Vision for Rice must stay true to undergrads

Rice is not Columbia Law School. As such, we should not aspire to become another Columbia. We should seek to be something different, something better. Unfortunately, President David Leebron’s Vision for the Second Century appears to be largely a call for convention, more concerned with Rice the institution than

Rice’s students.

Rice has always been committed to undergraduate education. Graduate students are simply not the focus of Rice’s purpose, and those seeking a program tailored to their needs should look elsewhere. Never should any graduate program be elevated at the expense of undergraduates. If we decide to improve the graduate programs at Rice, we must ensure it is done in a way that benefits undergraduates.

Research must similarly serve undergraduates. Great researchers are important to any university, but faculty should never be recruited on the basis of research credentials alone. Even Nobel Prize winners are useless if their knowledge and experience cannot be used to improve undergraduate education, either in classes or in research groups.

Teaching is mentioned in the opening lines of the vision statement, but it is never addressed. If we recommit to anything, it should be to unsurpassed instruction, because that is what makes Rice superior. Some of our most valuable lecturers have been terminated to save

money — a scandal at a university dedicated to excellence in education.

There is another glaring omission in the vision statement. Both the Call to Conversation and the Vision for the Second Century mention a “holistic education,” but both fail to articulate this vision, which should include the education of both mind and body. This omission comes less than two years after the latest fight about athletics, at the end of which the Board of Trustees reaffirmed Rice’s commitment to Division I-A. No such reaffirmation is made in the vision statement. Commitment to athletics and to a holistic education would make both Division I-A sports and the LPAP

program — in need of review and overhaul to be valuable — of central importance in Rice’s future.

Perhaps of greatest concern is how little changed from the Call to Conversation to the Vision for the Second Century. Great lengths were taken to assure the student body and alumni that they would be involved in shaping the future of this institution. Yet there is little indication that these inputs had much effect on Leebron’s plans. Significant objections to his ideas should have been addressed; we have a right to know the influences behind his decisions.

There are certain parts of the vision statement that I agree with or at least grudgingly accept. But instead of aspiring to be yet another Ivy League imitator, we should strive to be something better. If we truly seek to be leaders in education, we should not try to follow others. We should be asking ourselves what can be done to improve undergraduate education in this country and then lead by example.

Catering to the desires of students who settled for Rice after being rejected elsewhere is detrimental. We should be striving to serve the students for whom Rice uniquely meets their educational and personal needs, and trust that students who belong here will continue to find their way to Houston.

National reputation and a high ranking are certainly desirable, but a great Rice education is about much more than the university’s name on a diploma. It is about how we grow in four years inside the hedges and about what we give to the world once we step through the Sallyport. I think Rice is already unparalleled in this mission and its execution, and neither should be sacrificed in an ill-advised attempt to be more like our East Coast peers. We should seize the opportunity to put Rice on the forefront of superior instruction rather than squandering it on mimicry.

I hope to evoke some response from my apathetic peers and alumni. The fact that students only get up in arms over KTRU being shut down or gay marriage columns should make us all a little ashamed. We are talking about our school’s future. It should not be taken lightly.

David Axel is a Brown College senior.

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