The Rice Thresher

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August 19, 2005 > Opinion > He called, we answer

He called, we answer

By the Rice Thresher | Thresher Editorial Staff

We loved being called to conversation this summer. We didn’t have to beg for anyone to listen. We didn’t have to install hidden cameras in the Allen Center to see what was happening. Instead, President David Leebron asked the entire Rice community to participate in the decision-making process that will shape the university’s future. (See Story, Page 1.) We applaud the President’s Office for its transparency and its eagerness to consult.

Since we were asked for our opinions, here are our initial views on some of the most important issues in the Call to Conversation:

Enrollment: Rice’s size has remained essentially the same for decades, limiting the prestige of small departments. Given that a size of 3,600-3,800 undergraduates is still very small, we see nothing wrong with a healthy increase in enrollment — provided on-campus housing keeps pace and current class sizes are retained. Under these conditions, growth will hopefully make Rice better known and more influential.

Off-campus housing: University-owned off-campus housing would be a great convenience, as anyone who has been kicked off campus can appreciate. Spring and summer would be less stressful for apartment hunters if they knew they had a relatively low-cost option with honest, Rice-affiliated management — and so much the better if the housing were within walking or biking distance from campus.

Increasing opportunities for graduate students to teach: We understand that graduate students carefully consider the teaching opportunities at universities before enrolling in Ph.D. programs, and that our strong emphasis on keeping professors in the classroom hurts our graduate programs by driving applicants away. But we think it would cripple Rice’s unique learning environment to tip the current professor-graduate student balance toward more graduate students.

Increasing graduate stipends: By contrast, we see no harm in giving prospective graduate students a better financial incentive to come to Rice. This method of attracting stronger students and improving graduate programs has fewer direct trade-offs for undergraduates. Besides, if better stipends attract better graduate students, the quality of instruction by graduate students who do teach undergraduate classes might improve as well.

Increasing the number of post-doctoral fellows: “Post-docs” work wonders for undergraduate research. They are more qualified than graduate students but they are generally young, ambitious and hard-working — perfectly suited to dealing with students pursuing their first degrees. While we do not want them replacing professors on any large scale in the classroom, we do support bringing more of them — and their interesting projects — to Rice.

Strengthening undergraduate research: Along the same lines, we support making undergraduate research more commonplace. True academic research isn’t for everyone, but we think there are more Rice students with research potential than are currently involved in such projects.

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