Wednesday, April 29, 2020 - 1:30pm

Dear Parents,

Most important, I hope this note finds you and your family well. These are the most challenging and unusual times for our world in my lifetime, and likely the same is true for you. The combination of the spread of this deadly pandemic, plus the economic and emotional consequences of social isolation, have been visited on families across the globe.

Last week your child, now a young adult, completed the last class of this most unusual spring semester. We recognize how challenging the end of this school year has been for our students. But today I write to recognize equally how challenging it has been for their parents and families. I know that our students have needed your support more than ever, and that in some cases the burden of caring for and supporting them has added to stress in your households.

All of us are managing these circumstances in the best way that we can. A small number -- a bit more than 250 -- of your children remained on our campus, primarily because international travel was not possible. Some are staying with friends or relatives. But the majority are home with you. While of course we enjoy having our children with us whatever their age, it can also pose challenges in ensuring that they have the right environment for completing their academic work. Thus I wanted to take a moment today to thank you for working with us to support your student. We are grateful that you and your student chose to become members of the Rice community. We and you have done all we can to get them through this year. And we know they will need our support, whether they are graduating now or continuing in the fall, to flourish during and after this terrible pandemic.

For those whose students are not graduating, we know you are wondering what the fall will bring. As you can imagine, we are constantly assessing the situation. No one really knows how the pandemic will progress, and we are balancing the value of being able to plan on the basis of concrete decisions with the value of making the best decision when more information is available. Whatever our decisions, we will need to be flexible as the situation evolves. Based on the state of the disease spread in Houston and Texas, as well as the trajectory around the country, we are cautiously optimistic about opening our campus for students in the fall. We are working hard to make sure all the right measures are in place for that. We expect to have some preliminary communications regarding the fall by the end of next week. Over the summer, we will resolve how to best balance the imperative for safety while maintaining the great college experience your children have enjoyed and look forward to returning to.

Of course, the semester isn’t quite over as most of our students still have exams and papers to complete over the next 10 days. As you may have heard, we have adopted flexible arrangements on grading, pass-fail and dropping of courses, again recognizing the very different circumstances for each of our students and their families. Even after exams are over, many students will face questions about how they can productively spend the summer. Recognizing this, we have made summer classes available to Rice students at one fourth the normal cost, and students who receive financial aid qualify for an additional reduction.

We will write again soon with more definitive information on our fall plans. In the meantime, please know that we are deeply grateful for what you are doing to sustain your Rice Owl through this time.

With warmest regards and gratitude,

David