Francisco Monaldi, fellow in Latin American energy policy and the director of the Latin America Energy Program at the Center for Energy Studies at the Baker Institute for Public Policy, fellow at the Center for the United States and Mexico, and a lecturer in energy economics, provided commentary for an NPR “All Things Considered” story on Venezuela’s attempt to use human hair collected from barbershops to soak up massive oil slicks on one of South America’s largest bodies of inland water. The segment also aired on more than 900 radio stations across the U.S., and the related online article appeared in more than 100 NPR-affiliated media outlets.
Bob Stein, the Lena Gohlman Fox Professor of Political Science and fellow in urban politics at the Baker Institute for Public Policy, was interviewed by NPR and other media about Houston’s mayoral race. The NPR segment with Stein aired on more than 950 affiliate stations across the U.S.
Mark Finley, fellow in energy and global oil at the Baker Institute for Public Policy’s Center for Energy Studies, shared his expertise on American Public Media’s “Marketplace” with Kai Ryssdal regarding OPEC+’s November meeting and the outlook for the group’s oil supply cuts. The segment aired on more than 600 affiliate stations across the U.S.
For a full list of November and Decembermedia stars,
please see the last section of this report.
Government Relations
Connecting people and organizations for Rice’s policy priorities
In November, Government Relations helped connect the Baker Institute’s Center for Energy Studies with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality regarding the Department of Energy’s marginal well program. We helped a multidisciplinary group of faculty and fellows present a virtual briefing called “AI in Latin America and the Caribbean” for the National AI Advisory Committee. We succeeded in having a proposed amendment withdrawn from an appropriations bill for the departments of Health and Human Services and Education. Finally, we supported the successful Houston Carbon Management Community Summit 2023, hosted at Rice’s Bioscience Research Collaborative in partnership with the U.S. Department of Energy, Climate Now, and the City of Houston. Participants in the event included President DesRoches, former Mayor Sylvester Turner and Brad Crabtree, assistant secretary for the Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management.
In December, we joined Tom Killian, dean of the Wiess School of Natural Sciences, in an Austin government engagement workshop organized by the Texas A&M University Space Institute, attended the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board’s Higher EDge 2023 conference, and participated in the Consortium on Financing Higher Education’s public issues seminar in Washington, D.C. We also helped invite government participants to two large Baker Institute meetings organized by fellows in the Center for Health and Biosciences, in addition to leading three panels during the Colloquium on Brain Capital held at the Baker Institute.
University Relations
Rice Welcome Center generates 1.1 million positive impressions in 2023
The mission of the Rice Welcome Center is to help create positive impressions for Rice by ensuring that campus visitors are welcomed as friends and depart as goodwill ambassadors for the university. In 2023, more than 1.1 million such impressions were generated.
Rice University Welcome Center Calendar Year 2023 Metrics
In addition to offering campus tours for K-8 school groups and VIP visitors, the Welcome Center produces “Welcome,” a weekly email newsletter which invites the public to campus events; loans international flags and Rice-branded displays to campus departments and organizations so that Rice always puts its best foot forward at events and conferences both on and off campus; responds to hundreds of annual requests for information and for Rice-branded items from middle school and high school students involved in college readiness programs; manages campus photo shoot requests from the public; handles walk-in visitors and telephone and email inquiries; serves as the university’s campus polling location for elections; and supports large public events, such as parades, in which Rice has a visible presence.
The Welcome Center also hosts Rice’s Office of Admission for prospective student events and information sessions; the 2023 figures do not include those additional admission activities.
Creative Services
2023 December Commencement Ceremony program
Creative Services produced the 2023 December Commencement Ceremony program. All told, 1,500 program copies were printed. More than 700 Rice Owls graduated Dec. 5, 2023.
2023 president’s holiday card
The 2023 president’s card featured whimsical cover art by Hong Lin Tsai ’26 showing the emblems of all the residential colleges. A total of 2,000 cards were printed, with just over 1,600 cards being mailed.
Multicultural Community Relations
Acclaimed author Jorge Luis Borges honored at Rice
Multicultural Community Relations and Casa Cultural de las Americas drew 200 guests to Rice on Nov. 29 for an event honoring writer Jorge Luis Borges. In celebration of the 100th anniversary of the writer’s first publication, the groups hosted a tribute including a panel discussion and the presentation of an oversized bust of Borges cast in bronze by Argentine sculptor Carlos Benavídez. Panelists included experts on the writer’s works and ideas.
How Hispanics are represented in video games
Carlos Kelly, a Rice postdoctoral associate, presented his new book, “Ready Player Juan: Latinx Masculinities and Stereotypes in Video Games,” Nov. 30 in an event organized by MCR. Kelly’s book analyzes the portrayal of Latinx people in action-adventure video games. Rice students, faculty, staff and alumni and Houston community members participated in a lively discussion following the presentation. A reception and book signing followed the discussion.
Developing self-love in school
On Dec. 14, members of the PreK-12 Advisory Council met for its second meeting of the year. Presenters included Karen Capo, director of School Literacy and Culture at the Glasscock School of Continuing Studies, who talked about various literacy programs, and Geoffrey Scott, assistant dean of Student Affairs & Enrollment Management at the Shepherd School of Music, who provided information on the Shepherd School’s Concert Truck. Irene Greaves, author of “Lovescaping,” talked about an educational framework and curriculum by the same name that teaches students, teachers and families the skills needed to develop self‑love and love for others and to create a culture of love at school. MCR and the Glasscock School collaborate on this quarterly event.
A fond farewell for the Houston mayor
Rice President Reginald DesRoches and a host of Hispanic community leaders celebrated former Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner for his eight years of service to the city at the university’s Faculty Club on Dec. 15. The celebration was part of the mayor’s Hispanic Advisory Board annual holiday reception, which has been held at Rice for the past several years. MCR director David Medina ’83 is a longstanding member of the Hispanic board. Turner, who is term-limited, praised President DesRoches and Rice for their active engagement with the city.
Quality education for everyone
The fall issue of Rice at Largeoffers a variety of articles that showcase Rice’s engagement with Houston communities. On the cover is a story about Brenda Rangel ’10, assistant dean of the Center for Education at the Glasscock School of Continuing Studies, and her passion and commitment to quality education for everyone. Also featured on the front cover is an article that explains how the Center for Civic Leadership is offering Rice students opportunities to conduct research in Houston communities. Other stories inside the quarterly newsletter include reducing the gender gap in data science, Rice students engaging in community service and world transformation, high school students preparing for their math courses, and a Rice alum helping high school students achieve their potential.
Marketing and Digital Communications
Marketing
First Responder Bowl ad buys
Advertising was secured to promote the First Responder bowl game on Dec. 26 in both Dallas and Houston markets and continued in Houston markets for the national championship game played at NRG. Assets included:
SERVPRO First Responder Bowl program – full-page color ad
Dallas Morning News – full-page color ad in Main section; front-page banner ad in Sports
DFW airport – walkway wrap
Dallas outdoor – near SMU and in downtown Dallas by the hotel
Hobby airport – walkway wrap
IAH – digital spectaculars and prestige digital network
Uptown Park Houston – 12 digital screens rotational
Billboards on West Loop 610 and South Loop near the stadium
Rice.edu + Subdomains
With Google Analytics 4, we will showcase all traffic across the Rice-branded Drupal websites. The following is a comparison of the last 4 months (September through December of 2023).
November/December vs. September/October Page views: 5,218,868 vs. 5,725,446 (-8.85%) Average engagement time:2m 11s vs. 2m 04s (+5.07%) Event count*:14,671,574 vs. 16,249,930 (-9.71%)
* Events in Google Analytics measure specific interactions on your website or app, such as page loads or link clicks.
There are many factors involved in how GA4 tracks, from GDPR/CCPA compliance to event tracking (such as clicking a button) to general page views. Generally, in the last two months of the year, traffic to the sites slows down; however, this year we did have an uptick on the day of the bowl game (Dec. 26).
As of Dec. 31, Public Affairs and the Office of Information Technology have successfully launched 313 Drupal 9 websites. On Nov. 8, the Scientia/De Lange Conference XIII | Brave New Worlds: Who Decides? website (https://delange.rice.edu) launched. Also, on Dec. 18, the Rice Advanced Materials Institute website (https://rami.rice.edu) launched; this institute will accelerate fundamental research and applied technology development to address generational challenges in energy, sustainability and national security.
The two departments are also collaborating on an additional 31 new websites that have come into the Rice-branded theme. Some of the websites currently under development are:
Accelerate [DAR]
Adrian Lenardic Lab
Asilomar (Luis Campos)
Center for Applied Algorithms (CAA)
Center for Career Development (CCD)
Center for Engaged Research and Collaborative Learning (CERCL)
Curriculum Management (Office of the Registrar)
Energy and Environment Initiative
Environmental Science
Geofluids Lab | Helge Gonnermann
Gulf Coast Consortia
Office of Faculty Development (OFD)
Organization & Workforce Laboratory (OWL)
RICE 360°
ice Real Estate
The Chemistry of Art
WaTER Institute (Water Technologies Entrepreneurship and Research)
Social media
Impressions reflects the number of times the content was seen. Audience consists of the number of people who follow or like the main Rice accounts. Engagements reflects the number of interactions (likes, love, shares, comments, clicks, etc.) on a post. Post Link Clicks totals the number of times users clicked on links from posts. Net Follower Growth is the number of new audience members gained minus the audience members lost.
Social media channel overview for November and December
Total net audience growth: 5,480 followers
Total impressions: 4,257,738
Total engagements: 282,344
Engagement rate per impression: 6.6%
Post link clicks: 100,058
Total audience across platforms: 304,962
Performance summary overview
The engagement rate (per impression) indicates the number of times users engaged with our content as a percentage of impressions, indicating how engaged people are with the brand. Our engagement rate (per impression) was 6.6% in the period of Nov. 1–Dec. 31 as compared to the previous reporting period, including the number of likes, @replies, retweets, post link clicks, etc. With a 28.2% increase, we can conclude that users found our content more engaging. Our post link clicks increased from 75,073 to 100,058, a 33.4% change. Post link clicks are defined as the number of times users click on links from our Twitter/X, Facebook, and LinkedIn posts. The 33.4% increase indicated that our audience was more engaged with the content being shared and wanted to know more information about it.
Twitter/X
Total followers: 49,870 Gained: 1.3% Engagement rate per impression: 2.3% Total published posts: 137 (This includes the number of tweets, quote tweets and @replies published) Top post: Marvel post — “Living in a Marvel-ous world … Did you know that Captain Monica Rambeau from ‘The Marvels’ went to Rice University?!” Second highest: Bowl game post — “Ready to Bowl! Congrats to our Rice Owls for a big win and becoming bowl eligible!”
Facebook Total followers: 78,280 Gained: 1.2% Engagement rate per impression: 6.6% Total published posts: 111 Top post: Carousel of last day of classes pictures — “Last day of classes vibes” Second highest: Marvel post — “Living in a Marvel-ous world … Did you know that Captain Monica Rambeau from ‘The Marvels’ went to Rice University?!”
LinkedIn
Total followers: 118,990 Gained: 1.7% Engagement rate per impression: 11.3% Total published posts: 131 Top post: “The Rice Black Men’s Association recently held ‘Headshots + Haircuts,’ where members received haircuts and professional headshots to help build their professional …” Second highest: Carousel of pictures for Thanksgiving — “On this day of gratitude, we're thankful for all the things that make us uniquely Rice. Happy Thanksgiving! 🫶🏼🍁🦉🦃”
Instagram
Total followers: 57,822 Gained: 1.5% Engagement rate per impression: 4.5% Total published posts: 273 (This includes the number of posts, Reels and stories published) Top post: Early acceptance video — “Congratulations to the newest faces of the Rice University Class of 2028! We are thrilled to welcome you to the Owl family! 🦉” Second highest: Marvel post — “Living in a Marvel-ous world … Did you know that Captain Monica Rambeau from ‘The Marvels’ went to Rice University?!”
Threads
The platform doesn’t provide detailed analytics as of yet.
Total followers: 5,939 Top post: Marvel post — “Living in a Marvel-ous world … Did you know that Captain Monica Rambeau from ‘The Marvels’ went to Rice University?!” Second highest: Carousel of graduation pictures — “Smiles all around for the best day ever! 😃 Congratulations to all the 2023 December graduates.”
Video content
We utilize videos on Rice’s YouTube profile along with other social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn). Below are the top videos and analytics from Instagram and YouTube.
Media Stars
Francisco Monaldi, fellow in Latin American energy policy and the director of the Latin America Energy Program at the Center for Energy Studies at the Baker Institute for Public Policy, fellow at the Center for the United States and Mexico, and a lecturer in energy economics, had the highest number of media mentions — 1,388 — during November and December, mainly for comments about Venezuela’s oil industry. Below are members of the Rice community who were mentioned in the media 10 or more times between November and December.
Francisco Monaldi
1,388
Bob Stein
1,122
Mark Finley
619
Vivian Ho
616
Utpal Dholakia
612
Kristian Coates Ulrichsen
489
Scott Pera
458
Mark Jones
390
Kelly Weinersmith
312
Jim Krane
255
Tony Payan
148
James Tour
131
Jeff Falk
105
Ciceron Ayala-Orozco
104
Richard Baraniuk
96
Doug Natelson
91
Erik Peterson
90
Qimiao Si
89
Mike Bloomgren
82
Abdel Razzaq Takriti
71
Douglas Brinkley
67
Katherine Jeng
65
Kelsey Norman
54
James Elliott
49
Boris Yakobson
46
Zheye "Jay" Wang
41
Reginald DesRoches
40
Jacob Robinson
39
Junichiro Kono
37
Hanyu Zhu
36
Gabriel Collins
29
Peter Rodriguez
29
Alec Ajnsztajn
23
David Brockman
23
Jeremy Daum
23
Loren Hopkins
23
Manuel Domínguez-Rodrigo
23
Mark Torres
23
Daniel Cohan
22
Omid Veiseh
21
Elaine Howard Ecklund
20
Marques Tuiasosopo
20
Bridget Gorman
19
Moshe Vardi
19
James Baker III
18
Andrey Baydin
18
Jacques Doumani
18
Fuyang Tay
18
Naomi Halas
17
Daniel Preston
16
Clemente Rodriguez
16
Gary Hale
15
Christopher Kulesza
15
Gang Bao
13
Yimo Han
13
Ken Medlock
13
Matteo Pasquali
13
Megan Reiter
13
Chuqiao Shi
13
Jim Blackburn
12
John Diamond
12
Jon Kay
12
Momona Yamagami
12
Summer Perritt
11
Marco Regalado
11
Anoop Rajappan
10
Mark Jones, the Joseph D. Jamail Chair in Latin American Studies, professor of political science and fellow in political science at Rice’s Baker Institute for Public Policy, had the highest number of media mentions — 6,137 — in 2023. Below are Rice faculty members who were mentioned in the media 500 or more times between January and December.
Mark Jones
6,137
Mark Finley
5,210
Daniel Cohan
4,556
Kristian Coates Ulrichsen
3,896
Vivian Ho
3,750
Douglas Brinkley
3,665
Francisco Monaldi
3,241
Daniel Preston
3,165
Anna Mikulska
2,721
Daniel Potter
2,154
Bob Stein
1,881
Ken Medlock
1,541
Tony Payan
1,534
Katharine Neill Harris
1,354
Jesus Vassallo
1,275
Reginald DesRoches
1,262
Utpal Dholakia
1,220
Zach Bethune
1,214
Mary Prendergast
1,028
M.Yvonne Taylor
976
Jim Krane
870
Doug Natelson
773
David Alexander
695
Richard Boylan
664
James Elliott
580
James Tour
577
Omid Veiseh
506
The chart below shows Rice’s media mentions since 2007. The green column reflects the number of mentions through Dec. 31, 2023.
