R-I-C-E = community values

David Leebron

FROM RICE NEWS STAFF REPORTS

The acronym RICE represents values that are important to the Rice community, President David Leebron said this week in his fall semester letter to students, faculty and staff.

Responsibility, integrity, community and excellence are values that “guide our decisions and behaviors and help define our sense of community,” he said. “The way we treat each other and our visitors is one of the strongest elements of our Rice identity.”

He encouraged everyone to take responsibility for making Rice better. “We need to take responsibility for our actions and words, and understand how they may impact our friends and colleagues,” he said. “We take responsibility for our actions and even — or especially — our mistakes. Taking responsibility is the precursor to our own sense of empowerment, and the ability to make a contribution to our community, our city and our world.”

Integrity is “one of the strongest threads in Rice’s fabric,” Leebron said. He added that a commitment to honesty and doing what is right guides the community in the classroom, office, lab, sports, residential colleges and civic engagement. “These notions gird the sense of Rice’s honor and our Honor Code,” he said. “We accept nothing less than complete academic and research integrity. Not only our goals must reflect our values, but also the paths we choose to achieve them.”

Rice’s success as a community depends “first and foremost on our respect for each other, and how we reflect that respect in our everyday interactions with each other,” Leebron said. Recognizing the great diversity of backgrounds and perspectives in the community and caring about each other are critical. Leebron has asked freshmen who text and tweet to embrace a new abbreviation – HCIH – How can I help? “As part of our values, we extend that sense of help and hospitality to all who come in contact with our community,” he said.

In reference to the value of excellence, Leebron said “that as individuals and as a university, we are never satisfied with a good outcome or even doing our best, because we can always strive to find ways to do better and achieve even greater success. … By any measure, we are an excellent university. But we cannot really be excellent unless we constantly strive to become better.”

Leebron’s letter included tips for strengthening Rice’s commitment to its values:

• Show respect for everyone on campus, regardless of position or office. Think about how your words might be hurtful to someone else. Avoid careless actions that might endanger or make more work for others.
• Take care not to discriminate against any individual because of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national or ethnic origin, ancestry, age, disability or veteran status.
• As part of Rice’s commitment to affirmative action, help recruit and retain those who are underrepresented on our campus.
• Make reasonable accommodations for persons with disabilities, and be ready to assist them.
• Avoid personal biases, preferences and preconceived stereotypes to promote a collegial work and study environment that offers opportunity for all. Be inclusive and reach out to others from all the diverse elements of our community.
• Remain alert to, and help eliminate, bad behaviors in the classroom, residential colleges, graduate student residences and every other campus venue so that we all can participate and perform to our fullest potential.
• Respect the privacy and dignity of others in all circumstances.

One other guiding principle that Leebron cited was academic freedom. “We invite robust debate on the issues of the day, and we welcome people with many points of view,” he said. “That means that we sometimes may disagree strongly with one another. But our goal should be to gain a better understanding of those issues and the differences that can divide us, and to express those differences with civility and respect for other points of view.”

Leebron’s fall letter is currently posted on the president’s website: http://www.professor.rice.edu/professor/Office_of_the_President.asp.