Leebron Q&A

By Catherine Bratic     5/14/09 7:00pm

This interview continues the Thresher's monthly question-and-answer series with President David Leebron to ask him about current events, university issues and anything else of interest to the Rice student body. To submit a question for a future interview, email threshernews AT gmail.com.Rice Thresher: How is the new puppy, TexWilly, doing?

David Leebron: He's really popular in the house. He seems to like everybody. I think I was right in predicting that my position would drop to number five in the household. I hold [President Barack Obama] personally responsible for this. I resisted the puppy for four or five years. And then when the president announced that he was getting his children a puppy, my children said, "If that president can get his children a puppy, why can't you get us a puppy?" And I didn't have a good answer to that question, so now I have a puppy. I was hoping they'd at least put something in the stimulus package for people who now own puppies as a result of his actions. But at least I didn't have to worry about the political consequences of what kind of puppy I had or where I got the puppy.

RT: What do you think of the recent proliferation of minors?

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DL: I think for the most part that minors are great. I think they've unleashed a lot of faculty creativity, which I think is very important. And especially for a small university like Rice, we need to kind of leverage our faculty and leverage our programs. ... I do think we're going to need to be reflective as we go into the future and ask what are the limits of the minor concept.

The [Faculty Senate] and the Curriculum Committee have been very, very responsible and very tough on these issues. They regard a minor as a commitment to students, saying if we launch a minor, it shouldn't depend on just one faculty member. ... One of the strengths of Rice is our flexibility. We ought not to be characterized by bureaucratic rigidity. The ability to double major at Rice has drawn out our students' abilities to do different things while they're here. I've come, through a process, to regard that as a good thing. What's a less good thing is to allow students to double major just to get the double major. And I think minors also offer that opportunity.

RT: So what exactly is behind your legendary love of palm trees? You are said to be the reason that there will be palm trees at the new Recreation Center.

DL: People are very afraid of me on this issue. One, I think it's important that we have a variety of vegetation on the campus. And two, I think it's important that we exploit our position as a warm weather campus and a place where people want to come in part because the weather is good. People don't always say this about Houston, but this is a great weather campus. We've just been through a fabulous winter: 75-80 degree days in February. So we want to enjoy the campus.

RT: A lot of opposition has been raised to the planned Legacy Memorial. Do you sympathize with these concerns? Are any revisions planned?

DL: What we've so far decided is that we had a contest, and [Martel College senior] Ashley [Hinton's] entry won for a variety of reasons. We all thought it was creative, symbolic, subtle [and] simple. All we've decided so far is that she won the contest. We haven't made a decision about what design will be implemented. So it's helpful to hear from alumni and students how they react to things. Now, of course, sometimes people have a negative reaction to things they turn out to love. The best modern examples are probably the designs for the Vietnam Memorial and the pyramids at the Louvre.

A lot of the reaction is to the particular photo of the design that the Thresher ran. In that photo, it makes these concentric rings look much bolder and more pronounced than I think the design is actually. I think in fact the design has the capacity to be quite subtle.

One of the things I find very amusing is the assertion that we'd be sort of filling the quad with corporate names. These are almost all names of alumni and distinguished people of Houston.

That said, I think the reaction is very helpful as we proceed forward. We've been amused by some of the very typical Rice discussions about where the foci of an ellipsis are. It's good that people react and it's great that they care about the traditional aspects of the campus, although sometimes they overestimate how long those traditions have been there.

RT: If you were in Beer Bike, would you bike or chug?

DL: I tend to get dehydrated, so I'd have to bike. I'd have my wife chug; she drinks a lot of water. Though she'd probably beat me on both counts.

RT: What do you think of the new amorous relations policy passed by the Faculty Senate, which, among other things, prohibits all romantic relationships between faculty and undergraduates?

DL: I think it's a very good move for Rice. These are difficult questions, but I think we take a special responsibility with respect to undergraduates, and I think their parents believe we take a special responsibility. I think having a very clear rule is important particularly at Rice.

I think it was a very important declaration on part of the faculty, and I think it's worth emphasizing this is something that came from the faculty. This isn't something where the Administration came out and said we need a new policy. This is something that came from the Faculty Senate. We've had great leadership in the Senate that worked it through in a responsible and reasonable manner, and they gave everybody a chance to express a range of views on the issue. But on the question of the policy, I think it's the right policy for Rice.

RT: What advice do you have for graduates as they near the end of their time at Rice?

DL: My advice is to cement the relationships that people have formed in the past four years and to do everything that you can in these last few days to figure out how you're going to remain in touch: that you're going to try to go to all your reunions, and you're going to communicate by e-mail. These are really potentially lifelong relationships that you've formed, and the more of them the better. But they have more fragility than you'd expect. And if you don't invest in them now in particular, they won't endure.

So these last days are a time to enjoy those relationships, but also to get very serious about not just the empty promises that you're going to continue them. And it may seem like an odd thing now to promise that you're going to go to reunions, but if you get these relationships beyond the next five years, they are likely to be lifelong relationships. But if you don't get them beyond the next five years, they are unlikely to be lifelong relationships. So that's my one piece of advice.

-Catherine Bratic

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