ROSS A. RICE

The house that I grew up in embraced diversity in many ways, starting with my grandfather, who taught Western-style journalism in the 50s and 60s at colleges in Hong Kong, Tel Aviv, Kuala Lumpur, and Cairo. Through his travels he made lifelong friends from many cultures and economic strata and passed an appreciation of the global family along to my parents, uncles, cousins, brothers, and me. During my childhood, my mother was on the front lines protesting on behalf of women’s rights and the Equal Rights Amendment, having been discriminated against repeatedly in the workplace herself. I attended and graduated from Overton High School in Memphis, TN, which was the primary magnet school for music and art in the city, with an equally balanced racial makeup of the most talented public-school students attending. This diversity resulted in an award-winning symphony band and jazz ensemble, a uniquely unified student body, and highly motivated and successful graduates.

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     I advocate for diversity wholeheartedly as a result of my upbringing, and it has been elemental to my development as an adult professional. As a member of Memphis-based R&B music groups in the 80s, I have seen up-close how talented friends and colleagues were treated very differently than I was on the road when traveling to out-of-town gigs in certain places, on multiple occasions. Witnessing injustice firsthand has reinforced my personal animus toward racism and racists, and has made me aware of the privilege that comes with being born a white male in the US. I am also very much an ally for the LGBTQ community, with numerous bisexual, lesbian, gay, and trans friends and colleagues over decades of adult life. I have attended and performed at several same-sex weddings over the years, and applaud the bravery of two of my daughter’s close friends who are transitioning, one male to female, the other female to male. These are wonderful people deserving of love and appreciation, and it pains me to know there are those who would disrespect their rights so much, for no good reason.

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     In my profession of audio recording, there has been a serious lack of women over the years making their way to the console. Much of this has been because of a male-dominated culture creating artificial barriers, as there is no evidence that men are inherently superior to women in any significant way as recording engineers and mixers. Fortunately, the tide is turning, and diversity is steadily entering the recording space. My college-level courses in Music Synthesis, and Sound Recording & Production have already become more diverse over the last two years, with noticeable improvement in gender parity and more non-white students registering for my class. I celebrate this new shift, and I'm ready to serve them all as best I can. Since working at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, I have experienced an impressive diversity of students, and I have continued to participate in Intergroup Dialogue training, a program developed by faculty from the University of Michigan. This program if effective at helping people from differing backgrounds and privilege levels to break down societal barriers and communicate more effectively, resulting in more acceptance and equality between sometimes opposing groups.

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     I believe in equality and diversity in employment, education, and life in general. Full stop. I sincerely hope to work with and for people who feel the same way and act on those beliefs.