Rice University
PA-6: Support for Underrepresented Groups

Rice University is committed to the principle of equal opportunity in education and employment, and it is the policy of the University to attract qualified individuals of diverse backgrounds to its faculty, staff and student body. Accordingly, Rice University does not discriminate or tolerate any form of discrimination against individuals on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national or ethnic origin, ancestry, age, disability, or veteran status in its admissions policies, educational programs, or employment of faculty or staff. http://professor.rice.edu/IndependentPage.aspx?id=291&libID=161

Complaints that allege discrimination or harassment may be brought to the attention of the Director of Equal Employment Opportunity Programs and Affirmative Action (when involving either students or employees), the offices of the Dean of Undergraduates or Vice Provost for Research & Graduate Studies (when involving students), or the Human Resources office (when involving employees). Any reported allegations of harassment, discrimination or retaliation will be investigated promptly. The investigation may include individual interviews with the parties involved and, where necessary, with individuals who may have observed the alleged conduct or may have other relevant knowledge. Confidentiality will be maintained throughout the investigatory process to the extent consistent with adequate investigation and appropriate corrective action. The investigation will only be discussed with others on a need to know basis. Retaliation against an individual for reporting harassment or discrimination or for participating in an investigation of a claim of harassment or discrimination is a serious violation of Rice policy and, like harassment or discrimination itself, will be subject to disciplinary action. Acts of retaliation should be reported immediately and will be promptly investigated and addressed. Misconduct constituting harassment, discrimination or retaliation will be dealt with appropriately. Responsive action may include, for example, training, referral to counseling and/or disciplinary action such as warning, reprimand, reassignment, suspension without pay or termination, as Rice believes appropriate under the circumstances. http://people.rice.edu/discrimination/

(1) The Office of Diversity and Inclusion has a working group dedicated to faculty recruitment and development. The current goals of this group are to continue training sessions for search committee chairs and members, host an annual workshop (The Future Faculty Workshop) for under-represented postdoctoral scholars and late stage PhD students, partner with Northeastern University to update, upgrade and expand Rice’s National Database of Under-Represented Postdoctoral Scholars and Late State PhD students, and to host lunch discussions for under-represented Rice faculty. During the 2012-2013 academic year, the Faculty Recruitment and Development working group met all four of these goals. (2) Rice University’s NSF ADVANCE: “The Rice University NSF ADVANCE Institutional Transformation for Faculty Diversity project is committed to increasing the number of women in science and engineering at Rice University, with a particular focus on the Schools of Natural Science and Engineering. The program is designed to capitalize on the strong commitment to gender equity at Rice University, and to create new insights into the features of the academy that impede the inclusion and progress of women and minorities more generally in the professoriate. The hope of the program is that more women and underrepresented minorities will be inspired to join the ranks of academe and to use their own skills to advance into important leadership roles based on the activities of this program.” (3) The National Consortium for Graduate Degrees for Minorities in Engineering and Science (GEM): GEM’s mission statement is to “enhance the value of the nation’s human capital by increasing the participation of underrepresented groups (African Americans, American Indians, and Hispanic Americans) at the master’s and doctoral levels in engineering and science. (4) Barbara Jordan Scholars: The Barbara Jordan scholarship program, named for the first black woman elected to the Texas Legislature and the United States Congress, provides support for a group of Rice freshmen who display the qualities of the late congresswoman. The four-year half-tuition scholarships recognize deserving Rice students who distinguish themselves with activities and qualities she exhibited-including building bridges within and across racial, cultural and ethnic divides-and to maintain and enhance a campus learning environment that embraces civility and respect for the many facial and ethnic traditions that make up our society. (5) Project 1000: This initiative helps Latino students applying for graduate schools by taking care of application fees and connecting prospective grad students with a liaison at each of the graduate programs under consideration. (6) Rice-Houston Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (Rice-Houston AGEP): Rice University is one of many Texas universities that comprise the Rice-Houston Alliances for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (Rice-Houston AGEP) Program. Situated in one of the nation's largest, most culturally diverse cities, the Rice-Houston AGEP unites many of the city's research and teaching universities and community colleges in the common mission of significantly increasing the number of underrepresented minority students earning the Ph.D. and positioning them to become leaders in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields. (7) The University has a policy to guide recruitment of staff from underrepresented groups. Rice University General Policy No. 815: Equal Opportunity/Non-Discrimination/Affirmative Action Policy states, "Rice University is committed to the principle of equal opportunity in education and employment, and it is the policy of the University to attract qualified individuals of diverse backgrounds to its faculty, staff and student body. Accordingly, Rice University does not discriminate against individuals on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national or ethnic origin, ancestry, age, disability, or veteran status in its admissions policies, educational programs, or employment of faculty or staff. The University takes affirmative action in employment by recruiting, hiring and advancing women, members of underrepresented minority groups, and qualified special disabled veterans, veterans of the Vietnam era, recently separated veterans, and other protected veterans (as those categories are defined by law)..." (8) Rice University maintains an active Affirmative Action Plan (AAP) that tracks applicant demographic hiring data across all posted positions. The AAP uses that data to identify areas of disparate impact so that recruiting goals can be adjusted accordingly each year. A few examples of programs and practices used to recruit underrepresented groups include: Using our recruitment and applicant tracking system (RICEWorks) to tag specific position postings for affirmative action and report detailed demographics for each applicant pool; participate in job fairs that target specific groups (like women, minorities, veterans and individuals with disabilities); attending a variety of networking events that support AA/EEOC/OFCCP goals; posting job opportunities on a wide variety of publications and websites that target specific groups; and internally promote the AAP goals through campus outreach and staff development programs that enhance career development.

Rice provides a number of programs to support underrepresented groups: (1) HARAMBE: HARAMBE is a cultural program that seeks to create a unifying event for entering African-American students, allowing them to build social and academic connections with peers, faculty, and staff. The hope is that the event will result in a more connected class of incoming students better equipped to seek out institutional resources, peers and professionals on campus for support and guidance. (2) Rice-Houston Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (Rice-Houston AGEP): Rice University is one of many Texas universities that comprise the Rice-Houston Alliances for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (Rice-Houston AGEP) Program. Situated in one of the nation's largest, most culturally diverse cities, the Rice-Houston AGEP unites many of the city's research and teaching universities and community colleges in the common mission of significantly increasing the number of underrepresented minority students earning the Ph.D. and positioning them to become leaders in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields. (3) The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation was established as a nonprofit philanthropic organization in 1969. In 1988, the foundation made a commitment to help remedy the serious shortage of faculty of color in higher education through the Mellon Minority Undergraduate Fellowship Program (MMUFP). In 2003, the foundation broadened its mission and changed the program’s name to the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship Program to symbolically connect the mission to the stellar educational achievements of Dr. Benjamin E. Mays. At Rice University, the fundamental objective of MMUFP is to increase the number of minority students, and others with a demonstrated commitment to eradicating racial disparities, who will pursue PhDs in core fields in the arts and sciences. The program aims to reduce the serious underrepresentation on university faculties of people of certain minority groups, as well as to address the attendant educational consequences of these disparities. (4) Advocating Diversity and the Need for Cultural Exchange (ADVANCE): ADVANCE hosts weekly Friday discussion meetings. The topics cover a wide range of social issues from sexism to homophobia to international concerns and politics, to name a few. ADVANCE seeks to create an environment at Rice that emphasizes unity by embracing individual differences and is committed to providing a safe space to students interested in dialoguing on the often divisive issues of the day. (5) Barbara Jordan Scholars: The Barbara Jordan scholarship program, named for the first black woman elected to the Texas Legislature and the United States Congress, provides support for a group of Rice freshmen who display the qualities of the late congresswoman. The four-year half-tuition scholarships recognize deserving Rice students who distinguish themselves with activities and qualities she exhibited-including building bridges within and across racial, cultural and ethnic divides-and to maintain and enhance a campus learning environment that embraces civility and respect for the many facial and ethnic traditions that make up our society. (6) Rice Nominators Circle: The Rice Nominators Circle, initiated in 1998, consists of K-12 teachers, counselors, administrators, and community leaders who assist Rice in identifying and reaching out to under-represented students of color. Each year a new group visits Rice for an orientation and workshop about the admissions and financial aid process. (7) Cultural clubs: Rice sponsors a number of cultural clubs that support underrepresented groups including: The Black Student Association (BSA), The Black Graduate Association, The Chinese Student Association (CSA), The Hispanic Association for Cultural Education at Rice (HACER), The South Asian Society (SAS), The National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE), The Japanese Association of Students and Scholars (JASS), The Korean Student Association (KSA), The Muslim Student Association, The Vietnamese Student Association (VSA), The Rice Taiwanese Association (RTA), The Queers and Allies (Q&A), The Rice African Student Association (RASA), The Native American Student Association (NASA), and The Society of Women Engineers to name a few. (8) The Office of Affirmative Action and Equal Employment Opportunity works closely with faculty, administrators and staff to increase tolerance, opportunity and diversity within the Rice Community and to ensure that the University complies with the letter and spirit of the federal and state laws and regulations governing these programs.

Rice participates in a number of programs that aim to increase diversity in higher education faculty by providing assistance to grad school applicants. The following is a summary of these programs: (1) Faculty Recruitment and Development working group: The Office of Diversity and Inclusion has a working group dedicated to faculty recruitment and development. The current goals of this group are to continue training sessions for search committee chairs and members, host an annual workshop (The Future Faculty Workshop) for under-represented postdoctoral scholars and late stage PhD students, partner with Northeastern University to update, upgrade and expand Rice’s National Database of Under-Represented Postdoctoral Scholars and Late State PhD students, and to host lunch discussions for under-represented Rice faculty. During the 2012-2013 academic year, the Faculty Recruitment and Development working group met all four of these goals. (2) Rice University’s NSF ADVANCE: “The Rice University NSF ADVANCE Institutional Transformation for Faculty Diversity project is committed to increasing the number of women in science and engineering at Rice University, with a particular focus on the Schools of Natural Science and Engineering. The program is designed to capitalize on the strong commitment to gender equity at Rice University, and to create new insights into the features of the academy that impede the inclusion and progress of women and minorities more generally in the professoriate. The hope of the program is that more women and underrepresented minorities will be inspired to join the ranks of academe and to use their own skills to advance into important leadership roles based on the activities of this program.” (3) The Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship Program (MMUFP): At Rice University, the fundamental objective of MMUFP is to increase the number of minority students, and others with a demonstrated commitment to eradicating racial disparities, who will pursue PhDs in core fields in the arts and sciences. The program aims to reduce the serious underrepresentation on university faculties of people of certain minority groups, as well as to address the attendant educational consequences of these disparities. (4) The National Consortium for Graduate Degrees for Minorities in Engineering and Science (GEM): GEM’s mission statement is to “enhance the value of the nation’s human capital by increasing the participation of underrepresented groups (African Americans, American Indians, and Hispanic Americans) at the master’s and doctoral levels in engineering and science. (5) Project 1000: This initiative helps Latino students applying for graduate schools by taking care of application fees and connecting prospective grad students with a liaison at each of the graduate programs under consideration. (6) Institute for the Recruitment of Teachers (IRT): IRT seeks to bring more ethnic and racial diversity to the teaching profession by helping talented college students interested in a career in education through the graduate school application process.” (7) Rice-Houston Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (Rice-Houston AGEP): Rice University is one of many Texas universities that comprise the Rice-Houston Alliances for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (Rice-Houston AGEP) Program. Situated in one of the nation's largest, most culturally diverse cities, the Rice-Houston AGEP unites many of the city's research and teaching universities and community colleges in the common mission of significantly increasing the number of underrepresented minority students earning the Ph.D. and positioning them to become leaders in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields.

Gender-neutral bathrooms can be found via the interactive campus map at https://myatlascms.com/map/?id=473#!ct/13398,17170,17171,17705,16153?ce/12627 Rice Office of Multicultural Affairs: http://oma.rice.edu/multiorgs.html Although Rice does not produce a publicly accessible inventory of its gender neutral bathrooms on campus, Rice remains committed to gender equality by providing gender neutral restrooms on Rice's campus. http://www.advance.rice.edu/Content.aspx?id=81 Rice University General Policy No. 815: Equal Opportunity/Non-Discrimination/Affirmative Action Policy http://professor.rice.edu/IndependentPage.aspx?id=291&libID=161