The F&A Lunch and Listen sessions began shortly after Kelly Fox arrived at Rice. Initially, the sessions were intended for F&A staff members to share improvement ideas, raise concerns, and hear more about future plans for the division. However, given the division's focus on customer service and partnership, Fox felt it was time to open these conversations to the broader campus community.
Over the summer, two campus Lunch and Listen sessions were held with members of the broader campus community. Over 30 people attended the sessions, representing divisions, schools, and departments across the campus, including faculty and staff. The engagement and in-person interaction with Fox were in such high demand that it led to a waitlist for upcoming sessions.
Most importantly, the sessions allowed attendees to ask questions and share their experiences or concerns surrounding the work done by F&A. Fox listened carefully to the feedback, identifying how her team could begin to turn many of these conversations into actionable outcomes. The following details how this work is unfolding:
- What was shared: iO continues to be present challenges to end-users. Given this, there is a need for additional support resources like user guides, catalogs, and a wiki-style interface to more easily search resources.
- Action underway: One of the IT Excellence initiatives, iO Evolution, is focused on addressing these concerns. One solution currently in consideration includes leveraging the power of large language models to enable the community to better leverage existing materials and enhance usability.
- What was shared: Financial accessibility for students in need is a shared concern by the entire Rice community. While the Rice Investment is acknowledged as a critical resource, questions emerged regarding how comprehensive the program is in addressing all of a student’s needs.
- Action underway: One of the goals for the Budget and Finance Excellence initiative is to enhance resource allocation aligned with the university’s mission and values. The commitment to providing financial aid and ensuring access and affordability is evident in the changes to budgetary allocations. The total undergraduate budget for financial assistance is $154.9 million, reflecting a notable 13.6 percent from the previous year. Additionally, the stipend budget for the graduate student population was raised by 24.1 percent to align with comparable peer institutions.
- What was shared: Dissatisfaction with the lack of customer service provided by the F&A Division was expressed on several occasions.
- Action underway: The F&A Strategic Plan launches this fall, and a significant portion of the plan will be dedicated to enhancing the customer experience of F&A’s campus partners. Providing innovative solutions with a problem-solving mindset is critical to the cultural transformation currently underway within F&A.
The commitment to excellence, innovation, and inclusion is the driving force for F&A. Listening to campus partners to understand what’s working and where opportunities for improvement lie enables F&A to better serve the university.
Another campus session is scheduled for this November. To sign up, follow the instructions at this link: https://fa.rice.edu/lunch-and-listen. Space is limited.
For those unable to attend, a Feedback form for F&A is available here.