The Rice University School of Social Sciences and Department of Political Science are honored to announce The Robert M. "Bob" Stein Fund for Social Policy Research. Designed to support student research and community engagement in Rice’s Social Policy Analysis (SOPA) program, the Stein Fund supports Rice’s longstanding commitment to exploring and evaluating evidence-based policy solutions to complex social problems.
Evaluating Social Policy
Understanding and analyzing public policy is essential for creating effective, equitable solutions to the most pressing challenges facing our communities. Rice’s SOPA program seeks to meet this challenge by equipping students with the tools needed to understand, evaluate, and influence public policy. Grounded in the social sciences, the program blends coursework in economics, sociology, psychology, and political science to prepare students to analyze complex policy issues and advocate for effective, evidence-based solutions. Through experiential learning, community partnerships, and a capstone research project, students apply their skills to real-world challenges in areas such as education, housing, health, and criminal justice.
The SOPA capstone is the culminating experience for the program, providing all students in the major with the opportunity to apply their training to a real-world policy issue. In their capstone project, each SOPA student collaborates with a team of students and a community partner organization to explore a current policy problem. Using their empirical research skills, the students evaluate an ongoing policy problem affecting our community, create and implement an original quantitative research design, and generate policy recommendations that have a tangible social impact.
A Legacy of Student-Centered Research
For more than 40 years, Professor Robert (“Bob”) Stein helped to make civic and community engagement a core part of Rice’s institutional work and identity. A two-time recipient of the George R. Brown Award for Superior Teaching, the 2025 recipient of the Y. Ping Sun Award for Outstanding Community Engagement, and founding Faculty Director of the Center for Civic Engagement, he helped expand opportunities for students and faculty to get involved and make positive contributions in their communities. His innovative approach merged civic and community engagement with undergraduate research through opportunities that have enabled hands-on student learning, university-community partnerships, and contributions to the public good. His motivations and goals for this work were always simultaneously scholarly and public; seeking knowledge through scholarly investigation that can be used to improve policies, organizations, programs, and people’s lives. Throughout his career, he personified the ideal of an engaged scholar, directing his teaching, research, and service efforts toward public purpose, and empowering generations of Rice students to make positive changes in their communities.
Supporting the Stein Fund
Your gift to the Stein Fund continues this legacy by providing support to Rice SOPA students in three key areas:
Empowering Student Research: Empirical research is the cornerstone of evidence-based policy evaluation. The Stein Fund helps bolster our students' research opportunities in the SOPA capstone program and beyond by funding research and project costs, including acquiring data, creating and fielding surveys, and conducting site visits and field based research.
Advancing Engaged Teaching & Mentoring: In keeping with Dr. Stein’s long history as an outstanding educator and mentor, the Stein Fund supports high-quality social policy teaching and student mentorship. Through engaging community partners and organizations in student learning, hosting workshops and other collaborative events, and providing training and support for graduate student capstone project mentors, your gift will help ensure our SOPA students continue to enrich their policy knowledge and build essential empirical skills.
Experiencing Policy Outside the Classroom: Civic-engagement opportunities allow students to apply what they have learned in the classroom to real-world situations, deepening their understanding of practical public policy and developing first-hand experience with empirical analysis. The Stein Fund helps provide opportunities for SOPA students to learn and practice social policy beyond the classroom, including support for policy-related internships, presentations at academic and professional conferences, and independent summer policy-based research projects.
Donations to The Robert M. "Bob" Stein Fund for Social Policy Research in the Rice Political Science Department can be made below. Your official tax receipt will automatically be sent to the email address you provide. Notice of your gift will also be shared with the Stein family. For any questions, please contact Sylvia LeBlanc at sylvia.d.leblanc@rice.edu or 713-348-4482.