Rolundus R. Rice, Ph.D.
Chief Operating Officer/Vice President for Student Affairs
Tuskegee University
Dr. Rolundus R. Rice, also known to students and parents as “R³,” applies practical, workable solutions to solving complex problems that are unique to academe. He is a “bureaucratic mechanic” who knows how to start what has stalled while keeping an administrative engine running with optimal operational efficiency. He acquired these skills (soft and hard) during his hardscrabble rearing in Atlanta, Georgia, that led to him dropping out of high school before earning the GED certificate in 2002. He has used these lived experiences to address the achievement gap while also creating pathways for students to earn degrees at the baccalaureate, masters, and doctoral levels since beginning his career in 2006 as a Federal Work Study (FWS) student in the office of financial aid services.
Dr. Rice was lured into university leadership at age 33 when he was appointed Dean of Humanities and Fine Arts at Talladega College in Talladega, Alabama. He reimagined the curricula for the English, History, Mass Media Studies, Music, and Art degrees in this inaugural administrative role. Dr. Rice’s subsequent experiences at various colleges and universities include Chief Diversity Officer; Assistant Provost for Academic Affairs/Dean of the School of Graduate Studies; Assistant Vice President for Student Affairs and Enrollment Management; Central Region Director of Adult Education with the Alabama Community College System; Southern Association for Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC) Liaison and Vice President for Academic Affairs.
Dr. Rice is in his fourth year as Chief Operating Officer/Vice President for Student Affairs at Tuskegee University. His portfolio at the fourth-ranked Historically Black College and University (according to US News & World Report) include, through direct and dotted-line reporting, campus dining (specifically a record revenue generator with Chic-Fil-A); athletics; information technology; development and alumni affairs; admissions and recruitment; student health; counseling; Title IX; ADA Compliance; student conduct; student life; intramural sports and fleet management, respectively.
Dr. Rice is an academician at heart who believes that every subject or challenge has a history. To think historically, Rice believes, is to recognize that all problems and situations at any institution exists in contexts that must be understood before administrators can make informed decisions. He believes that no academic, corporate, government or non-profit entity can afford to not have the historian around the table. His views are supported by his experience in the professoriate. As a professor, he taught lower and upper division undergraduate courses, including World History, United States History, The Civil Rights Movement, Martin and Malcolm, The Cold War, American Constitutional History, and American Religious History, respectively.
Dr. Rice was also identified as a subject-matter expert on the Civil Rights Movement who has been interviewed by CNN, The Atlanta Journal Constitution and The Montgomery Advertiser. Dr. Rice’s book, Hosea Williams: A Lifetime of Defiance and Protest, was published by the University of South Carolina Press in 2021. This book is the first scholarly biography on one of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s closest lieutenants and organizer of Bloody Sunday and the subsequent Selma to Montgomery March. The esteemed Vanderbilt professor and MSNBC contributor, Dr. Michael Eric Dyson, wrote that Rice’s “Pathbreaking book rightly establishes Hosea Williams as one of the most colorful and creative personalities to emerge in the pitched battle to make America a just nation.”
Dr. Rice graduated from DeVry University with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, Magna Cum Laude. He holds two advanced degrees. Rice earned the Master of Arts in History from Alabama State University and was the first high school dropout and GED recipient) to receive the Doctor of Philosophy from Auburn University since the school was founded in 1856 – receiving the degree in the discipline of History in 2015.
Dr. Rice is married to the former Dana Lee. They have four children: Madison, Marley, Remington and Rolundus III.
