Rice University

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Monday, September 15, 2008 To Rice Students, Faculty and Staff, The University will reopen Tuesday, September 16. Our plan is to return the University to normal operation as quickly as possible, at a pace and in a manner that is sensitive to the difficult circumstances being experienced by many members of our community. It is now two days since Hurricane Ike passed through Houston. During these past two days, University personnel have been working to inventory and assess the physical condition of the campus, repairing critical systems and planning for full and timely restoration of all our activities. While the Rice campus sustained some damage and disruption, overall the physical infrastructure survived very well intact, safe and functional. Although it will be some time before the physical scars of Ike fade from the campus, and in isolated instances some important repairs may stretch to weeks, nothing stands in the way of the University’s rapid return to full normal functioning. At the same time, we must recognize that large numbers of our community – faculty, staff and students – have suffered significant dislocations, many of which are ongoing, and it will take time for the effects to be erased completely. Many houses and apartments suffered damage. Electrical power and communications remain disrupted for the majority of those who live off campus, and indications suggest a slower-than-desirable return to normalcy of those critical utilities. Fortunately, the water supply seems to have been restored rapidly. Significant logistical challenges still remain, and we are closely monitoring the return of such currently compromised components of the urban infrastructure as roads, transportation, fuel supply, shopping and restaurants, all of which provide services essential to the lives of all members of our community. We are optimistic about the rapid return of these services. However, it is important that all of us be mindful of the fact that the lives of almost all members of our community are being disrupted, and that we be flexible, tolerant and compassionate in adapting and accommodating to the impact. We will reopen the University on Tuesday, September 16, and aim to operate as fully and normally as conditions permit. Please be mindful of the fact that many students, staff and faculty – both those who evacuated from Houston in anticipation of the hurricane and those who stayed here throughout – might not be able to return by Tuesday. In many cases, they are living in apartments and houses with no electrical power or communications. Some homes have suffered significant damage, and a few are uninhabitable. We are still working to establish communication with all members of our community in the face of continuing outages of phone and internet systems. All of Houston is under a 9:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. curfew through Saturday, September 20th. This curfew will require that students, staff and faculty be off the streets by 9 pm and back in their homes, many still without electricity for the next week or more. These conditions will make it temporarily difficult or impossible for many to continue working past the early evening. The University will adhere to an 8:00 p.m. cutoff on class activities while the curfew is in effect. In addition, several travel advisories and limitations are in effect in Houston and several neighboring towns to limit traffic while the clean-up is in underway. This, along with the temporary scarcity of gasoline, will limit the mobility of members of our community and require understanding and flexible adaptation from all. Over the next weeks, those who own homes will need to attend to repairs, requiring episodes of absence; those with children will be challenged by school closings and childcare needs until those social services return to normalcy. All of us will need to accommodate the compromised presence and availability of our colleagues – faculty, students and staff – that these conditions may occasionally engender. In recognition of these circumstances, we ask that all of you be flexible, creative and understanding as we work together to return the University to full operation. We anticipate that a significant fraction of students and faculty will be unable to return in time to meet the Tuesday reopening schedule. Faculty will need to appropriately understand and excuse unavoidable student absence. Students will need to appropriately understand and tolerate unavoidable class cancellation of a significant fraction of classes. We expect both student-absence and class-cancellation challenges to diminish during the first few days following September 16th, and to be largely resolved by the end of the week. In recognition of the added stresses, constraints and attendance difficulties under which students will be working faculty are not to require that any assignments be handed in, nor are they to administer any exams or quizzes, during the interval September 13-20. Moreover, we encourage faculty to be sensitive to these issues in planning the trajectory of their core course material over the next week or so. We understand that this may be inconsistent with announced plans for the semester, but this extraordinary time calls for extraordinary flexibility on all our parts. As a community, we have faced trying times in the past, and have responded with the compassion of understanding and mutual support. We again call on that compassion and sense of community during the many weeks of work before the effects of Hurricane Ike dissipate. That need not inhibit us from returning as quickly as possible to our important missions of teaching, learning and discovery. Lastly, we recognize the communications limitations under which so many members of our community are working. We ask that you check email and the Rice website when you can, and that, to the extent possible, you share the information with colleagues who are not otherwise able to access these information resources. We are grateful for your understanding and commitment. David W. Leebron, President Eugene H. Levy, Provost

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