Rice receives Higher Education Excellence in Diversity Award

Rice University has received a 2015 Higher Education Excellence in Diversity (HEED) Award from Insight Into Diversity magazine for the second year in a row.

The HEED Award is the only national award honoring U.S. colleges and universities that demonstrate an outstanding commitment to diversity and inclusion, according to the magazine, which is the oldest and largest diversity magazine and website in higher education. Rice is one of 91 honorees.

The award is intended to measure an institution’s level of achievement and intensity of commitment in regard to broadening diversity and inclusion on campus through initiatives, programs and outreach; student recruitment, retention, and completion; and hiring practices for faculty and staff.

“Rice University has made huge strides since its founding at the turn of the 20th century,” said Roland Smith, associate provost of diversity and inclusion. “Rice’s charter limited enrollment to ‘white inhabitants’ of ‘slender means.’ Our current undergraduate population has no majority ethnic or racial group.

“Rice’s cultivation of a diverse academic community is central to the university fulfilling its educational mission and goals,” Smith said. “Rice utilizes a structure of working groups to ensure that its campus provides an open, welcoming environment where faculty, students and staff can teach, learn and thrive in a community of inclusive excellence.”

The list of HEED Award winners will be published in the magazine’s November issue.