^ The Inauguration of

David W. Leebron

The Inauguration of
David W. Leebron

The Beginning of His Presidency
of Rice University

Copyright © 2006 by Rice University
Houston, Texas

Photography by Tommy LaVergne and Jeff Fitlow, Rice University

Design and Production by Web and Print Communications, Rice University

Printed by Charles P. Young, Houston, Texas

2006

Table of Contents

Foreword 7

Part I: The Inauguration 9

David W. Leebron: A Biographical Sketch 11

The Official Summons 14

The Inaugural Proceedings 15

The Investiture 18

Community Celebration 32

Delegates of Institutions of Higher Learning 39

Delegates of Learned and Professional Societies 44

Letters and Certificates of Congratulations 45

Inaugural Committee and University Marshals 48

Part II: Historical Background 49

A Brief History of Rice University 51

The Presidents of Rice University 52

Rice University Board of Trustees 54

The Presidential Search Process 55

The Presidential Search Committee 56

The "White Paper": The Context of Rice University 57

Part III: Transition— Looking to the Future 67

A Process for Change 69

The Call to Conversation 70

A Vision for Rice University's Second Century 81

Endorsement by the Board of Trustees 84

Photographs follow page 38.

Digitized by the Internet Archive

in 2010 with funding from

Lyrasis IVIembers and Sloan Foundation

http://www.archive.org/details/inaugurationofdaOOrice

Foreword

The inauguration of a new president is a signal event in the Hfe of any
university, for such occasions allow an opportunity not only to celebrate past
accomplishments but also to suggest new goals and fresh agendas for the future.
Inaugurations at Rice University have always been especially memorable events because
the entire history of the institution represents the living out, the gradual fulfillment,
of a remarkable vision of the university's purpose articulated by its first president,
Edgar Odell Lovett, at its formal opening in 1912. Lovett's address, appropriately
tided "The Meaning of the New Institudon," has been to Rice's history somewhat as
the Constitution has been to the United States, though Lovett's words — rather than
limiting — have served constantly to enlarge the university's ambition. Each of the
successors to Lovett has found inspiradon in his address, bvit in October 2004 his
words seemed particularly prescient because university leaders recognized that in less
than a decade the insdtudon would be celebradng the centennial of its opening.

Inaugurations bring together the total Rice community as do almost no other
event: present are board members; faculty, staff and administrators; students; alumni;
and members of the general public. The entire ritual — the color of the academic
gowns and the banners of the residendal colleges and graduate student association
that enliven the academic procession at the beginning and the recession at the end,
the festive music, the greetings given by representatives of the diverse consdtuencies
of the university, the formal presentation and investiture of the new president by
the chair of the Board of Trustees, the address by the new president, with the whole
program bracketed by an invocation and a benediction by members of religious
communities — seems Umeless, both grounded in centuries of tradition and dedicated
to new academic purpose in the coming years.

There is always magic in new beginnings. Presidential inaugurations infuse the
university community with a powerful sense of renewed ambition, bold dreams, and
strengthened commitments. Ceremonies are essential to the life of any institution, in
part because they recall first principles and impart new zeal, and for that reason Rice
University celebrated the inauguration of David W. Leebron as its seventh president
on October 2, 2004, in a spirit of hope and confidence. The university is on the eve
of a new century of service and accomplishment. To help determine the shape of new
developments at Rice, President Leebron on June 30, 2005, initiated a formal process
of dialogue called "Call to Conversation," with a document by that tide helping to
focus the comments of all participants. This period of extensive discussion elicited
many questions and suggestions that helped President Leebron refine his ideas. In
December 2005 he announced his "Vision for Rice University's Second Century."

No university stands still, and the ideas reflected in this volume document
an important era in the history of Rice. Sixty years ago, upon his retirement and
with a new president at the helm, Edgar Odell Lovett looked forward to the "state of
transition." He confidendy saw change as an opportunity to improve the university,
moving it "from good to better." That optimism about the future that Lovett
represented is still the dominant characteristic of Rice University as it approaches the
centennial of its opening in 2012. President Leebron's vision, emerging as it does from
the university's goal and tradition of excellence, will help shape the next phase of
Rice's history.

Part I

The Inauguration
October 1 6f 2, 2004

David W. Leebron: A Biographical Sketch

David W. Leebron 's academic career in legal education before coming
to Rice University seemed to the search committee perfectly to prepare him
for leadership of the university even though it has no law school. The personal
qualities he possessed — "an academic scholar of the highest order," as one of
his colleagues put it; a person of "unquestioned trustworthiness, integrity, and
honesty," said another; and described further as one who consults widely, listens
carefully, and then acts determinedly — clearly met the expectations of the search
committee. His goals and accomplishments after eight years as dean of the
Columbia University School of Law suggested the kinds of things he might be
expected to do at Rice. The search committee (and the law school dean) were
very aware that a great university was far larger and more complex than a single
professional school, but the nature of the changes put underway at Columbia's
Law School by Leebron strongly recommended him to the Rice committee.

When David W. Leebron accepted Columbia president George Rupp's
invitation to become the dean of Columbia Law School (and the Lucy G. Moses
Professor of Law) in 1996, after having taught there since 1989, the school had
embarked on a fundraising campaign of $125 million and had raised $90 million.
Leebron showed extraordinary skill at fundraising, and in two and a half years
more than met the goal, in fact, exceeded it by more than 10 percent. These
funds were skillfully employed to reposition the Columbia Law School in the
upper echelons of legal education in this country. Under Leebron's direction,
the faculty was expanded by more than a quarter, giving it perhaps the best junior
faculty in law education anywhere. Moreover, recognizing that law graduates were
playing an increasingly vital role in the world of business and government as well
as law, Leebron broadened the school's curriculum by appointing historians,
economists, philosophers, and political scientists to its faculty. At the same time
he increased the diversity of the faculty and students. He made a special effort to
attract students from across the nation and drew a larger number of international
students than any other highly ranked law school. While doing all this and moving
the Columbia Law School higher in the rankings of such schools, he increased
financial support for students and doubled both annual giving and the school's
endowment. He improved and enlarged the school's facilities, doubled the size of
the applicant pool, dramatically raised the already renowned academic quality and
prestige of the school, and earned the respect and affection of his faculty.

The more the members of the search committee learned about Leebron,
the more they liked him, and the culmination of their extensive search was a
unanimous recommendation of his name to the Rice Board of Trustees. The
trustees too were quickly convinced that David W. Leebron was the right person to
lead Rice University at this stage of its history. On December 17, 2003, their choice
was announced, and Leebron and his wife, Y. Ping Sun, were introduced to the
assembled Rice faculty and staff at a meeting in McMurtry Auditorium in Duncan
Hall. As President Jeffrey Lehman of Cornell University described the selection
of Leebron, "David is a brilliant, inspiring academic leader; Rice is a world-class
university. The match is absolutely perfect." Leebron's wit and humor were much
in evidence when he first spoke to the assembled Rice faculty, creating a very
favorable initial impression.

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What were the ingredients in David W. Leebron's career that had earned
him such acclaim and now the presidency of Rice? Born in Philadelphia on
February 12, 1955, and a graduate of that city's William Penn Charter School,
the young Leebron was an Eagle Scout and a member of a large (four siblings)
and devoted family. Leebron has described his teachers at his Quaker school,
founded in 1689, as having "enthusiasm, intelligence, open-mindedness, and a
concern about other people in the world," and those qualides, he said, "shaped
me." His parents supported a series of exchange students from Europe, Japan,
and Mexico, and these experiences fostered his lifelong interest in international
affairs and international educadon. From William Penn Charter School, Leebron
went to Harvard, majoring in history and science. He wrote his honor's thesis on
"Hermann Kolbe and the Structural Theory of Organic Chemistry: A Case Study
in Sciendfic Opposition." Graduadng summa cum laude with his BA in 1976,
Leebron proceeded to Harvard Law School, from which he earned his JD in 1979
magna cum laude. Along the way he won the Sears Prize (given to the two students
with the highest GPA in the first year class) and was named president of the
Harvard Law Review.

Following this stellar academic training, David W. Leebron won a
clerkship with Shirley M. Hufstedler, a judge on the U. S. Ninth Circuit Court of
Appeals in Los Angeles. Leebron deliberately went west to clerk because, he said,
"I've always . . . wanted to experience different places and different cultures."
But when Judge Hufstedler accepted, shortly thereafter, an appointment as the
nadon's first Secretary of Education, Leebron was momentarily faced with the
prospect of having no job. He was rescued by the UCLA Law School, which
recruited him to teach torts to first-year students in the spring semester of 1980.
Not sure exacdy what he wanted to do but knowing he was interested in world
affairs, Leebron and a law school classmate embarked on a round-the-world
tour together. Upon returning to the United States, he accepted a position as an
associate with a major New York law firm, Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen and Hamilton,
where he speciahzed in internadonal corporate law. But during that semester
at UCLA he must have been bitten by the teaching bug, so after two years in
corporate practice, Leebron joined the faculty of the New York University School
of Law as Professor of Law and Director of the International Studies Program. He
would teach there for six years, meanwhile meeting and marrying Y. Ping Sun, a
graduate of the Columbia Law School class of 1988.

David W. Leebron may have been interested in international education,
but Ping embodied it. A native of Shanghai, she had been reared primarily by her
grandparents in Tianjin during China's Cultural Revolution. She boldly sought "a
great adventure" and applied to Princeton, which not only accepted her but also
sent her an airplane ticket. Her first trip out of China was to that stately campus.
Graduating cum laude from the Woodrow Wilson School there in 1985, she
proceeded to Columbia Law School and a distinguished career with a leading law
firm in New York City.

In 1989 Leebron was invited to Columbia for a one-semester visiting
professorship and was subsequently offered a permanent position. The then
Columbia dean, another friend, and especially the encouragement of Ping,
convinced Leebron to accept the Columbia offer. He taught torts to first-
year students and additional courses in the fields of his particular interest-

12

international law, international trade, and human rights, interests that also earned
him a fellowship in 1988 to the Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International
Private Law in Hamburg, Germany, and an appointment in 1992 as the Jean
Monnet Visiting Professor at the Universitat Bielefeld, in Bielefeld, Germany.
Then, back home at Columbia, when the current dean retired, Columbia
president George Rupp (who had been Rice's fifth president, 1985-1993)
appointed Leebron to the deanship of the law school with widespread support
from the school's faculty.

Leebron has published widely on such topics as corporate finance,
international economic and trade law, human rights, privacy issues, and torts.
An active member of the New York Bar, he is a member of the American Bar
Association Standards Review Committee, the American Law Deans Board
of Directors, the American Law Institute (ex officio), the Council of Foreign
Relations, and the American Society of International Law. He serves on the
editorial board of Foundation Press and on the board of directors of IMAX
Corporation. David and Ping and their two children, Daniel (eight) and Merissa
(five), enjoy spending time together in France, skiing, dining at good restaurants,
taking in as many of the cultural events in Houston as time allows, dropping in
occasionally to have a meal at one of the residential colleges, and participating in
the full Rice experience.

David W. Leebron was chosen the seventh president of Rice University
after a careful, intensive eight-month search. "We sought an individual who
reflected the maturity of Rice at the end of its first century," said E. William
Barnett, chair of the Rice Board of Trustees, "and had the character and substance
to lead the university into its next century. David is that person."

13

The Official Summons

The dictionary defines investiture as "the act or formal ceremony of
conferring upon one the authority and symbols of a high office," whereas
inauguration can have the more mundane meaning of simply a beginning as well
as the general term for the ceremony associated with the induction of a person
into office. Speaking precisely, then, the inauguration of David W. Leebron began
with a ceremony on Friday, October 1, 2004, that in substance follows a ritual
rooted in the centuries old traditions of Cambridge and Oxford. Shortly after 1:00
PM on that day members of the Board of Trustees, senior administrators, members
of the inaugural committee, friends of the university, and several students and
alumni, led by William L. Wilson, Jr., chief marshal of the university and carrier
of the mace that since 1962 has been the symbol of the university's authority,
assembled under the Sallyport and began to march in procession down the
entrance allee of oaks to Wiess House, the home of the president.

Arriving there just before 1:30 pm. Professor Wilson, holding the mace,
with Board of Trustees Chair E. William Barnett at his side, knocked on the
door. David W. Leebron, flanked by his wife. Ping, and their children, Daniel
and Merissa, stepped out and stood before the doorway. There, with the sunlight
streaming down, Mr. Barnett presented President Leebron with the formal
summons, printed on a scroll tied with a blue ribbon, to his investiture the next
morning. Mr. Barnett read out the summons:

The Board of Trustees of William Marsh Rice University hereby summons
David W. Leebron to his Investiture as Seventh President of the University
at Half Past Nine O'Clock on Saturday the Second of October, Two
Thousand and Four, Main Academic Quadrangle.

David and Ping were beaming, and the expressions of all in attendance
suggested the excitement and hope that such moments always evoke. David and
Ping mingled with the delegation and visitors, who both congratulated them and
wished them well. When asked what he thought of the occasion, Daniel expressed
with the candor of childhood what all had felt, "It was hot." Later a member of
the search committee commented on how that solemn march from Lovett Hall
to Wiess House, led by the mace-bearer, "really rooted us in tradition — it was a
moving experience." It brought "closure" to the search process, he continued, in
a way that had not before come home vsdth such feeling. And at the end of the
brief ceremony in the bright sunshine of a beautiful October day, the presidential
family retreated to their air-conditioned house, and the delegation, most of
whom had earlier walked over, gladly rode air-conditioned Rice buses back to the
campus. The multievent inaugural ceremony had begun, and activities were now
to shift to several different locations for the remainder of that day and the next.

14

The Inaugural Proceedings

David W. Leebron, who had actually become the seventh president of
Rice University on July 1, 2004, and the inaugural planning committee wanted
to insure that every constituency of the university was included in the inaugural
festivities, and this of course included the several hundred visitors and delegates
representing other universities and learned societies. Accordingly, a set of activities
was arranged to allow the various groups that make up the larger university
community to have an opportunity both to celebrate together the auspicious
event of installing a new president and to meet in person the new presidential
family, David and Ping (the children were happy to be able to forego several of
the receptions and dinners) . Everyone understood that it was essential to have an
inclusive inauguration because a university is a learning community that depends
on all its faculty, staff, and students in order to thrive.

Delegates from afar began arriving on Friday afternoon in response to
invitations sent by Rice to their home institutions. Meanwhile, a reception began
at 2:00 pm at Cohen House for the members of the Rice staff. The tables and chairs
had been removed except for four handsome food tables and four others for
liquid refreshments. The menu was sufficiently varied to meet everyone's taste:

Pyramids of hearts of palm wrapped with cucumber cream cheese and smoked salmon

Seared tenderloin of beef with horseradish cream

Black bean and spinach tamale tarts

Cheddar cheese biscuits with sugar-cured ham and honey mustard

A variety of sweets:

Brownies with white chocolate chunks and cherries

Raspberry and blueberry crumble bars

Macaroons dipped in chocolate

Desserts garnished with mounds of strawberries and fresh mint

Outside in the live oak-draped courtyard, with the fountain sparkling in
the sunlight, were chairs and tables for guests; floral arrangements added color to
the scene. Hundreds of members of the staff, from secretaries and administrative
assistants and librarians to workers in facilities and engineering and food and
housing, came for refreshment and to meet and honor President Leebron and his
wife. With the inaugural committee serving essentially as co-hosts to the occasion,
the crowd was obviously pleased to see and speak with David and Ping, and they
graciously greeted the staff and expressed their appreciation for the work the
staff did every day to make the university function. Thomas Conroy at the grand
piano in the Cohen House lounge provided a pleasant musical background of
jazz standards from the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. By the time 4:00 pm arrived and
the guests of honor had returned to Wiess House (pacing themselves for the
many events of the weekend) , many of the hardworking staff of Rice had had
an opportunity to meet the new president and had experienced the sense of
excitement that the inauguradon heralded.

15

At Rice University's formal opening in 1912, delegates representing
important universities from around the world attended, and at every significant
event since then, that is, presidential inaugurations and the 1962 celebration of
its semicentennial, Rice has again made a special effort to place its history within
the context of the larger academic universe. At the 2004 inaugural festivities there
were in attendance delegates representing institutions ranging from the University
of Oxford, founded in 1187, to International University Bremen, founded in 1999
and largely modeled on Rice. As the delegates to the Leebron inauguration began
to arrive, though many were designated from among those universities' local
alumni. Rice staff members sought to incorporate them into the Rice community.
Student-led tours of the campus were offered, the Rice Gallery of Sewall Hall
presented an exhibit, "Jessica Stockholder: New Installation," and on Friday
evening, from 5:30 to 7:00 pm, a cocktail reception was held for the delegates and
selected Rice officials along with the members of the inaugural committee, who
again served as quasi-hosts, in the elegant La Fontaine Ballroom of the nearby
Warwick Hotel. Locals and visitors talked together about their impressions so far
both of the university and its campus and the ongoing celebration, enjoyed an
opportunity to meet David W. Leebron and Ping Sun, and generated a tangible
sense of anticipation of the formal investiture coming the next morning. The
hum of conversation and laughter suggested the warm feelings that suffused the
occasion as old friends shared recollections with each other and met for the first
time new visitors to the campus.

But the evening was not yet over. The Shepherd School Symphony
Orchestra, under the direction of Larry Rachleff, presented a "President's
Inaugural Concert" that evening at 8:00 pm in the Stude Concert Hall. The
talented student musicians performed with distinction four very different
numbers. Hector Berlioz's "Overture to 'Benvenuto Cellini,' op. 23"; Richard
Strauss's "Till Eulenspiegels Lustige Streiche, op. 28"; Ralph Vaughan Williams's
"Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis"; and Leonard Bernstein's "Symphonic
Dances from 'West Side Story'." As the tired but contented guests and local
audience members returned late that evening to their hotel rooms or homes,
many were eager to consult the weather reports.

From its inception, the preferred location for inaugurations and
graduations at Rice has been on the west side of Lovett Hall, in what is now
known as the Academic Quadrangle. The stunning architecture of the buildings
simply gives the site a grandeur perhaps unmatched in the state. The inaugural
committee and everyone else involved in planning the investiture of David W.
Leebron based their preparations on the hope that good weather would prevail
and this unique outdoor site could be used: stages were constructed; thousands
of folding chairs were in place; sound amplification equipment was installed;
and every expected move of the participants was choreographed to fit the
configuration of chairs, stages, and hedges.

But because when it rains in Houston it often pours, on all such occasions
a back-up location is prepared in the gymnasium, Autry Court, which obviously
lacks the visual grandeur of the Academic Quadrangle. Chairs, a small dais, and
other necessary accouterments are set up there too, and the floor is covered so
that chairs and shoes will not gouge the varnished wood of the basketball court.
Rainy graduation days and, in the case of the inauguration of Malcolm Gillis on
October 30, 1993, a freak cold snap, had sent the festivities indoors before, so

16

everyone knew such a move was a possibility. The evening weather reports on
Friday suggested a front was coming through soon, and they predicted that it
could bring showers. Accordingly, university officials and the inaugural committee
were alerted to the necessity of perhaps having to make a last-minute change of
venue early in the morning.

As luck would have it, the weather radar sometime before 6:00 am on
Saturday, October 2, 2004, showed a vicious red-and-yellow line of thunderstorms
scuttling southeastwardly across the state map, forecasting windswept downpours
just as the ceremonies were scheduled to begin. Quickly authorities decided to
shift the proceedings from the Academic Quadrangle to Autry Court, and in a
flurry of coordinated activity, facilities and engineering staff and the university
marshals moved furnishings and equipment, sent out notices, and rapidly
transformed the erstwhile gymnasium. But as the crowd began to grow in the
bleachers of Autry Court — saving the chairs on the floor for the official guests,
visiting delegates, student representatives, and faculty, resplendent in their
academic gowns — few could tell that this was not the venue desired all along.
Careful planning by the inaugural committee and the university marshals for just
such an exigency paid off, with the result that the rare miscues were so minor that
no one but those in charge of the planning was aware that something was awry.

17

The Investiture

Had the ceremony been held according to original plans, the beginning
act would have been a formal procession consisting of a color guard, the chief
marshal, and five designated wreath bearers — Derrick Matthews, president of
the Student Association; Joanna Papakonstantinou, president of the Graduate
Student Association; J. Kevin Bartol, president of the Associadon of Rice Alumni;
Gloria Bean, co-chair of the Staff Advisory Committee; and Robert L. Patten,
deputy speaker of the Faculty Council — musically accompanied by the Shepherd
School Brass Choir's sdrring rendidon of Richard Strauss's "Vienna Philharmonic
Fanfare." These five representatives of the Rice community were to place a
wreath at the base of the statute of founder William Marsh Rice in the center
of the Academic Quadrangle. However, since the expected inclement weather
had moved the ceremony several hundred yards westward to Autry Court, this
ceremony was moved temporally and occurred after the formal event and was,
regretfully, witnessed by far fewer pardcipants. Other than that, those participating
in the invesdture nodced no deviadon from the schedule printed in the program.

While the faculty and delegates robed in dressing rooms deep inside
Autry Court, the audience slowly began to fill the bleachers of the gym. President
Leebron's extended family and close friends were seated downstairs at the
front. Other special guests were seated in the bleacher seats at stage left. A low
rectangular dais had been erected on the south end of the playing court, with
attractive chairs, a lectern, tasteful greenery, and, attached to the deep blue
curtain that stretched across the rear, a hghter blue banner depicting the Rice
academic seal. As the audience filed in, in the upper bleachers at stage right
was the Rice Concert Band, conducted by Charles Throckmorton, and at the
rear, at floor level, were the twenty-six members of the Shepherd School Brass
Choir, energetically conducted by Marie Speziale. In the bleachers at the rear —
northern — end of Autry Court, over the entrances, and wearing gold robes with
white stoles, were the approximately one hundred members of the Rice Chorale,
conducted by Thomas Jaber.

The Concert Band played "America, My Country Tis of Thee" as the
audience continued to grow; there was an announcement at 9:30 am that the
invesdture would begin at 9:45, the slight delay a result of the change in venue.
The wait was enlivened by the band's spirited performance of several familiar
pieces by bandmaster John Philip Sousa. As the audience members awaited the
academic procession. Shepherd School student Melody Johnson sang the Sarum
Plainsong "Veni Creator Spiritus," an early Latin hymn that has been sung at
every Rice commencement. Then followed a glorious burst of music, "Ceremonial
Fanfare," composed for the occasion by Rice faculty member Arthur Gottschalk
and performed by the brass choir. This piece clearly announced the approach
of distinguished guests. The academic procession commenced, with appropriate
music performed by the Rice Concert Band.

Chief Marshal William L. Wilson, Jr., carrying the ceremonial mace,
headed the procession, immediately followed by the five greeters representing
the various constituencies of the university and the members of the Board of
Trustees. Reaching the front, Wilson mounted the dais beside the lectern and
turned to face the oncoming procession, the mace held before him. Approaching
the dais were the students in procession: ten undergraduates represendng each

18

college, led by a banner carrier displaying the insignia of the particular college;
then ten representatives from the Graduate Student Association. The banners
of the nine colleges and the Graduate Student Association were then placed in
holders positioned just in front of the deep blue curtain that formed the south
wall of Autry Court. The undergraduates' robes were solid blue, and the graduate
students wore black robes with stoles of the color specific to their academic fields.
Then came the \isiting delegates and finally the members of the Rice faculty,
all wearing the distinct and colorful academic regalia that signified both their
universities and their scholarly fields. An iniexpected advantage of having the
ceremony inside was that the audience, seated above floor level in the bleachers,
had a much better view of the proceedings, and the view, looking down on the
color and variety of the academic procession, presented a remarkable spectacle
that bespoke long tradition.

As the last faculty member filed into place, suddenly, almost like a bride at
a wedding, there at the back of the center aisle stood E. William Barnett, chair of
the Board of Trustees, with President Da\id W. Leebron at his side, accompanied
by two university marshals. The four walked down the aisle, stepped upon the
dais, and at that moment Chief Marshal Wilson moved slightly to the front, raised
the university mace — held horizontally — up before him, and turning slowly,
ceremonially placed it in its special stand.

Mr. Barnett then advanced to the lectern and graciously welcomed
everyone to the invesdture of David W. Leebron as the seventh president of
Rice University, pointing out that the ceremony performed today incorporated
traditions begun at Rice at its initial academic convocation in 1912. "This
ceremony this morning," he continued, "in every sense of the term, marks
the beginning of a new chapter in the history of Rice University. Under David
Leebron 's leadership, we will build on the great traditions Rice has established,
and we will establish new ones, based on the work of our faculty, students, alumni,
and staff." With that, Mr. Barnett asked everyone to stand to hear a moving
a cappella rendition of Derric Johnson's arrangement of the "Star Spangled
Banner," performed by the Rice Chorale. At its conclusion. Rabbi Roy A. Walter
of Congregation Emanu El, having come to the rostrum, gave — after brief
introductory remarks — the invocation:

Before I invoke God's presence and blessing on this auspicious occasion, let
me offer a sentence of congratulations to both your new president, with whom
I have had the pleasure of having lunch, and to this outstanding institution.
Congregation Emanu El and Rice University have been neighbors and friends for
sixty years. I am proud to be here this morning not only because of the occasion
but also because of the close relationship our two institutions have enjoyed. We
share your joy and your anticipation of wonderful things to come from your
partnership with your new president.

And so we pray:

M'kor Chayim uv'racha, O God source of life and blessing. As we gather this
morning to formally install David Leebron as president of Rice University, we
invoke your presence among us.

We well know that the institutions we create are the true monuments of our
society. Not the buildings in which they are housed, but the values they espouse.

And no institution better demonstrates this truth than the educational
institutions which help us shape minds and hearts. Chief among our cherished

19

valuables are our children and their future. Before we send them off into the
world, we send them to colleges and universities with faith that not only will
they learn facts and acquire knowledge; they will also come to value wisdom and
develop a passion for the good.

Bless this university, God, with continued well being. Let it stand always as a
monument to our greatest hopes for the future by the way it embraces the present.
Bless learner and teacher alike. May every life Rice University touches be lifted
by the work done here. May every mind be opened to the fullness and wonder of
Your magnificent universe. May every heart come to beat in closer harmony with
the world.

Bless equally those who guide this university and set the path it will take,
especially its new president, David Leebron. May Mr. Leebron be personally
fulfilled by his tenure as president, and may his leadership lift Rice to new heights.
Help him to continue the real tradition of this university: to be a living monument
to our best hopes and dreams for the future.

And as he leads, help him always to remember Moses, who, in the portion
from Deuteronomy read this morning in synagogues, turned to God and said,
"Unless You go in the lead, do not make me leave this place." For you, God, as
our Creator, are the true source of knowledge and wisdom. From You comes our
highest hopes and dreams. Guide David Leebron and this university by leading
them in the right direction, so that their going forward is going toward blessing.
Amen.

After the invocation, Mr. Barnett prefaced what was to follow with the
following words:

This ceremony marks a new chapter in the proud and happy history of Rice
University. We all look forward to continuing and extending the achievements of
the university, its students, faculty, staff, administration, and alumni, under the
leadership of David Leebron. We dedicate ourselves to work with the president and
his administration to reach Rice's highest goals.

We are particularly pleased that distinguished representatives from more than
two hundred other universities and learned societies are here to help us celebrate
this auspicious occasion. We extend a hearty welcome to each of our guests and
fellow celebrants and thank you for joining us today.

Then Mr. Barnett recognized to warm applause four special guests: three
former Rice presidents, Norman Hackerman, George Rupp, and Malcolm Gillis,
and the wife of the current president, Y. Ping Sun. After explaining that the
traditional wreath-laying would occur, contrary to the printed program, following
the present ceremonies, Mr. Barnett called upon the five soon-to-be wreath bearers
to bring greetings to President Leebron from their respective constituencies.
Speaking for Rice's more than 2,800 undergraduate students, Derrick Matthews
said:

President Leebron, it is my pleasure to welcome both you and your family
to Rice. You came to Houston three months ago to become president of our
university, and Fm honored to call you a member of our community.

Rice is a special place for many reasons. Our excellence in field-leading
research, as well as our small size, are just a few. However, we must stay committed
to our notion of a holistic undergraduate education that includes emphasis on

20

teaching as well as experiences outside the classroom. Since its inception, Rice has
been known for the high-quality experience it provides its undergraduates. I am
glad to see you have shown that your plan for Rice inchides improving even more
upon this great strength.

As president, one of your jobs is to lead change within the vmiversity. You've
indicated the need for stronger involvement with Hotiston. You've spoken of a
more complete synthesis of all components of the undergraduate experience.
And you've praised the merits of engaging in public service. Rice students are
diverse and complex, and we look forward to seeing that our education reflects
that. But as president, it is also your job to ensure that Rice is an agent of change
in the world through its contribution to knowledge. Every part of this university,
especially students, needs to be a part of creating a real difference in the world.
Throughout our transformation, however, we must remain true to what we
are — a university that emphasizes quality interaction with faculty; recognizes
the importance of informal learning; and fosters an environment of respect,
understanding, and growth for all students.

I fully believe that you will be there for the students of Rice. I look forward to
your shaping Rice into a university where the opportunities of students are limited
by nothing other than our own ambitions.

Joanna Papakonstantinou then offered greetings from the almost 1 ,900
graduate students:

President Leebron, as president of the Graduate Student Association of Rice
University, I am honored to extend to you our enthusiastic welcome. I believe
that the Rice community under your leadership is prepared to take the next steps
to make Rice a university even more exceptional than it is today. The graduate
student body is willing and eager to help you make your vision for Rice a reality.

We are confident that you will lead Rice with an ambitious vision for what a
premier university can achieve. Rice has a great foundation on which to build, with
an outstanding reputation for undergraduate education as well as a distinguished
graduate program. The graduate student body supports your vision of establishing
and recognizing Rice as a premier research institution.

The graduate students look forward to working with you, the administration,
faculty, and staff to improve and expand graduate education at Rice. Graduate
students play a vital role in supporting and conducting research at Rice. No
university of distinguished national or international standing can exist without a
strong graduate program. A strong graduate program is beneficial not only to the
students but also to the university as a whole. Based on your mission and public
statements, President Leebron, we are confident that you are just as committed as
we are to this goal of strengthening graduate education.

Moreover, greater interactions between current students, both graduate
and undergraduate, and alumni will enrich and strengthen Rice. Promoting
interactions among students, faculty, and alumni is facilitated by Rice's small size
and interest in advancing the name, Rice University, in the greater community.

The graduate students of Rice University pledge our loyalty and support to
you and are eager to assist you in every way as you guide Rice University to an even
higher standard of excellence.

J. Kevin Bartol extended greetings to President Leebron on behalf of its
ever-growing base of alumni:

21

President Leebron: On behalf of the university's 45,000 alumni, welcome
to Rice. All Rice alumni wish you great success as you add your vision to the
accomplishments of a select group who have led Rice to a position of international
prominence and respect.

We remember Rice as a special place for the energy and focus the university
invested in us as students, for the trust and responsibility we were granted, and for
the high academic and ethical standards that have always been at the core of the
university.

So, we have a deep affection for Rice, and we are ready to support you as you
lead the university toward growth and continued excellence.

We want to hear about your plans, and we want to share our feelings about
Rice's future with you. We believe that Rice is a truly great institution that can
become even greater. You will find Rice alumni to be candid, sometimes painfully
so, and you will always find that we care deeply about the university. Rice alumni
have always supported Rice out of proportion to our numbers, both financially
and as volunteers. You can be confident that this will continue.

Call on us, challenge us, and ask us for help and support. We will not fail you.

Again, welcome to you and your family, and may your time at Rice be long
and rewarding.

The sincere welcome to the new president from the 1,500 staff members
was conveyed by Gloria Bean:

We heartily welcome you and your family to the Rice community. Though
it may be presumptuous to claim to speak for the great diversity the staff of
Rice represents, I know our feelings are unanimous in welcoming you to our
midst. We are honored to participate in the process that brought you here and
enthusiastically endorse its results.

We, the staff of Rice, pledge to support you in the many programs that your
great energy and reputation promise you will undertake and look forward to
assisting in their realization. We know that your vision for the future of Rice will
be one of excellence, not only in its primary educational and research endeavors
but in every aspect of the university's business. We sincerely hope that you too will
find satisfaction and sustenance at Rice, not only in the work to be done but in the
strength of community that is built from the tasks we all fulfill. Again, our hearty
welcome.

The final corporate greeting to President Leebron was expressed by
Professor Robert L. Patten on behalf of the approximately 600 members of the
Rice faculty:

In the spring of 2003 the Rice University trustees invited undergraduate and
graduate students, alumni, staff, and faculty to select representatives who would
join representatives from the trustees in searching for a seventh president, to build
on the exemplary achievements of Presidents Lovett, Houston, Pitzer, Hackerman,
Rupp, and Gillis. That search committee identified three primary ways for securing
and enhancing Rice's position as a leading institution of higher education:

1. Strengthen Rice's scholarship and research.

2. Leverage the impact of this capability through collaborative
partnerships with others.

3. Expand the impact of teaching and scholarship both nationally
and internationally.

22

Rice sought a leader who would head a consultative administration, promote
intellectual excellence, engage in dynamic partnerships, plan for the future, and
inspire wide-ranging support for Rice's programs and mission.

President Leebron, you were chosen because, of all those considered, you best
met, indeed most exceeded, these expectations. On behalf of the faculty of Rice
University, I welcome you as our president and partner in imagining and realizing
our future. We pledge to work with you to conserve and strengthen our traditions;
to discover innovative ways to transmit our heritage into the twenty-first century;
and through outreach to stimulate the educational, scientific, business, cultural,
and civic endeavors of Houston, the United States, and the global community.

With the welcome from the entire Rice community thus bestowed
upon President Leebron and, by clear implicadon, his family, Mr. Barnett again
approached the lectern, called Mr. Leebron to his side, and, his countenance
communicating the hope that inheres in such moments, solemnly addressed Mr.
Leebron.

David Leebron, you have accepted the summons of the board of Rice
University to serve as its seventh president. You are widely respected as a scholar
on issues ranging from international trade and economics to corporate finance
and human rights. Your research and writing interests have never diminished
your commitment to teaching, which you pursued throughout your term as dean
of Columbia Law School. You have demonstrated the value of a consultative style
of leadership. By consulting widely, listening carefully, and acting decisively, you
have led highly successful institutional changes. Your imwavering commitment
to open and honest exchange of ideas has generated trust and goodwill, not only
among those who agree with you but those who sometimes disagree with you. Your
ability to dream boldly, plan strategically, and execute flawlessly have resulted in
major advances at the Columbia Law School. You have remained committed to the
academic mission of the university while consistently increasing opportunities for
women and people of color among faculty, administrative, and student ranks. Your
tireless efforts have improved the vitality, visibility, and breadth of the university's
intellectual community. The Board of Trustees also recognizes the personal
attributes that you bring to the presidency. Your integrity, honesty, and good
judgment establish a high ethical standard for all in the university community.

As you begin a new chapter in Rice's history and assume the duties of the
seventh president, we pledge our support to you. Under your leadership and with
the dedicated commitment of faculty, students, staff, and alumni, we will work
together in realizing our ambition for this institution, that is to create and advance
knowledge, to provide an unparalleled education for students, and to create a
community that values the contributions of all of its members. David Leebron,
on behalf of the Board of Trustees of Rice University, and in the presence of
this esteemed company, I have the honor and pleasure of confirming your
appointment as president of the university and admitting you to all the authority,
powers, and privileges of that office. This presidential medal signifies your
investiture.

The presidential medal is a three-inch-in-diameter circular gold medallion
that is a variant of the official Rice seal; around the exterior are incised the words
"Presidential Medal of Office Rice University," and on the obverse are the words:
"David W. Leebron, Seventh President, William Marsh Rice University, Founded

23

1912, October 2, 2004." The medal hangs from two silk ribbons, one blue and
one gray, the official Rice colors; and by placing this medal around the neck of
Mr. Leebron, the investiture was complete. (This tradition, along with the formal
summons that opened the inaugural weekend, dates from September 1971
and the inauguration of President Hackerman, Rice's fourth president.) When
Mr. Barnett stepped back from the bemedalled President Leebron, a sustained
applause reverberated throughout Autry Court.

When at last the applause died away. President Leebron stepped to the
lectern and looked out across the expectant faces of the audience.

Thank you. Bill, for those generous remarks and for your pledge of support
on behalf of the Board of Trustees. We are indeed engaged in a common
enterprise to create and advance knowledge, and united in our aspiration to
provide an education to our students that will serve them well throughout their
lives.

I do want to thank you for the summons yesterday that brought me here —
although, as a lawyer, it was the first time I thought of a summons as a good thing.

It is gratifying, humbling, and, in fact, quite intimidating to see so many of
you here to share in this both personal and institutional moment of transition.
It is an enormous privilege and honor to be named the seventh president of
Rice University. I begin my journey, as you have heard, in the company of three
extraordinary predecessors — Norman Hackerman, George Rupp, and Malcolm
Gillis — ^who today we thank for their leadership and vision that produced the
university of which we are so proud. I thank the past and present members of the
Board of Trustees, most of whom are with us on this wonderful occasion. Your
careful and dedicated stewardship has led Rice to ever-greater heights.

I am delighted by the presence of so many of our faculty, who are the body
and soul of our academic mission. We are led in that mission by the outstanding
deans of our eight schools. We are supported in our teaching and research by
staff and administrators, without whose extraordinary talents and commitment
we could not succeed. The participation in this event of Rice alumni — young and
old, from near and far — reflects the important role they play in our university
community. I extend my appreciation to the undergraduate and graduate
students here today. Your promise is the constant source of our inspiration. We
also welcome, with special thanks, our many friends from Houston and beyond,
who have chosen to be part of the Rice community and who see in our university
powerful potential for making contributions to our city and our world.

Joining the Rice community today are delegates from colleges, universities,
and learned societies from across the globe. We recognize on this occasion that
all such institutions are engaged in a common enterprise, supported by a great
heritage.

I want to thank Derrick, Joanna, Kevin, Gloria, and Bob for their remarks.
And especially Derrick and Joanna who — as you will come to see — have given the
short version of my remarks.

Because this occasion marks a personal, as well as an institutional, transition
I take a moment to express my tribute to my family. My parents have shown their
love and support eveiy step of the way, and it is a source of immense joy that they
are here to participate. My mother especially supported this move, although I
believe it was because, at Rice, everyone calls me doctor. I come from a close-
knit family, and thank my brother and sisters — Betsy, Emily and Fred — and their
families for being here. I miss beyond words the presence of my sister Kathryn,
whose life was cut short two years ago, but whose spirit continues with us today,

M

and I thank my brother-in-law Tim for bringing his presence and hers here today.
And most of all, I thank my wife, Ping, without whose support — no, actually, whose
urging — I wouldn't be here, and who joins me today in becoming a part of Rice
University. Our children, Daniel and Merissa, who bring sparks of joy to every
day, already regard Rice as the home of thousands of older brothers and sisters.
Together, we enter into the Rice family feeling a tremendous sense of welcome and
a great hope and optimism for what the future will bring.

Universides mark the investiture of a new president with great ceremony,
with, as they say, pomp and circumstance. Most other institutions change
leadership without such ceremony or formality. When I became dean of a law
school — thanks, I might add, to the confidence of George Rupp — there was hardly
a sdr. One day my predecessor moved out, the next day I moved in. So why, when
most institutions in the modern world have shed such elaborate ceremony, do
universities engage in such to-do over the inauguration of a new president?

As with many things — and lawyers, I confess, are especially good at this — I
see two possible, in fact nearly opposite, explanations. One is that universities are
so tradition-bound, so unwilling to contemplate change, that traditions survive
for centuries unexamined and unchanged. So here we sit, in the Houston air-
conditioning, wearing gowns originally designed to keep students and faculty warm
during cold German and English winters.

The opposite theory is that universities maintain the tradition of an elaborate
inauguration precisely because they celebrate change and acknowledge the
capacity — nay, the necessity — of educational institutions to periodically renew
their leadership and sense of purpose. The pomp and circumstance suggests that
this change be accompanied by institutional reflection and rebirth. Our capacity
to change and to evolve is fundamental to Rice's awesome responsibility as a
producer and distributor of knowledge.

Ninety-seven years ago, a young professor came to Houston for the first
time. He was thirty-six years old, and the city less than twice that. Its population
was 80,000. Shortly after this initial visit, Edgar Odell Lovett first set eyes upon
the parcel of land on which we now stand. It was part swamp and part dusty
prairie. And so began the imagining of a great university here amid the bayous
of Houston. But could Lovett have imagined that one day this university would
boast of being the font of technologies that would allow us to diagnose and treat
disease on the molecular level? That it would sit across the street from the world's
largest medical center and engage with that center in pathbreaking research
collaboration? That its scholars would ponder the ethics of human cloning and the
conundrum of religious tolerance? That it would be located in the middle, not on
the outer edge of, a dynamic city of two million, the fourth largest in our nation?
That it would attract world leaders through a public policy institute honoring the
grandson of the man who had rescued Rice's assets for their intended purpose?
That it would have a music school of national and international renown, and that
it would anchor one of America's great cultural districts and, indeed, participate in
the city's artistic spirit through a unique art gallery of its own?

Well, as visionary as Lovett was, I don't think he could have imagined all these
things, and that is precisely the point. Imagination makes possible those things
that we could not have imagined. Or as Yogi Berra once said, "The future ain't
what it used to be." With imagination, the future won't be what it used to be; it will
be better.

How shall we continue to imagine the future of Rice? We are fortunate that
we are guided in this endeavor by the vision of Lovett. He set forth to build a
university with, as he put it, no "upper limit," dedicated to "the fimdamental
sciences, the liberal humanities, the progress of modern learning." He conceived

25

of a union between the "privileges of research" and the "pleasures of teaching." In
short, Rice has from its first moments been conceived of as a research university
with an unquestioned commitment to both graduate and undergraduate
education.

Over the years, Rice has built upon Lovett's vision. Beginning with a focused
endeavor of science, engineering, humanities, and architecture, we have added
in the ensuing decades schools of continuing studies, management, music, and
social science. We have built an institute of public policy, joined the Texas Medical
Center, and fostered interdiscipHnary and interinstitutional collaborations and
centers that sit at the forefront of the production of knowledge. At each step we
have shown our capacity to renew and enlarge our endeavor and to establish new
fields of excellence. These developments are what one would expect from a great
center of teaching and learning that ascribes to itself no fixed limits. We have done
a great deal in recent years, and it may seem we should pause and enjoy for a while
the fruits of those achievements.

The response to that temptation was given in a speech here at Rice Stadium
forty-two years ago by President John F. Kennedy. He said:

So it is not surprising that some would have us stay where we are a little longer to rest, to
wait. But this City of Houston, this State of Texas, this country of the United States was
not built by those who waited and rested and wished to look behind them. This country was
conquered by those who moved forward ....

Edgar Odell Lovett would have appreciated this sentiment. In 1946, after
serving for nearly four decades as the president of the Rice Institute, Lovett passed
the reins of leadership to William V. Houston. Lovett had every right to look back
over his time here and express his satisfaction with what he had accomplished. But
he did not. As he introduced his successor, Lovett embraced the transformation
that was surely to come. "Rice," he said, "is in a state of transition. It is a transition
from good to better. Facing extraordinary opportunity, the institution is about
to become braver, stronger, sounder, and more beautiful." So, as we face once
more extraordinary opportunity and transition, let us together aspire to move
from better to best. Let us do our part to continue the realization of a dream set
in motion by our great benefactor William Marsh Rice over a century ago. Our
responsibility is to build on the vision of our founders, to remain true to Rice's
unique sense of its academic mission and intellectual ambition.

We are living in remarkable times and daily see new possibilities for the quality
of human existence. We see in technologies born at Rice the potential ability to
detect and eliminate cancers, to manufacture tissue for those who have suffered
disease or injury, to discover new sources of energy, to process and disseminate
more quickly and accurately an astonishing amount of information, to understand
and address the dangers posed by natural disasters, and to describe our world with
the elegant simpHcity of mathematics.

Science and engineering at Rice have long received recognition for their
quality and achievement, and research and teaching in these fields continue to
hold enormous promise. We must recommit and invest deeply in these endeavors.
Knowledge increases human power and capacity and potentially our ability to
enjoy life and make it meaningful for an ever-increasing share of the human
population.

Yet, as knowledge of our natural world deepens, and our ability to change and
engineer our environment grows, and as our power to harness the great forces of
the universe expands, we are in more need, not less, of understanding our own

26

humanity, of understanding the ethical relationship among human beings, and
between our species and the rest of our environment. As we increase our ability
physically to change our world and affect others, we are in more need, not less, of
understanding human social, political, economic, and cultural interactions. We
increasingly, if regretfully, comprehend that as we discover knowledge that can
do enormous good, that can improve the lives of so many, we almost inevitably
discover knowledge that can be turned to harm, and indeed to the advantage
of those seeking to do evil. Thus Rice must remain a university committed
to excellence in research and teaching that spans the full range of human
endeavor. Otherwise, we cannot claim to fulfill our charge to create the complete
understanding essential to human progress.

So as we make the large investments needed in today's world to be at the
forefront of research in science and engineering, so, too, must we recommit
ourselves to the importance of the humanities, social sciences, and the arts.

Our task in educating our students is no less broad. It is because of this
breadth of research and teaching that we are able to provide the first-rate
education that will prepare our students so well for a rapidly changing world that
equally demands technical skills and humanistic values. Our students will become
the leaders in many fields as engineers, architects, doctors, artists, musicians,
economists, writers, scientists, scholars, business executives, and, yes, even lawyers.
We must, of course, impart the substantive knowledge for them to succeed in
their endeavors. But much more, we must teach them to succeed in a world that
changes with such rapidity that many are likely to be working in fields not yet
conceived. To limit their learning within boundaries of particular disciplines or
within the boundaries of this campus would be to deprive them of the range of
skills and values they will need to succeed. We must instill in our students a sense
of public responsibility, of civic engagement, of compassion and moral obligation.
We must give them the leadership and communication skills that will enable them
to make the most effective use of their knowledge and specialized talents.

Those who would be leaders must participate fully in the human experience.
The artists must appreciate science, and the scientists must appreciate art. Our
humanity comprises, in part, our refusal to become compartmentalized cogs in a
socially efficient machine. We bring our understandings of values, of culture, of
economic analysis, of political institutions, of human psychology, and of science
to each of our endeavors. When we ascribe to ourselves the task of selecting and
educating those we deem most capable of benefiting from the very best education,
we should not tolerate ignorance of culture, ignorance of human institutions, or
ignorance of scientific knowledge.

But the education of the classroom forms only a part of the experience we
must bring to our students. In our charge to bring our undergraduates from the
cusp of adulthood to full participation and ultimately leadership in our society,
we must take a holistic approach to the education we provide. We do this by
assuring that they learn as much outside the classroom as they do in it. Their
experiences — in leadership and participation in campus activities, on the athletic
field, in constructive dialogue with students different than they are, in their work
or study abroad, in public service here in Houston — are all an essential part of
their education.

Our task with respect to our students can be simply put: It is to inspire.
To inspire them about the joy and privilege of learning, to inspire them about
contributing to our world and, most of all, to inspire them about their own
promise and possibilities. That inspiration occurs when we create opportunities for
them to have transformative experiences — ones that ultimately shape the person
they will become.

27

It is not an easy business to design transformative experiences. But here at
Rice, we have the best environment one could hope for. We have the intimate and
supportive system of residential colleges. We have both a student-faculty ratio
and a culture that promote deep faculty involvement in the lives and work of our
students and welcome them as collaborators on research. We are in a great city
that offers endless opportunities to apply the knowledge learned in a classroom to
real-world problems, and to learn much more deeply and broadly in the process of
doing so.

Our mission of inspiring our undergraduates is complemented by our
commitment to teach at the highest level the future researchers of the world. Our
graduate students at Rice are central to achieving our aspirations. As Lovett put it,
one of our fundamental tasks is "the making of knowledge makers," and that takes
place most forcefully in our education of graduate students. These talented young
researchers play a double role, for they are also increasingly essential to the success
of our own established faculty.

Our responsibility as a great institution of learning extends from our doorstep
to across the globe. From its inception. Rice has been engaged with Houston, and
it is time to fully recommit ourselves to that engagement. We are doing much,
but we can do more — ^we must do more — for the future of Rice is inextricably
wound up with this great city. Our educational responsibilities extend to our city,
and our School of Continuing Studies has served it well. An important part of our
task is providing education in the skills needed by those engaged in commerce,
government, and the arts. But it cannot be limited to that. We must provide
education that increases our community's understanding of our complex world
and its appreciation of humanistic values. That is the responsibility of a great
university in the modern metropolis.

Our ability to serve and learn from Houston extends well beyond the
offering of formal educational programs. Our city must form an integral part of
the educational opportunity we offer to our students. A portion of our research
endeavors must focus on the problems of Houston, from its educational challenges
to its environmental problems, and we must play a part in solving those problems.

Rice and Houston can achieve great things in the years ahead, but neither
can do it without the other. We are joined together, great research university and
great city, in a symbiotic relationship. It is the presence of a university Hke Rice
that makes a city a center not only of production and commerce but also of ideas,
and it is those ideas, in turn, that ultimately support the growth of commerce and
culture.

At the same time, we must recognize that in this globalized world a great
university is an international citizen. We lead our lives in a world shrunk by the
forces of trade, migration, and communication. Our responsibility for human
improvement and understanding must know no boundaries. Our faculty and our
students must benefit from knowledge and ways of understanding that transcend
the tendency to parochialism. That opportunity should take place not only
through travel but increasingly through the presence of scholars from afar. We
must develop deeper relationships with comparable institutions around the globe,
for the benefit of both students and faculty. We must seek as part of the great
diversity of our student body an increasing component from the far reaches of the
earth that chooses to study at Rice. These students enrich us while they are here
and, in many cases, stay and contribute to Houston and to America.

Ambition and vision as to the breadth and excellence of our research and
teaching, a commitment to engagement with our city, and an internationalization
of both our community and our institutional relationships are some of the
essential ingredients of our success. But those will not be enough. We need a sense

28

of community, of common purpose built around common goals. That community
requires diversity and demands tolerance. Mutual respect for the dignity of all
persons and academic freedom to express ideas of all stripes are the twin pillars
upon which the intellectual conversation that produces progress depends. We
must embrace diversity not just in the community we have on campus but in
recognition of our responsibility to level life's playing field by opening our doors
to the best and brightest students that we can attract, regardless of their financial
resources. We are creators not only of knowledge but also of opportunity and
equality.

In his remarks upon the founding of Rice, Lovett categorized the institutions
of the world, including educational institutions, as governmental, religious, and
secular Each of these types of institutions plays a distinctive role in our society.
The work of our religious institutions is guided and motivated by both a belief in
a divine order and an understanding of our common obligation to serve others.
They are founded upon faith, a religious faith.

In my view, faith also has a role to play in secular institutions such as ours. It is
a faith in progress — a faith in the importance of truth, of learning, and of reason
in contributing to human development. Our universities exist because of a faith
that knowledge will lead to enlightened understanding, which vfill, in turn, lead
to a betterment of our world and the people who inhabit it. That sense of the
unlimited potential of a great university to contribute to human progress is the
faith and the vision upon which we are founded.

We set ourselves the goal of contributing to that progress, by creating the
world citizens of tomorrow, by making our metropolis the very best it can be, and
by creating the knowledge that will lessen human suffering and expand human
possibilities. To do this, we must strive to achieve excellence in all our endeavors,
in the laboratory and in the classroom, in the concert hall and on the athletic
field, in theory and application, in communication and understanding, in art and
in commerce, in leadership and in service. Our ambitions shall be unbounded,
and so, too, our contributions. We shall be a university that is of Houston and
for Houston, of Texas and for Texas, of America and for America, and of our
World and for our World. Our reach will span from the nanoscale to the cosmos,
from our neighborhood to cultures around the globe, from understanding of
past civilizations to predicting the future of the universe, from the aesthetic
appreciation of the arts to the understanding of the principles of commerce, from
the architecture of our cities to the energy of our oceans. These shall be our fields
of endeavor and our fields of dreams, the fields that we shall sow and we shall reap,
not only for Rice's honor, but for all humanity.

I close with Lovett's words, which continue to guide us as we embark together
on an extraordinary journey, defined by the unbounded imagination and ambition
of our predecessors to achieve a future yet unknov^i to us:

In the faith of high adventure, in the joy of high endeavor, in the hope of high achievement,
we have asked for strength, and with the strength a vision, and with the vision courage: the
courage bom of straight and clear thinking, the vision of enduring forms of human service,
the strength in resolute and steadfast devotion to definite purpose.

This is the legacy and the destiny of Rice University, and we are privileged to be
part of it. Thank you.

The enthusiastic and sustained applause indicated how perfectly President
Leebron's remarks fit the occasion of the morning and, more importantly, this
moment in Rice's history. The Rice Chorale again thrilled those in attendance by

29

performing Randall Thompson's "Alleluia." As the last strains faded, Mr. Barnett
introduced the Reverend Helen Havens, the redred rector of St. Stephen's
Episcopal Church (and a Rice alumna), who pronounced the benediction. "Let us
pray," she began.

As our investiture draws to a close, we pause, as we did at the beginning, to
honor and thank you. Most Holy One, whom we call by many names as we worship
you in a myriad of ways.

Beginning with William Marsh Rice, we thank you for the generosity of spirit,
wisdom, and courage of those who founded Rice Institute — now Rice University.

We thank you for the trustees, faculty, staff, and students who have incarnated
the vision of the founders for almost a century, from 1912 until today.

We thank you for the exemplary leadership of Rice's former presidents:
Edgar Odell Lovett, William V. Houston, Kenneth S. Pitzer, Norman Hackerman,
George Rupp, and Malcolm Gillis.

And on this special day we raise grateful hearts and voices to a loving God for
our newly installed president and his wife, Ping, and their children, Daniel and
Merissa. Shower your abundant blessings upon President David W. Leebron that
he may be fruitful in all that he undertakes.

Incorporate him quickly into the Rice community that he may feel the
strength of our commitment to him and to the university and know that we are all
in this together.

Conscious of all that we have been and profoundly hopeful of all we will
become — may we find comfort and challenge in the well-known words of
fourteenth-century English saint and author, Julian of Norwich, who, despite the
troubled times in which she lived, continually affirmed: "Love is the answer" and
"All shall be well, all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well." Julian's
words are a beacon light as Rice continues to extend its influence far beyond the
university's hedges, daring to believe today that — through science, art, technology,
the humanities, and all that Rice encompasses — understanding can emerge where
there is hatred, healing where there is dread disease, a decent life where there is
abject poverty, and peace where there is unspeakable war.

For a final word of inspiration, we borrow from yet another fourteenth-
century spiritual teacher, the anonymous author of "The Cloud of Unknowing,"
who said, "God is calling you to something more."

I believe God is calling Rice University to "something more." She is calling us
who love this university to "something more."

May we, led by President Leebron, commit ourselves to the realization of the
"something more" to which we are being so called on this beautiful morning in
October of the year 2004. Amen.

With that, the Rice Concert Band began to play the recessional. As the
student banner bearers came forward to pick up their respective banners that were
displayed before the blue curtain wall, Chief Marshal William L. Wilson, Jn, lifted
the mace from its stand. Holding the ceremonial staff before him, Wilson began
to lead the recession, followed immediately by E. William Barnett and David W.
Leebron, then the greeters, the trustees, the students, the delegates, and finally
the members of the Rice faculty. All paced out to the stately music provided by
the band, and exiting Autry Court, they dispersed to predetermined locations
to remove their robes. One small subset of those who had been on the dais left
the gym area and, along with the color guard, proceeded to lay the wreath at the

30

base of the founder's statue, which turned out to be rather a private ceremony.
Despite the dire weather reports, no heavy downpour appeared, only periods of
sHght drizzle. But the humidity was stifling even by Houston standards, so most in
attendance, upon leaving the air-conditioned Autiy Court, were instantly thankful
the investiture had been moved indoors. The site was not as attractive as the
Academic Quadrangle, but it was decidedly more comfortable.

Had the original plan been adhered to. President Leebron and Ping
would have attended an outdoor reception for students and alumni in the
courtyard between the Rice Memorial Center and Herring Hall. But the rain
plan that called for moving the investiture ceremony to Autry Court also moved
this reception to the adjacent Fox Gym. The caterer, The Stone Kitchen, had
transformed the pracdce court into a festive space, with autumn-themed displays
of attractive serving pieces garnished with fresh herbs, seasonal fruits, garden
vegetables, and artisanal bread. The handsomely decorated buffet tables were
filled with finger sandwiches of sliced ham on black pepper cheddar biscuits,
chicken salad or pimento cheese on wheat bread, avocado and bacon on white
bread, and turkey with Swiss cheese on pumpernickel bread. As if that were
not enough, there were southwestern red chili corn crepes filled with grilled
vegetables, Roma tomatoes, green onions, and lime-infused cream cheese;
artichoke dip served with pita and tortilla chips; tomato torts of sliced Roma
tomatoes on puff pastry rounds, topped with Parmesan cheese; and mounds of
fudge brownies, sand tarts, raspberry buttercake squares, sugar cookies, and
lemon bars.

Admittedly some students simply slept late this Saturday morning, but
those who attended the investiture and then the reception clearly enjoyed the
event. With a student band providing uncharacteristically soft music in the
background, David and Ping mixed among students and alumni, greeting them
and talking about their pleasure in their new roles at Rice. It was a fun, relaxed
time, enjoyed by all, but those responsible for the schedule kept an eye on the
clock because they had to transport the first family to the Hilton Americas Hotel
downtown for the next phase of the inaugural weekend. Faculty, trustees, Rice
associates, delegates, and special guests were invited to attend a reception and
luncheon.

31

Community Celebration

The new Hilton is the large hotel recently built downtown adjacent to
the Brown Convention Center. Those who began to arrive soon after 12:00 noon
found the lobby space, with its great wall of glass that provides a panoramic view
of the city skyline, an attractive setting for the reception. Shordy before 1:00
PM the growing crowd began to move into the large ballroom lit by twelve huge
chandeliers. The room looked resplendent, the tables dressed in gold brocade
tablecloths with tasteful orchid centerpieces. Again E. William Barnett served as
master of ceremonies, and after welcoming everyone, he introduced Houston
mayor Bill White, whose humorous informal remarks pointed out how important
Rice University was to the city of Houston, and vice versa. Mayor White and
President Leebron had been classmates at Harvard, graduating together in 1976,
so the mayor's welcome was especially poignant.

After the mayor's reflections. President Leebron also spoke informally,
primarily thanking everyone involved in planning and carrying out the invesdture
ceremony and indicating how privileged he felt to be at the helm of this university
at the beginning of the twenty-first century. With the sense of humor he had
displayed again and again since first introduced to the Rice faculty in December
2003, he shared his five-year-old daughter's less-than-enthusiastic appraisal of his
inaugural address. Over the laughter of the audience, the president reported that
Merissa had added, however, that she would be willing to listen to his next talk. To
that willingness all who had been present earlier in the morning smilingly nodded
their agreement. On that happy note everyone turned his or her attention to the
excellent meal that was before them:

Salad of baby romaine lettuce with red and yellow peppers and artichokes

Filet mignon with oasis and blueberry reduction

Au gratin potatoes

Grilled asparagus with patty pan squash and baby carrots

Gingerbread poundcake spiced with white chocolate mousse

As guests finished the repast and prepared to leave, the hum of
conversation that filled the room suggested that everyone had enjoyed the day's
festivities and felt good about the future of the university. The luncheon closed
the public portion of the inaugural weekend, but for a selected audience of civic
leaders from the region's major cultural, medical, educational, and business
institutions, the local consular corps, and the trustees and special friends of the
university, there would be one more event, an invitation-only reception and dinner
at the Warwick Hotel at 7:00 pm that evening.

The La Fontaine Ballroom looked quite different from its appearance the
previous evening at the reception for visiting delegates. The impressive circular
room with its glass wall that allowed views of the Mecom Fountain and the original
wing of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston was now filled to the brim with gaily
decorated tables, complete with all the place settings, silverware, and glasses that
suggested the culinary splendor to come. The centerpieces for the tables near the
dais were elaborate candelabras, while the tables in the alcoves adjacent to the
exterior windows had floral arrangements. Greenery representative of hedges was

32

on most tables, symbolic of Rice's desire to eliminate old barriers and promote
interaction between the campus and the larger community. The guests — including
President Leebron's extended family and family friends — were seated in such
fashion as to intermingle with the civic and university leaders. Again E. William
Barnett served as the gracious host for the evening, and once more he thanked
those who were in attendance. The Reverend William Lawson of Wheeler Avenue
Baptist Church in his inimitable way gave an eloquent and moving invocation
in the extemporaneous tradition of his denomination. As soon as the Reverend
Lawson's message of appreciation, faith, and hope was processed by the audience,
Mr. Barnett again moved to the lectern. He introduced Professor John B. Boles,
who presented remarks (as guests enjoyed their salad course) intended to place
the events of the day in the context of Rice's history.

Honored guests and colleagues, here we are tonight, meeting in a grand
hotel ballroom, surrounded by wonderful groves of live oaks, and in the shadow
of impressive artistic, medical, and educational institutions. But none of these
was here in 1908 when Edgar Odell Lovett of Princeton was appointed the first
president of the Rice Institute. Holder of a PhD in astronomy from the University of
Virginia and another PhD in mathematics from the University of Leipzig, and with
teaching experience at Virginia, Johns Hopkins, and Chicago as well as Princeton,
in Lovett the trustees had chosen more wisely than they could at first have possibly
realized. Lovett's initial task was to imagine what the new university might be and
become. The international-minded trustees sent him on a nine-month trip around
the world to visit universities and laboratories and libraries and to interview faculty
from Oxford to Rome to St. Petersburg to Tokyo so that he could develop an
inspired idea of what might be achieved — if one had the proper vision — in that
then small city on the Texas prairie. Lovett wrought with the detailed precision of
the mathematician that he was and with his sights on the stars as one might expect
of the astronomer he also was. He planned a university of the highest standards,
one dedicated to letters, science, and art; a university that reached out to the world
for the finest scholars that could be obtained and for the best prepared students.
He wanted an institution of physical beauty, one devoted to discovering new
knowledge as well as disseminating it; he wanted a university that kept one eye on
the larger world and one eye focused on the needs of its immediate community.

The original Rice charter was vague, and the first trustees did not really
know exacdy what to make of it or just what Mr Rice, the donor, had intended.
But when they offered the presidency to Dr. Lovett, they had the good sense to
trust his wisdom, to support his ambition, to help him create what was to become
a great university. When classes began in 1912, the campus itself was beyond the
paved roads of Houston, and yet to that infant campus Lovett had invited scholars
and leaders from around the world. And what an invitation it was, printed on
sheepskin and mailed in a shellacked wooden tube. There was a marvelous three-
day convocation, wherein the city's leaders interacted with the world-famous
scholars and with the new faculty. The program itself, bound in calfskin with an
embossed seal of the institute on the cover, indicated the grandeur, the importance,
of the occasion. Lovett foresaw the future greatness not only of Rice but also of
the city of Houston, and he noted that the great cities of the world historically
had all supported great institutions of higher learning. Indeed, there had always
been a symbiotic relationship between, as he said, commerce and education. That
spectacular opening convocation was a confident announcement to the entire
world that here was being born an infant university that would one day takes its
place among the academic giants.

33

Not only did Lovett intend to attract scholars from around the globe to Rice,
but he intended as well to attract the people of Houston onto the campus for
lectures, for concerts, for enrichment, for life-long learning and true re-creation
of the mind and spirit. He also intended to send Rice faculty and students both
into the larger world and into the local society. He understood that Rice graduates
would — as engineers, architects, artists, doctors, lawyers, musicians, teachers,
religious leaders, and businessmen — help build the city and the state. Always
Lovett imderstood how important Rice was to Houston and how essential Houston
was to Rice. For him educadon was not simply in and for itself but instead was most
truly measured by its contribution to the public good. Carved on the cornerstone
of the original physics building in 1915 was the phrase "science in the service of
society."

And yet despite its international and community significance, Lovett also
understood that Rice was first and foremost a laboratory and a storehouse for
knowledge and the training ground for young minds. On that morning of
September 23, 1912, when the first fifty-five students came to campus for the
opening of classes, they all, along with the faculty and prominent representatives
from the city, met in what we now call the Founder's Room in the administration
building (now we call it Lovett Hall). President Lovett greeted each student by
name and shook their hand, and then, with his voice trembling with emotion, he
asked them to share one faith with him: he asked them to believe in reason, he
asked them to believe in beauty and beautiful things, he asked them to believe in
their fellowman, he asked them to believe that it was possible to teach and possible
to learn. And if you share those beliefs with me, he told the very first students,
then we can here build a great university. That commitment to reason, beauty,
humankind, and the potential of teaching and learning has remained a central
focus of this university, and along with an emphatic commitment to excellence, it
has shaped the subsequent history of this institution. Education — the creation and
transmission of knowledge — is at the heart of the campus enterprise.

Here tonight, celebrating the inauguration of Rice's seventh president,
celebrating too the positive support this community has always provided Rice
University, and looking ahead with growing excitement to our centennial in 2012,
we salute that original sense of mission, that boldness, that willingness to dare to
do something great. We are still, after ninety-two years, fulfilling the vision laid out
with such clarity in 1912 by our founding president; we still are vigorously pursuing
that high ambition and we continue to set new goals. Our eyes are still on the
stars! Thank you so much for your presence — you honor us and our purpose as we
formally install David W. Leebron as president of William Marsh Rice University.

Mr. Barnett returned to the lectern, thanked the previous speaker, and
then, after the salad course but before the entree, introduced David W. Leebron
to the assembled guests, some of whom had not been able to attend the formal
investiture that morning. President Leebron expressed appreciation to the
audience for its attendance, but he also had one more formal address he wanted
to make before the inaugural weekend ended. It was a message of particular
importance for the civic leaders assembled because President Leebron felt strongly
that Rice University, which from its beginning had recognized both a local and
an international focus to its mission, needed to explore new ways in the future
to relate to, gain from, and contribute to the varied worlds beyond the hedges.
Tiding his comments "Houston and the World," President Leebron addressed the
attentive audience:

34

Thank you again for joining me and my family in this day of celebration for
Rice University.

As some of you may know, my family and I arrived in Houston at the end of
June, and I began my appointment as Rice's president on July 1. The search and
selection process itself was an interesting experience. I came to Rice for the first
time almost a year ago, I think. The weather was gorgeous, perhaps around 80
degrees. Jim Crownover told me that that the weather was like that all year rotmd.
I now see why Jim was so successful as a consultant. As some of you know, there is a
new slogan around Houston — "Houston: It's Worth It." I actually have one of their
T-shirts here. On the back is a list of things that some see as challenges of living in
Houston. I see the list as those things Jim and the search committee didn't tell me.

This evening I want to speak briefly. (For those of you who were at the lunch
today, I am pleased to let you know that my daughter pronounced that second
speech boring as well. So she's at home tonight.) I want to return, with special
acknowledgment to those in this gathering who represent both Houston and
the world, to two of the themes I emphasized: engagement with Houston and
engagement with the world.

What is it that brought us to Houston? Of course, most importantly, it was
Rice University, this incredible jewel of a university, situated three miles from the
center of the nation's fourth-largest city, in the middle of its cultural district. It is
a university that both provides the very best undergraduate experience and makes
important contributions to our knowledge of the world.

I am, in fact, on record as saying that our only complaint about Houston is that
Houstonians apologize too much for the weather. You know how it is. Houstonians
are incredibly hospitable. The typical welcome we get is something along the
following lines (please excuse me, I don't have the Texas drawl down yet): "It is
so great to have you here, welcome to Houston, and I'm sorry about the weather."
Well, on another occasion, I suggested that we Houstonians take a lesson from real
estate advertisers in New York and stop describing the weather here as hot and
humid and instead describe it as "cozy."

So what attracted us to Houston other than Rice? The diversity and dynamism
of Houston. Its openness — no one seemed to care whether we were from Houston
or Texas. Its southern hospitality. Its culture. Its internationalism, and its welcoming
of immigrants whether from New York or Nigeria. And of course, there was that
11,000-square-foot house. Once more, I can't do any better than quoting Lovett:

Houston — heavenly Houston, as it has been happily named by a distinguished local editor
of more than local fame — you will find in some ways a bit too close to New York, perhaps,
but here you will find many a heartening reminder of the memories and traditions of the
South, and all the moving inspiration in the promise and adventure of the West. Here, in a
cosmopolitan place, in a community shaking itself from the slow step of a country village to
the self-conscious stature of a metropolitan town, completing a channel to the deep blue sea,
growing a thousand acres of skyscrapers, building schools and factories and churches and
homes, you will learn to talk about lumber and cotton and railroads and oil, but you will also
find every ear turned ready to listen to you if you really have anything to say about literature
or science or art.

Lovett sensed that Houston would grow into a major metropolitan city, and
Rice would be a critical part of that important transformation. Indeed, one of the
things that I began to learn immediately about Rice is the special relationship
between it and the people of Houston. Even for those Houstonians who never
attended Rice, it occupies a special place. They see in Rice, I believe, a symbol of

35

the city's own commitment to intellectual excellence and a necessary engine for
their own progress. From the very beginning Houstonians supported Rice — with
scholarships, funds for lectures, and other contributions. Rice can continue to
make an extraordinary contribution to the future of Houston, but only if Houston
chooses to make an investment in Rice.

As a matter of educational philosophy, civic responsibility, and competitive
advantage. Rice ought to be fully engaged with the city of Houston and capitalize
on all that it has to offer. This is a project of engagement that begins with our
academic mission. We have created numerous relationships with Houston that
inform the scholarly work of our faculty and the intellectual conversations on
our campus. Let me cite only a few examples. For the past twenty-three years, the
Houston Area Survey has systematically tracked the continuities and changes in
demographic patterns, life experiences, attitudes, and beliefs among Houstonians.
This social science research has contributed enormously to our understanding
of the major economic, social, and political shifts that have defined Houston's
evolution.

Our scientists and engineers affiliated with both the Environmental and
Energy Systems Institute and the Shell Center for Sustainability are undertaking
critical research on the atmospheric and climate challenges facing Houston and
other large coastal cities. Two of our architecture professors run the Rice Building
Workshop, including a collaboration with Project Row Houses in Houston's Third
Ward, to apply the principles of their field to the housing needs of our community.

The effort to create intellectual synergies with other Houston institutions
can best be seen in our joint efforts with the Texas Medical Center (TMC). The
perhaps fortuitous proximity of Rice and the TMC research institutions has already
led to a significant number of individual collaborations numbering some seventy-
five programs. We envision an even deeper institutional relationship as we conceive
of a collaborative research center at University and Main. Perhaps nowhere else in
the world will be able to bring together biochemistry, bioengineering, basic biology,
physical science, computation, medical science, and medical practice in a way
that so fosters collaboration and is so necessary to progress. We must build other
collaborations — with the cultural and artistic institutions that surround us, with
the political institutions of our city and state, and v«th nonprofit organizations that
seek to serve our people.

Our engagement with Houston must also contribute to the first-rate education
we offer to our students. Rice is distinguished by the uncommonly high level of
undergraduate involvement in faculty research. And while our students actively
participate in each of the research endeavors I have mentioned, Houston has a
great deal more to offer our undergraduates than what they might learn in the
classroom or laboratory. Indeed, we want our students to see Houston as perhaps
one of the most important learning environments available to them while they are
at Rice. Whether it is attending an exhibition in the world-class Museum District
that neighbors our campus; participating in a public service internship with a
government or nonprofit organizadon; or hopping on the light rail to enjoy any
number of Houston's diverse cultural, cuUnary, and athletic offerings. Rice students
must view this dynamic city as an integral part of their experience on an urban
campus. To foster this, we plan to provide to all our undergraduate students next
year a METRO pass coupled with museum memberships and cultural information
that together we will call a "Passport to Houston." It will in fact be a passport to an
important part of their education.

Thus our faculty and our students must learn from the city. But we must
also contribute to that city. We do, in part, through research, but I emphasized
this morning the importance of educational endeavors as well. Rice contributes

36

importantly to the improvement of K through 12 education in Houston, and by so
doing, it enhances the opportunities available to the least well-off among us. We
have more than sixty-five different outreach programs that bring the remarkable
resources of Rice into secondary-school classrooms to teach and we hope inspire a
new generation of students.

I spoke this morning of the importance of our School of Continuing Studies.
Each year the noncredit courses spanning the arts, humanities, and sciences to
foreign languages, information technology, and professional development draw
75,000 to 100,000 visits by Houstonians to our campus. And just as Houston provides
cultural experiences for our students, we provide cultural opportunities for Houston.
I mentioned at lunch today the remarkable Shepherd School orchestra, but the truth
is that there is some performance by these talented young people almost every day.
Our art gallery, though small, provides a unique space in Houston for installation art.

In short, we cannot allow our hedges to be barriers either for the engagement
of our students with Houston or the engagement of Houston with Rice. The hedges
that define our campus should be appreciated primarily for their aesthetic beauty. By
placing sprigs from them tonight on the tables as centerpieces, we hope to symbolize
an acceleration of the process of achieving a more open and welcoming relationship
between our great university and this vibrant city.

But just as Rice was engaged with Houston from the beginning, so too was it
envisioned as a university with an international perspective and an internadonal
contribution to make. Prior to assuming the presidency at Rice, Lovett made a
world tour in which he visited the distinguished universities of England, France,
Germany, and Japan, among others. Those visits played an important role in the
conceptualization of the Rice Institute, and in particular, in the decision to make
it into a broad-based research university. At the ceremony founding the university,
scholars from all over the world participated, and a number of the first professors
recruited were from abroad.

Thus just as the hedges must not be our campus boundary, neither must the
boundaries of Houston, our state, or our country. We are very pleased tonight to
welcome so many consular officials to this dinner who represent countries from all
over the world. Through them, and our international companies and institutions.
Rice's access to Houston facilitates our access to the world. The size of the consular
corps, the third largest in the country, continues to expand steadily. It is one of the
most striking proofs of Houston's growth in global importance and its recognition as
an international city. Your presence here tonight signifies the important role you play
as cultural bridges to our community and to our region, together weaving a network
that ties Houston and Rice into the world.

Rice's international orientation is reflected today by our partnerships with
universities in France, England, Mexico, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Turkey, South
Africa, Australia, and Germany. The research of our faculty spans the globe — from
the preservation of language spoken by people in the Nilgiri Mountains in Southern
India to investigations of the origins of life in Mexico's hot springs, from research
on employee creati\1ty in Korea to studies of international accounting standards in
Canada and Australia, and from explorations of Islamic finance principles to research
on the ice sheets of Antarctica and the Arctic Ocean.

The Baker Institute of Public Policy creates a central link for Rice to the most
pressing international issues of the day. The foreign policy agenda of the Baker
Institute includes efforts addressing regional conflict resolution, important work
in the Middle East and North Africa, debating key North-South issues through the
Institute's Americas Project, understanding the culture of the emerging middle class
in China through the Transnational China Project, and analyzing the geopolitical
framework of energy supply and security issues in the Gulf and the Caspian Sea Basin.

3Z

These programs and our students benefit gready from the visits of world leaders
who come to Houston and to the Rice campus to engage in discussions of these
complex questions.

We seek to bring the world to our students, through the research of our faculty
as well as the growing presence of international students and professors; we bring
students and scholars from eighty-seven countries to Texas. We also seek to deliver
our students to the world in the form of study-abroad initiatives. By graduation, 42
percent of Rice undergraduates have had Rice-sponsored international experiences
in countries quite literally around the globe and in every habitable continent.
For these efforts, Rice University was honored by the Institute for International
Education last year for "garner [ing] national and international prominence ... in
the country and the world."

Thus, from the time of its founding. Rice has served as an international "port"
in Houston through which art, ideas, and people from around the world flowed
into Texas. It is imperative that we continue in this tradition at a time of increasing
global interconnection and complexity.

Well, this brings to an end my inauguration speech, and indeed, we approach
quickly the end to the inauguration festivities altogether. I thank you all again for
making these events so special for Rice and for me and my family. It has been a
wonderful day. Tomorrow perhaps we will take some time off, but Monday we begin
anew to continue building a great university that contributes both here in Houston
and around the world.

A long and hearty Houston applause erupted, and good conversation and
warm feelings accompanied the delicious meal that was artistically presented:

Field greens salad with cotija cheese and teardrop tomatoes

Veal chops and crab stuffed shrimp

Couscous pilaf with herbs

Julienne of red and yellow peppers, squash, and carrots

Dessert trio of truffle cake, pecan caramel torte, and lemon curd and berry tart

At the conclusion of the dinner, guests were treated to a wonderfully
invigorating and virtuosic piano performance by Jon Kimura Parker of the
Shepherd School of Music of two works, Franz Schubert's "Impromptu in G Flat
Major, op. 90, no. 3," and "Fantasy on 'Wizard of Oz,'" by William Hirtz, based on
original music by Harold Arlen. With that, the evening came to a happy end. Rice
had its seventh president, David W. Leebron, the entire Rice community had duly
celebrated his investiture in the office, and, that evening at least, all seemed right
with the world.

38

Chief Marshal
William L. Wilson, Jr.
leads Rice Board of
Trustees Chair
E. William Bamett
and other board
members to the
summoning ceremony.

E. William Bamett reads
the Summons to David
Leebron while Daniel
Leebron, Y. Ping Sun, and
Merissa Leebron observe.

President Leebron, Keith Cooper, Joanna Papakonstantinou,
and Linda Torcson at the staff reception

Susan Baker, the Honorable James A. Baker, III, and
President Leebron at the delegates ' reception

Marshal Hally Beth Poindexter with trustees and faculty

Chief Marshal
William L. Wilson, Jr.,
bears the Rice mace to the
Investiture Ceremony.

Marie Speziale conducts the
Shepherd School Brass Choir
in playing the processional.

Marshals Bart
Sinclair and
Kathleen S.
Matthews lead the
processional.

Students process to the Investiture Ceremony.

Marshals lead college
banner carriers.

Rabbi Roy A. Walter delivers
the invocation.

Student Association president Derrick Matthews

Graduate Student
Association
president Joanna
Papakonstantinou

Association of Rice Alumni president J. Kevin Bartol

Rice staff member Gloria Bean

Rice faculty member
Robert L. Patten

The official summons and presidential m^dal

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President Leebron
receives congratulations
from Rice Board of
Trustees Chair
E. William Bamett.

President Leebron
delivers his inaugural
address.

Rev. Helen Havens delivers the benediction.

President David W. Leebron with delegates Betsy J. Leebron
and Fred Leebron

Rice University presidents, past and present. David Leebron,
Norman Hackerman, George Rupp, and Malcolm Gillis

David Leebron, Norman Hackerman, George Rupp, Charles W. Duncan, Jr.,
E. William Barnett, and Malcolm Gillis

President Leebron
at the student and
alumni reception

Y. Ping Sun and
the Honorable James
A. Baker, III at
the inauguration
luncheon

\, President Leebron

m\!J. and guests at

^^k inauguration

1 luncheon

Cynthia andJ.D. Bucky Allshouse, Y. Ping Sun,
and David Leebron at the inauguration dinner

Board of Trustees Chair E. William Bamett, Y Ping Sun,
and Peggy Bamett

The Leebron Family

George Rupp and Kathleen Matthews

Ralph O'Connor and William and Stephanie Sick

Rev. William Lawson delivers
the invocation.

John B. Boles addresses guests at the
inauguration dinner.

Jon Kimura
Parker entertains
the inauguration
dinner guests.

Delegates of Institutions of Higher Learning

1187 University of Oxford

1 209 University of Cambridge

1583 University of Edinburgh

1636 Harvard University

1693 College of William and Mary

1701 Yale University

1 740 University of Pennsylvania

1 743 University of Delaware

1746 Princeton University

1754 Columbia University

1769 Dartmouth College

1773 Dickinson College

1 780 Transylvania University

1 785 University of Georgia

1787 Franklin & Marshall College

1 787 University of Pittsburgh

1 789 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

1791 The University of Vermont

1793 Williams College

1794 Bowdoin College
1794 University of Tennessee

1800 Middlebury College

1801 University of South Carolina
1813 Colby College

1815 Allegheny College

1817 Harvard Law School

1819 Centre College

1819 Colgate University

1820 Indiana University

1821 George Washington University
1822/1908 Hobart and William Smith Colleges

1825 Centenary College of Louisiana

1826 Furman University

1827 Hanover College
1827 University of Toronto

1829 Illinois College

1 830 University of Richmond

1831 New York University

1831 Wesleyan University

1832 Gettysburg College

1832 Wabash College

1833 Haverford College

Maryana Iskander
James A. Passamano
Virendra Oza
Gary L. Rosenthal
Evelyn Thomas Nolen
Robert E. Brodsky
D. Michael Crow
Sandra Dunphy
Elizabeth Hay Haas
George Rupp
John W. Elsenhans
Amy Dinkins Allen
Susan H. Boone
Susan Lynette Duncan
David H. Lehman
John N. Seitz
Richard Fuller Callaway
Susan Boardman Russ
Joan T. Neuhaus
William J. Osher
Steve Ward
Eduardo C. Bejar
Laurence W. Kellner
Lewis Krinsky
Thomas L. Baxter III
Roy Lemuel Nolen
Kevin Risley
James A. Sowers
Marjorie Corcoran
Sebastian Filgueira
Lindley E. Doran
Valerie Moore
Emilyn C. Sanders
Frank M. Fisher
Nick Oweyssi
Elgin E. Wells
Edward Nininger
Fred S. Zeidman
Christian Holmes
Fred Leebron
David J. Schneider
Noble Novitzki

39

1833 Kalamazoo College

1833 Oberlin College

1833 Stephens College

1834 Tulane University

1835 Marietta College
1837 Knox College

1837 Mount Holyoke College

1838 Duke University

1840 Southwestern University

1841 Manhattanville College

1841 Samford Universit)'

1842 Hollins University
1842 Mary Baldwin College

1842 Ohio Wesleyan University

1 843 College of the Holy Cross
1845 Baylor University

1 845 University of Mary Hardin-Baylor

1845 Wittenberg University

1846 Grinnell College

1847 The University of Iowa

1847 Lawrence University

1848 Rhodes College

1 848 University of Mississippi

1848 Muhlenberg College

1849 Austin College

1850 Hiram College

1850 Illinois Wesleyan University

1851 Northwestern University
1851 Ripon College

1851 University of Minnesota

1852 Tufts University

1853 Washington University

1854 Lon Morris College

1855 Bates College
1855 Elmira College

1857 Saint John's University

1857 Sewanee: The University of the South

1858 Iowa State University
1860 Augustana College

1860 Bard College

1861 Vassar College

1862 Gustavus Adolphus College
1864 Swarthmore College

1864 University of California, San Francisco

Richard E. Yehle
John Bryant
Gayle Bentsen
Robbert W. Vorhoff
Cynthia A. Reece
Dean J. Mento
Kathryn L. E. Rabinow
Roswell Vaughan
James V. Walzel
Carmelo Comberiati
Phillip Tiegerman
Caroline Crawford Maryan
Cynthia Knight Wier
Glenn A. Kittinger
Sarah K. Maytum
Mary Chavanne-Martin
L. Adrianne Bonham
Deborah Nelson-Campbell
David S. May
David J. Kirkpatrick
Steven C. Kumbalek
Stratton Hill
Holly Reynolds
Nancy G. Boles
Mary Gwen Hulsey
John W. Cassidy
Richard B.Jacobs
Osvaldo Gotera
Sandy Deabler
Lawrence J. Maun
Allen B. Potvin
Hans Mayer
Clifford Lee
William C. Beisswanger
Paula Howe
Paul L. Loeffelholz
Rufus Wallingford
Joseph Flanagan
Janice Carlson Gordon
Anina Moore
Susan Abel Lieberman
Jeff L.Marshall
Amy Cheng Vollmer
A. Eugene Washington

40

1864

University of Denver

Amelia Ribnick Kleiman

1864

University of Kansas

Allyn W. Risley

1865

Cornell University

Laura Ling Hsu

1865

Indiana State University

Kamlesh Lulla

1865

Lehigh University

Nicholas Zettiemoyer

1865

Oberlin Conservatory of Music

David Boe

1865

University of Maine

Richard B. Clark

1866

Carleton College

Mary Watson

1866

College of Wooster

William Wilson

1866

Towson University

Joseph Cummiskey and
Betty Cummiskey

1869

Purdue University

Thomas N. Farris

1869

Trinity University

Philip A. Wetz

1870

Syracuse University

Melanie Gray

1870

Wellesley College

Mrs. Trayton G. Davis

1871

Christian Brothers University

John W. Clark Jr.

1871

Smith College

Isabel Brown Wilson

1871

State University of New York at Geneseo

Geoffrey G. Roberts

1872

Paul Quinn College

Weldon J. Walton

1872

Virginia Polytechnic Insdtute and
State University

Mark Embree

1873

Texas Christian University

John. T Wooldridge

1873

Vanderbilt University

Eugene H. Vaughan

1876

Johns Hopkins University

Ralph S. O'Connor

1876

Prairie View A&M University

Ikhlas Sabouni

1876

Texas A&M University

Tonya Spell

1878

Creighton University

Gregory J. Micek

1880

University of Southern California

William R. Howey

1881

Marquette University

John Chirichigno

1881

Tuskegee University

Freddie L. Richards

1881

University of Connecticut

Arthur Ellsworth Fitts III

1881

University of the Incarnate Word

Karen Ottis Murray

1883

The University of Texas at Austin

Sheldon Ekland-Olson

1884

Temple University

BetsyJ. Leebron

1885

Bryn Mawr College

Margaret K. Klineberg

1887

Clark University

Joanne Witt

1887

North Carolina State University

Keith A. Harrison

1887

Occidental College

George Bole

1887

Teachers College, Columbia University

Hally B. W. Poindexter

1888

New Mexico State University

Linda F. Riviera

1888

University of Puget Sound

Andy Aweida

1889

Agnes Scott College

Cathy Oliver

1889

Barnard College

Nancy McGregor

1889

Clemson University

Margaret Boulware

41

1889

Howard Payne University

Evelyn Romig

1889

Manchester College

Harold D. Chapman

1889

Texas A&M University-Commerce

W.Joseph Webber

1889

University of New Mexico

Becky Gorham

1890

University of North Texas

Jared Hazelton

1890

Washington State University

Anne E. Lincoln

1891

Randolph-Macon Woman's College

Mary Catherine Miller

1891

Stanford University

Ellen Ochoa

1891

Texas Lutheran University

L. Wayne Feller

1892

University of Chicago

Peter R. Hardey

1893

American University

Marc Geller

1893

University of Montana

John Heggers

1899

Appalachian State University

E. Sethjenks

1899

Tarleton State University

John P. Idoux

1899

Texas State University-San Marcos

Kelly Frels

1900

Baylor College of Medicine

Peter G. Traber

1900

University of Louisiana at Lafayette

Philip J. Burguieres

1901

Texas Woman's University

Jean Spencer

1906

Abilene Christian University

David Gotcher

1909

Arkansas State University

John A. Woodside

1910

Kent State University

Peter Shultz

1911

Reed College

Jeffrey Noebels

1911

Skidmore College

Diane Kendall

1911

Southern Methodist University

Geoffrey C. Orsak

1918

Douglass College, Rutgers University

Carmen Twillie Ambar

1921

Rosemont College

Kimberly Marie Johnson

1923

Lamar University

Victoria Price

1923

McMurry University

C. Girvin Harkins

1923

Rowan University

Cindy Vitto

1923

Schreiner University

Tim Summerlin

1923

South Texas College of Law

James J. Alfini

1925

University of Miami

Vincent C. Hennessy

1925

Xavier University of Louisiana

Elaine Parker Adams

1927

University of Houston System

Nancy B. Rapoport

1928

Angelo State University

David Bixler

1928

Sarah Lawrence College

Lois Stark

1936

Lee College

Martha Ellis

1937

Pepperdine University

Terry Giles

1942

Fairfield University

Todd Spillane

1943

Tecnologico de Monterrey

Alberto Bustani

1943

University of Texas Southwestern
Medical Center at Dallas

Gordon Green

1944

University of California at Santa Barbara

Robert Englebretson

1946

Claremont McKenna College

Bradley Childers

42

1947 Texas A&rM University-Corpus Christi

1947 University of St. Thomas

1952 Huston-Tillotson College

1955 Harvey Mudd College

1955 New York Institute of Technology

1957 Cabrini College

1960 Houston Baptist University

1 960 New College of Florida

1962 NED University of Engineering &

Technology

1962 Punjabi University

1962 Texas A&M University-Galveston

1969 Universidad de Monterrey

1969 University of Alabama at Birmingham

1969 The University of Texas, Dallas

1972 The University of Texas Health

Science Center

1973 University of Houston, Victoria
1973 The University of Texas of the

Permian Basin

1983 Houston Graduate School of Theology

1999 International University Bremen

Sandra S. Harper
Robert R. Ivany
Nadine F. Jenkins
Jon C. Strauss
John Keville
Juliana Chiang
Richard D. Parker
Maribeth Clark
Shamsul Haque

O. R Verma
Thomas Schmalz
Arnaud Chevallier and
Mario Alanis
Jane Van Hsieh
R.M. Lockerd
Stanley Schultz

Joseph Ben-Ur
R. Douglas Spence

Keith A. Jenkins
Howard Resnikoff

43

Delegates of Learned and Professional Societies
AND Other Institutions

1743 American Philosophical Society

1776 Phi Beta Kappa Society

1780 American Academy of Arts and Sciences

1839 American Statistical Association

1852 American Society of Civil Engineers

1857 American Institute of Architects

1863 National Academy of Sciences

1878 American Bar Association

1880 American Society of Mechanical

Engineers International

1883 Modern Language Association of America

1885 TauBetaPi

1886 Sigma Xi, the Scientific Research Society
1888 American Historical Association

1888 American Mathematical Society

1892 American Psychological Association

1895 Southern Association of Colleges 8c Schools

1899 American Physical Society

1899 Phi Lambda Upsilon

1902 American Anthropological Association

1904 Eta Kappa Nu

1905 American Sociological Association

1907 Organization of American Historians

1908 American Institute of Chemical Engineers
1912 Association of Collegiate Schools

of Architecture

1916 American Accounting Association

1919 American Geophysical Union

1920 Houston Philosophical Society
1924 Linguistic Society of America

1928 Associadon of American Rhodes Scholars

1934 American Musicological Society

1934 Nadonal Society of Professional Engineers

1934 Southern Historical Association

1958 Jung Center of Houston

1960 American Society for Cell Biology

1964 National Academy of Engineering

1965 Independent Colleges and Universides

of Texas

1968 Thomas J. Watson Fellowship Program

1979 Center for Advanced Study in the Visual

Arts, National Gallery of Art

Norman Hackerman
David Carlson
James L. Kinsey
J. Lynn Palmer
William R Henry
David H. Watkins
Robert F. Curl
Nancy B. Rapoport
Keith B. Thayer

Debra D. Andrist
William L. Wilson
Millicent Goldschmidt
Mardn Wiener
Frank Jones
Hilda Julia Hannay
Martha Ellis
G. King Walters
Joe W. Hightower
Susan Mcintosh
Matthew W. Prucka
William Martin
Allison Sneider
Robert Goodmark
Rafael Longoria

Stephen A. Zeff
Edgar Bering
Michael M. Carroll
Masayoshi Shibatani
Maryana Iskander
MarciaJ. Citron
Elbert W. Link
Randal L. Hall
Mary Jane Taegel
Kathleen M. Beckingham
Kenneth Kennedy

Carol L. McDonald
BeverlyJ. Larson

Linda Neagley

44

Letters and Certificates of Congratulations

Agnes Scott College

Alfred University

Amberton University

Appalachian State University

Arkansas State University

Augustana College

Austin College

Auxiliary Bishop of Galveston-Houston

Babson College

Baylor University

Beloit College

Bennington College

Berry College

Boise State University

Brandeis University

Brigham Young University

California Polytechnic State University

California State University,

Dominguez Hills
California State University, Los Angeles
California State University, Northridge
California State University, Stanislaus
Centre College

Claremont Graduate University
Claremont McKenna College
Clark Atlanta University
Clark University
Clemson University
Colgate University
College of Santa Fe
College of Staten Island, City University

of New York
College of William and Mary
College of Wooster
Colorado State University
Columbia University
Connecticut College
Dartmouth College
Davidson College
Denison University
DePauw University

Dickinson College
Emoiy University
Emporia State University
Episcopal Theological Seminary

of the Southwest
Fairleigh Dickinson University
Florida International University
Follett Higher Educadon Group
Franklin and Marshall College
Gakushuin University
Gallaudet University
Goucher College
Grambling State University
Gustavus Adolphus College
Hampden-Sydney College
Harvard University
Hendrix College
Hope College
Idaho State University
Illinois Wesleyan University
Indiana State University
Indiana University
Iowa State University
James Madison University
John Marshall Law School
King Faisal University
Knox College
Kyoto University
La Salle University
Lake Forest College
Lehman College
LeTourneau University
Lewis & Clark College
Loras College

Loyola College in Maryland
Lubbock Chrisdan University
Macalester College
Marietta College
McDaniel College
McMurry University
Mercer University

45

Meredith College

Middlebury College

Millersville University of Pennsylvania

Mills College

Millsaps College

Mississippi State University

Montana State University

Muhlenberg College

Nagoya University

National Academy of Engineering

National Taiwan University

Nebraska Wesleyan University

New York Institute of Technology

Northern Illinois University

Northwestern University

Ohio State University

Old Dominion University

Paul Quinn College

Peace College

Pepperdine University

Pitzer College

Pomona College

Pratt Institute

Princeton University

Providence College

Queen's University at Kingston

Queen's University Belfast

Randolph-Macon Woman's College

Ripon College

Roanoke College

Rollins College

Roosevelt University

The Royal Society

Saint John's University

Salve Regina University

San Diego State University

Santa Clara University

Scripps College

Seattle Pacific University

Secretary General of the

United Nations
Sewanee: The University of the South
Silesian University of Technology
Simpson University

Skidmore College
Slippery Rock University
Smith College
Southern California Institute

of Architecture
Southwestern Adventist University
Southwestern University
Springfield College
St. John's College
St. Mary's College of Maryland
St. Olaf College

State University of New Jersey, Rutgers
State University of New York

at Fredonia
State University of New York at Buffalo
State University of New York College

at Cordand
State University of New York College

at Old Westbury
State University of New York at Oswego
State University of New York at Potsdam
Stephens College
Stetson University
Svenska Akademien
Tecnologico de Monterrey
Temple University
Texas A&M University Kingsville
Texas Christian University
Texas Southern University
Texas State House of Representatives
Texas State Senate
Texas State University San Marcos
Texas Tech University System
Texas Woman's University
Towson University
Trinity College
Truman State University
Tufts University
Tulane University
Universidad de Monterrey
Universidad de Salamanca
Universitas Indonesia
Universite de Montreal
University College London

46

University of Arkansas at Little Rock

University of California, Davis

University of California, Irvine

University of California, Los Angeles

University of Cape Town

University of Central Arkansas

University of Chicago

University of Cincinnati

University of Crete

University of Dayton

University of Edinburgh

University of Georgia

University of Hawaii, Manoa

University of Houston

University of Illinois

University of the Incarnate Word

University of Iowa

University of Kansas

University of Kentucky

University of Maine

University of Mary Hardin-Baylor

University of Maryland

University of Maryland Baltimor County

University of Massachusetts Amherst

University of Michigan

University of Minnesota

University of Montana

University of Munich

University of New Mexico

University of North Dakota

University of Notre Dame

University of Oregon

University of Pennsylvania Law School

University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia

University of Pittsburgh

University of Rhode Island

University of Richmond

University of South Alabama

University of South Dakota

University of South Florida

University of St. Thomas

University of Texas at Tyler

University of Toledo

University of Tulsa

University of Vermont

University of Virginia

University of Wales

University of Wisconsin

University of Zurich

Utah State University

Vanderbilt University

Vassar College

Virginia Commonwealth University

Waseda University

Washington State 'University

Washington University

West Texas A &: M University

Western Michigan University

Western Washington University

Wilson College

Wittenberg University

Wright State University

Yale University

Yeshiva University

47

Inaugural Committee

Robert L. Patten, Co-chair
Karen Hess Rogers, Co-chair

John B. Boles, Editor of Publications

Katherine T. Brown

Anne Chao

Mark E. Davis

Kyle A. Frazier

Melissa Fitzsimons Kean

Greg Marshall

Derrick Matthews

Kathleen S. Matthews

Joanna Papakonstantinou

Hally Beth W. Poindexter

Russell Price

Mark S. Scheid, Ex officio
Mary Bixby, Executive Director

Pjce University Marshals

William L. Wilson, Jr., Chief Marshal
Robert L. Patten, Mace-Bearer Emeritus

Stephen D. Baker

Keith D. Cooper

Andre W. Droxler

Bruce Etnyre

Joseph Manca

Kathleen S. Matthews

Susan K. Mcintosh

Marcia E. O'Malley

Donald Ostdiek

Ka-Yiu San
James B. Sinclair
Ronald Soligo
RichardJ. Stoll
Helen Toombs
James F. Young

48

Part II

Historical Background

49

50

A Brief History of Rice University

On October 10-12, 1912, representatives of the world's leading
universities and learned societies gathered to attend an academic festival
formally celebrating the inauguration of the William Marsh Rice Institute for the
advancement of "literature, science, and art." The facilities were modest — only
five buildings — but the dream was bold. The Rice Institute was intended not to be
merely a regional technical school but a university of world-class stature.

William Marsh Rice, founder of the Rice Institute, was born March 14,
1816. In 1838 he left his native Springfield, Massachusetts, and moved, first to
Galveston, and then to Houston, three years after its founding, in search of his
fortune. In a span of thirty years, he expanded a small merchandizing business
into a trading empire.

Rice married twice, but he survived his spouses and remained childless.
In 1891 he chartered the Rice Institute, a university of "the first class," to be
located in the city that had provided his start in business. He selected the first
Board of Trustees, headed by one of his attorneys, Captain James Addison Baker,
but work — at Rice's direction — on the new institute was to begin only after Rice's
death.

His death came unexpectedly, on September 23, 1900. Even more
unexpected was the subsequent appearance of an alternate will that named lawyer
Albert T. Patrick beneficiary of the majority of Rice's fortune. Captain Baker,
suspicious of the circumstances of Rice's death and of the alternate will, launched
an investigation that culminated in an admission by Rice's valet, Charles Jones,
that he had murdered Rice as part of Patrick's plot to gain control of Rice's estate.
Jones earned immunity from prosecution by providing state's evidence, while
Patrick was convicted of murder and sent to prison at Sing Sing.

Captain Baker's quick action helped clear the way for the institute to
fulfill its charter's mandate, and the trustees set about finding the right person to
bring Rice's wish to fruition. In 1908, acting on the recommendation of Woodrow
Wilson, then president of Princeton University, the trustees named Edgar Odell
Lovett as the first president of Rice.

Lovett called for the establishment of a university that would place "no
upper limit to its educational endeavor." His first initiative was to embark on a
worldwide tour of major institutions of higher learning to gather ideas for shaping
Rice and to select the original faculty from outstanding universities around the
world.

The Rice Institute opened on September 23, 1912, with 12 faculty
members and a first-year class of 48 men and 29 women, with Lovett greeting
each student by name. Several weeks later the ambition of the new university
was announced to the world by an elaborate academic festival. At its first
commencement, held in 1916, the institute awarded 27 BAs, 8 BSs, and 1 MA. It
awarded its initial PhD in 1918.

In the years since Edgar Odell Lovett, many things have changed at Rice.
In 1960 the institute was officially renamed Rice University, and today its serene
campus is a sylvan oasis amid the busde of a city that has grown to be one of the
nation's leading business, scientific, medical, and cultural centers. The campus is
home to approximately 70 buildings and 4,000 trees, and the university employs

51

more than 500 faculty members and boasts an enrollment of approximately 2,850
undergraduates and 1,950 graduate and professional students representing all fifty
states, nations from all over the world, and all racial and ethnic groups.

Though Rice has seen growth in facilities, academic disciplines, student
numbers, and international stature, the spirit of the university remains true to the
vision first articulated by President Lovett. It is characterized by its small size, gifted
student body, low tuition, distinguished faculty, acclaimed research, and handsome
campus.

The highly regarded traditions of Rice — from the Honor System, adopted
by student vote in 1916; through the residential college system, inaugurated in
1957; to the academic dedication of the most newly admitted student at Rice — all
add up to a university "of the first class." The reputation of Rice and of its more
than 45,000 alumni continues to grow as the university nears its centennial.

The Presidents of Pjce University

Edgar Odell Lovett (1908-1946) accepted appointment as Rice's first
president in January 1908. He resigned in May 1941 but because of World War
II continued to sei^ve through February 1946. He received his BA from Bethany
College and doctorates from the University of Virginia and the University of
Leipzig. He was professor of mathematics and chair of the Department of
Astronomy at Princeton University before coming to Rice. He largely shaped the
institution we know today.

William Vermillion Houston (1946-1960) took office as Rice's second
president in March 1946 and was formally inaugurated in April of the following
year. Educated at Ohio State University (BA, BS, and PhD), he was professor of
physics at the California Institute of Technology before coming to Rice. During
his administration graduate enrollment increased and there were two major waves
of construction on campus, including Fondren Library and the development of
the College System. President Houston (pronounced how-ston) resigned in 1960
because of poor health.

Kenneth Sanborn Pitzer (1961-1968) was named president of Rice in July
1961 and inaugurated in October 1962 during the elaborate sesquicentennial
ceremonies of the imiversity. Pitzer earned his BS at the California Institute of
Technology (where he took a course from William V Houston) and his doctorate
from the University of California at Berkeley. At Berkeley he rose to become
professor and dean of the College of Chemistry prior to accepting the presidency
of Rice. Pitzer significantly enhanced the graduate programs and research, pushed
the legal changes to the charter that allowed the charging of tuition and the
admission of African Americans, and developed the first capital fund campaign
in the university's history. He resigned in September 1968 to become president of
Stanford University.

52

Norman Hackerman (1970-1985) was appointed Rice's fourth president in
April 1970 and was formally inaugurated in September 1972. He received both his
AB and his PhD degrees from Johns Hopkins University and served as professor of
chemistry and president of the University of Texas at Austin before assuming the
presidency of Rice. Both the Shepherd School of Music and the Jones Graduate
School of Administration (later changed to Management) were established during
his administration. He carefully oversaw the university budget so as to live more
nearly within endowment income. Both undergraduate and graduate enrollment
increased. Hackerman retired in June 1985.

George Erik Rupp (1985-1993) took office as the fifth president of Rice
in July 1985 and was inaugurated the following October. Educated at Princeton
(AB), Yale (BD), and Harvard (PhD), Rupp was Lord O'Brian Professor of Divinity
and Dean of the Divinity School at Harvard before coming to Rice. During his
tenure at Rice the number and influence of interdisciplinary research institutes
increased significantly, graduate enrollment grew, the number of faculty increased
markedly, and perhaps most importantly, in a wide range of ways the ambitions of
the university were greatly augmented. Rtxpp resigned effective June 30, 1993, and
subsequently became president of Columbia University.

S. Malcolm Gillis (1993-2004) became the sixth president of Rice on
July 1, 1993, and was inaugurated October 30, 1993. He was educated at the
University of Florida (BA, MA) and the University of Illinois (PhD) Before
coming to Rice, he taught at Harvard and Duke, where he served as professor of
economics and public policy and was the first dean of the Graduate School and
vice provost for Academic Affairs, and then the dean of the Faculty of Arts and
Sciences. President Gillis emphasized internationalizing the university in terms of
students, faculty, and programs; embarked on a substandal building campaign
that transformed the look of the campus; and inidated and completed a $500
million capital campaign. Gillis's retirement as president of Rice took effect on
June 30, 2004.

53

Rice University Board of Trustees, 2004

Trustees

E. William Barnett, Chair

J. D. Bucky AJlshouse

D. Kent Anderson

Teveia Rose Barnes

Alfredo Brener
Robert T. Brockman

Albert Y.Chao

James W. Crownover

Edward A. Dominguez

Bruce W. Dunlevie

James A. Elkins, III

Lynn Laverty Elsenhans

Douglas Lee Foshee

Karen Ostrum George

Susanne Morris Glasscock

K. Terry Koonce

Cindy J. Lindsay

Michael R. Lynch

Robert R. Maxfield

M. Kenneth Oshman

Marc Shapiro

William N. Sick

L. E. Simmons

Trustees Emeriti

Josephine E. Abercrombie

J. Evans Attwell

James A. Baker, III

Raymond Brochstein

HarryJ. Chavanne

Janice G. Doty

Charles W. Duncan, Jr.

Matt F. Gorges

C. M. Hudspeth

Lee Hagejamail

Edward W.Kelley, Jr.

Albert N. Kidd

Frederick R. Lummis, Jr.

Burton J. McMurtry

Robert C. McNair

Ralph S. O'Connor

Bob Parks

W. Bernard Pieper

Harry M. Reasoner

Karen Hess Rogers

Jack T. Trotter

Trustees Advisors

Judy Ley Allen

Richard A. Chapman

Stephen C. Cook

Thomas H. Cruikshank

J. Thomas Eubank

William S. Farish III

Catherine Coburn Hannah

Joyce Pounds Hardy-McDonald

James W. Hargrove

Gerald D. Hines

William P Hobby

T Robert Jones

Baine P. Kerr

William F. Kieschnick

NealT Lacey,Jr.

Jerry McCleskey

J. W. McLean

G. Walter McReynolds

James R. Meyers

Pat H. Moore

S. I. Morris

Paula Meredith Mosle

J. Howard Rambin

David L. Rooke

Frank B. Ryan

Louisa Stude Sarofim

GusA. Schill,Jr.

Stephen J. Shaper

Stephen B. Smith

Louis D. Spaw, Jr.

Selby W. Sullivan

Helen Saba Worden

54

The Presidential Search Process

In 1907, when thexe were neither faculty, students, nor alumni, a
subcommittee of the Board of Trustees coordinated the search for the first
president of the Rice hisdtute, though of course the endre six members of the
board voted on the choice of Edgar Odell Lovett. When Lovett's tenure came to
an end almost four decades later, the trustees asked the faculty to select three of
its members to serve as an advisoi7 body to assist them in their search for a new
president.That process changed hardly at all fifteen years later following William
V. Houston's retirement. When Kenneth S. Pitzer resigned in 1967, the trustees
again established a faculty advisory body. But this time the faculty group was not
consulted — neither for that matter were all the trustees — before the board in 1968
announced the choice of William H. Masterson, the former dean of humanides,
as the fourth president of Rice. Faculty (and student) outrage was instantaneous,
more for the violation of the process than for the actual choice. Masterson
understood that the controversy made it impossible for him to serve effectively,
so, putting the good of the institution (his alma mater) before his own ambition,
he stepped outside. A somewhat chastened board then turned to Norman
Hackerman, who by reason of his presidency of the University of Texas at Austin
could hardly be seen as an inappropriate choice. After President Hackerman
announced in 1984 his intention to retire the following June, the Board of
Trustees, having learned well the lessons of 1968, developed a presidential search
process that was soon heralded as a model for other universities to follow and that
served the university well in its next three searches.

A search committee was established that consisted of three members
of the Board of Trustees, three elected faculty representatives, three alumni
members, an undergraduate and graduate member, and an administrative
director. Trustee chair Charles W. Duncan, Jr., served ex officio. The entire
group went on a retreat together in order to bond; it was quickly agreed that all
member's votes would be counted equally, and a strong measure of mutual trust
developed. In smaller groups of three or four, the entire search committee visited
a number of presidents and other chief officers of major universities across the
nation, interviewing them about their perceptions of Rice University and their
sense of the qualities the search committee should seek in a new president. In
so doing, the search committee members also educated themselves on what they
should expect in a leader simply by interacting with the most prominent academic
leaders in the nation. And of course the leaders they interviewed often suggested
persons they should consider. The entire search was conducted in such a manner
as to conceal the name of everyone considered: the committee had learned that
often candidates will not let their names be considered or will withdraw if word
gets out that they are even contemplating leaving their present position. As a
result of this very careful process, the search committee selected George Rupp to
be Rice's fifth president. In 1990 the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of
Teaching published a report tided Choosing a President that warmly praised the Rice
procedure and held it up as exemplary.

Upon Rupp's resignation in 1993, a similar process was used in the
subsequent search that produced Malcolm Gillis, again with the chair of the
Board of Trustees serving ex officio. The only change in the make-up of the search

55

committee was that this time there was a member representing the staff of the
university. By having all the major constituencies of the university thus represented
on the search committee, and by creating a genuinely consultative style, the entire
university community trusted the judgment of the committee and subsequently
the board choice of a president. In the search that followed Gillis's retirement,
the process was tweaked in several ways. One, there were four board members
and four faculty members, and the committee produced a carefully written
"White Paper" that described the university as it existed in 2003 and suggested not
only general goals for the future but also the characterisdcs desired of the next
president.

This handsomely designed document, illustrated in stunning color
photographs, proved to be a very effective promodon document. It more than
caught the attendon of potendal candidates and helped persuade them to
consider the Rice posidon. President Leebron, for example, credits the "White
Paper" with inidally convincing him that leadership of such a university was an
academic opportunity of the first rank. That inidal "hook" eventually led to his
acceptance of the presidency of Rice. Because of the role the "White Paper" played
in the search committee's success, and because it offers an accurate portrait of the
university on the eve of President Leebron 's tenure, its text is reprinted following
the list of the members of the presidendal search committee.

Presidential Search Committee

James W. Crown over, Trustee, Chairman

Teveia Rose Barnes, Trustee

Mary Cronin, Staff

Robert F. Curl, Jr., Faculty

Robin Forman, Faculty

Karen Ostrum George, Alumni

Carl Isgren, Alumni

Steven L. Miller, Trustee

Robert L. Patten, Faculty

W. Bernard Pieper, Trustee

James R. Pomerantz, Faculty

Miles Scotcher, Graduate Student

Andrew Weber, Undergraduate Student

E. William Barnett, Trustee, Ex officio
Melissa Fitzsimons Kean, Executive Director

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The "White Paper"

The Context of Rice University

Rice is a first-tier research university in the midst of a vibrant city. It is also
an intimate and highly selective college located on a beautiful wooded campus.
Compact in size, it has national and international reach and seeks to attract the
most talented people by promoting, celebrating, and reaping the benefits of
diversity. What accounts for this unusual combination of strengths? How did Rice
get this way?

William Marsh Rice, an East Coast entrepreneur, chartered the Rice
Institute in 1891. He saw Houston as a place of great promise and left his fortune
to endow a nonsectarian coeducational institution that would be free to all
students. The Institute opened in 1912 under the \isionary leadership of Edgar
Odell Lovett, a classically trained Princeton mathematician recommended to the
trustees by Woodrow Wilson, then Princeton's president. Drawing on what Lovett
learned during a nine-month tour of leading academic insdtutions from England
to Japan, he transformed Mr. Rice's vague instructions into a blueprint for an
exemplary university. He envisioned an institution "of the highest grade," one
that would keep "the standards up and the numbers down," that would attract
talented scholars from the best European and American universities, and that
would enroll promising students "without regard to social background." It would
use endowment income to pay both for buildings and for the costs of educadng its
students. These core values — high academic standards, small size, selectivity, and
affordability — have been enhanced over the succeeding century.

Until 1965, Rice charged no tuition. Through major efforts to build the
school's endowment thereafter, it has been able to offer a superior education
at tuition levels much lower than comparable schools. During the past several
decades, the university has allowed enrollment to grow only moderately while
condnuing to raise academic standards and expand diversity. Rice faculty members
have, since the beginning, earned national and international accolades for their
research and presentadons. Most notably, in 1996 two professors whose endre
careers have been spent at Rice received the Nobel Prize in chemistry. In keeping
with Rice's expanding horizons, in the 1990s the Board of Trustees grew larger
and more pluralist. Its members contribute diversified professional experiences
and significant nadonal and global influence. This evoludon parallels the growing
respect Rice has attained around the world.

Malcolm Gillis has announced that he will redre in June 2004 after a very
successful decade as the university's sixth president. Following a well-deserved
sabbadcal, he will return as a University Professor, eligible to teach and do
research in any department. Rice University is now launching the search for his
successor. As part of the process, this paper defines the character of the university,
oudines opportunities and challenges for the next decade, and describes briefly
the qualities sought in Rice's next president.

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The Character of Rice University

Six interrelated features contribute to Rice's unique character and
establish a strong fotindation for future success.

/. Advantageous size and location

With 2,700 undergraduates, 1,850 graduate students, 1,500 staff, and
approximately 510 full-time facult)' as of fall 2002, Rice is the second-smallest
member of the Association of American Universities. Its compact size fosters
collaboration among people of different backgrounds, experiences, and interests.
The campus is self-contained on 285 acres; renowned architects have designed the
buildings and landscaping to provide a beautiful, pedestrian-friendly setting where
casual interactions among people take place all the time.

Rice is closely connected to the resources of Houston, the fourth-largest
city in the country. Just outside Rice's hedges are beautiful residential areas, many
shops and restaurants, and the largest concentradon of healthcare facihdes in the
world. Nearby are numerous nadonally acclaimed museums and companies for
the performing arts, major league sports arenas, and excellent public and private
schools. More Fortune 500 companies are headquartered in Houston than in
any other U.S. city except New York. Houston's business community, propelled
by its characteristic entrepreneurial spirit, has diversified the city's economic
base, sdmulated enviable employment growth, and moderated local economic
cycles. Rice uses the assets, energy, ideas, and technologies within the surrounding
community to augment its own programs. The university also benefits immensely
from its collaborative interactions with Houston's world-class arts organizations.

Over the last twenty years, Houston has become one of the nation's most
ethnically and culturally diverse cities. Its population is 37 percent Hispanic,
31 percent European American, 25 percent African American, and 7 percent
Asian American and other. The international mix is just as broad. With seventy-
seven countries represented, Houston has the third-largest consular corps in
the nation; it is home to more than eighty international business organizations
and houses offices for half the world's largest foreign corporations. Houston's
diversity represents a great strength for Rice, as people of different backgrounds
and interests work together effectively in virtually all local, political, educational,
professional, and social contexts.

2. Exceptional undergraduate program

Rice enrolls undergraduates in six schools: architecture, engineering,
humanities, music, natural sciences, and social sciences. It receives more than
ten applications for each place in the freshman class. The university works
hard and successfully to ensure the diversity of its incoming classes, selecting
students on a "need-blind" basis. Students come from all fifty states and twenty-
seven other countries. Among current undergraduates, 34 percent are people of
color. A leading Hispanic journal ranks Rice second in the nation for recruiting
and retaining Latinos. Since 1990, Rice has led American universities in the
percentage of National Merit Scholars enrolling in the freshman class. And, as is
well known, national publications consistently rate Rice a "best buy."

58

Undergraduates enjoy a rich array of experiences.

• Academically, over 90 percent of undergraduate classes are taught by
full-time faculty members in small classes that take advantage of Rice's five-to-one
student-faculty ratio. Nearly one-third of the student body studies abroad for a
semester or a year. Furthermore, in recent years Rice has redoubled its efforts

to involve undergraduates in research. By the time of graduation, many have
worked with faculty in labs and studios, in the field, and in the library. Some have
published in scholarlyjournals or delivered papers at professional conferences.
Each year Rice holds a day-long Undergraduate Research Symposium. This event
has become a hugely successful way of highlighting students' scholarly and creative
accomplishments.

• Socially, students are, for their undergraduate years, assigned randomly
to one of nine residential college communities. Each college has its own faculty
associates, live-in Masters, student government, traditions, and fierce though
good-natured rivalries with the other colleges. They field intramural teams,
sometimes offer for-credit courses in areas outside the usual curriculum (this fall
Baker College will offer a course on the history of Rice co-taught by the executive
director of this search), manage their own student activities budgets, and provide
a center for social life. There are no sororities, fraternities, or other closed social
clubs at Rice. The college system is one of the features most often celebrated

by students and alumni, who feel that the experience of being part of a small,
diverse, inclusive community within the larger academic setting is invaluable and
unforgettable.

• With respect to personal values, one of the university's most cherished
traditions is the Honor System, begun in 1916. It requires students to help ensure
the integrity of all examinations and assignments by adhering to a strict code

of academic honor. The student Honor Council, whose members are elected
annually by undergraduates and graduate students, administers the system. All
undergraduates are members of the Rice Student Association, governed by a
student senate that has campus-wide jurisdiction and oversees all undergraduate
student organizations except the Honor Council and the University Court, which
adjudicates nonacademic infractions. Leadership opportunities are not restricted
to student government, however. Rice provides training in written, electronic, and
oral communication and sponsors numerous leadership development activities
and summer internships to aid students in their personal and professional
growth.

• In extracurricular pursuits, undergraduates participate in a broad range
of activities. From Habitat for Humanity and environmental clubs to tutoring
programs and chemistry demonstrations at the Houston Museum of Natural
Science, student-run projects encourage participation in civic affairs. Every
semester there are dozens of lecture series on campus, at the James A. Baker III
Institute for Public Policy and in the academic departments and schools, and there
are frequent concerts by visitors to or members of the Shepherd School of Music.
The colleges, music school, and Rice Players produce more than a score of full-
scale plays and musicals each year; students, faculty, staff, alumni, and friends all
get into the act.

The scope of these experiences gives undergraduates a solid foundation
for their future lives and careers. At the end of their time here, virtually all Rice

59

graduates who apply win admission to graduate or professional schools, and 72
percent are accepted by their first choice, a figure far above the median and only
slightly below the best among peer institutions. Since 1990, seniors have won
three Rhodes, five Marshall, three Luce, four Beinecke, two Winston Churchill,
and twelve Goldwater scholarships, and they have been awarded thirteen Mellon,
twenty-three Watson, fifty-four Fulbright, and 231 National Science Foundation
fellowships. In an independent survey of parents whose children attend thirty-one
of the nation's most selective colleges and universities. Rice earned the highest
ratings of schools nearly across the board, from application to graduation.

3. First-class research

Research and graduate programs are essential to great universities.
In addition to extending knowledge and fostering creativity and talent, these
programs can also enhance undergraduate instruction. Only six years after Rice
opened its doors, it awarded its first PhD. Today it is one of the sixty-two members
of the Association of American Universities, the organizadon of leading research
institudons in North America.

Rice is committed to excellence in carefully focused fields of graduate
and professional study in the six schools that provide undergraduate instruction
and in the Jesse H.Jones Graduate School of Management. The university has
doctoral programs in thirty-one academic areas, as well as master's programs in
architecture, business administradon, and music. Rice draws graduate students
from forty-four states and seventy-three foreign countries; its administration has
taken a leading role nationally in trying to make the student visa process, after
9/11, as expeditious and considerate as possible. The university awards more than
100 doctoral degrees annually, along with nearly 400 master's degrees.

Rice's faculty includes thirty members of national academies, fifteen
Guggenheim fellows, and nearly 200 additional fellows of national and
international societies and institutes. Professors are active in seeking and finding
external research support, and nearly 20 percent of the university's operating
revenue derives from grants and contracts.

Rice sustains dozens of interdisciplinary centers and institutes, including
the Baker Institute, the Institute of Biosciences and Bioengineering, the Center for
Biological and Environmental Nanotechnology, the Computer and Information
Technology Institute, the Environmental and Energy Systems Institute, the
Keck Center for Computational Biology, the Center for Nanoscale Science and
Technology, the Rice Quantum Institute, the Shell Center for Sustainability, and
the Center for the Study of Cultures. These organizations conduct collaborative
research and participate in interinstitutional partnerships with the Texas Medical
Center, NASA, and multiple research consortia; they amplify the depth and
breadth of Rice's research and teaching. Rice also sponsors prize-winning journals
in architecture, economics, English, and history.

Graduate students live near campus in two university apartment
facilities or elsewhere in the metropolitan area. They are encouraged to
interact in academic, athletic, and social settings. Some labs and seminars mix
undergraduates and graduates, and in some disciplines graduate students receive
training in pedagogy and teach classes or labs. Since Rice does not, however,
depend upon graduate students to teach introductory courses, they can focus
more on their degree programs.

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4. Nationally ranked professional schools

Rice has been careful about adding professional schools. It has no
graduate faculty of law, medicine, or theology. It does, however, offer advanced
work in architecture, management, and music, and these are among the most
distinguished of Rice's programs. The School of Architecture, ranked fourth
nationally by 800 architectural firms, emphasizes design and urban environments
and combines liberal arts education with preceptorships at premier architecture
firms in the U.S. and abroad. The Jesse H.Jones Graduate School of Management,
one of only two in the countiy that makes its matriculants apply their classroom
learning in real business settings, also requires that each student take a course
in entrepreneurship. Its national reputation has risen rapidly in recent years; it
is now in the top 10 percent of all American business schools. And the Shepherd
School of Music has, in the short space of twenty-seven years, become one of
the most prestigious university-level music schools. Its international student
body studies musicology, orchestral and keyboard performance, composition,
conducting, and voice, and graduates have positions in the nation's premier
orchestras, conservatories, and music academies.

5. Active participation in public sendee

Members of the Rice community do not stay "behind the hedges."
Outreach is extensive. The School of Continuing Studies offers the largest
selection of noncredit arts and sciences courses in Texas, and its multitude of
foreign language programs and instruction in English as a Second Language bring
thousands of local residents and international students to Rice. The Advanced
Placement Summer Institute is the largest, and among the best, in the nadon.
Rice also sponsors seventy-two educational outreach initiatives in Houston/Harris
County and the Rio Grande Valley, ranging from kindergarten through grade
twelve and involving scores of programs in professional development, science, and
mathematics for classroom teachers and administrators. The management school
offers customized noncredit courses for business and not-for-profit organizations.
The Baker Institute has played a major role in bringing world leaders to campus
for critical discussions of crucial issues and in advising the Clinton and Bush
administrations on energy policy and the Middle East.

Rice's model of the compact private research university has proved so
influential that the International University Bremen (lUB), the first private
university in Germany, selected Rice as its template. With the encouragement
and help of many at Rice, lUB has gotten off to a remarkable start and will serve
as an example to others planning new institutions in the European Union and
elsewhere.

6. Strong financial and organizational support

The university enjoys a large and well-managed endowment; at a current
value of $2.8 billion (May 2003), it is the fifth-largest endowment per student
among private American universities. Rice is nearing the successful completion
of its first comprehensive fundraising campaign, which aims to raise $500 million.
While the university came late to the use of debt financing, in recent years it has
issued approximately $200 million in tax-exempt borrowings while retaining a
triple A debt rating.

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A strong balance sheet and prudent fiscal management enable Rice
to sustain its tradition of offering an unsurpassed education at affordable cost.
Rice still accepts outstanding students from a large, well-qualified applicant pool
and meets their financial need. In the last decade, the university has renovated
properties and infrastructures and constructed new facilities for engineering,
humanities, natural sciences, the Jones School, the Baker Institute, and the
residential colleges.

Rice's greatest resources are the people who work here. Operating within
a lean structure, administration and staff rank high in capability and commitment.
While Rice has only about 43,000 alumni, their loyal and energetic support enrich
the school in many ways, not just financially. Moreover, the twenty-five trustees
bring exceptional breadth of experience and perspective to their responsibilities.
As citizens drawn from all over the world, they provide the university with contacts,
ideas, and influence extending far beyond the hedges.

The Opportunities and Challenges for Rice University

The coming decade will set tough challenges for institutions of higher
learning. Investment returns during this period are unlikely to match those of
the 1990s. Slowing growth in endowment revenue, increasing competition for
charitable dollars, and contintiing reductions in federal support are likely to
limit resource enhancement and income streams for higher education. Growing
competition to attract and retain top faculty will constrain academic agendas.
Major demographic shifts in the pool of university applicants will challenge
institutions that have not prepared themselves. Rice is well equipped to deal with
these trends and to capitalize on a number of potentially dramatic opportunities
for advancement. The university has exceptional strengths and no substantial
deficiencies in crucial areas. It also has leaders — among the trustees, faculty,
administration, students, and alumni — who are ready to move forward. Finally,
Rice's flexibility and collaborative culture give it the agility to adapt to rapidly
changing conditions.

At this stage in its history. Rice can secure and enhance its position as
a leading university by advancing the quality, distinctiveness, and impact of its
research and graduate programs while maintaining and improving its admired
undergraduate studies. There are three primary ways to make these gains.

1. By strengthening Rice's scholarship and research

Rice aims to enhance its graduate programs and invest in key scholarly
initiatives. It also seeks to become even more successful in attracting and retaining
the best faculty. The university can strengthen its centers and institutes, thus
bolstering the joint efforts of its faculty and students. Working through and
alongside these existing organizations. Rice can undertake additional promising
research initiatives and move programs already recognized for their quality to
higher levels of visibility and impact. Significant efforts should be directed toward
improving the library and its capacity to supply information resources.

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2. By leveraging the impact of this capability through collaborative partnerships
with others

Forming partnerships with external groups is a crucial strategy for
advancing Rice's mission as a research university. At present the university
sponsors more than eighty ongoing collaborations in biomedical fields with
institutions in the adjacent Texas Medical Center (TMC). Rice faculty and facilities
often complement the resources of the TMC, thus enhancing the benefits of
collaboration for all participants. In addition, there are abundant openings for
partnerships with business and government groups in such fields as energy, the
environment, and, through NASA, space exploration. The collegial relations Rice
enjoys with local museums, cultural centers, and arts organizations also provide
possibilities for further educational and creative programs.

3. By expanding the impact of teaching and scholarship both nationally and
internationally

In recent decades. Rice has transcended its size by augmenting its
impact both nationally and internationally. Rice's professional schools have
played important roles in extending the geographic reach and reputation of
the university. The Baker Institute has attracted international attention to its
programs that bridge the gap between theory and practice of public policy by
drawing together experts from academia, government, the media, business, and
nongovernmental agencies. Because of Rice's Gulf Coast location and Houston's
trade and cultural exchanges with Central and South America, Rice has an
exceptionally broad spectrum of opportunities to participate in addressing global
issues and to amplify its involvement in international affairs.

In addition to advancing Rice's research mission, the new administration
will take the lead in strengthening and adapting Rice's traditional areas of
emphasis.

1. Diversity

America's future will be multiethnic, knowledge based, globally engaged,
and gender equal. Rice is training the leaders for that future, one that will depend
on people from different backgrounds, experiences, and orientations cooperating
in ways that capitahze on the benefits of those differences. The university's
commitment to diversity is unwavering but must become even more effective in
practice.

Success in diversity demands sincere and consistent support from the top.
The Board of Trustees, committed to inclusiveness throughout the university, has
funded significant initiatives to promote and ensure this goal. The President's
Council on Minority Affairs and the President's Council on Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual,
and Transgendered Climate, both composed of students, staff, and faculty,
meet monthly; the president chairs these and other advisory bodies that exert
leadership and guidance in the institution's efforts to serve all communities. The
provost has recently launched a survey on the institutional climate for female
faculty members; the results will steer Rice in making further improvements in our
policies and practices.

Along with leadership from the top, sheer imagination and determination

63

help to make diversity happen, a truth best illustrated by Rice's actions in
admissions. The 1996 Hopwood decision compelled Rice to be the only highly
selective private university in the nation that cannot consider race in admissions
decisions and financial aid. In response, Rice developed and aggressively carries
out compensatory initiatives. As a result of these efforts, Rice has restored
undergraduate enrollments to pre-Hopwood levels — currently 11.3 percent
Hispanic and 7.3 percent African American.

Over the next decade, Rice must address a number of diversity issues:
How should it respond to the rulings on the University of Michigan affirmative
action case? How can the university increase student diversity? What changes in
policy and practice would make a more inclusive and supportive environment
for diverse faculty? Rice does well, and with imagination, determination, and
leadership, it can come even closer to realizing its goals of nondiscrimination and
equal opportunity for all.

2. Undergraduate colleges, facilities, and programs

Because the undergraduate program is such a strong part of Rice's
success, its future development must be assured. The residential college system,
prominent even in the opening plans for the university but not realized until the
1950s, needs augmentadon with respect to facilities and student support services.
Recreational space in the gyms and on the fields could be improved. Finding
and enrolling the best students will continue to be a challenge. Continuing to
market Rice imaginatively, provide substantial support for teaching and research
initiatives, keep Rice affordable, and reward outstanding achievements all will
sustain Rice's core value — to provide an education second to none.

3. Athletics

The university pursues the classic ideal of a sound mind in a sound
body. Almost 60 percent of Rice undergraduates engage in intramural sports,
and almost 20 percent of all students take part in twenty-six club sports. Few
schools can match this participadon rate. A charter member of the Southwest
Conference until it disbanded in 1996, Rice now fields fourteen Division I-A
teams in the Western Athletic Conference; it is the smallest of all I-A schools.
Rice has won twenty-one WAC championships; for much of the past year, the
Rice baseball team has ranked first in the nation. The university takes seriously
the academic performance of its athletes and has been recognized for its
exemplary achievements in this area. For example, last year the NCAA noted
that Rice had the highest graduation rate of student-athletes in Division I-A at 91
percent. The Rice board will continue to monitor the challenges and changes
affecting intercollegiate sports and will seek ways to optimize the academics,
competitiveness, and economics of its varsity sports program.

4. Structural base

Rice's financial and organizafional bases are strong and crucial to success
in its academic mission. Building on this strength in the future raises several issues:
How should Rice diversify its revenue sources beyond endowment proceeds? How
should it set priorities for facilities improvements during the next decade? Should
it add more residential colleges, construct a convocation facility, and enlarge the

64

library? How can Rice alter its organizational structure so that it is more responsive
and effective while staying lean? Wliat is the right level and nature of staff
infrastructure support?

Rice University owes its existence to the generosity of one man, William
Marsh Rice, its founder, and the vision of another, Edgar Odell Lovett, its first
president. Lovett established Rice's standards: "no upper limit to its educational
endeavor," to be achieved by hiring "the best available instructors and investigators
. . . wherever they may be found," by admitting the best students regardless of their
financial means, and by inspiring the whole academic community to engage in the
"vitalizing reaction of original investigation." As Rice approaches the centenary of
the imiversity's opening, it intends to build further on its legacy and achievement
and take its rightful place in the company of the world's great institutions of
higher education. Rice seeks someone who shares those goals and understands
how to realize them.

The Qualifications of the next president of Rjce University

Rice's seventh president must have professional qualifications and
personal qualities compatible with the institution's unique characteristics,
traditions, and aspirations.

Professional Qualifications

• Above all, the president must be a leader — someone with the ability to
inspire others, a collegia! and consultative style, a belief in the power of teamwork,
and a commitment to reaping the benefits of diversity and differences.

• The president will, in all likelihood, have a strong academic
background. A doctorate or terminal professional degree is preferable. Different
career histories could be applicable so long as the experiences the candidate has
gained are appropriate to leading a highly selective national university.

Candidates should also demonstrate substantial capabilities in the
following areas:

/. Heading a consultative administration

To manage Rice's broad array of opportunities and deal effectively with
external forces affecting the university, the president must be willing and able to
ensure that, through consultation with all constituencies, the university makes
tough decisions and choices fairly, resolves conflict equitably, and manages
financial resources effectively.

2. Promoting intellectual excellence

A president of Rice should not only embody intellectual excellence but
also persuasively promote it as a core value of the institution.

65

3. Et^aging in dynamic partnerships

Rice's desire to increase the number of partnerships with other
institutions locally, nationally, and internationally means that the president should
be skilled at building rewarding interinstitutional relationships. Moreover, the
president will be actively involved in articulating, to all Rice's constituencies, the
goals and needs of the university and in asking for help to find the resources that
will achieve those purposes.

4. Planning the future

The seventh president, after extensive consultation, will lead the drafting
of a statement about Rice's targets and trajectories for the next decade and then
implement a coherent plan to achieve those goals.

5. Inspiring ivide-ranging support for Rice 's programs

The president should enjoy and be good at engaging the whole range of
interested parties — faculty, students, trustees, alumni, staff, friends, and partners in
education, industry, business, government, and neighboring communities. Such
engagement should produce enthusiastic support of Rice's vision for the future.

Personal Qualities

The president must embody the values of Rice University and be able
to live those values on a daily basis, possess the highest degree of integrity, and
steadfastly promote the value of diversity and nondiscrimination. The successful
candidate should be skilled in listening to others, respecting and understanding
them, and communicating to all constituencies; exhibit a high energy level and
enthusiasm for Rice; have the self-confidence to admit mistakes and move on; and
possess a good sense of humor.

66

Part III

Transition: Looking to the Future

67

A Process for Change

President David W. Leebron is very deliberative in how he goes about
making decisions. He seeks input from a wide variety of sources, and at the veiy
beginning of his tenure at Rice he discovered how vakiable conversation with
members of the Rice community could be. Hence it was almost predictable
that as he began to consider a set of strategic proposals to direct Rice's future
development and prepare for the 2012 centennial of its opening, he would seek
to have discussions with a wide cross section of the Rice community. At the very
beginning of his presidency he had announced Passport to Houston, a program
that facilitated student involvement in the city's many cultural institutions.
Thereafter he sought to expand that involvement to include the world beyond the
city limits. Building on traditions of internationalism that had existed from the
founding of the university and that recently had been re-emphasized, he wanted to
develop new programs to engage the world and its diverse cultures. He wanted to
rethink many givens about Rice, inchiding its size, its mission, the role of research
and public service, and the proper mix of undergraduate/graduate education.

The university has always been aware of its local situation and has grown
and evolved its programs in response to need, opportunity, and ambition. It had
begun as primarily an undergraduate institution with strength exclusively in
the sciences, but the larger aim had always been to support the endre panoply
of disciplines suggested by the original name of "The Rice Institute for the
Advancement of Literature, Science, and Art." Founding president Lovett
had even imagined that eventually the university would have a broad range
of professional schools "in all the brainworking professions." Of course, plans
change, evolve, and mature over time, and it is essential that universities constantly
reevaluate, both building on traditional strengths and developing new areas of
scholarship, teaching, and service that — again — need, opportunity, and ambition
suggest are appropriate. President Leebron wanted to draw from the insights
and advice of the larger Rice community as he thought about the future of the
university, and he wanted to share his own ideas with that same community.

Universities are collaborative institutions, and academic leaders not
only seek ideas from a wide constituency but also help shape consensus and seek
support from its faculty, staff, students, alumni, and leaders in the surrounding
community. As part of that intellectual enterprise, in June 2005 President Leebron
initiated a process called Call to Conversation. To help focus discussion, he issued
a document that raised a number of points and tentatively suggested responses
and directions for future development at Rice. He met with representatives of
every Rice constituency in dozens of venues, both on campus and at sites as
diverse as Hong Kong, London, and Paris, participating with them in a thoughtful
extended conversation about the university Rice should be as it approached the
beginning of its second century. That Call to Conversadon document is here
reprinted, as is President Leebron's formal response in December 2005 to what
became in effect an international colloquy on Rice in transition on the eve of its
centennial. That response, in the form of a report to the Board of Trustees titled
"A Vision for Rice University's Second Century," is also here reprinted, and it,
along with the board's endorsement, concludes this volume on the beginning of
President David W. Leebron's presidency of Rice University.

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The Call to Conversation

from Rice University president David W. Leehron

In the year since I assumed the presidency of Rice University, I have had
the opportunity to speak with thousands of members of the Rice community —
faculty, students, staff, ahimni, parents, and supporters — as well as many other
people in Houston and beyond who have an interest in the future of Rice. I
have learned a great deal and am enormously opdmistic about what Rice can
contribute.

Insdtutions of higher educadon today, including Rice, confront a
more dynamic and compedtive environment than ever before. Success in that
environment requires reevaluation, evolution, and change if we are to maintain
the level of excellence and achievement for which we are known. It is therefore
dme to begin a more focused conversation about the questions we must address
and the priorities we must set to build a plan for the time between now and the
centennial celebration of Rice's opening in 1912.

We want to engage all members of our community in conversations about
the fundamental issues that confront Rice. These conversations vAW occur in
varied settings, formal and informal. We will use existing groups and scheduled
meedngs — for example, presidential visits and meetings with faculty, students,
staff, and alumni — as well as meetings called specifically for this purpose. We
hope to facilitate feedback from individuals and groups through a special
interactive website (accessible only via a Rice-authenticated network connection at
http://www.rice.edu/c2c for the campus community and http://alumni.rice.edu
for our alumni community) . In the summer and early fall, we plan to hear from
our various constituencies on the topics raised in this document. In December, we
plan to present for the Rice Board of Trustees' consideration a clear elaboration of
Rice's goals and priorities for the decade to come.

Below I have oudined in seven broad topics the range of issues we should
address. Although I have set forth some initial thoughts on these issues, I frame
them largely as quesdons, an appropriate way to begin a dialogue. The ensuing
discussions will significantly inform our thinking and planning. Our trustees and
the deans of each of our schools naturally will assume leadership in this process.
Our vision will be informed by what we learn from all segments of our community.

A document such as this necessarily focuses on areas of change. We are
doing, and have done, many things at a high level of success. Moreover, strategic
plans for many parts of our enterprise, especially those that rely largely on their
own funding sources, will be developed primarily within those parts of our
university. Thus, for example, the limited discussion here of our professional
schools — architecture, management, and music — and our School of Condnuing
Studies should not be taken as an indication that these parts of our university are
not essential elements of our future. And because the trustees of the university
recently and comprehensively have addressed the question of intercollegiate
athledcs, that topic is not encompassed here.

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/. Our Fundamental Missions, Responsibilities and Aspirations

From its beginning, our university has been dedicated to three missions:
educating and preparing outstanding students for diverse careers and lives;
contribudng to the advancement of knowledge across a wide range of fields; and
being of service to our city, our state, our nadon, and our world.

Rice's exisdng mission statement, developed five years ago by the Faculty
Council and adopted by the Board of Trustees, is:

The mission of Rice University, shaped largely by its founder and the
first president, is to provide an unsurpassed undergraduate education in
science, engineering, the arts, humanities, and social sciences; to produce
internationally distinguished scholarship and research and excellent
graduate education in carefully focused areas; to insure that such an
education remains affordable; to maintain the distinctive character of a
community of learning that is relatively small in scale; and to serve the
continuing educational needs of the larger community.

Does this statement fully encompass the current and future missions of the
university? If not, in what ways should it be modified to reflect the goals we should
have before us? Does it make clear the importance of our mission as a research
university dedicated to exploring the frontiers of knowledge and increasing
human understanding? Does our mission statement adequately reflect our
purpose and ambition of training leaders across a range of endeavors? How should
our location in the city of Houston shape our aspirations and mission?

Each of the goals mentioned places on us certain responsibilities. How can
we best identify and effectively respond to those core responsibilities? Within the
context of these missions, how can we best define our aspirations?

Those aspirations must serve to distinguish us not merely in the high
standards we set but in the ways we differentiate ourselves from other universities
and institutions of higher learning. Our comparative advantages lie in our
relatively small size, our emphasis on undergraduate education, our identification
of important but focused areas of strength, the relative ease by which we can foster
interdisciplinary study, and possibiHties for excellence across the range of human
knowledge and endeavor.

At Rice, we often quote Edgar Odell Lovett's statement about building
a university "with no upper limit." That vision requires us constantly to set new
aspirations and record new achievements and to build on existing strengths and
establish new ones. Because we are small, the choices we make are extremely
important. We must be prepared not only to begin new endeavors but, in some
cases, to also reduce our commitment to areas that no longer serve our strategic
aims well.

Rice is well poised to make its next leap, namely building multiple areas of
outstanding research and teaching achievement, across all schools. I believe that if
we act boldly and enlist others in our cause, we can build here in Houston, at Rice,
one of the truly great and renowned universities of our nation.

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U. The Size of Our University

The size of our university is one of the most pressing issues and perhaps an
important obstacle to further achievement. I believe we must grow to achieve our
ambitions, but it must be growth within the context of remaining "relatively small
in scale." In light of our mission, our aspirations, our history, and our resources,
what is the optimal size of our student body and faculty in the years ahead? Can
we achieve the national and international prominence we seek in both teaching
and research while remaining the smallest full-spectrum research university in the
country? Can we grow and still retain our distinction as a small research university,
with success in building interdisciplinary endeavors and creadng a strong sense
of campus community? How does our size affect our ability to serve Houston and
Texas? Can we grow in a way that preserves the strength of our commitment to
undergraduate educadon and, in particular, the direct role of professors, inside
and outside the classroom, in that education? If we do grow, how shall we best
allocate the resources and opportunities required for and generated by that
growth?

A number of reasons suggest that some growth is desirable. Research
universides require a substantial infrastructure, and that infrastructure is subject
to certain economies of scale. Certain departments must grow if they are to
achieve a national reputation, and there are new and important areas of teaching
and research in which Rice must participate if it is to be compedtive. To draw a
national student body, we must also be able to attract employers from all over the
country; that is a function of both the number of students and their geographic
dispersion. A certain size is required to create the necessary "critical mass" for
the great variety of student endeavors we aspire to have at Rice. In addition, our
growth has not kept pace with both past and expected future growth of our city
and our region, suggesting that we need to grow if we are to maintain Rice's
historical importance.

Could we achieve such aims while maintaining the quality and sense
of a smaller educational community if we grow our undergraduate program
by approximately 30 percent, to about 3,600 to 3,800 undergraduate students?
This would leave us as the third smallest member of the Association of American
Universities, and well below the size of most of our competitors. Indeed, it can be
fairly said that in the context of research universities, such growth would move us
from being "tiny" to just being small.

Our nonprofessional graduate programs also need to grow selectively
if we are to sustain the excellence of our research endeavors across an array of
fields. Many departments have indicated that without expansion of their graduate
programs, they will not be able to achieve the level of distinction to which they
aspire. Although this determination must be made on a school-by-school — indeed,
department-by-department — basis, a rough indication is that we would need
approximately 500 to 800 additional graduate students across natural sciences,
engineering, humanities, and social sciences.

We would expect in this context to increase our total faculty, although by a
lesser proportion than the increase in our student body As discussed below, such
growth must be strategic and selective.

Such an expansion must be undertaken with great care and over several

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years of planning. We must assure that our students will have small classes and the
complete access to professors — whether for teaching, research, or advice — that
now characterizes the Rice experience. For our graduate students, we will need
adequate laboratory and other research space. Furthermore, we cannot expand
without the ability to house our students, especially if we seek to recruit more of our
students from outside the region. This will require, at a minimum, the construction
of two new colleges and, perhaps, the expansion of several existing colleges, some
of which currently expel to off-campus housing a very substantial portion of their
rising student populations. For students who do live off campus, should we consider
creating housing opportunities closer to the campus that will enable even off-
campus students to live close by and have a greater sense of community?

ZZ7. The Undergraduate Experience

Rice has long been distinguished by the excellence of its imdergraduate
education. This has been defined by the high quality of faculty teaching,
meaningful research opportunities for our students, the residential college
experience, and the extracurricular opportunities — intellectual, cultural, social,
athletic, and recreational — available to our students. We seek an undergraduate
student body of the highest levels of promise, achievement, and ambition. We
aspire to bring that populadon from all over the world to Houston for the very best
education possible: one that takes place in the context of a research university and
involves direct participation by faculty researcher-teachers in many facets of the
undergraduate experience.

To what degree are we succeeding in achieving the high standards we have
set, and what areas are capable of improvement? How can we best shape the
undergraduate community through our admissions process? What are the best
strategies for assuring a diverse community and an education affordable to all
students regardless of their family means? From where should our student body be
drawn?

I believe that we should aspire to a somewhat more national and
international student body. We should remain a distinctively Texas-based university
while increasing the percentage of students we attract from outside of Texas. The
competition for the best students in Texas will only grow more intense in the years
ahead. Continuing to enroll about the same number of students from Texas while
growing the number of students from elsewhere would result in a student body
that was approximately 40 percent in-state and 60 percent out-of-state. We also
should seek an undergraduate student body that is more international, more than
doubling the present 2 to 3 percent.

Rice should be committed to an approach to undergraduate education
that is holistic in two senses. First, we educate the whole person, inside and outside
the classroom. We seek to develop the broad base of knowledge and skills that will
serve our students well throughout their lives. Second, we set standards for the
education of all our undergraduates. While we must recognize the distinctiveness
of education in architecture, engineering, and music, we must, at the same time,
develop common standards for a liberal arts education. Do our curricular offerings
meet the demands of today's society and provide adequate education not only in

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the substance of knowledge but also with respect to such skills as oral and written
communication and presentation? Do we communicate effectively to our students
what leadership entails and train them for succeeding as leaders in the many
different endeavors in which they will find themselves? We must make a renewed
commitment to developing the skills that our students will need to succeed in the
twenty-first century world.

Are we offering, and are our students taking advantage of, the kind
of intense, transformative intellectual experiences that characterize the best
undergraduate education? We should encourage a greater number of our students
to undertake intensive research projects before they graduate, culminating in work
that aims to make a contribution to human knowledge, the basic goal of a research
university. Rice is perhaps in a unique position among research universities to
provide real opportunities for participation in that research by undergraduate
students. Our talented students and our engaged and accomplished faculty
provide the ideal ingredients for such undergraduate achievement.

Is the quality of our teaching all it could be, and do we provide the
necessary support and incentives for faculty to innovate within the classroom?
Especially with the rapid development of technology, we must be sure that our
faculty have opportunities to develop new and innovative pedagogical approaches.

Do we offer the type and range of international opportunities that are an
essential part of higher education today? This requires not merely that we offer
opportunities for education abroad but that the education and environment we
provide on campus in Houston is truly international as well. Our opportunities
for foreign study now consist of placements for one to two students at a time. We
should seek to develop, in addition, deeper relationships with partner institutions
in selected countries. As explained below, I believe we should focus initially on
China and Latin America.

The residential colleges have, for almost a half a century, been an
important part of the Rice experience. Are the residential colleges living up to
their original aspirations? How might we enhance their roles with respect to the
widest group of students? How can we improve the opportunities for intellectual
growth within the college setting?

Are our campus facilities adequate for supporting the extracurricular
opportunities our students desire and for creating a sense of intellectual and social
excitement? It is clear that at least in one area, recreadonal and athletic facilities
for all our students, we lag seriously behind our competitors. We must set as a top
priority building a recreational center that can serve our community.

Are we taking full advantage of the opportunides that Houston has to
offer our undergraduates? Do our students sufficiently benefit from experiences
of civic engagement and public service while they are here? Are we doing all
we can to provide the full range of outstanding opportunities to our students
upon graduation, including graduate and professional study, fellowships, and
employment in the private, governmental, and nonprofit sectors?

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IV. Graduate and Postdoctoral Education

A central component of achieving our research ambitions is the quality
of our graduate programs. We must recommit to graduate education, create the
support structures and environment that effectively support graduate education
and research, and assure that we are attracting the top students from around the
nation and the world. Are we providing adequate sdpends and benefits to our
graduate students? The combinadon of our present level of stipends (especially
in the humanities and social sciences) and benefits for our graduate students is,
in many situations, simply not compedtive. We must enhance graduate student
sdpends and benefits so that we are truly able to compete for the very best students
across the full range of our graduate programs.

Graduate students are essendal to our research mission and can greatly
enhance our community of learning. How can we better integrate our graduate
students into the life of the university and, in pardcular, build better bridges
between our graduate and undergraduate populadons? Our graduate students have
been, for example, largely excluded from participating in the life of the residential
colleges, even though such pardcipation was envisioned as part of the original plan.
We should explore ways to include graduate students more fully in our community,
to better support them in achieving their ultimate aspirations, and to convey to
them their value to our university.

In many of our programs, our graduate students seek careers in the
academy, and we must improve the opportunities at Rice that will enable them to
succeed in that endeavor. What, for example, should we do to provide our graduate
students with more teaching opportunities? We cannot attract the best graduate
students if they are not provided the experience here at Rice that will enable
them to develop effective teaching skills. We must assure that these opportunities
are provided in a manner consistent with the distinctive character of Rice's
undergraduate education, namely that the vast majority of courses continue to be
taught by faculty members.

In our undergraduate programs, we devote significant effort and resources
to the effective recruitment of the students we seek. Are we doing all we need
to do, not only within departments but also as part of a university-wide effort, to
recruit the best graduate students to Rice? Have we sufficiently defined the unique
advantages for graduate students of pursuing an education at Rice? Are there
departments that do not presently have graduate programs, but should, and if so,
what form should those programs take? Are there departments that have graduate
programs but do not have the capacity to achieve excellence in those programs or
to secure adequate opportunities for graduate students on the completion of their
program?

Postdoctoral students — those between graduate school and their chosen
career path, often in the academy — play a central role in the modern research
university. Rice has comparatively few such individuals, yet researchers at the
postdoctoral level can significantly enrich the experience of both graduate and
undergraduate students. They bring diverse experiences and perspectives as well
as new ways of approaching research challenges. Postdoctoral students are able
to focus on research goals, and they provide daily supervision and consultation
to graduate and undergraduate students with whom they work. In our limited

75

experience with postgraduate students, we have found they bring a dynamic
element to both our teaching and research programs. Do we need to provide
more opportunities for postgraduate fellows at Rice? What form might these
opportunities take? If we enhance the postdoctoral population at Rice, what
services will they require to ensure a positive career path from Rice? How can we
be more effective in recruiting postdoctoral students to Rice?

Our graduate professional programs have brought increasing distinction
to our university. What must be done to maintain and enhance their reputation?
In what ways might our schools, especially the Jesse H.Jones Graduate School of
Management, be more effectively integrated into both the teaching and research
endeavors of the university at large?

V. Research and Scholarship

It is not enough that our faculty be engaged — and engage our students — in
research and scholarship. We expect them to be researchers and scholars of
the highest distinction, working at the frontiers of knowledge and contributing
in important ways to the advancement of those frontiers. Through our role
in producing new knowledge, we expect to bring new understanding to
policymakers, new possibilities for the enjoyment of human life, and new sources
of commerce that will broadly benefit people here and around the globe. Our
commitment is to contribute to our understanding of the human experience —
from our physical world to our emotional life to human technology, culture, and
history. Such a commitment requires adequate and competitive resources and
facilities.

Rice has achieved distinction for its research across a wide range of fields,
yet many of our departments have not achieved sufficient national preeminence
and recognition. What must we do to enhance the research productivity and
reputation of our faculty? Are we doing all we need to assure that the university's
research contributions are widely known and that the research achievements
of individual faculty are recognized both within and outside the university? In
national rankings of our departments (other than music and architecture), only
one is ranked in the top 10. Can we set a goal within the decade of having at least
eight departments achieve such recognition?

Are we providing adequate support and incentives for research, and in
particular the securing of research funding from outside the university? Do we
provide sufficient support for the preparation of grant proposals? What efforts
would enhance and smooth the postproposal administrative process? Is our
support staff organized and trained as effectively as possible, and do we need
to consider new structures and allocation of personnel? Are compliance issues
understood and appreciated by faculty, staff, and others who must respond to
federal and foundation demands for information? How can we coordinate these
processes better?

Is the increasingly collaborative nature of research adequately supported
by our processes and encouraged by our incentive structures? Do we fully
recognize the distinctive support required for, and the nature of, research in
various fields? What contributions do our interdisciplinary centers and institutes

76

make to furthering our research mission, and how can their relationship with our
departments best be supported? Are we building the necessary reladonships with
other institutions, both here in Houston and around the world, to support the
research ambitions of our faculty? How can we best build on the already important
and, indeed, critical research relationships with institutions in the Texas Medical
Center?

Outstanding research reqinres outstanding facilities. Is the quality and
quantity of our current space adequate to achieve our high aspirations for
participants in the full range of our research endeavors? Science and engineering
in particular require expensive and up-to-date facilities, and there is a sense in
a number of fields that our facilities are no longer competitive. How will the
planned Collaborative Research Center impact our space needs? In the social
sciences and humanities, we find we often lack simply the amount of space
required to support research programs and, in particular, the graduate students
who play a critical role. How can we anticipate and plan for shifts in the directions
and requirements for research space? How can we develop more flexible space
that can be modified easily for emerging needs?

Research and scholarship require access both to substantive information
and to information technology and advanced means to disseminate, display, and
process information. How, as a relatively new and small research university, can
Rice distinguish itself in the information resources we provide not only to our own
community but also to the larger research community beyond our campus? In a
recent ranking of the libraries of research universities, ours was ranked lower than
100. How, in this digital age, should we think about the role of the library and its
staff in supporting our intellectual community at the highest level?

Despite Rice's preeminence in computer sciences, our own technology
infrastructure is woefully out-of-date. In the next two years alone, we will invest
more than $25 million in improving our network infrastructure and security. What
other investments must we make in our information technology and resources?

VI. Our Community

In constituting our campus community, we seek excellence, diversity,
openness, and engagement. How can we best assure the attainment of those goals,
and what are the obstacles we now encounter? In aspiring to a diverse community',
do we provide the support and encouragement needed by all segments of our
community? What must be done to attract the best talent from all segments of our
society? What, if any, steps must we take to assure the broadest range of tolerance
and openness to ideas and discussions?

This year we have put a great deal of emphasis on how central the city of
Houston is to our future. How can we best engage the communities outside of
Rice, in the city of Houston and beyond, and make our campus an important
participant in their lives and the issues that concern them? Is there a way Rice can
make distinctive contributions to some of the fundamental problems that Houston
faces, including K-12 education, environmental quahty, and the delivery of health
care? In fulfilling our mission to educate our broader community, are there new

71

programs our School of Continuing Studies should offer that further our strategic
aims?

How can we best build on the relationships we already have with
institutions in our city, including, for example, other universities, the research
institutions and hospitals of the Texas Medical Center, and the nearby museums
in the city's cultural district? What other Houston institutions would serve as good
strategic partners as we implement our plans?

Our alumni constitute an essential part of our diverse community. Are we
doing all we can to engage them effectively with Rice and make them feel they
have a stake in our future? What special opportunities are presented by the large
number of our alumni who live in Houston? How can we best communicate with
and learn from our alumni across the country and the world? Are we providing
our alumni with opporttmities for substantive engagement and learning that fulfill
our role in life-long education?

VU. Setting Priorities and the Prerequisites for Achievement

As indicated above, as a small university, we cannot do everything. Only
by focusing our efforts will we be able to achieve the excellence and distinction
we seek. We cannot realize our ambitious aims for the university without making
hard choices. We must choose our priorities wisely and engage our community
in conversation about those priorides. What criteria should inform us in making
these decisions, and what processes shall we use? What decisions should be made
at various institutional levels — university-wide, school, or department? How can
we assure that we do not simply replicate what we have but, instead, build new
endeavors that best address the needs of the future? What areas shall we choose
to invest more in now? What areas of our current endeavor should we consider
ending? And how, and from what sources, can we best realize the resources and
support we will need to bring our plans to fruition?

Priorities will, to a large degree, be set within each of our schools, but to
the extent common resources are needed, we must focus on those endeavors
that hold the greatest promise for achievement. Six criteria seem most relevant
in selecting academic departments or centers for strategic enhancement: 1 ) the
possibility of making new and important contributions to knowledge, 2) the social
importance of the subject matter, 3) student demand for courses and teaching
in that area, 4) the possibility of achieving national preeminence in that area, 5)
opportunities to leverage the endeavor both internally (with other departments
and centers) and externally (with other insdtutions here in Houston), and 6) the
availability of entrepreneurial and visionary leadership to guide the endeavor.
(The order these are listed does not indicate the relative importance of the
criteria, and the weight attached to the six criteria may differ across disciplines.)

Because individual departments are small, interdisciplinary endeavors
that strategically combine strengths must be an important part of our plan. Much
work remains to be done to identify the strongest contenders for investment but
simply to foster discussion, I suggest here some possibilities. Should Rice form a
center on the human mind and human reason that would span the departments
of psychology, economics, political science, sociology, biochemistry, mathematics,

Z8

philosophy, religion, and, no doubt, others? Could we integrate such an endeavor
with a significant new emphasis on computational and information sciences? Can
we distinguish ourselves in the area of American culture by integrating North
American and Latin American cultural studies, including ethnic studies? Can we
bring together efforts in architecture, sociology, political science, the James A.
Baker III Institute for Public Policy, and civil and environmental engineering to
create a unique strength in urban studies, one that positions us to make continued
contributions to the improvement of Houston and other cities around the world
that face similar challenges? Should we commit to greater research strength in
various areas relating to energy, given that we are located in the energy capital
of the world? Can we build on our successful effort in nanotechnology to reach
across even more disciplines and address additional problems of our world?

Given our location in Houston, we must make greater contributions
toward education and research concerning Latin America. Although Rice has a
number of distinguished faculty across a variety of disciplines focusing on Latin
America, we have not yet established sufficient coherence and visibility in the area
of Latin American studies. Are we organized in the best way to achieve a stronger
contribution and reputation in this area? What special focus and relationships
ought we build with regard to Mexico? What other areas of Latin America ought
our efforts emphasize?

In addition to a major new focus on Latin America, we must refocus our
endeavors toward Asia. Sixty percent of the world's population live in Asia, and
six of the ten most populous countries are located there. Asia is home to some of
the world's great cultures. China, with the world's largest population, is expected
to pass the United States in aggregate GDP within about ten years. India is also a
rising economic and cultural power, where the widespread use of English creates
unique opportunities. Rice's current organization does not reflect the importance
of this region of the world. Should we consider launching, once appropriate
resources can be secured, a department of Asian studies, to complement our
exisdng strengths in European literature and studies?

In the 1970s, Rice added important new schools, including the Shepherd
School of Music and the Jones School. Are there new schools for which we should
seek resources to develop? One possibility might be a School of the Arts, which
would complement the endeavors already undertaken by the Shepherd School
and the School of Architecture and enable us to build even stronger relationships
with the cultural institudons of our city. We should not, however, use the general
resources available to fund the launching of new schools, but rather undertake
such endeavors only if dedicated resources for that purpose can be secured.

These are, of course, not all the questions that confront us, but I believe
they include most of the important ones. No doubt some of these questions and
ideas will be the subject of controversy. That is as it should be. It is the nature
of a great university to ask hard questions, not only about the rest of the world

79

but also about itself. We must be willing to discuss candidly the challenges and
opportunities we confront, to make decisions, and to move Rice forward.

As noted at the beginning of this document, the world of higher education
today is extraordinarily competitive and dynamic across every dimension. We
cannot realize the ambition set by our founding president to be among the
great research universities if we do not both preserve what is essential about Rice
and change what we must to compete effectively. As we undertake the task of
defining a plan, essential to its success will be the willingness of all members of
our community, even those whose endeavors and preferences may not, for now,
be among our priorities, to join with enthusiasm in this effort to advance our
university.

I look forward to hearing from you, whether in conversations or in writing
(the best means being through the website we have established for this purpose),
not only about your thoughts on these questions but also on other questions that
you think we need to address for Rice to continue its ascendancy as we prepare to
celebrate our first century.

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A Vision for Rice University's Second Century

Emerging From President David W. Leebron '5
Call to Conversation

As a leading research university with a distinctive commitment to under-
graduate education, Rice University aspires to pathbreaking research, unsurpassed
teaching, and contributions to the betterment of our world. It seeks to fulfill this
mission by cultivating a diverse community of learning and discovery that produc-
es leaders across the spectrum of human endeavor.

The university must take the following steps in furtherance of this mission:

• We must visibly and substantially increase our commitment to our re-
search mission and raise our research and scholarship profile. We must especially
focus on departments and disciplines in strategically selected areas where we have
an opportunity to achieve nationally and internationally recognized levels of dis-
tincdon and achievement. Success in this endeavor will require significant invest-
ments in and improvements to our research support, physical facilities, and infor-
mation technology infrastructure.

• We must provide a holistic undergraduate experience that equips our
students with the knowledge, the skills, and the values to make a distinctive impact
in the world. This requires that we reexamine the undergraduate curriculum, as
well as focus on enhanced research opportunities, training in communication
skills, and leadership development for our students.

• We must strengthen our graduate and postdoctoral programs to attract
and recruit high-caliber students and young researchers. Greater attention must
be paid to providing competitive financial support, appropriate teaching opportu-
nities, and attractive campus amenities that will contribute to a stronger sense of
community among our graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. Our doctoral
programs are central to our ambition as a research imiversity, and we must achieve
greater recognition of the quality of our doctoral students and the success they at-
tain.

• We must aggressively foster collaborative relationships with other in-
stitutions to leverage our resources. This is particularly important in light of our
comparatively small size. Our geographic location offers excellent opportuni-
ties, and we are especially well situated to develop substantial strategic research
and teaching relationships with the other members of the Texas Medical Center.
We also can expand our teaching and research achievement in the arts in part
through effective partnerships with the cultural institutions of the museum dis-
trict.

• We must invest in a select number of interdisciplinary endeavors that
will enable us to leverage our own strengths as well as the strengths of potential
collaborators. These interdisciplinary endeavors should include some efforts to

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which we have already made substantial commitments and new areas that will
emerge as we develop our strategic priorities and research vision for the future.

• We must continue to invest in our professional schools in architecture,
management, and music, as well as the James A. Baker III Institute for Public
Policy and seek ways to integrate their success into the broader university. We must
also seize opportunities for bold new endeavors when they arise, but we should not
fund new schools out of the general resources of the university.

• We must increase the size of the university to realize more fully our
ambition as an institution of national and international distinction that attracts the
very best students and researchers from around the globe. Growth will enable us
to develop a more dynamic and diverse campus environment, increase our faculty
in strategic areas, improve our services, enhance the employment opportunities
for our students, more effectively use our infrastructure, and build a more vibrant
national and international alumni base. Growth in undergraduate enrollment
must be carefully planned and occur in ways that preserve the distinctive features
of our culture and campus, provide an undergraduate educational experience
characterized by meaningful direct interactions with faculty and residendal life in
the colleges, and maintain and enhance the extraordinary quality and diversity of
our student body. Our undergraduate student body should become more national
and international, reflecting our status as a premier research university. In light
of these considerations, Rice's undergraduate enrollment will be increased to ap-
proximately 3,800 students within the next decade.

• We must become an internadonal university, with a more significant
orientadon toward Asia and Ladn America than now characterizes our commit-
ments. The great universities of the 21st century will inevitably be global uni-
versides, and although we are comparatively small, that ought not be seen as an
obstacle to our global reach. We should begin by increasing the number of inter-
national students in our undergraduate student body; develop research, student
exchange, and other reladonships with distinguished universities and policy insti-
tutes around the world; and foster the international learning (both here at Rice
and around the world) of our faculty, students, and staff.

• We must provide the spaces and facilities that will cultivate greater
dynamism and vibrancy on the campus and foster our sense of community. To
achieve this, we must provide more attractive campuswide amenities, including a
new recreational facility, a reconfiguration of the Rice Memorial Center to house a
more substantial dining facility, and enhancement of outdoor spaces with a special
focus on the Central Quadrangle. We should make a greater commitment to in-
corporate art into the campus landscape and interior public spaces.

• We must fully engage with the city of Houston — learning from it and
contributing to it — as a successful partnership with our home city is an essential
part of our future. We should do so by continuing to integrate Houston into the
educational experience of our students, by emphasizing selective areas of research
especially important to the city (notably energy and urban studies), by making tan-

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gible contributions to improve our city (particularly K-12 education and environ-
mental quality) , and by continuing to provide innovative educational and cultural
resources to the broader Houston population.

The Rice University Board of Trustees unanimously endorsed the tenets
of this vision at its December 2005 meeting. Additional information about Rice's
Vision for the Second Century is available at http://www.rice.edu/v2c.

"Rice is in a state of transition. It is in a transition from good to better. Facing
extraordinary opportunity, the institution is about to become braver, stronger,
sounder, more beautiful. "

— Edgar Odell Lovett, at his final commencement
as Rice University's first president in 1946

M

Endorsement by the Board of Trustees
OF THE Vision for Rice University's Second Century

William Marsh Rice University

Board of Trustees • December 15, 2005

Whereas the Board of Trustees has discussed the vision for Rice University
emerging from the Call to Conversation process;

RESOLVED, that the Board of Trustees adopt the following resolution;

Whereas, the emerging vision for Rice University has been shaped by an
informed and thorough process with wide participation from the extended
Rice University community, including faculty, students, staff, alumni, and
Houston community leaders; and

Whereas, the emerging vision reflects the broad consensus of this extended
community and builds on Rice's history of aspiring to be a university of the
highest grade.

RESOUVED also, that the Board of Trustees endorses the vision as described in
the following revised mission statement:

As a leading university with a distinctive commitment to undergraduate
education. Rice University aspires to pathbreaking research,
unsurpassed teaching, and contribution to the betterment of our
world. It seeks to fulfill this mission by cultivating a diverse community
of learning and discovery that produces leaders across the spectrum of
human endeavor.

RESOLVED FURTHER, that the Board of Trustees endorses the goals to further
this mission:

We must visibly and substantially increase our commitment to our research
mission and raise our research and scholarship profile.

We must provide a holistic undergraduate experience that equips our students
vsdth the knowledge, the skills, and the values to make a distinctive impact in
the world.

We must strengthen our graduate and postdoctoral programs to attract and
recruit high-caliber students and young researchers.

We must aggressively foster collaborative relationships with other institutions
to leverage our resources.

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We must invest in a select number of interdisciplinary endeavors that will
enable us to leverage our own strengths, as well as the strengths of potential
collaborators.

We must continue to invest in our professional schools in architecture,
management, and music, as well as the James A. Baker III Institute for Public
Policy, and seek ways to integrate their success into the broader university.

We must grow the size of the university to realize more fully our ambition as
an institution of national and international distinction that attracts the very
best students and researchers from around the globe.

We must become an international university, with a more significant
orientation toward Asia and Latin America than now characterizes our
commitments.

We must provide the spaces and facilities that will cultivate greater dynamism
and vibrancy on the campus and foster our sense of community.

We must fully engage with the city of Houston — learning from it and
contributing to it — as a successful partnership with our home city is an
essential part of our future.

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Endorsement by the Board of Trustees
OF THE Growth in Undergraduate Enrollment

William Marsh Rice University

Board of Trustees • December 15, 2005

Whereas the Board of Trustees has discussed the proposal to increase
undergraduate enrollment by approximately 30 percent, from about 2,900 to
about 3,800, over the next decade, and the implications of such growth for the
future of the university;

RESOLVED, that the Board of Trustees adopt the following resolution:

Whereas, the Board of Trustees has discussed the importance of growing the
size of the university to realize more fully Rice's ambition as an institution of
national and international distinction, one that is able to attract the very best
students and researchers from around the globe; and

Whereas, such growth must be carefully planned and occur in ways that
preserve the distinctive features of our culture and campus, provide an
undergraduate educational experience characterized by meaningful direct
interactions with faculty and residential life in the colleges, and maintain and
enhance the extraordinary quality and diversity of our student body.

RESOLVED ALSO, that the Board of Trustees approves the proposal to increase
undergraduate enrollment by approximately 30 percent, from about 2,900 to about
3,800, over the next decade.

RESOLVED FURTHER, that the appropriate officers of the university be, and
hereby are, authorized and directed, for and in the name of the university, to take
such actions to effectuate the foregoing resolutions.

Background

Such growth will enable us to develop a more dynamic and diverse campus
environment, provide the benefits of a Rice education to a larger number of
outstanding students, increase our faculty in strategic areas, improve our services,
enhance employment opportunities for our students, expand our alumni networks
and potential donor base, and more effectively use our infrastructure.

Increasing undergraduate enrollment to approximately 3,800 is financially viable
and provides resources — human and financial — to expand Rice's academic reach.

The increase in net tuition revenue resulting from growth would allow Rice to
borrow more to meet its capital needs and remain within a given rating category.

Growth projections assume that the entering class increases from approximately
725 freshmen (plus -50 transfers) in fall 2006 to about 935 freshmen (plus -50
transfers) beginning in fall 2009. Enrollment growth will be paced with additional
housing with the goal of providing on-campus housing for about 80 percent of
undergraduates.

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