luncheon, which is now being hosted at community venues.
President Leebron and University Representative Y. Ping Sun hosted a holiday reception Dec. 14 for Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner, and the Mayor’s Hispanic Advisory Board at Wiess House. Among the attendees were two Rice alumni who are members of the mayor’s Hispanic Advisory Board: Sofia Adrogue ’88 and MCR Director David Medina ’83. MCR helped organize the event.
Marketing and Digital Communications
New Public Affairs website launched
The Public Affairs team is pleased to announce the launch of our new Drupal platform site — publicaffairs.rice.edu. In addition to the standard information about the department, there are some key areas:
If you are looking to purchase Rice branded gear, please visit the new webpage which has information about the campus store, the newly launched online store and contact information for purchasing Rice Owl pins.
If you have any questions, please visit our updated staff directory for assistance.
The 'interwebs' dashboard
Total reach
This number reflects how many people were potentially reached through Rice websites and social media during November and December: 6,481,882
Passive viewers
This number reflects people who have read or been exposed to Rice via web efforts in November and December: 521,049
Brand advocates
This number reflects people who have actively shared Rice web and social media content during November and December: 84,171
During the two months, Rice Public Affairs worked closely with Rice 360° to prepare and execute a social media plan for the MacArthur Foundation 100&Change competition — more on this partnership below. The story with the most clicks and engagement in November and December was the announcement of Rice signing the global virtual exchange agreement, with 1,947 clicks, 410 likes, 44 shares and nine comments on Facebook. The post with the most engagement on Facebook was an album of the unexpected snow day, with 1,741 likes, 195 shares and 35 comments.
In November, Rice had its first social media takeover during homecoming. Rice alumni managed the university’s social media accounts during this time and promoted homecoming events, alumni gatherings and more.
Throughout the final two months of 2017, the rice.edu hero slider gained 18,231 clicks. The slider featured the snow day, HART in the World, homecoming, Astros congratulations, Rice 360°’s journey to 100&Change, Rice Magazine stories and more. The story with the most clicks was about Rice Public Art renewing its focus with 2,525 clicks. In December, the hero also featured the holiday card and year-end videos. More information on the holiday card is below.
Rice Public Affairs created and executed a social media plan for Rice 360° and its partners for the MacArthur Foundation’s 100&Change competition. This included creating sample social media for various partners, working with Rice 360° to create content to align with the presentation, managing Rice 360°’s Twitter account, coordinating with Rice 360° for event photos and engaging with social media audiences about the event. These efforts resulted in mentions from large organizations such as the MacArthur Foundation (124,367 Twitter followers) and USAID (664,683 Twitter followers); the coverage received 144 retweets, 303 likes and 51,927 impressions during the event.
The 2017 holiday card was featured on the rice.edu home page where it gained 1,676 clicks. The link to the holiday card in President Leebron’s email was clicked 9,158 times. The video received 393 likes, 14 comments, 112 shares and 12,900 views on Facebook. The holiday card has 5,011 views on YouTube. In total, the video was clicked 10,956 times and viewed 17,911 times. View the holiday card:
History Professor Douglas Brinkley had the highest number of media mentions — 1,739 — during November and December, mainly for his comments about President Trump. Brinkley also had the highest number of media mentions — 10,301 — during 2017. Below are the Rice experts who were mentioned in the media five or more times during November–December.
