Matriculation address

Matriculation
Address
…………………………………………………………………

By Malcolm Gillis
Rice University president
Aug. 19, 2001

Our one purpose
today is to welcome the Class of 2005 — to our campus,
to your colleges and to our community of scholars.

Rice’s
original class of 59 students matriculated in 1912, only
nine years after the Wright Brothers made their initial
flight. Members of that class lived through a depression
sandwiched between two world wars, but they also witnessed
the Apollo moon landings, a revolution in information technology,
the development of quantum mechanics and an ever-expanding
list of biomedical miracles.

No one can predict
the changes you will have to cope with. Many of you will
be at the forefront of creating change. No first-year class
in the country brings stronger credentials to their campuses
than you. Almost 71 percent of you were in the top 5 percent
of your high school class; 14 percent of you were first
in your class.

One hundred sixty-two
of you are National Merit Scholars. Since 1990, Rice has
had the highest percentage of National Merit Scholars of
any university in the country — an average of one-third
of incoming freshmen per class.

You were not
admitted just because your SAT scores were high. Indeed,
for each of the past five years, about 15 applicants with
perfect SAT scores have not been admitted. You were accepted
at Rice because you were talented and highly motivated,
with earmarks of leadership skills.

You are already
high achievers in a wide range of fields. Some of you have
already racked up remarkable accomplishments in science,
the humanities and engineering. Others have been active
in student government, music, athletics and community service.
All of you have stood out above your peers.

At this point,
ponder for a bit Shakespeare’s words from Hamlet, Act
IV: “We know what we are, but know not what we may
be.” During the next few years, you will all stretch
your capacities further than you ever thought possible.

You will doubtless
discover new things about yourself in the process. Some
of you will stick with interests that brought you to Rice.
Others will find fields of study you did not imagine before.
That is not uncommon. Each year, we have English majors
who prepare for medical school and physicists who study
philosophy.

You have before
you ample resources to do what you need to do. Rice offers
an unsurpassed blend of outstanding students, leading-edge
research and dedicated professors to help you on your way.
Rice is, as you will quickly see, unusual among leading
research universities in that over 95 percent of our classes
are taught by faculty; at virtually all state universities
as well as too many private research universities, 30 to
50 percent of classes are taught by T.A.s.

The new faces
you see around you will not remain unfamiliar for very long.
This university is small enough that you have an extraordinary
opportunity to establish lifelong friendships with hundreds
of your classmates. You will encounter new ways of thinking
— and learning — from your classmates as well
as the faculty. After graduation, you will have a large,
successful and very committed alumni network to draw on.

Once here, our
students neither rest on their laurels nor sit on their
hands. Rice students are very hardworking. Virtually all
our seniors who sought to go on to graduate or professional
schools were successful in doing so. Remarkably, almost
70 percent of them are, year after year, accepted at their
institution of first choice.

One reason our
students are able to attend top graduate and professional
schools is that Rice graduates are not burdened with high
debt loads. Rice has long used its endowment to keep tuition
low and financial aid high. As a result, we heavily subsidize
all students, not just those who receive substantial financial
aid. Net tuition revenues at Rice are only 10 percent of
our total annual income.

Even for students
not on financial aid, tuition at Rice is only about one-third
the cost of undergraduate education. Our competitors have
on average 60 percent higher tuition than Rice. Your total
borrowing will be limited to $9,900 in need-based debt.
We are, in fact, seventh on U.S. News’ list of national
universities with the least debt. Five of the schools ahead
of us are public institutions. Importantly, 62 percent of
our recent seniors have no debt at all.

Every year at
this time I tell all first year students that Rice students
work too hard, and every year I urge students to chill out
from time to time. Perhaps you will be the first class to
listen when I urge you to pause now and then to smell the
flowers and interact with some of the most whimsical —
and creative — students in the world.

Rice has a rich
tradition of unusual, even mildly eccentric, activity, from
Spontaneous Combustion, our improvisational comedy troupe,
to the Marching Owl Band — which never marches but
does have a dancing violin section. The MOB is probably
the nation’s only college band open to musicians and
nonmusicians alike.

Many of the friends
you make at Rice will come from your residential colleges.
We are the only selective private university where students
are assigned randomly to the same residential college for
all four years, yielding a cross-section of students as
diverse as you will find anywhere.

You will also
experience a measure of independence many of you have not
had before. There are no curfews, no assigned visiting hours
and no resident monitors. We are immensely proud of our
student-led Honor System. Rice has always placed special
responsibility on its students to conduct themselves appropriately.
We trust you to act with respect inside and outside the
classroom, toward all members of the campus community and
all visitors.

Part of that
responsibility involves handling disagreements. Differences
in opinion are inevitable — and welcome — whenever
people take ideas seriously. They are not an excuse for
incivility. At Rice, everyone is expected to respect the
dignity of others. That includes students, faculty, staff
and all visitors to our campus.

Rice’s
faculty will be your guide in this — and many other
ways. The American poet John Ciardi quipped: “A university
is what a college becomes when the faculty loses interest
in students.” Rice Institute became Rice University
41 years ago, but we have never lost interest in our students.
This is one of the few highly selective universities that
take undergraduate teaching very seriously.

Here you will
get to know dozens of senior, full-time faculty. Those faculty
members might include:
• Two Nobel Prize-winners;
• More members of the National Academies of Science
and Engineering than any private school south of Chicago
and between the two coasts;
• Members of what is, pound for pound, the nation’s
best School of Architecture;
• The former assistant to the president of the United
States for science and technology and former director of
the National Science Foundation;
• Members of one of the nation’s most prominent
university-based music schools. It is also one of the youngest;
• A rapidly rising School of Management.

You will find
that Rice’s faculty is unusually accessible. They include
accomplished teachers involved in leading-edge research
across our campus. Many of you will be active participants
in that work within a few months. Just one example: More
than 80 Rice undergraduates are working with faculty members
to develop high-speed circuit boards and wireless networks.
Research opportunities for undergraduates exist in fields
from history to chemical engineering.

You will find
that we provide strong encouragement — and inducements
— to study abroad. We believe study abroad is a transforming
experience. International study at Rice has been expanding
rapidly for several years. Also, we have established 10
new faculty positions in Latin American and Middle Eastern
studies in the last five years. Our programs in Asian and
European studies offer a broad range of possibilities, from
religious studies to history and politics.

As a result,
more of you will be studying abroad than ever. The number
of Rice students who spent a full year outside the United
States has risen 29 percent in the last two years. There
was a 100 percent increase in the number of students going
to Africa during that period and a remarkable 136 percent
increase to Asia. We already provide financial aid for study
abroad at nearly 350 sites around the world.

We also have
a very strong connection with the new International University
Bremen in Germany. IUB is a European version of Rice in
Germany. Our involvement with this new institution is, along
with the Baker Institute and our growing study-abroad opportunities,
part of our broad strategy for internationalization of our
curriculum and programs.

Our students
are not interested merely in studying abroad. Larger numbers
of them also want to work abroad. The number of students
participating in our International Internship Program, which
places them with companies in France and Germany, has grown
sixfold since 1998. We expect even faster growth this year
when we add Latin America to this program.

And so, Class
of 2005, prepare to enter the Sallyport. Bring along your
sense of humor, your sense of wonder, your intelligence,
your leadership and your respect for all humans, everywhere.

I end with this
thought: What is Rice going to do for you? Answer: send
you out in the world with an unparalleled education and
with the lowest debt of any private university in the world.

What will you
do for Rice? Last night Professor Alexander Byrd of history
challenged a group of students to figure out what they were
going to do to leave Rice a better place than when they
entered. That is also my challenge to you.