Historic Midtown Sears building to anchor Houston innovation district
Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner and Rice University President David Leebron announced plans for a new Midtown innovation district that will transform a 9.4-acre site, anchored by the former Sears building, into a hub designed to bring together the area’s entrepreneurial, corporate and academic communities into collaborative spaces and programs. The news was reported in a front-page Houston Chronicle story, a cover story in the Houston Business Journal and on local TV and radio stations.
Things warm up as Government Relations promotes Rice this spring
As winter turned to spring, opportunities were numerous for Government Relations to continue its strategy of raising Rice’s profile with policymakers and agencies. The department helped coordinate a field hearing hosted by Rep. Ted Poe at the Jones Graduate School of Business on April 23, where former Rice Student Association President Justin Onwenu and Dean of Undergraduates John Hutchinson participated in a panel on sexual assaults on college campuses. Reps. John Culberson and Pete Olson ’85 also participated in the well-attended hearing.
Government Relations helped coordinate teleconferences with various state and federal agencies on behalf of OpenStax, the Institute of Biosciences and Bioengineering and the School of Social Sciences. In mid-April, the department executed two days of meetings with key legislators and staff in Austin, among them with state Reps. Donna Howard, Sarah Davis, Carol Alvarado, Kevin Roberts, John Raney and John Zerwas, as well as the state directors for U.S. Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz.
With appropriations work underway in Congress and the ongoing interim session in Texas, Government Relations will continue promoting Rice’s research interests and the participation of Rice experts in hearings into the summer.
University Relations
As the Rice Management Co. makes additional investments in its Rice Village property holdings, University Relations has been actively working to secure improved under-street infrastructure to benefit both the campus and the Village side of Greenbriar Drive, as well as advocating with Houston Public Works and area stakeholders on the need to reconstruct University Boulevard. In addition, University Relations has been working with the Mayor’s Office of Special Events, the Rice Village Alliance and Trademark Properties to secure a Cigna Sunday Streets event in the Village during this year’s homecoming weekend.
University Relations continues to assist Rice Management Co. and its consultants in making and maintaining contacts with area elected officials, community organizations and institutions as Rice proceeds with planning for the new innovation district, which will be centered around the former Sears property in Midtown.
Creative Services
Owlmanac
In March, Creative Services published the spring issue of Owlmanac, the biannual class notes magazine that is mailed to approximately 48,000 alumni. Creative Services collected, assembled and edited notes submitted from alumni and designed the publication.
Medicine and Healing in the Age of Slavery conference
Creative Services designed the materials for the Department of History’s Medicine and Healing in the Age of Slavery conference, including the program, name tags, the conference logo and other marketing materials. The two-day symposium featured scholars from various universities and disciplines who examined the connection between slavery and medicine.
Jewish Life at Rice brochure
The Jewish Life at Rice brochure was produced for the Program in Jewish Studies. It is a promotional piece used to inform potential students and parents of students about the nature of the program and its role in the Rice community. Creative Services edited and designed the brochure and produced 500 printed copies and a digital version for electronic distribution.
Multicultural Community Relations
Outlining the path to college
Three college readiness conferences at Rice drew more than 600 middle and high school students and their parents. Multicultural Community Relations (MCR) hosted the conferences and helped by engaging staff members from admissions and financial offices and in securing Rice baseball tickets for the students. The Project GRAD Scholar Summit took place March 24, the KIPP Academy Senior Retreat April 24 and the largest group, the Hispanic Scholarship Foundation, held an all-day conference April 28.
Martin Luther King Jr. commemorated at Rice
The 50th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. was observed in a poignant program attended by 100 Rice students, faculty, staff and members of the Houston community. MCR and the Office of Diversity and Inclusion hosted the event. Roland Smith, associate provost of diversity and inclusion, delivered the keynote speech in which he talked about how King and the civil rights movement inspired and affected his life. Monique Shankle ’86, chair of the Association of Rice University Black Alumni, served as mistress of ceremonies. Karen Kossie-Chernyshev ’85, professor of history at Texas Southern University, gave the invocation and Tamara Siler ’87, senior associate director of admission, read a series of memorable quotes from King’s speeches. When the program ended, a bell was rung 39 times in remembrance of the number of years that King lived. The program was followed by a reception in the Rice Multicultural Center.
A global meeting
Representing cities that are recognized as international energy capitals, 100 members of the World Energy Cities Partnership (WECP) gathered April 30 in Farnsworth Pavilion for a panel discussion that was moderated by Bill Fulton, director of the Kinder Institute for Urban Research. WECP, a nonprofit organization, works with members based in the Americas, Africa, Asia, Australia and Europe to enable innovative exchanges in energy, education, environmental technology, medicine and bioscience, and tourism development. MCR worked with the group’s Houston office to host this event.
Stories of love, music and aid appear in quarterly publication
The spring issue of Rice at Large contains a series of stories that highlight Rice’s engagement with Houston communities. The cover features a story about a Rice author who wrote “The Boy Who Loved Too Much,” and another that showcases JUMP!, a program in the Shepherd School of Music that reaches out to underserved students in Houston. The article also appeared in the Houston Chronicle. Inside the publication, read about humanitarian aid, basketball and math, and the transportation and flooding problems affecting Houston.
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 March and April: 7,797,719
Passive viewers
This number reflects people who have read or been exposed to Rice via web efforts in March and April: 476,994
Brand advocates
This number reflects people who have actively shared Rice web and social media content during March and April: 113,493
During the months of March and April, Rice University had 113,493 brand advocates sharing the Rice message. More than 7 million users were reached during these months. The story with the most clicks in March and April was the Sears building announcement, which was clicked on more than 1,800 times. The post with the most engagement was the Tree Campus USA award, which gained more than 600 likes, 77 shares and 14 comments, and reached 15,018 Facebook users. During these months, Rice social media also featured unconventional student videos, the Unconventional Wisdom ads starring many faculty members, Rice’s “Jeopardy!” mention, the Kinder Houston Area Survey and the graduate program rankings.
Throughout the months of March and April, the rice.edu hero slider gained 24,518 clicks. During this time, the slider featured the graduate program rankings, unconventional student videos, the Rice University School Mathematics Project fair and more. The two months also featured the Unconventional Wisdom ads of Sarah Whiting, Genevera Allen, Stephen Klineberg and Fred Higgs; these stories were clicked on 1,360 times. The most-clicked story was the U.S. News & World Report graduate program rankings, which gained more than 4,000 clicks.
Unconventional students at Rice University
As we approach the end of the academic year, we are once again celebrating a few of our many outstanding seniors. The videos represent the exceptional learning and personal growth experiences that take place on our campus. We encourage you to share these videos across social media, in presentations to students, alumni and donors, and on your respective websites. The student videos can be found on the Unconventional Wisdom website.
A new Dateline editor was hired and we were unable to gather the statistics needed to compile a list of media stars for the March-April report. The report will resume with the May-June issue.
