Rice University welcomed an assembly of leaders ranging from higher education and Texas Medical Center institutions to state and local elected officials to share with them Rice’s newly unveiled 10-year strategic plan: Momentous: Personalized Scale for Global Impact. The presentation rallied area neighbors and partners at the Ralph S. O’Connor Building for Engineering and Science where they received a personalized introduction and breakdown of Momentous.
Rice President Reginald DesRoches detailed the strategic plan to the crowd of inquisitive and excited industry allies. The plan aims to balance growth with affordability, maintaining Rice's commitment to financial aid and expanding The Rice Investment for low and middle-income families. Further, it emphasizes research and innovation, with significant investments in new research facilities and partnerships with the Texas Medical Center. DesRoches also highlighted growth in the graduate programs, the role of athletics in community engagement and the commitment to student success.
“At its core, the strategic plan reaffirms our commitment to unparalleled excellence as we work towards becoming the world's premier teaching and research institution,” DesRoches said. “Personalized scale for global impact conveys the idea that we will preserve what makes Rice special: the personalization, the close-knit community, the culture of care and the residential college system.”
Three key drivers of the strategic plan emerged throughout the discussion: building thriving urban communities, generating sustainable futures and leading in health innovations. The plan aims to leverage Rice's location and its partnerships with local industries and institutions to address global challenges. With an eye to the future, it weill also position Rice as a global leader in the development, application and understanding of responsible AI, computing advancements and disruptive technologies.
“We want to position Rice to do big things on a global scale," DesRoches said. "We will leverage our unique location in Houston, the most diversity in America, for partnerships, for learning and for exploration. We believe that our location presents endless opportunities from being the energy capital to being the home of the world’s largest medical center to being a home to the third largest number of Fortune 500 companies.”
Amy Dittmar, the Howard R. Hughes Provost and executive vice president for academic affairs, dove deeper into the three key drivers, citing examples like the Kinder Institute’s ongoing research in K-12 education, an National Science Foundation grant to the School of Architecture to engage community partners to enhance stormwater infrastructure, a partnership with Woodside Energy to create the Woodside-Rice Decarbonization Accelerator, and collaborations with member hospitals and research institutes in the Texas Medical Center such as the Human Performance Center with Houston Methodist and the Cancer BioEngineering Collaborative with the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.
“Each of these key drivers and these research areas are made possible by the people at Rice, the partnerships that we have and the technology that we are deploying,” she said. “Our goal is to transform society and improve individual lives, and as we do so, we also will further deepen our connection with those in Houston, Texas and the world.”
Following the presentation, audience members were encouraged to ask questions about the strategic plan, which ranged from potential partnerships and legislative priorities to Houston’s future. DesRoches and Dittmar responded by emphasizing the importance of strategic alignments and the need to balance growth with maintaining Rice's unique culture. The meeting concluded with an invitation for further collaboration and a reminder of the importance of Rice's network with its many surrounding institutions and civic organizations in making Momentous successful for everyone involved.