The omicron surge hit Houston hard over the winter holidays — just as Rice Business students were preparing to return to campus for the spring semester. Once again, COVID threw us for a loop. But this time around, the loop was shorter. After reverting to remote learning for the first part of January, the spring semester marked a return to in-person classes and events. And by the end of March, wearing a mask was no longer required anywhere on campus, indoors or out.

Across the country, schools have grappled with the fits and starts of the ongoing pandemic, balancing community safety against the benefits of in-person education. Now, many see omicron as a sign that COVID will endure indefinitely in some form — but a much less deadly one. And Rice has shifted its approach from an attempt at containing the virus to one aimed at coexisting with it. The latest pivot to remote learning was meant to give omicron a chance to recede before the school returned to a more normal mode of instruction, with safeguards in place.

“My gauge is that the university is ready, for the most part, to treat COVID more as a management issue and something we will live with, as well as something we try to avoid,” Rice Business Dean Peter Rodriguez said. 

“We have become experts at handling last-minute changes, appreciating the small wins and staying optimistic,” Rodriguez added, in an email to the community, when in-person classes resumed Jan. 24. “It hasn’t been easy for our community of students, staff and faculty. Learning, teaching, working, spending time with family and friends — everything we do has been affected in some way. Your constant support and cooperation has made Rice Business shine.”

Because Rice accepts federal contracts, it was required to comply with President Biden’s executive order for all employees to be fully vaccinated by Jan. 4, except for those with a medical or religious exemption. And as of Jan. 10, vaccine boosters were required for all students and Rice employees.

Two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, the university’s strategy has evolved along with the virus. As vaccines became more widely available and treatment options for the most vulnerable improved, the risks from COVID lessened and administrators began easing restrictions on campus, allowing larger gatherings and less isolation.

“We’ve entered a new and different phase of the pandemic, one that requires us to revisit and revise our COVID policies and operational decision-making,” Rice President David Leebron wrote in a Dec. 26 email to the community.

“Most public health experts believe there will not be a clear end to the pandemic as COVID-19 transitions into more of an ongoing endemic condition that is always with us, but generally significantly less life-threatening with available vaccines and treatments.”

“We must also recognize and take into account the toll that our pandemic risk mitigation policies and personal choices have taken on both the broader wellbeing of our community and our ability to execute our mission at a high level, and we must adapt accordingly,” he wrote.

In a Jan. 16 New York Times article, Leebron pointed out that there had not been a serious COVID case within the campus community in months. He said he worried that extending lockdown-style restrictions would lead to even more serious problems. “Across campus, there are mental health issues,” he said. “If we have a disease that, for college-age vaccinated people does not pose a serious risk, those other factors need to be taken into account.”

On Feb. 24, two years after Rice notified the Houston health department of what it believed to be its first COVID case, Associate Dean of Degree Programs George Andrews emailed the Rice Business community, writing, “Think about how far we have come, and how much we have endured.”  

“You will begin to see Rice return to ‘normal’ in the coming two months,” Andrews said. “Soon, we will get back the multipurpose rooms and testing facilities will be consolidated. You will be receiving antigen tests from the university for your use as needed, and the mask policy will continue to relax over that time as well.”

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Mask rules became gradually less restrictive as the semester progressed. At first, masks were required at all times indoors; then only in classes and for groups of more than 25. By early March, they were required only in classes. After spring break, even that requirement was lifted.  

Still, COVID has disrupted the lives of everyone in the Rice Business community and beyond. The losses are incalculable, and the effects will be far reaching. The precautions we’ve taken and the sacrifices we’ve made helped minimize the worst possible outcomes. And while those sacrifices were enormous, in many ways the accommodations made during the pandemic — including flexible schedules and virtual programming options — have led to innovations in the ways we work, study and socialize that could bring about more accessibility and inclusivity in the future. 

“Congratulations on making it through the past two years,” Andrews said. “It is hard to believe it was only two years ago [that the pandemic began]. It seems closer to a decade. Here’s to an amazing 2022, your indomitable spirit, and a return to normalcy.”

You can find updated information about COVID on campus here: https://coronavirus.rice.edu/

Few industries have been as subject to the wild ups and downs of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic as the world of real estate. Almost two years into the pandemic and the real estate business has seen itself transformed again and again as the world responds to each new phase of the pandemic.

It’s never been a better time to sell a house — but buying one is another matter. Vaccines brought workers back into offices and workplaces — and new COVID variants sent them back home. Retail businesses and restaurants weathered municipal mandates and the changing preferences of customers. Industry trends that might have taken five to 10 years to play out now happen in a matter of months.

The year ahead seems to hold more of the same — cautious optimism, steady growth, and the need to quickly adapt to shifting circumstances. That’s according to the Rice Business alumni working in real estate markets around the world, who shared the trends they’re watching in 2022.

‘The New Normal’

Rising prices and intense competition have characterized the residential real estate market during the last two years and Brandi Downey-Wade ’11, a broker and owner of DiverseCity Realty in Houston, expects those trends to continue in 2022.

“The residential market is very strong in Houston and Austin,” she says. “Things are normalizing a bit; at this time last year you might have a home go under contract within two days and with multiple offers, and now properties are sitting closer to 30 days.” There still isn’t enough inventory, though, and with demand outpacing new construction, the market remains heavily in favor of sellers.

“I had a client who’s been looking in the Cypress area. She put in an all-cash offer, $25,000 over asking price, and the offer was not accepted,” she says. In the last year, the median sale price for a home in Houston has increased by almost $100,000, according to Downey-Wade. “It’s great for folks in real estate and great for sellers, but for home affordability, it’s tough.”

Downey-Wade’s commercial clients are having an opposite experience, however. “There’s a ton of (commercial) inventory … coming to the market,” she says. And while office space remains unpredictable, she’s seeing the boundaries between retail and office space blur. An online retailer may simply need an office space for logistics and shipping, while a small business may want a storefront to attract clients.

The one thing Downey-Wade doesn’t expect in 2022 is a crash. The pace of growth may slow, but there won’t be a reversal. “With Texas growing as rapidly as it is, these prices are our new normal.”

Emerging Industries

Though the pandemic has changed where and how we work, Brandon Houston ’09, a principal at Trammell Crow Company in Atlanta, remains bullish on office space — particularly in the life-sciences industry, which covers everything from biopharmaceuticals to medical device research and manufacturing.

“We’re breaking ground on a large life-sciences project here in Atlanta in the next couple weeks — 370,000 square feet, a spectacular building. The opportunity is here to make a market,” Houston says. While cities like Boston, San Francisco and San Diego are seen as the core markets for med-tech companies, Houston believes Atlanta is about to have its moment.

“There are about 150 million square feet of life-sciences space across the country,” according to Houston, and he expects that number to double in the next decade. As the home of the Centers for Disease Control, Georgia Tech, Emory University and others, “Atlanta has all the fundamentals” to become a major life-sciences player.

That emerging market is going to create growth in other areas, Houston says. He expects increased development in 2022 as more people move to Atlanta for work. “I think there’s still some concern about whether people will get fully back into the office, and what that looks like from a remote or hybrid-work perspective, but I still believe there will be a return to the office,” he says. “More companies are choosing to relocate to the south … and I see Atlanta being a winner in office space in 2022 and beyond.”

The life-sciences industry will be particularly beneficial for office space.

“Life sciences folks can’t work from home; they’ve got to be in the office, so I don’t see a prolonged pandemic impacting life sciences at all, other than to spur more growth and development in that sector.”  

The one challenge Houston sees in 2022? Finding space for industrial developments. “Atlanta is the fifth-largest industrial market in the country, and we cannot find industrial land suitable for development,” he says. “It’s scarce, and the lots are being gobbled up by developers just like us.”

Hungry for Connection

Like office space, shopping centers could see a comeback this year, according to Matt Okmin ’18. Okmin is a partner at Whitestone REIT, a Houston-based commercial real estate company focused on small shopping centers in high-income neighborhoods. “Our outlook for 2022 is pretty good,” Okmin says. “Our tenants have come back strong.”

Agility and adaptability have helped those tenants weather the pandemic, according to Okmin. For some, that meant moving restaurant seating out to the shopping center’s parking lot during the early days of the pandemic. For others, it meant finding new ways to work with customers. “A client in San Antonio has a restaurant that did about 3 percent of its business in takeout before the pandemic. It just wasn’t their model and they were doing pretty well,” he says. “Because of the pandemic, they figured out how to bring their takeout business to about 30 or 40 percent. They’re a very agile and forward-thinking company.”

While the future of COVID presents a host of unknowns, Okmin is optimistic. “People are figuratively and literally hungry to get out there. So far, we’re seeing that people are still going out. In Austin and San Antonio, people seem to be OK” with mask requirements.

Outdoor community shopping centers like Whitestone’s are particularly able to meet the customer demands changed by the pandemic.

“We give people a place to connect, with open spaces for safe social distancing, to meet with friends.”

Experiences Over Items

That desire for in-person experiences is driving the growth of malls and shopping centers in China, too, according to Curt Lam ’94, a general manager with Wanda Group Hong Kong.

“In the last five years, we’ve seen tremendous pressure on physical retail malls and commercial space,” Lam says. Massive online retailers like JD.com and Alibaba have upended the Chinese retail market. Their outsized portion of the retail market, combined with integrated digital payment apps like WeChat Pay and Alibaba’s own Alipay, have squeezed traditional retail businesses.

Commercial real estate companies like Wanda Group have responded by shifting their focus to offering unique experiences rather than simply selling products. In China, that means you’re likely to see a virtual travel park or an indoor ski resort attached to a typical shopping mall — one of Wanda Group’s malls features a ski resort with four slopes and a 66-meter vertical drop. A day out might include a visit to a salon, lunch at a restaurant and a few hours of skiing. Customers less inclined to speed downhill could opt for a virtual sightseeing experience, viewing immersive scenes of other countries and famous locations while sitting in seats that move up and down, and even rotate.

“We’ve also seen malls include water parks — real, sizable indoor water parks — combat-themed parks, escape room parks. They know they can’t compete with JD.com or Alibaba [by selling physical products],” Lam says.

Lam expects physical retail malls to continue doing well in China in 2022. The omicron variant may have slowed down business, but Lam believes that consumers’ desire for in-person connections and experiences — and government scrutiny on the big online retailers’ anti-competitive — are positive indicators for commercial malls.

“We’re promoting our malls as community centers — places where teenagers and older folks can come in and wander around. You can sit at a restaurant and enjoy the air conditioning or enjoy an auto show. And once people are there, it creates foot traffic, so there will be spending,” he says.

And when the pandemic ebbs, Lam predicts an even stronger resurgence. “I think there’s a pent-up demand for gathering. That’s another positive element in supporting a stronger case for physical or in-person retail. I think we’re going to see a bounceback across the world once the pandemic flows out. But I think the bounceback will be stronger in China than elsewhere.”

Our first piece published in The Conversation, “What is the ‘social cost of carbon’?” co-writen by Rice Business lecturer and Baker fellow Jim Krane with Baker fellow Mark Finley, was republished by 38 news outlets —including Fast Company, the Houston Chronicle and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer — and read by more than 9,500 people. The story ran in print in the Tampa Bay Times and the authors were interviewed on public radio.

In March, Rice Business Professor Yan “Anthea” Zhang published a piece about the conflict in Ukraine, “Shell, BP and ExxonMobil have done business in Russia for decades — here’s why they’re leaving now,” which was republished in 31 outlets with more than 23,000 reads. Zhang was interviewed about the piece for an article in The Independent. Professor Doug Schuler collaborated with University of Mannheim Professor Laura Marie Edinger-Schons to write “Why Apple, Disney, IKEA and hundreds of other Western companies are abandoning Russia with barely a shrug,” which was republished in 43 outlets with more than 29,000 reads. Schuler was interviewed by the Financial Times and appeared on Toronto public radio and a South American TV news program.

Your decision to earn an MBA means you’re serious about your career. So are we. At Rice Business, we are committed to supporting your career ambitions through our MBA career services. 

At the Rice Business Career Development Office (CDO), our number one goal is to help you elevate your career, starting with defining your professional strengths and interests, areas of expertise and personal motivations. Then we use those insights to design a personalized development plan.

Whether it’s through one-on-one advising sessions or accessing a library of virtual tools, online students are fully supported throughout every aspect of the career planning process by the same career team that supports all on-campus MBAs.

You can sign up to attend info sessions through our career management system (12twenty). Our office educates employers on the different programs to create job postings that appeal to students with a variety of levels of work experience. For broader recruiting opportunities, you’ll be able to add your resume to various resume books that are made available to employers upon request.

Below is a list of resources that you can use to prepare for a promotion, pivot into a new industry and connect with the CDO.

Career Management Systems

We have two career management systems for MBA students: OWL Careers and Handshake, an app that connects students on college campuses with open positions, mainly internships and entry-level jobs. Similar to Handshake — accessible to all Rice University students — 12twenty is our career management system exclusively for MBA-specific opportunities. This portal allows students to register for career-related events, apply for internships and/or job opportunities, schedule weekly career advising sessions and view our company directory of more than 4,000 employer partners.

Individual Career Advising

One key function of the CDO is to provide students with individual career advising sessions. Students can schedule weekly meetings with a coach to explore industries, develop a personal job search strategy, prepare for networking and interviews, and negotiate offers. We recognize the diversity of talent in the online program so coaching sessions allow for tailored services rather than a one-size-fits-all approach. These appointments can be scheduled via OWL Careers.

CDO Website: One-stop shop for your career support

From the CDO website, a centralized, career-focused website, students can explore information based on industry or career development topics. As a prospective student, you can see sample companies with job titles on the website that reflect our strongest employer partnerships. With that information, you can begin developing a target company list for a more strategic job/internship approach. While current students are encouraged to take advantage of individual coaching sessions, we acknowledge the time constraints that impact students’ availability and have developed a full-scale website for easy-access information. Essential portions of the website to explore include the Career Communities, Next Steps and Outcomes pages.

Virtual Career Course

To help students get better acquainted with CDO resources and the job or internship search process, we’ve developed a career course available in Digital Campus, our e-learning and course management platform. 

This course includes eight modules discussing highly recommended resources and pertinent recruiting information. Students are automatically enrolled in the course their first quadmester and can access it throughout their time in the program.

External Job Boards

To adequately meet the diverse needs and interests of online students, we also recommend using external job boards such as MBA-Exchange and Relish. Both platforms feature internship and full-time job postings as well as employer-hosted events for additional networking opportunities.

Student Feedback

Don’t just take our word for it. Hear what our students have to say.

Jada Davis (Rice Online MBA)

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"The CDO 'Industry-Specific Resources' webpage was incredibly helpful as I navigated the possible transition from engineering to consulting. I was able to get sample resumes, recent interview questions from other students and vault guides to consulting. I also found it extremely helpful to meet with Rayna to discuss strategy. I met with her as early as eight months before I was actually ready to search for new positions. Rayna helped me create a timeline and a plan to achieve milestones leading up to the consulting recruiting season. I recommend the CDO webpage, the career strategy meetings, CDO resume reviews, CDO mock interviews and the CDO portal (Owl Careers) with job opportunities and event reminders." 

Chaundra Frank (Rice Online MBA)

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"The CDO was a major part of my MBA experience and a huge factor in securing my current position as VP of Finance at the Houston Botanic Garden. I am so glad that I took the initiative to incorporate the CDO in my daily task list. During my first few quads, I browsed through the website and got familiar with the CDO and all its offerings. I registered for as many information sessions as possible — even if I wasn't interested in the company — just to get my feet wet and learn how to navigate the recruiting process. When I was ready, I contacted Rayna and began to really focus on my career goals, and together we tackled what initially seemed like a daunting journey but turned out to be a beautiful blessing. Rayna and the CDO team were with me every step of the way from career assessments (which matched perfectly to my new position), consolidating my 20-year work experience into a one-page resume, conferences, interviews, salary negotiations and finally the celebratory phone call when I accepted my new position. Network, network, network! Talk to as many people as possible, get new perspectives and enjoy the journey! I appreciate everything the CDO provided for me and highly recommend their services!" 

Final Thoughts

The CDO is committed to having a transformative impact on students’ lifelong career satisfaction and looks forward to working with you. You may access comprehensive outcomes for students on our website. For questions or additional information, please feel free to contact me. 

Explore Our Online MBA

Owl Have You Know

Lynn Lednicky graduated from Rice twice, getting an undergraduate degree in chemistry and then an MBA. He tells host Christine Dobbyn about the breadth of his career and how transferrable job skills can take you to places you might not expect. He also shares advice for startup founders and growth-stage companies.

Subscribe to Owl Have You Know on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Youtube or wherever you find your favorite podcasts.