SCS initiated the first Rice non-credit and credit courses offered completely on the Internet. The School began Web-based marketing nearly three years ago, and in Fall 1998, became the first unit at Rice to take payment over the Web. With the continued support of the administration and the board, the program has flourished. This is the latest in a series of innovative initiatives the school has embarked upon in the last two years. A prominent feature is the Action Learning Project in which student teams tackle business challenges of Houston companies.
Students gain real-world experience and companies receive inexpensive solutions to their problems.
We have also expanded our offerings of nondegree executive education courses, both in public programs and in those designed to meet the needs of a particular organization. One important measure of the success of any educational institution is the accomplishments of its faculty. A wide range of scholarly achievement not only increases the quality of our educational programs, but it also plays an important part in the practice of management worldwide. Our faculty has made a number of important contributions. For example, Robert A. Westbrook is an expert in customer satisfaction, Jeff Fleming specializes in futures and options, Stephen A. Zeff received the International Accounting Educators Award in August for his work in that area, David Ikenberry has done extensive research on publicly traded stocks, and Edward E. Williams writes about entrepreneurship.