Hey, the blog is back! The start of the new year seemed the right time for a fresh start. And fresh starts is the theme of this post.

I often hear good ideas for new programs or facilities at Rice posed as negative questions: “Why doesn’t Rice have (fill in your favorite wish)?” Most of these wishes are great ideas, but creating new programs or facilities is not easy. In addition to financial constraints, staff constraints, and time constraints, it is not easy to find a consensus on what we should do or how we should do it.

The start of this semester breaks that mold. Today, Rice’s new Program in Writing and Communication kicks off with the first days of the First Year Writing Intensive Seminar (FWIS) classes, a massive new program and curriculum to address the needs of all new students.  I’ve not seen a curricular innovation this exciting in all of my three decades at Rice.  In addition, the beautiful Center for Written, Visual and Oral Communication will open in Fondren Library to provide consultation, feedback and advice to any and all students who request it. These two new programs represent the collective good ideas of faculty, staff, administration and students coming together. Many, many people have helped to make this happen, but I would like to single out for praise three people in particular: Dr. Matt Taylor, Associate Dean and Associate Vice Provost, who is the Interim Director of the new program; Professor Terry Doody, who is the faculty director of the program; and Professor Helena Michie, who chaired the faculty’s working group to propose a new program and who now chairs the Faculty Advisory Board for the program. Their work has been amazing. Stop these people on the street and give them a thank you!

One of the coming changes at Rice will be felt in my own General Chemistry class. A number of faculty have, in the past year, been experimenting with new teaching approaches based on the concept of “active learning.” These include “problem based learning” used in Bioeneginnering, amongst others, as well as the new “Student Centered Active Learning at Rice (SCALAR)” approach which has been used in Biosciences and Sociology, amongst others. Tomorrow, my colleagues and I will extend the experiment into Chem 121, although will continuing the experiment in Chem 123. Our goal is to make it not just possible but expected that every student in the class will actively participate every day.  I’m excited about the experiment, hopeful that our students will be both patient and energetic, and eager to learn.  If we and other faculty are successful in developing these new approaches, it may transform the experiences of being a Rice student.

There are a few more big ideas about to come to reality, but those will wait for another blog post.

See you around campus!