Role of college master should be coveted position

By Ted Wieber     11/6/08 6:00pm

Every five years, each residential college at Rice conducts a search process to select its next masters. This year Hanszen and Lovett colleges' turns have arrived. Both of the colleges have formed eager student and faculty search committees, have prepared to market the virtues of their colleges and have been spreading news of the opportunity far and wide by word-of-mouth and through attendance at a faculty reception. However, the number of faculty members expressing interest in the job of college master has been disappointingly small. There are several wonderful potential candidates among these, but their strengths are overshadowed by a remarkable lack of broader faculty interest in two of the most influential faculty positions at Rice.The simple point I hope to make - for this year's search and for the many searches in the years following - is that Rice faculty members should clamor for the role of college master. Yet this isn't the case, and department chairs and our university president should waste no time in addressing this issue.

The fact is that being a college master is one of the most unique and remarkably powerful opportunities available to tenured faculty at Rice. Masters become intimately involved in the lives of students, helping them navigate the tumultuous developmental waters of the college years. And, in return, masters gain a rich and varied five-year-experience as integral parts of the Rice social fabric.

College masters wear multiple masks: They are part parent, part cheerleader, part advocate, part friend. They represent the college in university politics on Fridays and paint their faces for powderpuff games on Saturdays. They see what students are like when they let their hair down, no longer putting up fronts in class or pretending to be interested in a professor's research during office hours. And on rainy days in the commons, masters enter into students' personal lives. They learn of Mark's political ambitions over a cup of coffee, of Sarah's struggles with her religious beliefs and of Jonathan's search to find a fulfilling career. Masters hear uncensored student views of the university and the broader world; they learn who has a talent for boy-band karaoke, who can run an efficient meeting and who deals best and worst with stressful weeks. College masters have the opportunity to nurture student leaders, to inspire introverts to come out of their shells and to create a safe and inclusive learning and living environment for all.

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In short, college masters have front row seats to some of the most pivotal developmental years in young people's lives and actually have the opportunity to impact how students make the most of them. They bring the rhetoric of student-faculty interaction into reality.

So the question remains - why are Rice faculty members letting these golden opportunities slip by entirely uninvestigated? I understand that a five-year commitment requires a lot of careful deliberation, but with so much to potentially give and receive, why aren't faculty members at least curious enough to learn more?

Aside from legitimate personal reasons, I can only conclude that faculty members are either unaware of the openings or facing institutional deterrents - in the form of inadequate departmental recognition of their potential commitment to students - that keep them from considering such a remarkable opportunity to invest in Rice's student body. If it is the former, allow this article to proclaim the immense student interest in meeting with even casually interested faculty; if it is the latter, department chairs and our university president should consider reducing the teaching and publication demands and providing further financial incentives for faculty who become college masters.

At a university where glossy admissions brochures tout student-faculty interaction as a chief reason to attend, the position of college master should receive all the administrative nurture it requires. Search committees at Hanszen and Lovett should be inundated with curious faculty applicants, not left wondering what's wrong with the system.

Ted Wieber is a Hanszen College senior and chair of the Hanszen Master Search committee.

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