There is only one Rice University, and as the university enters a new era of growth and ambition, Rice is taking a deliberate look at something that has long helped make the institution distinctive: its culture.
Rice LIVED is a comprehensive guide for campus culture designed to put into words how the Rice community works together, supports one another and advances the university’s mission. The initiative, announced Oct. 8 at President Reginald DesRoches’ annual Welcome Back Event in the Anderson-Clarke Center, grew out of conversations with hundreds of faculty, staff, administrators and students who were asked what makes Rice special, what should be preserved and where the university has opportunities to improve.
The result is a shared road map for how Rice’s culture can be lived every day.
“Rice’s culture has always been one of our greatest strengths, and our people are at the heart of it,” President Reginald DesRoches said. “As we grow, we want to preserve the qualities that make Rice special while being intentional about how we evolve. Rice LIVED gives us a shared understanding of who we are, what we value and how we can bring those values to life every day.”
Rice LIVED is rooted in empowered campus culture, a critical element of Rice’s 10-year strategic plan, Momentous: Personalized Scale for Global Impact . The initiative recognizes that achieving Rice’s ambitious vision depends not only on what the university accomplishes but also on how its people work together to accomplish it.
“How we work together has a direct impact on our ability to achieve our aspirations in teaching, research and service,” said Amy Dittmar, the Howard R. Hughes Provost and executive vice president for academic affairs. “Rice LIVED connects those ambitions to our everyday actions — how we collaborate, approach challenges, support one another and pursue excellence. It gives us a common language for strengthening an already remarkable culture as Rice continues to progress.”
Defining what Rice values
That language begins with Rice’s Guiding Principles — Responsibility, Integrity, Community and Excellence, or RICE — which serve as a permanent north star for the university’s culture.
Rice LIVED builds on those principles through five shared values:
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Lead with care
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Increase our impact
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Value excellence
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Embrace difference
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Dare to question.
Together, they capture a culture that is personal and intentional, ambitious about its impact, committed to excellence, strengthened by different perspectives and driven by intellectual curiosity. They also reinforce Rice’s longstanding culture of care and its commitment to creating an environment where people collaborate, listen, question, innovate and hold themselves accountable.
The plan also identifies the characteristics that make Rice distinctive — from world-class ambition and exceptional faculty to personalized education, cutting-edge research, entrepreneurship and an intentionally inclusive community.
Putting Rice LIVED into practice
But Rice LIVED is intended to go beyond defining ideals.
The initiative translates its values into specific behaviors that describe how faculty and staff should show up each day. For everyone, those include striving for excellence, embracing authenticity, doing the right thing, working together and taking accountability. Expectations build for managers and leaders, with an emphasis on continuous improvement, strategic thinking, innovation, developing talent, inspiring others and leading with vision.
“Rice already has an amazing culture, and this is about protecting what we love while giving people the tools to make it even stronger,” said Sandee Cheynet, vice president of human resources and chief human resources officer. “Rice LIVED makes our culture tangible. It helps each of us understand the role we play in creating the kind of workplace and community we want Rice to be.”
That culture has been taking shape for more than a century. Rice opened in 1912 with 77 students and an ambitious vision for excellence in teaching and research. Since then, the university has grown into one of the nation’s leading research institutions with almost 9,200 students while developing beloved traditions and a deep sense of community.
Today, Rice is again in a period of transformation, fueled by record student demand, an expanding faculty and research enterprise, major investments in campus infrastructure and a growing global presence.
“Rice LIVED is designed to help ensure that as Rice changes, the qualities at the heart of the university endure, not simply as words in a strategic plan or statements on a page but in how people treat one another, make decisions, solve problems and work toward shared goals,” DesRoches said.
Rice’s culture is not simply something the university has, DesRoches added. It is something its people create together, every day.