Rice overlooks out-of-state students

By Sean McBeath     1/15/09 6:00pm

Over the last few years, we've seen the introduction of a new campus-wide marketing effort and new slogans and taglines to broaden Rice's footprint in the college market. The driving motivation behind the implementation of all these changes was to break Rice's regionalized reputation as the "Harvard of the South" and to begin to draw students more heavily from schools outside of Texas. While some say that the measures we have taken as a university - making phrases like "Unconventional Wisdom" and "Who Knew?" the most prominent verbal associations with our name - are actually cheapening our reputation, that's not the point of this article.My point is that, for all the money we're putting into advertising, we should be experiencing tremendous returns. But when I go home, most people I talk to have never heard of Rice, and half of those who have don't know whether it's in Houston or Austin. Financing isn't the only support that a project of this scale needs. If we're really trying to draw out-of-state students, the administration - with the help of the Faculty Senate - needs to make efforts to accommodate them.

There are a number of difficult situations out-of-state students face that the average Texan or Houstonian doesn't really have to consider. The slow shift of our summer break into April, the newly-convoluted Metro Q-card system and the late finalization of the finals schedule are all examples of minor things we see happening that inconvenience out-of-state students (and many in-state students as well).

Understandably, Houston is hot during the summer, but the earlier we end our spring semester, the earlier we are forced to start again in August. This year, I expect students who want to advise during Orientation Week will have to be back at Rice on Aug. 11, which severely limits summer internship options.

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In previous years, students have received U-Passes and Q-Cards at their colleges and never needed to renew them (as we do, with the $10 cards we get now). Since public transportation is crucial for students without cars, we should be working to make this system as simple and painless as possible, instead of forcing students to revisit the Cashier's Office to pick up and renew their cards.

Finally, for anyone who doesn't live within a day's drive of Rice, transportation around breaks is a big deal. Students consistently lay down hundreds of dollars for plane fares to get to and from school on time while still spending as many days as possible with their families. The cost is unavoidable, but not knowing the finals schedule until October makes it impossible for students to book affordable round-trip fares for the semester. Setting the finals schedule before classes begin would eliminate this concern.

There are certainly valid concerns in the ruling bodies that deal with these issues. Moving up the scheduling of finals, making our semester scheduling match with more traditional calendars and restoring the availability of public transportation would certainly require some logistical work, but it's time for the administration to put its action behind the move it says it's making. If there is time to make registration on ESTHER more complicated with each consecutive semester, there should be time to tackle more pervasive problems.

The changes over the last few years have not shown me that Rice is really dedicated to addressing my concerns as a current student. Everything from this rash of construction (and the poorly-handled student concerns surrounding it), the "inevitable" assimilation of college and club funds into BANNER and the usurpation of the "Student" Admission Council tells me that Rice is more interested in the Second Century than the current century, as if the goal of the Second Century was more important than how we achieve that vision.

It would appear that President David Leebron is banking on this generation of students passing quietly into the night, after which he will recruit a new class with no memory of the troubles we've faced under this leadership. But I think that our power as current students is foolishly underestimated.

Coming from Washington, a state that generally produces a small number of Rice students, I think it's fair to say that I have done more for Rice in terms of advertisement than however much money (if any) the university has used to advertise there. The word-of-mouth component is crucial to Rice's marketing strategy, especially in places where few Rice students live. It would really only take one disgruntled student to turn an entire high school away for years to come.

Instead of tackling the problems most important to the administration, we should make some of the changes that will ease transitions for out-of-state students: align the summer breaks with the June-August internship opportunities, bring back the Q-Cards, release the finals schedule earlier and restore faith that this is a school that anticipates student concern and acts on it. And do it now, so that when we open our doors to increased number of students, we'll boast not only a set of brand-new facilities, but an administration that backs up its promises to students with action we will all appreciate.

So, we'll see what happens. Maybe Rice will be true to its word and start considering in its decision the out-of-state students it so desperately claims to want. My opinion? We'll see more efforts to promote Rice on the basis of "increasing the value of your degree" instead of keeping this a place worth living and studying.

Sean McBeath is a Martel College junior and former Calendar editor.

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