Rice receives 2017 Higher Education Excellence in Diversity Award

Rice University received a 2017 Higher Education Excellence in Diversity (HEED) Award from Insight Into Diversity magazine. The national award recognizes Rice’s “outstanding commitment to diversity and inclusion.”

Rice and 79 other U.S. colleges and universities that received this honor will be featured in the November issue of Insight Into Diversity, the oldest and largest diversity publication in higher education.

“The HEED Award process consists of a comprehensive and rigorous application that includes questions relating to the recruitment and retention of students and employees – and best practices for both, continued leadership support for diversity, and other aspects of campus diversity and inclusion,” said Lenore Pearlstein, publisher of Insight Into Diversity.

Associate Provost Roland Smith, who oversees Rice’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion, noted that the university’s mission statement establishes the basic framework for diversity and inclusion in all of Rice’s endeavors: “As a leading research university with a distinctive commitment to undergraduate education, Rice University aspires to pathbreaking research, unsurpassed teaching and contributions to the betterment of our world. It seeks to fulfill this mission by cultivating a diverse community of learning and discovery that produces leaders across the spectrum of human endeavor.”