Rice unveils strategic plan for second decade of its second century
President Leebron’s unveiling of the Vision for the Vision for the Second Century, Second Decade (V2C2) was featured in Rice News, a "Houston Matters" interview, a Houston Chronicle story, and on rice.edu, posters and social media.
Rice was mentioned in four stories on the front page of the Jan. 29 Houston Chronicle about DACA legislation, Sears property, Houston’s Innovation Corridor and Grammy Awards.
William Martin: Billy Graham’s biographer
When Rev. Billy Graham died at age 99, Rice’s William Martin, who was Graham’s biographer, was quoted extensively, including in a front-page Houston Chronicle story, the Associated Press, CNN, the Washington Post and a follow-up story about Graham’s son that appeared on the front page of the New York Times.
For a list of the media stars for January and February, please see the last section of this report.
Government Relations
Government Relations promotes Rice experts in Austin and Washington, D.C.
With the start of 2018 came several opportunities for Rice to raise its profile in the policymaking process. Government Relations helped coordinate an interim hearing of the Texas House General Investigating and Ethics Committee at the Baker Institute Jan. 18, and Rice leaders hosted State Rep. Sarah Davis for lunch Jan. 22 at Cohen House. At a Feb. 8 hearing of the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, Kenneth Medlock, senior director of the Center for Energy Studies at the Baker Institute, testified about the nation’s energy infrastructure.
Government Relations also facilitated the testimony of Computer Science Professor Dan Wallach before the Texas Senate Select Committee on Election Security in Austin Feb. 22 and confirmed that the Jones School will host a field hearing for Rep. Ted Poe April 23. Government Relations continues to promote the participation of Rice experts in legislative and congressional hearings.
University Relations
Welcoming the new Rice Welcome Center
Public Affairs is pleased to announce that March 2018 marks the opening of the new Rice University Welcome Center, now located in an accessible venue on the ground level of Sewall Hall. Visitors can access the new facility through the glass doors under the Welcome Center sign atop the steps facing Brochstein Plaza, via a ramp near Rice shuttle stop 10 (in front of the Allen Center) or an elevator on the Academic Quad side of Sewall Hall.
The new Welcome Center offers multiple displays that show the beauty of the Rice campus, handouts to promote the university’s many programs and a new 100-seat video presentation room for participants in admission welcome sessions and school group tours.
In 2017, the total number of visitors served by the Rice Welcome Center in its former, less accessible location in Lovett Hall increased by nearly 40,000 people to 834,880. That includes walk-in visitors, phone calls, event and tour guests. As the number of campus visitors continues to grow, the new, larger and fully accessible facility will provide a much-improved venue for fulfillment of the Welcome Center’s mission: to greet campus visitors as honored guests and send them away as goodwill ambassadors for Rice.
For more information, please visit the Welcome Center’s new website: welcome.rice.edu.
Creative Services
Creative Services designed and edited the Mathematics Department's Graduate Studies Program brochure, which is used to recruit candidates for its Ph.D. program.
With help from Multicultural Community Relations, the Creative Services team redesigned Rice’s banners for the 40th annual “Original” MLK Jr. Birthday Parade. The banners were displayed on the float and featured an image and quote from Martin Luther King Jr. and a themed banner, Unhidden Figures, which complemented posters with names of black alumni from Rice.
To promote the Shepherd School’s spring opera, Creative Services designed, edited and produced the Opera Asides invitation for the school’s opera production of “La Finta Giardiniera.” Sung in Italian, the Shepherd Society event also featured a precurtain talk by Gregory Barnett, professor and chair of musicology.
Multicultural Community Relations
Rice celebrates MLK weekend
Rice’s Black Student Association (BSA) and the Association of Rice University Black Alumni (ARUBA) celebrated Martin Luther King Jr. by hosting a vigil Jan. 14 and participating in two parades Jan. 15. Multicultural Community Relations (MCR) helped organize all three events. MCR also engaged a local elementary school student to recite his award-winning speech about King. More than 100 participants gathered for the vigil and program and thousands viewed the two parades.
Rice lends a hand to Blackshear Elementary School
MCR has adopted Blackshear Elementary, an HISD school that is at risk of closing. MCR held its first activity Feb. 2 as part of a long-term project to help the school move ahead. Student representatives from the BSA and Hispanic Association for Cultural Enrichment at Rice (HACER), along with MCR staff, presented information to Blackshear’s fourth- and fifth-graders on how to prepare for college. MCR is working to engage other Rice resources to support this community of underserved students in Houston’s Third Ward.
Career and Education Day draws thousands of students
Rice served as a sponsor and participant in the Houston Hispanic Forum’s annual Career and Education Day Feb. 10 at the George R. Brown Convention Center. MCR arranged for alumni to host the information table and recruited HACER to conduct a workshop on college readiness. Thousands of middle and high school students, parents and educators attended the all-day event.
Spanish play charms a packed house
More than 200 people gathered Jan. 21 in the Grand Hall to watch “Manos de Mariposa,” a play by Spanish writer Domingo Ferrandis. The actors presented a fresh perspective on controversial topics such as immigration, greed and violence, while emphasizing compassion and kindness to each other. A reception followed the play.
Marketing and Digital Communications
The 'interwebs' dashboard
Total reach
This number reflects how many people were potentially reached through Rice websites and social media during January and February: 7,564,903
Passive viewers
This number reflects people who have read or been exposed to Rice via web efforts in January and February: 482,028
Brand advocates
This number reflects people who have actively shared Rice web and social media content during January and February: 86,266
In January and February, there were more than 86,000 brand advocates sharing the Rice University message. More than 7 million users were reached during these months.
The story with the most clicks in January and February was the Kiplinger rankings with more than 600 clicks. The post with the most engagement was Rice’s statement about student protests, which gained more than 1,200 likes, 250 shares, 39 comments and reached 43,284 Facebook users. Rice social media also featured the new Houston Jewish History Archive, Ruth Turley’s Unconventional Wisdom ad, the V2C2 announcement, the National Science Foundation’s funding of the “wearable hospital lab” and the announcement of Michael Bloomberg as this year’s commencement speaker.
Throughout January and February, the rice.edu hero slider gained 23,640 clicks. The slider featured the Baker Institute’s new ranking, the student photo contest, Shepherd School events, Trevor Cobb’s induction into the College Football Hall of Fame, the V2C2 announcement and more. Two Rice Magazine stories were also featured, including “Virtual Historian” and “We Don’t Know”; these posts were well-received and gained 1,924 clicks. The most-clicked story was the V2C2 announcement with 2,408 clicks.
Francisco Monaldi, a fellow in Latin American energy policy at the Baker Institute, had the highest number of media mentions — 2,579 — during January and February, mainly for comments on Venezuela’s struggling oil industry. Below are the Rice experts who were mentioned in the media five or more times during January and February.
