Pillar 5

The Career Development Office (CDO) kicks off the recruiting year with its annual Diversity Networking Event. The reception provides an opportunity for hiring organizations to network with students from diverse backgrounds (e.g., underrepresented minority groups, women and veterans). The CDO helps students with career conference support, student association sponsorship and individual professional development.

Student Association Sponsorships

The Career Development Office (CDO) provided sponsorship funding to student organizations in support of various DEI initiatives and programs:

• Asian Business Student Association — Asian Business Communication Workshop
• Rice Business Women’s Organization — Winning with Women: Finance
• Rice Business Veterans Association — Lunch and Learn: MBA Veterans Conference
• Rice Business Women’s Organization — Winning with Women: Consulting
• Black Business Student Association — DEI Fireside Chat: Black in Consulting
• Latin Business Student Association — DEI Fireside Chat: Latinx in Consulting
• Rice Business Student Association — Standing in Difference

The CDO provides pre-MBA prep as well as on-site support to students attending summer and fall career expos with Rice Business Strategic Partners, including Consortium Orientation Program (OP), Forté Foundation for Women, National Black MBA Association, Inc. (NBMBAA), Prospanica, Reaching Out MBA (ROMBA) and the MBA Veteran’s conferences. Specifically, the CDO staff provides career advising, pitch development and career expo strategy. 

The CDO’s Network Now Series is designed to bring together International MBA students with international alumni. The series of three events focuses on building community among international MBAs in a business casual networking setting and incorporates the advice and experiences of select Rice Business alumni that align with this target audience. 

Rice Business is dedicated to making academic experiences inclusive and forward-thinking. We’re proud to support all our students through strategic partnerships with local and national affinity organizations. These alliances provide opportunities for scholarship, career prep and programs for women, underrepresented minority students, and others committed to increasing diversity and inclusion in the business ranks. 

Consortium for Graduate Studies in Management

• Rice Business joined as the 19th school member in 2017. 
• Lina Bell, executive director for the Office for DEI, is a board member. 

Beyond BUSI: Mini Mentoring Mixer, Spring 2024
Beyond BUSI is a series of quarterly programs for undergraduate students. These programs are centered around three core values: community building, resource sharing and development. This year, we hosted a mini mentoring mixer for undergraduates to connect with MBAs and receive counsel on their current academic experiences and future career endeavors.

Life Series, Spring 2024  
The Office for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion offered a half-day series designed to assist graduating students with foundational strategies for career and life success. This series focused on aspects of financial, career and interpersonal management as a complement to the knowledge and skills acquired at Rice Business.   

• Personal Finance – Saving, debt management, and family and friend dynamics related to money.   
• Real Estate – Market and lifestyle considerations impacting whether to buy or rent and perspectives on short= or long-term investments.   
• Social Capital – The importance of volunteer and civic involvement at work and outside of work as a vehicle for relationship building and the value of giving back and adding purpose to one’s career.  

Alumni Speakers (in event presentation order):  

• Desmund King ’19, Corporate Strategy – Pie Insurance   
• Brandi Downey-Wade ’11, Broker/Owner – Diverse City Realty  
• Stanley Kazibwe ’11, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Manager – Cheniere Energy  
• Patra Brannon-Issac ’11, Director of Education and Community Projects – The Kinder Foundation  

“As a first-generation professional and graduate student, I frequently find myself in unfamiliar territories. The Life Series workshops offered valuable insights into important areas for consideration as a recent MBA graduate and evolving professional.” - Jocelyn Gutierrez FTMBA ’24  

DEI Lunch and Learn for Doctoral Students, Spring 2024 
This year, the Rice Business Office for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion hosted a Lunch and Learn for Ph.D. students. During the session, students learned more about the DEI office, how we support doctoral students and future opportunities for engagement. 

EmpowerHer: Together We Thrive, Fall 2023 
EmpowerHer is a community-building event for women at Rice Business hosted by the Office for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. The event invites undergraduate students, graduate students, faculty and staff to connect, engage in thoughtful tabletop conversation, share their experiences and resources, and grow in community with one another. 

“I’m really glad I went to the EmpowerHer event. It was really inspiring to be surrounded by a powerful community of women of all backgrounds and hear Coach Ruth Reitmeier speak and engage all of us in a personal coaching session. We engaged in deep conversations, felt heard by our peers and even had great food.”
Maggie Tsyganova, undergraduate business major

Diversity Preview Weekend, Fall 2023 
Diversity Preview Weekend is our flagship recruiting event to attract top talent from our diverse communities, including U.S. underrepresented minority groups, women and LGBTQ prospective students. Coordinated by the Recruiting and Admissions Office, our prospective MBA students had the opportunity to attend the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Conference; sessions with the Career Development Office; and a Rice Business Partio. They also met with current students, alumni and student club leaders. Diversity Preview Weekend prospective students were invited to a Fall Mixer with members of the Black Business Student Association (BBSA) where they enjoyed networking and had a great time. 

Rice Business Women’s Organization 
Rayna Anderson-Crier, associate director of career education and advising, conducted a personal branding session for the Rice Business Women’s Organization. 

MBA Veteran’s Career Conference & Expo, Spring 2024 
The Career Development Office (CDO) offered conference support to current students attending MBA Veteran’s Career Conference and Expo. 

Inaugural Dean’s Distinguished Visiting Fellow

Nancy Rothbard

David Pottruck Professor of Management and Deputy Dean
Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania

Creating the Will Without the Way? How and When Employee Belonging Leads to Voice on DEI Issues
Abstract: A core belief in the diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) literature is that increasing employees’ sense of belonging can improve an organization’s DEI environment and outcomes. We directly examine this assumption and argue that employee belonging is a necessary but insufficient condition for enhancing employees’ voice on DEI issues, that is, employees’ proactive expression of ideas, problems and issues to improve DEI outcomes. We propose that employee belonging, which generates a strong motivational force in employees to benefit their group (i.e., the will), only leads to DEI voice when the organization has a high level of DEI practices that channel and structure such motivation toward improving DEI (i.e., the way).

Further, we theorize two mechanisms — identity manifestation and noticing DEI problems — that explain the interactive effects of belonging and DEI practices on DEI voice. We test our hypotheses across three studies — a large-scale field study, a survey using a generalizable sample of working professionals, and an online experiment that manipulates belonging — and we find that only when employees perceive a high level of DEI practices in their organization does their sense of belonging enhance DEI voice. This effect is consistently mediated by identity manifestation and noticing DEI problems. We discuss how our findings contribute to research on belonging, DEI and allyship in organizations.

Continuing the Conversation

Rice Business is dedicated to making learning experiences inclusive and forward-thinking. We’re proud to support staff through learning opportunities. Developed by the Office for DEI, these staff-focused workshops encourage dialogue around equity and inclusion.

Previous topics include:

• From Memes to Meetings: Navigating Gen Z Communication Dynamics
• Keeping Holiday Harmony
• Baker Institute Perspectives on the Middle East
• Spring Forward With Intention

Pride Bingo

For the third consecutive year, the Office for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion organized and sponsored a Pride-themed bingo event for faculty and staff. The event acknowledges the contributions of our LGBTQIA+ community and helps foster an inclusive and welcoming workplace. 

The Office of Technology’s Technology, Teaching and Learning Services (TTLS) team is dedicated to enhancing the teaching and learning environment at Rice Business through the effective utilization of current and emerging technologies.

Resources

TTLS has instructional resources available at business.rice.edu/EdTech; selected resources are detailed below.

Instructional Design Templates

• Syllabus for RB Faculty
• RB PowerPoint lecture slides
• RB degree program courses utilize the Content-Driven and Course Schedule home page templates. Demo Course 1 and Demo Course 2 showcase the content-driven approach, and Demo Course 3 illustrates a course schedule table on the home page.

The above templates are newly improved and have all been created and reviewed for accessibility as part of the design process.

Digital Accessibility

Rice University aims to make digital information accessible to all, including those with disabilities.

The Rice University Digital Accessibility site includes information and resources on improving digital access.

The UDOIT Cloud tool has been made available to all instructors at Rice and is in the menu of all JGS Canvas course templates. UDOIT simplifies the process of identifying and resolving accessibility issues throughout a Canvas course from a single, convenient location. Instead of conducting an accessibility check on each page, UDOIT scans the entire course and generates a comprehensive report of all accessibility issues. UDOIT offers explanations, learning resources, and tools for reviewing and addressing these issues.

The following links provide accessibility information for software and services used at the Jones School:

• Canvas LMS Accessibility Statement
• Canvas Accessibility Standards
• Zoom Accessibility Features
• Panopto Accessibility Features
• Microsoft 365 Accessibility Statement
• Google Workspace User Guide to Accessibility
• Campus Groups Accessibility Statement
• 12twenty Accessibility Statement

ADA Statement

Students who have a documented disability that may affect academic performance should:

1. Make sure this documentation is on file with the Disability Resource Center (Allen Center, Room 111 | adarice@rice.edu | 713-348-5841) to determine the accommodations they need.
2. Contact each of their instructors to discuss accommodation needs.

Rice Business is dedicated to making academic experiences inclusive and forward-thinking. We’re proud to support all our staff members through partnerships and professional affiliations with affinity organizations locally, regionally and nationally. These partnerships and professional affiliations provide opportunities for learning and development, as well as elevation of diversity, equity and inclusion among staff in higher education.