What Rice means to me

What Rice means to me

BY GARY CHILES

Coming to Rice was probably the single most important decision I’ve made in my life. I grew up in Norman, Okla., in the shadow of the University of Oklahoma, and I’d always assumed that I’d wind up at OU. Fortunately for me, I decided to look around at some of my other options. I’d received a brochure from Rice and heard about the university from my high school counselor. My mom knew a professor at OU who had been an assistant professor at Rice, and she arranged for me to talk with him about the school. He was an unabashed supporter of Rice. He said that Rice was a great school, filled with smart people, and that it cost much less than other schools in its class. He said that if I could get in, I would never regret going there. And he was right.

	GARY CHILES

Rice was a place where I was challenged in the classroom and in the college commons. I learned how to think, how to solve problems and how to get along with other people. In my four years at Rice, I lived, studied and played with people who were much smarter than I, people who inspired me with their imagination and drive, and people from the other side of the world. I made friends at Rice that are still my best friends to this day.

What was it about Rice that made it such a great place for me to go to school? From my first visit to Rice as a high school senior on Owl Day, I felt right at home on the beautiful campus and in the residential college system. After matriculating, Rice gave me the freedom to pursue my studies and personal development in a safe, friendly environment. Rice was affordable. I knew I was getting a great education, but I also knew I wasn’t going into debt to pay for my education. That gave me the freedom to pursue graduate school in chemistry, even though I knew graduate school didn’t pay well. Rice’s small size meant that I had opportunities to pursue intramural sports and student government that I wouldn’t have had at other schools.

That’s why Rice is important to me, and that’s why I volunteer for the Rice Annual Fund. I understand that to maintain its place among the great universities, Rice has to grow and adapt. Rice must continue to be a special place where students can come to learn and to challenge themselves, regardless of how much money they have. Rice has taken a number of steps recently that have raised some eyebrows in the alumni community, including increasing tuition, expanding the size of the student body and constructing a number of new buildings on campus. These changes don’t come cheaply, and it is up to us as stewards and friends of Rice to ensure that Rice is able to keep up with its highly selective peers and still maintain all those qualities that make it Rice.

The Rice Annual Fund supports the things that make Rice special for me. It keeps the cost of a Rice education low by funding scholarships, over $3.5 million last year. It supports the residential college system by helping to pay for college masters and RAs. Last year, the Annual Fund provided over $1.5 million for Fondren Library. The fund also supports club sports and intramural athletics and even helps to keep the campus beautiful by paying for landscaping and the upkeep on Rice’s 4,000 trees.

These are the things that made Rice a special place for me: an affordable, excellent education, the residential college system, the library, the campus, intramurals and even the trees. I have a responsibility as a Rice alumnus to ensure that current and future generations of Rice students get a chance to find out that Rice is a great place to go to school.

— Gary Chiles is a 1986 graduate of Rice and works as an environmental consultant. He is married to alumna Amy Sutton ’89. They live in West University.