Facing Challenges. Generating Solutions.
Here is a puzzle: how has Rice — one of the very smallest members of the AAU, the most elite group of research universities — so consistently “outperformed its size” in terms of productivity?
Everyone has a theory: We are small enough to maneuver and be entrepreneurial, collegial enough to ignore the usual “silos” of discipline and department, friendly enough to welcome new ideas, historic enough to have a track record and young enough to be willing to try new things.
Perhaps it is all that and more. But the fact is this: Rice has been unusually productive in generating creative solutions to tough challenges, and the most important factor may be the zeal with which scholars at Rice embrace the opportunity to be involved in interdisciplinary, out-of-the-box creative work.
Ultimately, even the most practical solutions have to be built on a solid foundation. The Centennial Campaign looks at building that foundation by investing in basic research and by pooling our considerable intellectual resources into idea-percolating, interdisciplinary centers. At Rice, research and original work of every variety is anything but a spectator sport. Everyone has an opportunity to dive in — or they will — when the Centennial Campaign is complete.
