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Leebron discusses university’s growth,
finances and plans at SA meeting

FROM RICE NEWS STAFF REPORTS

President David Leebron spoke to the Student Association
(SA) at its Oct. 25 meeting where, at the request of SA leadership, he initially
focused on three topics: the status of the expansion of the undergraduate
student body, the university’s financial situation and plans for the future.
His remarks were followed by a question-and-answer session with students.

Introduced at the late-night meeting in Farnsworth Pavilion by
SA President Selim Sheikh, Leebron noted that this year’s entering class of 949
students has essentially achieved the final expansion goal of 950 students per
entering class, although the overall student body will continue to grow for the
next three years as the smaller graduating classes are replaced by entering
classes of 950. No further expansion of the undergraduate student body is
contemplated, he said. 

Leebron traced the historical growth of Rice and noted that
the 30 percent increase in the undergraduate student body was the university’s
third major expansion. The first expansion was from the university’s founding
in 1912 to the 1920s, when enrollment reached 1,000. The second occurred during
the 1960s, when the number of students grew by 50 percent. The third phase of
major growth of the undergraduate student body as part of the Vision for the
Second Century (V2C) will increase undergraduate enrollment to about 3,800, and
total enrollment including graduate students is expected to exceed 6,000.

Since most of the students at Rice have arrived after the
launch of the V2C, Leebron outlined some of the reasons for the decision to
grow. “We wanted to build a more national and international student body
without diminishing the number of students we enroll from Texas,” Leebron
said. “And we wanted to build a larger alumni network and greater alumni
presence in cities across the country and around the world.

Although he emphasized that Rice would remain a comparatively
small university, he said the larger student body supports a greater breadth
and depth of programs and activities at Rice. It also contributes to “a
more vibrant diversity” and creates a more dynamic campus environment, he
said. 

The larger student population brings in more tuition
revenues that can be used to strengthen programs, he said. It also enhances the
university’s ability to attract recruiters to campus and to build more
sustained relationships with more high schools. The Houston community also
benefits, as does Rice’s local, national and international visibility.

The growth has not come at the expense of selectivity or
applicant quality. In fact, even with the growth, Rice now has 30 percent more
applicants for each space in the entering class than it did before. The number
of applications rose from 8,106 in 2004 to 12,393 — a record high — in 2010.
“We’re attracting more qualified applicants who are applying to more
competitive schools all around the country,” Leebron said.

Even though Rice is enrolling more Texans than ever before,
the university has a smaller percentage of Texans, due to the larger enrollment
overall. Leebron said he expects Texans to remain about 40 to 45 percent of the
student body. “We want to be a national and international university while
remaining a distinctively Texas institution,” he said. The entering
students are also more diverse. 

The expansion has not been without challenges, Leebron said.
The Deans Council has formed a task force to study the impact of the larger
number of students on introductory classes for chemistry, physics, mathematics,
biology, economics and psychology. The university is also analyzing the optimal
usage of classroom space and unanticipated burdens on facilities.

Leebron said the construction of Duncan and McMurtry
colleges and the renovation of Will Rice and Baker colleges enabled Rice to
accommodate on-campus housing for a greater percentage of students than before
the expansion. More than 80 percent of the student body is housed on campus this
year, up from about 70 percent in 2005. He expects that number to level out
around 74 percent by 2014.

He then presented an overview of Rice’s finances and
highlighted strong results for the last fiscal year in most of the university’s
revenue sources, including endowment return, campaign gifts that have reached
two-thirds of the $1 billion goal, net tuition and research grants. Additional
budget cuts are not anticipated, he said, although the university will have to
make careful decisions about resource allocation in order to fund new
endeavors.

Regarding the future, Leebron noted that three major
initiatives are under discussion by the faculty: biomedicine and human health,
energy and the environment, and strategic international programs. He emphasized
Rice’s mission statement as a leading research university with a distinctive
commitment to undergraduate education.

“We really are an unusual university,” he said,
“because of the combination of our size, our commitment to undergraduate
education and our commitment to being a serious research university.”   

During the question-and-answer session, he fielded inquiries
about the James Turrell “skyspace” art that will be installed at the
Shepherd School of Music, renovation of older colleges and progress toward
making the campus more dynamic.

Sheikh said the presentation was “very helpful in putting recent projects in perspective — namely, the student-body expansion of 30 percent. He pointed out its positive effects on the Rice community, such as a more vibrant diversity and a greater national and international presence.”

Leebron’s Student Association presentation, as well as
recent Town Hall and State of the University presentations, are posted at
http://www.professor.rice.edu/professor/Office_of_the_President.asp.