The Rice Thresher

Location: http://the.ricethresher.org/news/2004/08/27/leebron_inauguration

August 27, 2004 > News > Leebron inauguration to include student reception

Leebron inauguration to include student reception

By Ian Everhart | Thresher Editorial Staff

David Leebron will be inaugurated as the seventh president of Rice in a two-day ceremony Oct. 1 and 2.

English Professor Bob Patten, a co-chair of the committee planning the event, said the celebration will resemble past presidential inaugurations at Rice.

Mary Bixby, executive director of the Inauguration Committee, said she could not estimate how much the event will cost but said expenses should be of the same magnitude as the 1993 inauguration of former President Malcolm Gillis, which cost about $150,000.

As in the past, letters have been sent to more than 500 universities, colleges and academic institutions around the world inviting each of them to send a representative to the ceremony. The inauguration delegates will arrive Friday, Oct. 1 and will have chances to tour the campus, meet Rice students and mingle with their peers throughout the weekend, Patten said.

“[The delegates] come to Rice to represent those institutions and to see Rice and to see its students, to see its settings, hear about its ambitions, and then take that word back to the international educational community,” he said. “It’s a really good chance for us to tell our story.”

Invited guests include Gillis and former Rice Presidents George Rupp and Norman Hackerman, Houston Mayor Bill White and Texas Governor Rick Perry.

The president of the International University-Bremen is also expected to attend. IUB is a private university in Bremen, Germany — founded in 1999 — for which Rice served as a model.

The tradition of inviting delegates from scholarly organizations and institutions dates back to Rice’s early days, when President Edgar Odell Lovett convened a similar group at Rice’s opening ceremonies in 1912.

Bixby, also the director of Friends of Fondren Library, said several events planned for the weekend were designed with different sections of the Rice community in mind.

“We decided as a group, with lots of input from our student representatives, that we would try to design the entire inauguration to have an event for each constituency,” Bixby said.

Patten, who has served on previous inauguration committees, said Rice staff members will be invited to attend a reception that afternoon from 2-4 p.m.

“Many [staff members] work from 7 a.m.-3 p.m., so we tried to set it at an hour when people can finish the work day, clean up, and come to the reception, and [also] people coming on for late-night shifts,” he said. “We tried to pick a time that would be inclusive of everybody.”

The evenings of Oct. 1 and 2 will feature private events for delegates, trustees, faculty members and university officials, Patten said. Oct. 2, the dignitaries will attend a presentation from Mamphela Ramphele, a black South African who grew up in apartheid and became a medical doctor. Ramphele now serves as one of four managing directors of the World Bank.

Leebron will be summoned to the formal investiture ceremony by members of the Board of Trustees and representatives of other campus and community organizations the afternoon of Oct. 1. Students and the general public are invited to the investiture ceremony, which will be held in the academic quad the morning of Oct. 2.

At the investiture, Leebron will make a speech highlighting some of his plans for Rice. Patten said the investiture will be an opportunity for Leebron to speak about all parts of the university. He said the ceremony has three goals.

“It’s to do the formal installation, to introduce Rice to Houston and Houston to Rice, and to give [Leebron] an opportunity to speak about his vision for the future of the university,” Patten said.

Student Association President Derrick Matthews, the undergraduate representative to the Inauguration Committee, said there will be a student-oriented reception immediately following the investiture. Leebron plans to give a brief address at the student reception, Matthews, a Will Rice College senior, said.

Jones College sophomore Zachary Dreyfuss said he wishes more of the weekend’s events were open to students.

“I think it should be more of a student-oriented weekend,” Dreyfuss said. “Having delegates from all over the world, that’s a great thing, but considering that he’s the president of our university and he’s going to be making changes for us, his whole purpose is to help the student body.”

Patten said he hopes students will take advantage of the unique occasion and attend the inauguration.

“It’s not ceremony for its own sake,” he said. “To me, it’s a tremendously exciting moment in which we [tell the world], ‘Hey, look me over.’”

End of article

Back to top