New students attend matriculation, faculty address

President David Leebron began his matriculation speech Sunday night by pointing out some of the similarities between himself and the incoming students.

“Like you, I am also beginning my first year at Rice,” he said. “In many ways, we embark on this journey together.”

Leebron went on to describe some of the more obvious differences between the new students and himself.

“You live in small dorm rooms,” he said. “I live in a giant house. You have a lot of hair. I don’t.”

Leebron said the students should be aware of some of the opportunities they have outside the classroom as well as inside it. He continued by highlighting some of the non-academic benefits of the Rice experience.

“You will make lifelong friendships here. … You will find members of this community wherever you may go, all over the world, and they will serve you well,” he said.

In addition to listing the usual facts about the Class of 2008, Leebron used information from some of the incoming students’ roommate questionnaire forms to illustrate the diversity of the class. New students, he said, would like to have torrid affairs with celebrities ranging from Will Smith to Helen of Troy to Paris Hilton.

“The diversity in your classmates will be one of the great treasures of your experience here,” he said.

New students will not be on their own at Rice, Leebron said.

“Your college is also a home in that it provides a safe and comfortable place for you to decide what you want to make of your time at Rice,” he said.

However, he urged students not to become too comfortable, but instead to try new experiences.

“If you start finding your experience here entirely comfortable, you are doing something wrong,” he said.

Leebron said students should be prepared for life in a changing world. He recalled that when the VCR was invented, film studios thought it would bring about the end of the film industry. Instead, video sales now make up a large portion of film studios’ profits.

“In my view, you can either fear change or embrace it. … Sometimes the changes that we are most afraid of are the ones that will lead us to new and better places,” Leebron said.

Leebron ended his address with three pieces of advice for the new students.

“Listen carefully for the voices that others may not hear. … Make your own voice heard. … Work together to achieve things otherwise not possible,” he said.

After Leebron finished his remarks, the matriculants heard from Honor Council Chair Chris Edwards (Will Rice ‘01). He described the Honor Code as an important part of Rice and commented on each student’s responsibility to uphold it.

Edwards was followed by Student Association President Derrick Matthews. Matthews, a Will Rice College senior, also urged students to try new things.

“If variety is the spice of life, randomness is that crazy hot sauce you tried and thought you would die from, but then bragged about like five minutes later,” he said.

Matthews was succeeded by Alumni Association President Kevin Bartol (Sid ‘81). Bartol encouraged the freshmen to appreciate their time at Rice, and assured them that although it would be difficult at times, their time at Rice would be a great experience.

“There’ll be times when you’ll wish you went to an easier school like Harvard or Stanford,” he said before emphasizing the many benefits of attending Rice.

Following the speeches, the Rice Philharmonics sang the Alma Mater, Rice’s Honor, before the incoming students processed around the campus and entered through the Sallyport, marking the beginning of their Rice careers.

Faculty address

Calling academic freedom “the most precious and basic value underlying education,” French Studies Professor Lynne Huffer challenged Rice’s new students to “cultivate a skill of truly listening,” to think differently and take their lives “beyond the hedges.”

Huffer, the director of the Program for the Study of Women and Gender, was selected by the Orientation Week coordinators to deliver the traditional faculty address. She spoke to an audience of freshmen, transfers and advisers Monday at Stude Concert Hall.

In her address, Huffer issued five challenges to incoming students, which she said she offered in a spirit of equal participation.

“If I give you advice, it suggests I’m outside the experience, which I’m not,” Huffer said. “We’re all in this together. We’re part of a community of scholars and learners, and as part of the community, we all have challenges to face.”

Huffer introduced her first challenge — to practice and uphold academic freedom — with a story from her recent trip to England.

Her favorite place in London, she said, is a place in Hyde Park called “Speaker’s Corner,” a historical site where individuals on soap boxes exercise their right to free speech, often on controversial issues.

Huffer observed a white woman speaking to a racially mixed crowd.

“England has been destroyed by immigrants coming into the country,” the woman said. “Go back where you came from. Leave England for the English, for Christian, civilized people like me.”

An Arab man nearby spoke about peace, denouncing all countries at war, especially the United States, as well as multinational corporations like Coca-Cola and McDonalds, Huffer said.

The resulting debate between the speakers and people gathering around was a cultural phenomenon she rarely witnesses, Huffer said. People talked heatedly about the role of women in the East versus the West, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the role of the media in society.

“It was a true exchange of different views, and it’s something I see less and less in public discourse — except in university settings,” Huffer said. “So I mention this because the ability to have true exchange of ideas is not something to be taken for granted. It is something very, very precious that we have in universities, something we call academic freedom. Take advantage of that.”

Huffer said academic freedom not only involves speaking your mind, but also listening and expanding your view.

“Challenge yourself to really listen,” she said. “Most don’t really know how to do this — it’s a hard thing to do. … Rice is a great place to counter that tendency we all have, to be rigid in our views, and to cultivate a skill of truly listening.”

Secondly, Huffer challenged students to incorporate what they learn into their daily lives. There is a tempting tendency, she said, to separate academics from real life.

“Life is your classroom and your classroom is your life,” Huffer said. “Not only can you grow from this kind of exchange, but it’ll make your life more interesting.”

Huffer’s third challenge to students was to take a class or pursue an area of study that puts them “outside of [their] comfort zone.” For example, she said, her trip to England was to learn about an unfamiliar topic: economic globalization.

Just as economics challenges her to move outside her comfort zone, Huffer said, classes like one she teaches called “Introduction to Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Studies” can challenge students to move outside theirs.

Before she arrived at her current course of study — topics ranging from feminist theory to modern French literature to ethics — Huffer said her life took several turns. As an ambitious teenager, Huffer said she was eager to please her parents and planned to become a lawyer.

But her parents’ divorce, due to her mother’s realization she is a lesbian, came as a shock. Huffer left college and worked as a ski instructor in Colorado before deciding that academia was right for her.

“I followed my heart and got lost for a little while, not knowing where I was going, but then I came to know myself better, and things gradually worked themselves out,” Huffer said.

This experience led Huffer to understand her fourth challenge: to find and follow her own passion in life.

Though Huffer made it clear she was not telling students to drop out of school, she told the audience to focus on pleasing themselves as well as others — and to stay curious.

Huffer’s final challenge to students was to not be “hemmed in by the Rice hedges.” Rather than attending keg parties every weekend, students should consider exploring the museums, music, theater and volunteer opportunities of Houston. They should engage as much as possible in the world by thinking and learning, Huffer said.

“Think of yourself as an intellectual,” she said. “People who think and actually know things tend to get labeled as snobs or elitists. It’s up to you; it’s up to us to change that stereotype.”

— Alana Newell and David Brown

August 20, 2004

The Student Newspaper of Rice University

New students attend matriculation, faculty address

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