I'm pleased to see a couple of mentions of Athletics in Rice's Vision for the Second Century, Second Decade (V2C2) documents just released (http://news.rice.edu/2018/02/06/rice-unv...d-century/).

The vision has seven goals/priorities:

1. Provide transformative undergraduate education.
2. Build nationally and internationally renowned graduate programs.
3. Invest in faculty to achieve pre-eminence.
4. Expand access, diversity and inclusiveness.
5. Elevate research achievement and reputation.
6. Extend Rice’s reach and impact.
7. Engage Houston and empower its success.

Athletics is included at the bottom of the main page (https://v2c2.rice.edu/):

Quote:Achieving these seven priorities depends upon the success and reputation of our eight schools as well as other major endeavors, including the Baker Institute for Public Policy, the Doerr Institute for New Leaders, the Kinder Institute for Urban Research, other centers and institutes, Athletics and the Moody Center for the Arts. We must develop and execute strategies and secure the resources to advance achievement and recognition in all our schools and these other components of the university.

And recent progress/efforts in athletics facilities are included in the "Campus Vibrancy" section of the "V2C Progress" (not "V2C2" ... possibly a typo?) page: https://v2c2.rice.edu/v2c/campus-vibrancy:

Quote:... There has also been a renaissance in athletics facilities, particularly for tennis, swimming, track, soccer, basketball and volleyball, and we recently opened the Brian Patterson Sports Performance Center at the north end of Rice Stadium. ...

It seems that our personal comments and communications and, perhaps, the three Parliament threads on this subject (here, here and here) may have had a positive effect. May the future for all aspects of Rice, including athletics, be bright.