Campus changes at expense of prestige
In light of Harvard’s announcement that it will drop its tuition for upper middle-income families, this Rice student wonders what actions his university is going to take to raise its profile. As a university touted for the value of its education, this unprecedented change from one of America’s premier universities should be rocking our strategy.
And I don’t know if any new changes are in store for the future or if our administration is scrambling in the back rooms of Allen Hall deciding their next moves. But if they are not, they should be.
In an era when colleges and universities are being treated increasingly as businesses and less as institutions of learning, Harvard’s decision to lower tuition places it in a category of its own. It has exited the “industry” that higher education has become. And as the self-proclaimed “Harvard of the South,” we should be swift in following their move.
We are increasing tuition annually, year by year eroding the claim that Rice is one of the best values in higher education today. We brag that our tuition is remaining under $30,000 when Harvard — for some — is lowering theirs below $20,000.
The Vision for the Second Century uses a lot of fancy language to describe the basic goal for Rice’s future. You can find it online, the easiest way is to just Google “Rice V2C.” But it you don’t feel like it, I’ll summarize: Rice needs to be better.
I agree wholeheartedly with this sentiment; Rice could improve itself. However, I am thoroughly confused by the methodology behind this profound ideal. Granted, I am not trained in this sort of business, but I am a college student and I think I know what the prospies are looking for in a school.
I can guarantee that they are not getting excited about the increase in our student body; the only people excited about that are the ones who’ve figured out that the only immediate impact it will have is a decrease in the stringency of Rice’s admissions standards. The V2C Web site claims that “we must increase the size of the university to realize more fully our ambition as an institution of national and international distinction that attracts the very best students and researchers from around the globe.” But schools like the California Institute of Technology, arguably one of the more prestigious institutions in the United States, manages this goal with close to a quarter of our student body.
Arguably, an increase in student body will increase Rice’s options and offerings in the long run, but it should not be at the cost of our prestige.
And without somehow increasing our appeal, our applicant pool most likely will not see an increase in qualified applicants. Sure, there might be a notable number of students who look up when they hear Rice will be accepting considerably more students, but those are not students that we should be eager to enroll.
Changes that make Rice attractive to prospective students should be the first projects completed. It makes little sense to increase student body without the necessary accommodations for them; as is, with fewer than three thousand students at Rice, Autry is pitifully undersized. And while the new recreation center’s construction is slated for an opening concurrent with the opening of our two new colleges, it is not enough.
That facility’s construction should already be underway; students who are going to be applying to Rice when Duncan and McMurtry open are looking at schools now. That means we should be working to impress them now. And since I, a current student, have hardly heard rumblings of the new recreation center’s opening, I can only assume that prospective students know nothing of it.
Rice needs to start making changes to support the new students they plan to admit. Parking on the north side of campus is already terribly cramped since the loss of Abercrombie Lot to construction and plans to build a garage along Lab Road are still years from completion.
Admittedly, the administration should be looking to the future of the university. But they should not forget that they also have an obligation to current students.
Rice needs to wake up and start making the changes that will keep us competitive. We need to start making these changes now and spend some of our new marketing budget publicizing — on campus — those that are being made. Or there aren’t going to be another thousand students lining up to fill the rooms we’re building for them.
Sean McBeath is a Martel College sophomore and calendar editor.
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