In June 2020 President Leebron and Provost DesRoches announced several actions that would intensify Rice University’s commitment to inclusiveness, racial equity, and justice. The most important, from a leadership perspective, was the creation of a new position: Vice Provost for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. Alexander Xavier Byrd, Associate Professor in the Department of History, was chosen to fulfill this position. He reports directly to the provost, provides high-level strategic leadership around diversity initiatives and coordinates multiple diversity offices across the campus to help create one point of responsibility for all programs and efforts around diversity. Alex is a Rice graduate, and many ARRUF members knew him during his distinguished undergraduate career. We are fortunate he returned to join the Rice Faculty, serving as a college magister and mentor to many students. The programs he will now coordinate will involve students, faculty, and the physical structure of Rice. Student involvement in racial equity and justice will be undergirded by a required course on diversity and cultural understanding as part of orientation at Rice. And a new student fund under the Center for Civic Leadership in the office of the Dean of Undergraduates will support nonpartisan student engagement in the city of Houston on issues of racial equity and justice, particularly in the fields of criminal justice, voting, education and health care. For faculty, access to a new research fund, the Race and Anti-Racism Research Fund, will help Rice achieve its goals of creating a more diverse, equitable and inclusive university, city and country. Furthermore, Alex will oversee the design and development of a new Multicultural Center (MCC), to be included in the new student center now in the planning phase. As faculty, many of us were involved in earlier efforts to make Rice a more diverse, equitable and inclusive institution. We hope to have an open meeting to discuss our own efforts at a future session. But now, in the exciting opening months of the new, highly accelerated effort, we were delighted to have Alex Byrd join us on November 19th to discuss how the launch has proceeded and his hopes for Rice’s future.