Issue No. 49 — Fall 2025
Newsletter Home

A Message From David Humphrey

Hello Rice Parents and Families,

I hope the fall semester is off to a great start for you and your Owls! This summer, I had the pleasure of traveling to our New Student Send-Offs, where I met many incoming students and their families and welcomed more than 500 new members of the Rice family.

While your student’s Rice journey is a valuable time for them to step out in independence and grow as an individual, you still play an important role during their college years. Our team is proud to walk alongside you, offering resources to help you support your student.

One such resource is our revamped Rice Parents website. Over the summer, we identified the questions, resources and events Rice parents are most interested in and created a digital home where you can easily find those answers. We hope you enjoy exploring this site and take advantage of the many ways you can support your Owl.

We also launched our “Owl About Rice” parent webinar series yesterday with a Parent Q&A panel, presented in partnership with the Rice Parent to Parent Network Facebook moderators. Whether your student just started at Rice this fall or you are a seasoned Rice parent, it can be helpful to hear from other parents about their experiences and to ask questions about supporting your own Owl. For those who were unable to attend yesterday’s webinar, we will post a link to the recording in the coming weeks. We also plan to partner with departments across campus to offer additional webinars highlighting the unique resources Rice provides — resources you can share with your student.

We are just a few weeks away from Families Weekend 2025! Returning this year are some of our most popular events, including faculty lectures and the Discussion with the Deans leadership panel, where you can hear valuable insights from Rice faculty and leadership. Residential college gatherings and the Family Tailgate will also be back, along with Night Owls, a new parent social event designed to help you connect with other Rice parents. You can view the full lineup of events and register on the Families Weekend website.

We hope you take advantage of these resources and let us know how we can partner with you to support your Owl. You can email us at parents@rice.edu with any questions or simply to say hello.

I wish you and yours a wonderful fall!

David Humphrey
Assistant Director, Parent and Families Programming