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October 22, 2004 > News > Leebron proposes passport

Leebron proposes passport

By David Brown | Thresher staff

Rice students may no longer have to fear the penalties of train hopping or museum trespassing. President David Leebron’s ‘Passport to Houston,’ available for free to all undergraduate students beginning Nov. 15, will feature a Metro Rail pass, along with free admission to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Leebron said the purpose of the project is to encourage student involvement in Houston. The passport aims to strengthen education outside the classroom and to help make Rice a more attractive school for prospective students, Leebron said. ‘Rice has to make Houston part of the attraction of coming to Rice,’ Leebron said. ‘That has to be true whether we’re recruiting students in Texas, New York or Alaska.’ Adviser to the President Maryana Iskander (Wiess ‘99) said the ‘Metro-U pass’ will provide unlimited access on all Metro transit systems, including buses, from Nov. 15 to May 15, 2005. The Office of the President has also arranged for unlimited access to the MFAH with a Rice ID. Leebron said he is working to add free or discounted admission to other museums to the passport, although some of Houston’s museums — such as the Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston — are already free. Another component of the passport, Leebron said, is providing information about Houston cultural options to students. ‘The passport will ultimately come with a lot of information,’ Leebron said. ‘We’re looking at questions of … how do we get out information.’ Funding for the program will come from the university’s discretionary budget and will be less than $100,000, Iskander said. Leebron said he could not comment on the specific cost of the six-month Metro U-Pass but said the rate is highly discounted. Leebron said he wants to ensure the rate is worthwhile. ‘One thing we’re going to have to monitor on the way is we want to find out whether it’s cost-effective or not,’ Leebron said. In February, the Baylor College of Medicine purchased 12-month Metro passes for its students for $52 each. Rice previously offered the U-Pass to students, but ended participation at the end of 2002, before the completion of the light rail early this year. The University of Houston is also enrolled in the program. Leebron said he could not disclose the cost of unlimited admission to the MFAH. Many Rice students welcomed the idea of the passport. Baker College senior Cara Eng said she frequents Houston museums and thinks Rice students should be prompted to take advantage of cultural opportunitites. ‘I’m a lifelong Houstonian, and I feel like people never get off the Rice campus even though the museum district is half a mile away,’ Eng said. Eng said she hopes to see the passport include cultural opportunities beyond museums. Wiess College sophomore Jimmy Pearson said it is easy to miss Houston’s cultural opportunities, but he would try not to waste opportunities like free admission to museums. ‘I think it’s great the university would actually be encouraging us to get outside the hedges and see [Houston],’ Pearson said. Sid Richardson College senior Julia Follick said she thinks having free access to the Metro Rail will influence students to use Metro. Because of the fare, she said, some don’t use the light rail, and others have incurred $250 fines for riding without a ticket. ‘There are a lot of people who won’t do it because of the $1 cost — that’s an insurmountable thing for starving students,’ she said. Leebron said he hopes students will take advantage of the Passport to Houston. He said Rice’s location is one of its major assets. ‘We need that to be the incredible advantage that it is,’ Leebron said. ‘And the only way we can do that is if we make it easy for students.’

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