A New Mission

According to the Princeton Review’s recent survey and other national rankings, Rice students really do have the best of both worlds. Among the accolades are that Rice offers a great quality of life, has happy students and, all the while, provides a top-notch education.

The student experience and culture of care at Rice are second to none, from our academic offerings to exceptional faculty, staff, alumni and supportive community partners. While I experienced these things firsthand as a professor, dean, provost and parent of a Rice Owl, I was still overwhelmed by the caliber of excellence at Rice when, as the university’s president, I participated in O-Week and recently spoke to a crowd of 5,000 at Rice Stadium about the university’s long-standing relationship with NASA and space exploration.

Rice Stadium was, after all, where President John F. Kennedy stood 60 years ago and boldly proclaimed that his generation would choose to make what seemed impossible a reality — traveling to the moon. Within months of Kennedy’s speech, Rice provided NASA the land for the Johnson Space Center and became one of the nation’s first universities to establish a Department of Space Science. Within 18 months, satellites built at Rice were being launched into orbit atop American rockets. By the time Apollo 11 landed, several dozen graduate students and countless undergraduates had helped build instruments that made historic breakthroughs and remain on the surface of the moon today.

Over the last six decades, the ties between NASA and Rice have continued to grow and support our nation’s exploration goals of human and robotic spaceflight advancement. Rice researchers played a key role in building the Hubble Space Telescope. Rice faculty were co-investigators on numerous robotic explorations of the sun and planets, and they have a supporting role in NASA’s current mission to the moon — Artemis.

A perfect example of how we support our students outside the classroom is the way we bring them into the Rice community during O-Week, Rice’s orientation program held before classes start in August. Packed with everything from academic advising sessions to fun annual traditions, it not only introduces our new students to Rice, but also welcomes them into the Rice family.

Rice’s work with NASA is indicative of the research and scholarship we do across campus. It’s also a reflection of the collaborative and supportive culture we have here at Rice, both in the classroom and out.

A perfect example of how we support our students outside the classroom is the way we bring them into the Rice community during O-Week, Rice’s orientation program held before classes start in August. Packed with everything from academic advising sessions to fun annual traditions, it not only introduces our new students to Rice, but also welcomes them into the Rice family.

Planning for that week begins months ahead of time. Students from all 11 residential colleges spend much of their spring and summer working on the event and arrive on campus early to work through the final details. I sincerely appreciate their time, effort and dedication. Their commitment undoubtedly made an impression on our 1,200 new Owls this fall.

At Rice, we strive for excellence in everything we do. That drive, along with a genuine desire to find solutions to big problems, continues to draw people to Rice for their undergraduate and graduate educations. National rankings indicate the same sentiment. Rice has risen to No. 15 among the nation’s top universities ranked in the 2023 edition of U.S. News & World Report’s Best Colleges guidebook. Rice also ranked No. 6 on the list of the nation’s best values for higher education, and the university tied for No. 3 in the rankings of institutions whose students graduate with the least debt.

Rice landed at No. 6 on the national 2023 rankings issued by Niche, another closely followed barometer of excellence among U.S. universities. Additionally, Niche ranked Rice No. 7 in the nation for the best value, No. 9 on the list of colleges with the best professors and No. 10 on the list of best campuses.

Getting to where we are as a university of national distinction has taken hard work, dedication, collaboration and innovation. I am excited to be part of where Rice goes next, and I am confident we will break new ground and continue to evolve as we have since our beginnings more than 100 years ago.