Rice rebrands DEI office amid federal scrutiny

By Viola Hsia     3/4/25 11:25pm

Rice has renamed its Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion to the Office of Access and Institutional Excellence, announced in a Feb. 28 campus-wide email from Provost Amy Dittmar. This change arrives as universities across the country adapt — often altering or erasing diversity statements entirely — to federal anti-DEI legislation.

“Rice’s commitment to diversity, academic freedom and excellence is unwavering, and the new name furthers the mission and work of the university in these areas,” Dittmar wrote in a statement to the Thresher. “We aim to build and promote a community at Rice where everyone feels safe, respected, empowered and protected, regardless of any differences.”

Alexander Byrd, vice provost at the now-Office of AIE, said the office’s new name was chosen to reflect the expanded scope of the department.

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“Members of the office reflected on the mission of the office and the work that we do and then explored and discussed a number of names,” Byrd wrote in a statement to the Thresher. “The new name, the Office of Access and Institutional Excellence, reflects the breadth of the work that the office engages in to ensure that all Rice students can realize their full potential and find community at the university, regardless of their backgrounds.”

The office will add team members dedicated to religious diversity and pluralism, university life and freedom of expression, support for veterans, resources for community college transfer students and “LGBTQ+ Thriving,” according to Dittmar’s Feb. 28 email. 

Just a week before the name change announcement, President Regigie DesRoches sent a campus-wide email reaffirming Rice’s commitment to diversity and academic freedom in response to a Feb. 15 guidance issued by the U.S. Department of Education prohibiting race-conscious programs. 

“In times of scrutiny, the wide-ranging research and scholarship that universities like Rice perform becomes even more important,” DesRoches wrote in his Feb. 21 email. “Our priority is to preserve Rice’s commitment to our mission, while safeguarding academic freedom and minimizing the risk of misinterpretation of the critical work conducted at our university.”

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