Conference to honor Rice mathematicians

United Way Campaign 2005-2006

Dear Rice Faculty and Staff,

Tsunamis, hurricanes, floods, and earthquake have taken lives and homes and destroyed communities of our neighbors both nearby and thousands of miles away in the past year. We in Houston have responded generously, opening our homes, our schools, our churches, and our pocketbooks to help those in need.

One of the first and foremost responders to these catastrophes has been the United Way of the Texas Gulf Coast. The United Way has been the largest local funder of the American Red Cross and Salvation Army and has provided nearly $700,000 this year alone in emergency grants to organizations meeting immediate needs of hurricane victims. Rest assured that the United Way will be working for a long time to come to provide care and service to hurricane evacuees and to ensure that we do not deny the ongoing needs of Houston residents. That work will be costly.

Now, more than ever, our community needs a strong United Way, and the United Way needs your support. Even without the impact of Katrina and Rita in the Gulf Coast area served by our United Way, 12,000-14,000 people are homeless every night; one in four persons does not complete high school, one in five children lives in poverty, and one million people have no health insurance.

No other single organization brings the corporate, public, and nonprofit sectors together to provide resources to address our community’s most pressing social needs: hunger, education, child care, housing, health care, care for seniors, and others. Over the past decade, the United Way has provided more than $540 million toward the resolution and alleviation of these challenges, all while maintaining the highest standards of accountability. It is a credit to the efficiency of the UW that fully 88 cents out of every dollar donated goes directly to programs, not to overhead. And the United Way touches one out of every two lives in our community. Please refer to their web site at http://www.uwtgc.org to see all the good work that the United Way supports.

However, over the last decade, the Rice University contribution to the United Way effort has actually decreased. In 1995, we donated as a group $84,346, with 455 employees contributing. Last year, we contributed $56,000, with only 90 employees contributing. And that $56,000 is up from $50,090 in 2003. We can and should do better, especially knowing what our dollars can accomplish. For example, just one dollar out of every paycheck for one year can provide a day of foster care to save a child in Houston from abuse and neglect. Five dollars per paycheck can fund counseling to help break the cycle of family violence. Ten dollars per paycheck can buy a month’s worth of hot meals for a homebound elderly person. Our dollars, given over time, add up.

Some of us at Rice enjoy a standard of living that the rest of the country, and the rest of the world, might envy. Let us keep in mind those who are less fortunate as we labor to pursue our own personal goals. In that spirit, we ask your help in ensuring that the needs of our broader community can be met.

Please consider a payroll deduction or a one-time payment in support of the United Way. You may make a payroll deduction by going on line at http://esther.rice.edu. You can print out the form, fill it out and mail it to School of Continuing Studies-United Way MS-550 or complete it electronically by logging into the Esther system at the same link. If you want payments to begin with your first 2006 paycheck, please get the deduction request in by Friday, January 6. We are also sending a printed copy of this letter with a brochure and a pledge form. You may also use that form, if you wish, to make a payroll deduction or to mail with a check-to the SCS address above.

Thank you for your consideration.

Cordially,

Mary McIntire and Jim Pomerantz