Dean of Undergraduates John Hutchinson sent this message to parents and families of students Thursday night.

Dear Rice Parents and Families:

Rice is slowing spinning back up to speed, and I am sure you have read that we are planning to reopen next Tuesday after Labor Day. Housing and Dining is returning to regularly scheduled meals in the four large serveries, and the magisters are giving lectures which have been well-attended. The Rice Harvey Action Team (R-HAT) program has been sending students into targeted volunteer opportunities all over the city, with a roster of more than 1,400 volunteers. The Recreation Center has been a major focal point of activity, with well over 1,000 students per day visiting in the afternoon hours when it has been open. People are out and about campus, which is so nice to see after the long days of sheltering.

We are now concentrating on three main activities. First, we are reaching out to all of our students to determine who needs to be relocated due to water damage in their houses and apartments. Some of these undergraduate students will be moved onto campus, which will require cooperation and understanding from everyone, since we are already at normal capacity in all colleges. But the spirit of Rice has been one of generosity, understanding and compassion for those who have been hit by the storm. Likewise, my colleague Dean Matsuda is working on finding housing for graduate students who have been displaced. We are committed to find places for everyone based on their needs.

Second, Rice students are mobilizing their volunteer efforts in the community. R-HAT deployed students by the hundreds into the community, assisting community members whose homes were damaged, including Rice faculty and staff. This mobilization has been amazing to watch, particularly as we engage the activity as a university should, by helping our students understand how to contribute service to their communities sensitively and mindfully. We are incredibly fortunate that Harvey did not scar the Rice campus, but we are also incredibly fortunate that the experience of Harvey has elevated and coalesced the spirit of our community.

Third, we are preparing to restart our fundamental educational mission. Plans are not yet firm, but our students are eager to re-engage the intellectual work they came here to do. We are taking careful consideration of how to offer classes for the majority of our students who can attend that are taught by the majority of our faculty who are available, while also respecting the very real needs of our students who are focused on concerns about their families or apartments, and the challenges faced by faculty and staff who are focused on their own. This is a delicate balance of interests, but we are Rice and we can make this work with attention to individual needs and circumstances. For my own part, I can’t wait to get back in Keck Hall and start peppering my students with challenging questions about the empirical evidence for the atomic molecular theory!

Friday will mark one week from when we halted classes and closed the university. I have been at Rice for 34 years, and there has never been a week like this one. Nothing else comes close. The day-after-day of the storm; the social strength of the students, faculty, and staff through these long days; the shocking extent of devastation in Houston in the aftermath; the teamwork of Housing and Dining, Facilities Engineering and Planning and the Rice University Police Department to keep our campus and our students safe; the spirit of community in recognizing the great fortune of our campus making it through and then going out into the city to help start rebuilding for those whose homes did not; the leadership of our students to organize these efforts; the pride to be part of Rice and to be part of Houston. These experiences have changed Paula and me forever, and I believe they have changed our students forever, and I know they have changed Rice forever.

And with that, I plan to end my lengthy daily missives. We have much work to do. But we are going to be okay because we are always going to be Rice.

Warm wishes,
Dean Hutch