Awards

O'Neill School of Public & Environmental Affairs Distinguished Alumni Awards - 1982

About Roland B. Smith, Jr.

Roland B. Smith, Jr. is the associate provost and adjunct professor of education and sociology at Rice University. His academic interests include ethnographic research methods, educational access, cultural diversity, school-university collaborative relationships, urban studies, and sociology of education. Smith teaches ethnographic research methods and chairs the University's Educational Outreach Council. He came to Rice after 23 years at the University of Notre Dame, where he served as Executive Assistant to the President, concurrent associate professor of sociology, founding Director of the Center for Educational Opportunity in the Institute for Urban Studies. Before working in higher education, Smith was a research intern in the U.S. Senate and manpower planner for the City of South Bend, IN.

He has been involved in the academic and local community, having served as Board Chair of the National Association of Presidential Assistants in Higher Education and as a member of the Indiana Advisory Board to the US Civil Rights Commission and the Martin Luther King, Jr. Federal Holiday Commission In recent years, Smtih served as Chair of the Black Caucus of the American Association for Higher Education and member of the Board of Directors for the American Conference of Academic Deans and the Bowie State University Board of Visitors. Currently, Smith serves on the Board of Directors for the Harvard Alumni Association and several local organizations.

Smith holds a B.A. in Anthropology and Sociology from Bowie State University (1969), a M.P.A. from Indiana University (1976) and an Ed.D. from Harvard University (1988).