Dear Rice Community,

It is my greatest professional honor to lead our university forward. Our vision for the future is a courageous view of what can and must be for Rice. We will work to take the very best of our university forward, fiercely protecting what makes us special, and evolving it to meet the future needs of our students, faculty and staff, community, and world.

Leveraging one of the most comprehensive and inclusive processes to build our plan, I am proud of the many voices who came together in a way that only Rice can. We heard big ideas and dreams; we heard challenges to what the future might require; we heard about the uniqueness of our faculty and approach to teaching and research; we heard visions of how a university of our scale is primed to impact not only our greater community but society as a whole. Most of all, we heard what we already knew – that Rice is different, and we must protect that uniqueness. Our strategic plan lays out a guide for the next 10 years and will dynamically shift based on the needs of our university. It will be reviewed over time, including at the five-year mark.

We understand the magnitude of our vision and the moment. We accept that this is a vision that when achieved will forever change the future. We also understand that this is unique to us – in fact, no other university is poised to accomplish what we have ahead. Only Rice.

We are committing to unparalleled excellence as we work to become the premier university in the world for teaching and research. We won’t do it like any other institution. We will do it with humanity for the good of humankind. We will do it on a personalized scale as only Rice can. This is at the heart of our ambitious vision, and we will do it with personalized scale for global impact.

Thank you for believing in Rice and knowing that our best days are ahead. This is our unique moment. It is us. And, it is momentous.

Reginald DesRoches President, Rice University