Rice University
PA-5: Assessing Diversity and Equity

Within the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, there is a group dedicated to assessing campus climate. The Campus Climate working group has three primary goals which they are continuously striving to reach: 1. Determine undergraduate enrollment, first-year retention, and six-year graduation rates by ethnicity. Current status: This project was completed and a presentation was made by the Committee of Diversity and Inclusion (CODI) on February 21, 2013. Patterns emerged in the data related to first-year retention. The office of the dean of undergraduates will work with the committee to fine-tune the information and to work with students who are at high-risk for leaving Rice after their freshman year. 2. Determine graduate enrollment and time to completion rates by ethnicity Current status: This project is ongoing. Since graduate students don’t generally graduate by cohort, and their paths to graduation are less linear than those of undergraduates, determining time-to-degree is a work-in-progress. 3. Gather and summarize what Rice currently captures about campus climate in student and parent surveys; and/or make a plan to introduce questions into 2012-13 surveys to measure attitudes and climate. Current status: The CODI was anticipated to have this information at the start of the 2013-2014 school year.

Rice collects and analyzes data on diversity and equity by program and level. Rice also analyzes the graduation and retention rates for diverse groups.

The Office of Affirmative Action and Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO/AA) works closely with faculty, administrators and staff to increase tolerance, opportunity and diversity within the Rice Community. Specifically, “It is a policy of Rice University to attract qualified individuals of diverse backgrounds to its faculty, staff and student body. Accordingly, Rice University does not discriminate in employment against any individual on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national or ethnic origin, age, disability or veteran status.”

Although there is no formal assessment in place, Rice, in essence, has procedures and a commitment to ensure public engagement is applied systematically and equally across the institution. In terms of governance, the board of directors reaches out and identifies community stakeholders within the community who are representative of important business sectors as well as constituent groups within the city of Houston, and more broadly, the state of the nation.