President Reginald DesRoches welcomed hundreds of Rice University staff members to a morning breakfast and recognition ceremony April 18 at Tudor Fieldhouse. Themed “Because of You,” the gathering highlighted the university’s successes and growth during the previous year and a glimpse into what the future holds for Rice.
“Thank you for everything that you do,” DesRoches said to the staff members in attendance. “I’ve personally had the pleasure of working with many of you over the past two years as president and even before that as a dean and provost, and I know that you and your colleagues pour your heart and soul into the university, and it shows … because of you, Rice is a place where excellence knows no bounds, where aspirations are elevated and dreams are realized.”
The annual gathering kicked off with a nod to service milestones. DesRoches acknowledged first-year employees before commemorating anniversaries in five-year increments, including Kathleen Sayers from the Susanne M. Glasscock School of Continuing Studies for her 40 years of service and Jen Overton from the Shepherd School of Music for her 45 years of service.
The ceremony continued into its awards segment, which was introduced by Rochelle Salazar, advocacy chair for staff council, to introduce the inaugural Staff Excellence Awards, which went to: Kandice Lozano, animal care technician; Christine Gocek Medina, lead administrative specialist in the School of Humanities; and Armandina Ramos, lead custodian in the residential colleges.
“Thank you to the Rice community for submitting more than 85 nominations,” Salazar said. “What a tremendous response we received!”
DesRoches also highlighted the four staff members recognized by the Board of Trustees during the last year: Tina Villard, Anne Santos, Susann Glenn and Joseph Novak. DesRoches followed by introducing the Elizabeth Gillis Award for Exemplary Service. This award is one of the highest honors a staff member may receive for their dedication and service to the university.
Elizabeth Gillis took the stage to announce Santos, assistant dean for finance and administration at the Glasscock School of Continuing Studies, as this year’s recipient.
“She has been the leader and a valued contributor during her time here at Rice University,” Gillis said about Santos. “Having joined the university community in 2016 as an administrative coordinator and assistant dean at the Glascock School of Continuing Studies, she has since grown to become a trusted member of the staff to those in leadership throughout the university and has been described as a constant staff leader and mentor for the university community … Santos is an exemplary employee, and her talents have been recognized across campus.”
DesRoches also made mention of the Y. Ping Sun Award for Outstanding Community Engagement, which honors members of the Rice community who have provided devoted service to Houston. This year’s Y. Ping Sun Award was given to Richard Tapia, a University Professor, the Maxfield-Oshman Professor in Engineering and professor of computational applied mathematics and operations research who has worked at Rice for five decades.
The staff appreciation event was punctuated by a question-and-answer session between Staff Council’s Communications Chair Avery Franklin, DesRoches and Kelly Fox, executive vice president for Operations, Finance and Support. Topics ranged from personal time off, updates on Rice Village, the plans for a new student center and campus land use.
The session offered an opportunity for leadership to provide insight into the current adjustments and upcoming plans for Rice employees’ benefits:
- Increased staff base compensation
- Increased medical and dental plan contributions
- Improving mental health support
- Increased support of new parents
- Increased tuition benefits for employees and dependents
The conversation included how Rice is reinforcing its culture of care:
- Build and maintain relationships and personal interaction
- Cultivate community through a variety of programs
- Celebrate and recognize achievements and contributions of staff
- Caring for one another
- Opportunity to engage
Highlights of the morning’s gathering include an emotional speech from Ruth López Turley, director of the Kinder Institute for Urban Research, who spoke about how her relationship with a staff member helped spur the development of the institute. She described how, facing a space limitation, a staff member was able to guide her to unexpected but useful areas to help grow and supplement her developing team.
“I want to encourage all of us to make it a point to pay attention to all the work that takes place behind the scenes to prepare this wonderful university that allows us to do the work that we do,” López Turley said. “People like me who are the public facing people are the ones who usually get credit for this work, but we have to make sure that we give credit where credit is due, and that’s to you, the staff.”
The staff appreciation ceremony also served as a moment to remember those who died in the previous year, including Trini Carranza (Cohen House), Ericka Lawton (Office of Research), Javier Sanchez (Facilities and Capital Planning) and Lue Vega (Jones Graduate School of Business).
A full recording of the program is available here.