Survey shows alumni keep Rice in their hearts

Owls’-eye view is clear
Survey shows alumni keep Rice in their hearts

BY MIKE WILLIAMS
Rice News staff

A new survey proves Rice University means a great deal to its alumni. It also shows Rice means a great deal to Houston, the state of Texas and the country, if you judge by the number of companies these alumni create and the jobs they provide.

The information comes from a report titled ”Connecting with Our Alumni” and carried out by research firm Questar, which surveyed 42,350 Rice alumni last summer. Just under 25 percent responded, well above the 12-15 percent average for these kinds of surveys.

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Companies founded by the Rice alumni who responded to the survey generate $21 billion in revenues in Texas every year, $220 million of that in Houston. In total, 2,249 Rice graduates founded more than 4,000 companies that employ more than 150,000 workers and pull in more than $42 billion in annual revenues.

Rice alumni demonstrate a passion for the university well beyond what similar surveys for other institutions show, said Tom McGoldrick, Questar’s vice president for consulting and business development.

The survey response rate is just one indicator. Sixty percent of the respondents said they are very satisfied and another 31 percent were satisfied with their student experience at Rice. A total of 87 percent were very satisfied or satisfied their Rice education prepared them for success. And 84 percent report a strong or very strong relationship with Rice now.

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”It’s wonderful, but not surprising,” said Ann Peterson, Rice’s executive director of Alumni Affairs and University Events. ”One of the things we wanted to know more about was the individual level of enthusiasm and loyalty of Rice alumni, so to get a 25 percent rate of return on the survey indicates a strong level of commitment.”

The businesses founded by Rice graduates tend to be small but durable, McGoldrick said. ”A high proportion of them have been in business for more than 10 years, which means they have staying power,” he said. ”They weren’t just start-ups in somebody’s garage.”

Those numbers reflect only the 25 percent of alumni who responded, so the actual totals are likely much higher, he said. Multiplying by four would overstate the economic impact of Rice graduates, he said, so ”the true number lies somewhere in between.”

The survey was commissioned by the offices of Public Affairs, Development and the Association of Rice Alumni to learn more about what happens to graduates after they pass through the Sallyport.

”There’s a perception that Rice does not produce leaders, and we wanted to have more than anecdotal evidence about our graduates and the impact they have on their workplaces and communities,” said Linda Thrane, the university’s vice president for Public Affairs. ”We learned that across a spectrum of activities — entrepreneurial, professional, philanthropic, community service — Rice people are indeed making a difference in the world.”

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Speaking to attendees at a Rice Communicators Forum in Lovett Hall, McGoldrick confirmed many Rice graduates have become leaders, and in many ways.

Forty-six percent of the Rice respondents had household incomes of more than $150,000. That compared with median household income in Texas of $45,000 and national median college-graduate income of $47,000.

Rice graduates work in a gamut of professions, among them physicians, attorneys, architects, educators, engineers, business people and consultants. Twenty-nine percent report winning a national or international award, including Emmys, Bronze Stars, Fulbrights and a range of other literary, academic and research honors.

”One alum indicated a mention in the Guinness Book of World Records; another has a species named after him,” McGoldrick said.

The survey was done in strict confidence, so names are not available.

Another question was Rice’s attraction as a talent magnet. Students who come to Rice from afar often stay in the community. Thirty-eight percent of those surveyed said they moved to Texas to attend Rice, and 20 percent of them founded a company here that is still in business. Of those, 21 percent remained in Texas for their careers. Overall, 41 percent of Rice graduates spent their careers in Texas, 26 percent of them in Houston.

And whether they’re born Texans or not, Rice grads value service to their communities: 29 percent of the survey respondents said they have served charities in leadership roles over the past three years. ”These are people who dedicate significant chunks of their time to community leadership,” McGoldrick said. Nearly 75 percent of alumni indicated they give at least some time to community service.

Where Rice stands among alumni’s philanthropic priorities was also important to know as the university prepares to announce its Centennial Campaign.

”Typically, 7 to 9 percent of alumni will list their alma mater as one of their top three philanthropies, which are most often in the realms of education, religion and social services,” McGoldrick said. ”At Rice, that number was 27 percent — and altogether 75 percent had Rice on their giving list.”

 Another three-quarters of the respondents said they would recommend Rice to students headed for college, he said.

The perception of Rice’s reputation among alumni was also strong: 46 percent say the university is improving, and 40 percent consider it to be stable. ”This is remarkable because they’re comparing Rice as it stands now to the ‘good old days’ when they were here,” McGoldrick said.

Those who feel the strongest connection to Rice say it’s to the university as a whole, and not necessarily to their residential colleges, academic disciplines or athletics — which came as a surprise to the researchers. ”We expected the residential colleges to be further up,” McGoldrick said. ”This is another indication of how Rice graduates are very loyal to the institution.”

Of those alumni who return to campus, 41 percent do so for homecoming, while 33 percent come for athletic events and 31 percent for lectures. Twelve percent ticked off the ”other” box — ”most often for something called ‘Beer Bike,”’ McGoldrick said. ”Whatever that is, it must be pretty popular.”