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Rice University has joined the list of prominent colleges and universities seeking to understand and come to terms with its complicated and often painful history involving race, the Houston Chronicle reported. The university announced the creation of a Task Force on Slavery, Segregation and Racial Injustice in early June. President David W. Leebron said the panel of faculty members, students, staff and alumni would attempt to better understand and document the university's history of segregation and discrimination against black Americans, and to recognize the implications of that past for Rice's present.

"Although Rice University was founded nearly 50 years after the abolition of slavery, Rice has some historical connections to that terrible part of American history and the segregation and racial disparities that resulted directly from it," Leebron wrote. "As a university, it is part of our obligation to understand our history, and its connection to our present, as best we can."