William Marsh Rice University,
commonly referred to as Rice University or Rice, is a private research
university located on a 295-acre (1.19 km2) campus in Houston, Texas, United
States. The university is situated near the Houston Museum District and is
adjacent to the Texas Medical Center.
Opened in 1912 after the murder of
its namesake William Marsh Rice, Rice is now a research university with an
undergraduate focus. Its emphasis on education is demonstrated by a small
student body and 6:1 student-faculty ratio.The university has a very high level
of research activity for its size, with $115.3 million in sponsored research
funding in 2011. Rice is noted for its applied science programs in the fields
of artificial heart research, structural chemical analysis, signal processing,
space science, and nanotechnology. It was ranked first in the world in
materials science research by the Times Higher Education(THE) in 2010. Rice is
a member of the Association of American Universities.
Rice is noted for its
entrepreneurial activity, and has been recognized as the top ranked business
incubator in the world by the Stockholm-based UBI Index for both 2013 and 2014.
The university is organized into
eleven residential colleges and eight schools of academic study, including the
Wiess School of Natural Sciences, the George R. Brown School of Engineering,
the School of Social Sciences, and the School of Humanities. Graduate programs
are offered through the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Business, School of
Architecture, Shepherd School of Music, and Susanne M. Glasscock School of
Continuing Studies.Rice students are bound by the strict Honor Code, which is
enforced by a student-run Honor Council.
Rice competes in 14 NCAA Division I
varsity sports and is a part of Conference USA, often competing with its cross-town
rival the University of Houston. Intramural and club sports are offered in a
wide variety of activities such as jiu jitsu, water polo, and crew.
The history of Rice University began
with the untimely demise of Massachusetts businessman William Marsh Rice, who
made his fortune in real estate, railroad development and cotton trading in the
state of Texas. In 1891, Rice decided to charter a free-tuition educational
institute in Houston, bearing his name, to be created upon his death,
earmarking most of his estate towards funding the project. Rice's will
specified the institution was to be "a competitive institution of the
highest grade" and that only white students would be permitted to attend.
On the morning of September 23, 1900, Rice was found dead by his valet, and
presumed to have died in his sleep. Shortly thereafter, a suspiciously large
check made out to Rice's New York City lawyer, signed by the late Rice, was
noticed by a bank teller due to a misspelling in the recipient's name. The
lawyer, Albert T. Patrick, then announced that Rice had changed his will to
leave the bulk of his fortune to Patrick, rather than to the creation of Rice's
educational institute. A subsequent investigation led by the District Attorney
of New York resulted in the arrests of Patrick and of Rice's butler and valet
Charles F. Jones, who had been persuaded to administer chloroform to Rice while
he slept. Rice's friend and personal lawyer in Houston, James A. Baker, Sr.,
aided in the discovery of what turned out to be a fake will with a forged
signature. Jones was not prosecuted since he cooperated with the district
attorney, and testified against Patrick. Patrick was found guilty of conspiring
to steal Rice's fortune and convicted of murder in 1901, although he was pardoned
in 1912 due to conflicting medical testimony. Baker helped Rice's estate direct
the fortune, worth $4.6 million in 1904 ($121 million today), towards the
founding of what was to be called the Rice Institute. The Board took control of
the assets on April 29 of that year.
In 1907, the Board of Trustees
selected the head of the Department of Mathematics and Astronomy at Princeton
University, Edgar Odell Lovett, to head the Institute, which was still in the
planning stages. He came recommended by Princeton's president, Woodrow Wilson.
In 1908, Lovett accepted the challenge, and was formally inaugurated as the
Institute's first president on October 12, 1912. Lovett undertook extensive
research before formalizing plans for the new Institute, including visits to 78
institutions of higher learning across the world on a long tour between 1908
and 1909. Lovett was impressed by such things as the aesthetic beauty of the
uniformity of the architecture at the University of Pennsylvania, a theme which
was adopted by the Institute, as well as the residential college system at
Cambridge University in England, which was added to the Institute several
decades later. Lovett called for the establishment of a university "of the
highest grade," "an institution of liberal and technical
learning" devoted "quite as much to investigation as to
instruction.""keep the standards up and the numbers down,"
declared Lovett. "The most distinguished teachers must take their part in
undergraduate teaching, and their spirit should dominate it all."
Five streets demarcate the campus:
Greenbriar Street, Rice Boulevard, Sunset Boulevard, Main Street, and
University Boulevard. For most of its history, all of Rice's buildings have
been contained within this "outer loop". In recent years, new facilities
have been built close to campus, but the bulk of administrative, academic, and
residential buildings are still located within the original pentagonal plot of
land. The new Collaborative Research Center, all graduate student housing, the
Greenbriar building, and the Wiess President's House are located off-campus.
Rice prides itself on the amount of
green space available on campus; there are only about 50 buildings spread
between the main entrance at its easternmost corner, and the parking lots and
Rice Stadium at the West end. The Lynn R. Lowrey Arboretum, consisting of more
than 4000 trees and shrubs (giving birth to the legend that Rice has a tree for
every student), is spread throughout the campus.