Browse objectives

Lead collaborative research and scholarship in social, economic, and systemic barriers.

• Build connections at the intersection of housing, education, economic mobility, health, and population research at the Kinder Institute with the research of faculty across academic departments, centers, and institutes.
• Leverage the collaboration between the Kinder Institute and Houston-area school districts through the Houston Education Research Consortium (HERC) to accelerate the application of early childhood and K-12 education research that is conducted across campus.
• Enhance multidisciplinary research to address the racial and ethnic disparities in academic performance, segregation across neighborhoods, and other related areas.
• Work with local community partners to develop up-skilling workforce initiatives by leveraging the Glasscock Schools’ expertise of the labor market.
• Expand innovative programming and learning efforts, such as Rice Lifelong University and the Small Business Center at ION to connect Rice and the community.
• Coalesce research on health inequities with the objectives in the Innovations in Health research imperative to infuse the health and well-being implications of disparate access to healthy communities and strong healthcare.
• Align faculty growth and hiring plans to advance research to build thriving urban communities, focusing on areas of strength and filling in gaps to connect multidisciplinary solutions.

Develop innovative and creative solutions for the physical and educational infrastructure that influences the social and economic wellbeing of urban communities.

• Advance the study and practice of equitable architecture to prioritize inclusivity in the development of urban communities.
• In collaboration with industry partners (local and international), develop architectural solutions to comprehensive housing challenges including dwellings, sidewalks, communal social spaces, and others.
• Enhance initiatives such as the SSPEED (Severe Storm Prediction, Education, & Evacuation from Disasters Center) initiative and research that targets advances in urban infrastructure to help build equitable, resilient communities.
• Fuse urban disparities research in the Sustainable Futures research imperative to address equity gaps arising from ecological challenges that face global urban communities, particularly in coastal environments.
• Leverage Rice’s real estate footprint in Houston to develop a model infrastructure that drives prosperity in a way that can be replicated and scaled while balancing financial sustainability and university priorities.

Establish Rice as the leading U.S. institution in the study of migration and immigration to directly influence policy.

• Invest in targeted faculty hiring to build a research hub on the impact of immigration and migration on the social future.
• Enhance partnerships between faculty, the Baker Institute, and other institutes and centers across campus to further study immigration challenges at the U.S.-Mexico border and make policy recommendations.
• Analyze data, develop data models, and leverage cultural history expertise to understand the effects of immigration and migration on population dynamics, social integration, policy, global connectedness, and economies around the world.

Amplify cross-disciplinary and interdepartmental collaborations on celebrations of world cultures and stronger understanding of global disparities.

• Establish a center dedicated to the Latinx experience, arts, culture, economics, history, and business.
• Expand CAAAS to include undergraduate and graduate degree programs, additional faculty lines, and enhanced collaboration among disciplines, including those outside of humanities and social sciences.
• Support the Kinder Institute in developing global applications for its Houston-focused, community-driven research findings.

Cultivate, curate, and perform musical and creative arts to bring the world to Rice and Rice to the world.

• Embed artists in-residence into the curriculum across schools to drive discourse on critical social issues that affect the work of all disciplines.
• Initiate artistic and architectural interventions that celebrate diversity, address social dilemmas, and/or introduce unique aesthetic perspectives.
• Forge strong collaborations with local, national, and international arts organizations to work in neighborhoods of historic cultural significance to build community through creative practice.
• Foster a culture of creativity, innovation, and mastery to produce world-class art and performance while producing the next generation of top artists.