Board Highlights

Board Highlights

The following is a brief snapshot of the regular meeting of the Rice University Board of Trustees, May 24-26.

Audit Committee
• Internal Audit Director Janet Covington reported on reviews of the campus store and the registrar’s office.
• General Counsel Richard Zansitis briefed the board on current legal matters, including a federal judge’s ruling in favor of the university in a suit brought by a captain of the women’s lacrosse club. (For more, see Full Board.)
• Representatives of PricewaterhouseCoopers reported that the university’s 2005 financial audit begins this summer.

Resource Development & Public Affairs
• Vice President for Public Affairs Terry Shepard reported on Rice’s visibility in the news media in 2004 and gave the committee background on the new undergraduate admission video, which the trustees then viewed.
• Vice President for Resource Development Eric Johnson and Associate Vice President Darrow Zeidenstein discussed expanding Rice’s fundraising capacity and presented a case that the development and alumni affairs staff would need to be increased 25 percent to achieve a significant increase in philanthropic support.
• The committee, and later the full board, approved honoring the largest donors to the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Management Building by naming it Janice and Robert McNair Hall.

Financial Affairs
• Vice President for Investments and Treasurer Scott Wise reported that the value of the university’s endowment stood at just over $3.5 billion as of the end of April. He reported on the actions of the investment subcommittee, which continued its practice of reviewing asset classes in rotation and recommended several new asset managers, whom the committee approved.
• Associate Vice President for Investments and Associate Treasurer Ron Long reviewed Rice’s debt situation, which compares favorably with other AAA-rated universities.
• The committee and later the full board approved an increase of 4 percent in Jones School tuition for fiscal year 2007, with the rates to be $32,150 per year for the MBA and $81,450 for two years for the MBA for executives.
• Vice President for Finance Kathy Collins presented, and the committee and full board approved, the fiscal year 2006 budget of $385.9 million, which includes $367.7 million for the operating budget and $18.2 million in annual capital projects.
• Wise updated the board on negotiations with potential collaborators in the proposed Collaborative Research Center.

Building and Grounds
• There was no full committee meeting to allow the design subcommittee to meet with architect and master plan author Michael Graves, who discussed the Academic Quadrangle and possible locations for a recreation center, and Craig Hartman, design architect of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, who gave an overview of the predesign issues associated with the Collaborative Research Center and how they might fit in with Graves’ master plan.
• Associate Vice President for Facilities, Engineering and Planning Barbara White Bryson reported the Career Services Center, rather than the Office of Admission, would join the Association of Rice Alumni in moving into O’Connor House.

Academic Affairs
• Vice President for Enrollment Ann Wright presented an update, saying that the number of applications to Rice, while down from the previous year, would be the second largest in history and that she expected a new class of freshmen and transfers at, or perhaps a bit above, the target of 770 students. She also reported highlights of a study of students who had expressed enough interest in Rice to receive an application but had chosen not to apply. She said they tended to choose higher-ranked institutions and, among out-of-state students, prefer campuses closer to home. The No. 1 reason both the in-state and out-of-state students gave for not applying to Rice was its “location in Houston, Texas,” with in-state decliners preferring Dallas or Austin and out-of-state students expressing aversion to Texas.
• Provost Eugene Levy reported on the successful conclusion of the search for a new dean of the Jones School, with the recruitment of William Glick, chairman of the management department at Arizona State University’s business school. In discussing the Collaborative Research Center, the provost said demand for space from Rice departments continues to be very high.

Full Board
• Adviser to the President Maryana Iskander reported on the Passport to Houston and Engaging Houston projects, including that there had been 29,000 Rice student boardings on Metro trains and buses in the last three months of the semester and that enhancements for fall will include free admission to the regular exhibits of the Museum of Natural Science and Houston Zoo. On the Engaging Houston initiative, she outlined a joint effort with the Division of Public Affairs to collect data on the myriad ways in which Rice programs and individuals are involved in the community — 1.3 million hours in the past year ­— and plans for a Web site to make the data accessible to interested publics.
• President David Leebron briefed the board on the outcome of a suit by one captain of the women’s lacrosse club over university discipline for violations of the Student Code of Conduct and Alcohol Policy. A federal judge ruled in favor of the university, the credibility of its officers and its procedures. Perhaps most important, the president said, the judge reaffirmed that courts should not second-guess reasonable university processes and decisions. The president said he will emphasize to students that four things around the use of alcohol will be dealt with at the most serious level: drunk driving, hazing, drinking games and taking sexual advantage of another person. He also said that the university will expand alternative activities on campus, such as the successful outdoor movie showing “Screen on the Green,” and off-campus, such as the Passport opportunities.
• Chairman-elect Jim Crownover asked trustee Bruce Dunlevie to chair a group of trustees to coordinate a board response to President Leebron’s Call to Conversation about Rice’s goals and directions. Dunlevie said the group — which will include Bob Maxfield, Lynn Elsenhans, Bill Sick and Jim Elkins — will convene a series of conversations among a half-dozen trustees at a time over the summer.
• Chairman-elect Crownover discussed a memo he circulated to trustees on board organization, including smaller committees with some meeting simultaneously.
• The board passed resolutions honoring retiring Chairman Bill Barnett and retiring deans Gilbert Whitaker of the Jones School of Management and Sidney Burrus of the George R. Brown School of Engineering. Chairman-elect Crownover presented a decree from the City Council declaring May 26 to be Bill Barnett Day in Houston.