A framework for the future

At town hall meeting, Leebron shows why Rice can thrive in hard times

Rice enters its second century at a spectacularly difficult moment for higher education. At Wednesday’s town hall meeting, President David Leebron argued that, despite the challenges all universities face, Rice is in a good position to grow stronger.

This is the sixth year for Leebron’s semiannual town hall talks, and this one attracted more than 450 to Rice Memorial Center’s Grand Hall, with an overflow crowd of employees standing along the walls and out the door.

Rather than merely dwell on the university’s triumphant first century, Leebron focused on the present and future.

“This is a time of great public and political pressure on higher education,” Leebron said.

Federal and state funding is diminishing, and a struggling economy has reduced endowment returns and may constrain them compared with prerecession levels. At the same time, legislators are pushing harder to regulate higher education, in some cases including tuition prices. Meanwhile, competition is tougher among research universities in the United States and in foreign countries; online and for-profit education purveyors, too, are rising competitors. And public opinion of higher education is sinking, with surveys showing that many Americans have doubts about the value of a college education.

“These are reminders of what we need to do,” Leebron said.

To continue to grow and progress, he said, Rice must adapt to a changing world. To frame the university’s plans for the future, Leebron offered four simple questions as a guideline. They are variations on four questions that Samuel Palmisano, who recently left IBM after a decade as its CEO, used to guide his company’s growth and success – and they are, Leebron said, “the questions we need to be thinking about almost every day.”

To address them, Leebron pointed to many things that Rice is doing right – then urged Rice employees to help provide answers and ideas as the university moves into its second century.

1. Why go to school at Rice?

Already, students have good reasons to choose Rice, Leebron said. The university gets top rankings for academics, value and the quality of student life; Rice spends more than $60 million each year on financial aid to students; and first-year students consistently say Rice is a friendly, helpful campus.

All of this has boosted Rice’s undergraduate student population, which is nearing the 30 percent growth goal of 3,800 established five years ago in the Vision for the Second Century plan. Leebron said foreign national applications have increased 400 percent since 2005. Texas applications have increased 38 percent in that time, and out-of-state applications have gone up 99 percent. All of this shows “a rise in our ability to attract the best students,” Leebron said.

2. Why work at Rice?

Rice has an average staff voluntary turnover rate of 9.5 percent, Leebron said – a rate that is well below other industry averages. In health services and education, the average turnover rate is 26 percent, he said, and across the economy it’s 36 percent. Rice’s low turnover – along with the 50 qualified applicants it receives for each job opening – “does reflect that this is a desirable place to work,” he said.

Employees say they value Rice’s sense of community and its beautiful campus and facilities, and employees believe that they each make a difference because of Rice’s mission of learning, research and public service.

Leebron also noted that Rice stood by its commitment to employees during the prolonged economic downturn and minimized job losses. While it imposed a one-year wage freeze, raises were provided to those earning less than $60,000. The raise pool will be larger for the coming year, Leebron said, but continuing economic volatility will require continued vigilance and prudent budgeting.

3. Why partner with Rice?

“One of the things I like saying about Rice is, ‘We’re too small to be arrogant,’” Leebron said. Rice can increase its impact and recognize its full potential, he said, when it partners with other organizations.

“In many respects, our most important partner – though not always formal – remains the city of Houston,” Leebron said. He pointed to relationships Rice has formed with institutions all over the city, including the Texas Medical Center, Johnson Space Center and the Houston Museum District. He cited Rice’s involvement with improving K-12 education and the Center for Community Engagement’s efforts to get students involved with local volunteer programs. He also noted Rice’s record United Way donation of $192,081 and the upcoming UnConvention April 11-15, for which “we’ve invited the city of Houston to come onto our campus and really experience the things that go on here every day.”

Rice has also built partnerships with other universities for scientific research and dual degree programs. It is connected to universities in China, Japan, Brazil and other countries, he said, and maintains research agreements with about 200 universities in the United States.

“These relationships around the world are critical for our future,” Leebron said.

And corporate partnerships become even more important as federal and state research budgets face serious pressures, Leebron said. Rice’s Corporate Council has worked to provide a coordinated, universitywide framework to make the most of those relationships. ”We’re seeing some very good partnerships develop,” he said.

4. Why give to Rice?

Donors give to Rice, Leebron said, because it makes a difference.

“We are working on the problems that people care about – global health, the cost of health care, energy, education, poverty,” Leebron said.

Philanthropy has allowed Rice to place public art on campus and open several new academic programs and centers, Leebron said, including the Kinder Institute for Urban Research, the Rice Center for Engineering Leadership, the Rice Education Entrepreneurship Program and several new courses of study.

“All of these remarkable additions to the university were made possible by the generosity of our donors,” he said.

The Centennial Campaign – which is the biggest fundraising effort in Rice history – has now raised $781.4 million of its $1 billion goal.

“We’re confident we’re going to get there,” Leebron said. “We’re still more or less on track for the goal we set.” He noted that 40 percent of Rice employees have given to the Centennial Campaign.

In closing, Leebron pointed again to “the bottom line,” repeating the acronym he introduced to staffers last fall: RICE, which stands for Responsibility, Integrity, Community and Excellence.

“Our ability to adhere to those values,” he said, “is what makes us a great and successful university.”

Before Leebron opened the floor for questions, he presented the Elizabeth Gillis Award for Exemplary Service to Crystal Davis ’87, current funds accounting manager.

The Q-and-A session included several questions submitted through Twitter. Questions ranged from whether employees in remote offices might soon be brought back to campus (Perhaps eventually, Leebron said, citing the cost of building facilities and parking.) to whether an employee scholarship might be developed for a Master of Liberal Studies degree. (“We’ll look into that,” he said.)

One staffer asked whether the Vision for the Second Century (V2C) – Leebron’s 10-point strategy leading up to the centennial – is now complete. “It is not complete,” Leebron said.

“There’s an awful lot we have achieved,” he said. “We’re a much more international university, we’re more engaged with the city, we’ve almost completed our growth as expected.”

While the V2C is “still a valuable guide for the university,” new priorities have arisen in recent years, and Rice must adapt its goals to “reflect what’s going on in higher education,” Leebron said. “I think there’s still a lot to achieve.”

To view Leebron’s town hall presentation, visit http://training.rice.edu/TownHall.aspx.

To provide feedback to the Town Hall Committee (Marie Wehrung, chair, Kate Almond, B.J. Smith and Carlos Solis), visit http://staff.rice.edu/post_event_TownHall_survey.asp.