After a year of extraordinary challenges imposed by COVID-19, President David Leebron envisioned a campus returning to normal and outlined a post-pandemic future for Rice during the university’s annual town hall meeting.
For the second consecutive year, the traditional town hall address was delivered remotely rather than in person — another concession to the global health crisis that has upended campus life. One advantage of the virtual arrangement was that more than 1,100 people were able to watch, which Leebron noted probably set a university record.
“I don’t know about all of you, but I certainly didn’t contemplate at the time (of the 2020 town hall) that a year later, we would again have this event virtually rather than in person,” Leebron said during the April 14 meeting. “It has gone on far longer, I would say, than most of us had anticipated.”
The president thanked students, faculty and staff for their dedication to keeping the university operating and keeping the campus environment safe during the pandemic. Rice’s COVID-19 positivity rate has consistently remained a fraction of the surrounding community’s rate. Leebron reviewed data showing that since last August, after about 144,000 tests conducted at Rice, 350 people tested positive — a rate of 0.24%.
The university has incurred about $13.8 million in expenses related to the pandemic during the 2021 fiscal year, Leebron said. At the same time, Rice lost about $22.3 million in housing and dining revenue after students moved out of the residential colleges, creating a total of roughly $36.1 million in financial challenges tied to the pandemic. The university plans to cover that sum with a number of funding mechanisms, including one-time budget reallocations, FEMA reimbursements, federal support and “a terrific job” of expense savings in the Office of Housing and Dining.
“Compared to the last time we talked — and certainly in June, July and August — the outlook is better,” Leebron said.
With enrollment rising, large growth in revenue from online education courses and strong projected endowment returns in fiscal year 2021, Leebron said planned budget cuts shouldn’t be as severe as initially feared.
“Those don’t allow us to eliminate the budget cuts, but they‘ve allowed us so far to hold it to a one-time 2%, rather than the initial plan — which was to have 3% and to have that 3% most likely repeated,” he said. “At this point in time, based on the information we have, we think this is going to be a onetime cut if we don’t see any severe changes in the markets.”
Leebron dedicated much of his talk to reviewing the university’s progress in furthering diversity, equity and inclusion on campus. Among the highlights: Alex Byrd was named as Rice’s first vice provost for diversity, equity and inclusion; Bryan Washington was appointed scholar in residence for racial justice; Rice established the Race and Anti-Racism Research Fund and the Center for Civic Leadership’s Racial Equality and Justice Fund; and diversity training for faculty and staff will launch in the fall.
Meanwhile, the university’s Task Force on Slavery, Segregation and Racial Injustice has been “extremely active,” Leebron said. The task force has held weekly “Doc Talk” webinars; surveyed the Rice community for opinions on the founder’s memorial; sponsored Racial Geography Project presentations by student researchers; conducted a webinar called “Isabella’s Journey” tracing the story of an enslaved woman who sued to gain her freedom; and sponsored “Segregated Houston,” outlining the history of Rice as a segregated institution. Later this year, the task force is expected to release a preliminary report on Rice’s history related to slavery.
“This is just part of the effort that we all must be engaged in to address these issues,” Leebron said.
At the same time, he noted, the university’s student body is growing more diverse. Undergraduate students from underrepresented minority groups make up 30% of the 2021 admitted class. Among graduate students, underrepresented minorities make up 33% of the 2021 admitted domestic doctoral students, up from 23% over the past three years. An extended orientation program for new undergraduate students focused on living and growing in Rice’s diverse community is expected to launch this fall.
“Equally important is diversity of faculty,” he said. “And maybe it's, in some ways, more important as it's an important source of inspiration and assurance to our students.”
Underrepresented minorities accounted for almost 11% of the faculty in fall 2020, he said, up from 7% in fall 2012.
“I think one of the things we’re really now seeing is much more attention all across the campus, by departments and every school, to the important issues that we face,” Leebron said.
Looking ahead, Leebron noted Rice’s Board of Trustees has approved a 20% enlargement of the undergraduate student body during the next five years, the recently unveiled Welch Institute is expected to hire an executive director and the Ion formally opens this summer with Microsoft and Chevron Technology among its tenants. The university is supporting student life with capital projects that include the new Sid Richardson College, a new wing of Hanszen College and a new student center that will house a multicultural center. Among the capital projects supporting research and creativity are nine new buildings or major renovations, including a new engineering and science building and the Sarofim Visual and Dramatic Arts building.
“All of these are illustrations of how we’ve not just really survived this pandemic, but continued to move the university forward and are well prepared for the fall as we emerge from the pandemic,” Leebron said.
One of the town hall meeting’s traditions is the announcement of the winner of one of the university’s highest accolades, the Elizabeth Gillis Award for Exemplary Service. The award’s namesake, the wife of former President Malcolm Gillis, made an appearance to announce this year’s recipient. Amanda Focke, the head of special collections for the Woodson Research Center at Fondren Library, was lauded as “an extraordinary leader” with “an unwavering work ethic.”
In the town hall’s online question-and-answer session, Leebron was asked whether university employees working at home during the pandemic might have the option of doing at least some of their work from home in a post-pandemic Rice. The president said the university will consider more flexible work arrangements and that forthcoming policies will address that issue.
“We don’t want to drain the university of people,” he said. “But we also recognize that there are sometimes advantages to this.”
Leebron said the question of whether the university will require vaccines for students or staff in the fall semester is under consideration. He urged everyone in the Rice community to fill out the campus survey on vaccinations, which will supply data that will help determine when the university will be able to drop COVID-related restrictions on campus, and he encouraged all faculty, staff and students to get vaccinated.
“What we now contemplate is a relatively normal academic year,” Leebron said. “We don’t know what that means, exactly, for a variety of reasons. We’re not exactly sure what the situation will be. The most important factors, again: vaccinations, vaccinations, vaccinations.”