Leebron shares faculty hiring plan

By Sarah Rutledge     10/30/08 7:00pm

President David Leebron spoke to a packed crowd in Duncan Hall last Thursday while delivering his fourth State of the University Address.Citing Hurricane Ike and its aftermath, Leebron said the year has turned out to be a historically different year for Rice. On Tuesday, Sept. 16, classes resumed after the hurricane with 75 percent of faculty and staff on campus. Leebron said this showed resilience and compassion in responding quickly to the storm. After Ike, the campus suffered $3 million in damage.

"For better or for worse, this was just under our deductible," he said.

In the days following Ike, Rice made loans available to faculty and staff, the athletic department opened up child camps, provided shelter and food to graduate students in university housing and urged United Way contributions. This community-building experience, however, was a precursor to another disaster of a more financial nature: the U.S. stock market.

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Leebron said daily fluctuations in the stock market can impact the university's savings and funds.

Moving on to the endowment, Leebron said this year's $4.61 billion endowment grew 2 percent in June but fell this month due to the U.S. financial crisis.

Leebron assured the audience this was not a dire situation.

"Think of this as a time, not of danger but of opportunity for our university," Leebron said.

While many universities are having to resort to hiring freezes in an effort to save money, Leebron said Rice is planning to save money by not spending it recklessly. Instead, he said he will use these funds to approach distinguished professors and persuade them to teach at Rice.

"Our goal is to be a university that sees this time as a time to seize opportunities and build our faculty for the future," he said.

This year, 39 new faculty were hired. Leebron said Rice is looking to grow its faculty by about 20 slots. Leebron's Vision for the Second Century, which includes expanding the student population, meant 789 freshmen matriculated this fall, and 850 are expected to enter Rice next fall. Last fall, Rice had seven students per faculty member, a statistic Leebron said is one of the lowest in the U.S.

Starting next fall, Leebron said students can get accustomed to seeing less construction projects on campus. A new physics building, however, was just approved for construction in December 2010. He also remarked on the success of Rice's Centennial Campaign's fundraising so far.

Looking to the future, Leebron said he plans to focus on encouraging Texas Medical Center collaboration, looking for 44 tenured and tenure-track faculty recruitments, beginning curricular reform, expanding international collaboration, having ties to the Houston community and continuing to work on Rice's national and international profile.

After addressing the audience, Leebron accepted questions from the room.

Leebron said some disciplines are more likely to get funding than others, though he is on the lookout for a donor wanting to invest in the Visual and Dramatic Arts Department.

In regards to a question about hiring freezes at other universities, Leebron said Rice is going forward with its original hiring plans this year given a lower level of competition over the next several years.

In response to a concern about the lack of a Hispanic Studies major at Rice, Leebron said a more likely soon-to-be major is minority studies of some sort, like those of the African diaspora.

In conclusion, Leebron said there is still work to be done.

"There's a lot we still need to do, and we'll continue to work on it," he said.

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