Levy leaves provost post

By Jocelyn Wright     9/3/09 7:00pm

Without Howard Hughes Provost Eugene Levy's influence, Rice, as both a university and a campus, would be noticeably different. Levy's work with the Passport to Houston program, the Vision for the Second Century and the BioScience Research Collaborative has shaped Rice into the institution it is today. As such, his announcement Tuesday that he will be stepping down at the end of this academic year marks the end of a remarkable and prolonged career, President David Leebron said.

"[Levy] is a remarkable individual of incredible depth, and he has served the university with uncommon dedication," Leebron said. "I think we all owe him a deep debt of appreciation."

Levy said he is stepping down both because the timing is appropriate and so that he has more time to spend on academic pursuits.

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"I'm looking forward to being able to focus on the intellectual reasons for which I embarked on this life in the first place instead of guiltily stealing minutes here and there, which is what I've had to do in these last years," Levy said.

Since his arrival at Rice in 2001, Levy has been expanding the ability of the departments and schools to take more independent and creative initiative, engaging the deans in more philanthropic fundraising and raising additional resources.

Many of the programs Levy advocated became part of Leebron's Vision for the Second Century.

"[The V2C] is David's term, but there is nothing in there that I disagree with," Levy said.

Levy, who began his career as an assistant professor of astronomy at the University of Arizona but was quickly promoted to head of the department, said he has spent most of his career balancing his executive responsibilities with his desire to focus on intellectual pursuits.

"What made the balance positive for me is the ability to shape the agendas of universities that I've been associated with and to engender new initiatives and programs to shape the environments in ways that supported and nurtured education and research," Levy said.

One of the biggest academic projects Levy helped head was the BRC, which opened this fall. Levy, a New York native, proposed what became the BRC in 2001. At the time, he said it would allow Rice to be at the forefront of biological research, an area in which Rice previously had a relatively small presence as an institution. He said working with outstanding research and educational institutions focused on biology and biomedical sciences would increase Rice's impact in the field.

"I think the potential of the BRC is becoming manifest, and as the economy improves and there is more ability of others to spend money, the full potential will be realized," Levy said.

Aside from working on these projects, Levy's primary job as provost was to be the chief academic officer of the university. Still, as he admits, his involvement at Rice did not end with academics and research.

"I probably stuck my finger into just about everything on campus at one point or another," Levy said. "I'm promiscuous about intellectual things. There are very few things at universities that don't attractmy attention."

One of Levy's greatest passions was the Passport to Houston program, which he conceived in conversation with other university officials when the METRO Rail opened in 2004.

"When I came to Rice I felt that many students were more campus-bound than made the best sense for a college education," Levy said.

Levy said he was greatly influenced by his experiences as an undergraduate at Rutgers University, located just outside New York City.

"When I was an undergraduate, I took a lot of advantage of what New York City had to offer - theater, music, Greenwich Village, drinking," Levy said.

He added that he felt this type of social culture was valuable for college life and that it was more conducive to developing a responsible drinking culture, mainly because as a college student he paid for every drink he had.

Levy said he was also strongly influenced by a conversation he had with a recent alumnus working for McKinsey & Co. who said that he really loved zoos, but did not realize that the Houston Zoo was across the street from Rice until he graduated.

"It cemented the sense for me that we needed to work harder at making students aware of what the city had to offer," Levy said.

The original concept, which started in the spring of 2005, began as a brochure with descriptions of all the cultural opportunities in Houston and information about obtaining cheap tickets, and has since developed under the Office of the Dean of Undergraduates, Levy said.

While the Passport to Houston program was being developed, Leebron arrived at Rice. The president said when he first arrived at Rice, Levy was an invaluable resource because of his background in science and engineering and his extensive knowledge of the faculty and the university.

"I'm not sure how I would have done my job without Gene," Leebron said. "There is no decision that I have made that was not made without Gene's involvement and support, and so it's very hard to imagine how I would have gotten through the last five years without Gene."

As it now stands, Leebron will go a year without Levy as provost. Levy said he has two major goals he would like to accomplish after stepping down: writing a textbook for general science education and developing a course using that textbook.

He is taking a one-year sabbatical before returning to Rice as a professor of physics and astronomy and a fellow at the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy.

The search for a new provost will begin with appointing a search committee, chair and hiring a firm that will engage in a national and potentially international search to fill the position, Leebron said. Once the search committee has narrowed down the results to about three candidates, the names will be sent to Leebron for final consideration.

Leebron said that like most universities, Rice will conduct the search as confidentially as possible.

"We believe that the best candidates are turned up if you can assure them confidentiality, but there will be a way in the process for various parts of the community to have some input," Leebron said.

Leebron said the new provost would need to understand the work of the faculty and communicate with them to improve the research endeavors and profile of the university. Leebron said he was also looking for someone with whom he could work closely.

"I think Gene and I have a very good and supportive relationship," Leebron said. "We don't agree on everything always, but we are always a team when it comes to executing whatever it is that we decide to do."

Levy said he hoped his successor would consult and collaborate with the rest of the university's intellectual, educational and artistic components when making decisions, and also be able to embrace and engage change in an effective manner.

"This [job] has two components: Don't be afraid of change and don't embrace change for its own sake," Levy said. "The ability to lead change is very important, but the ability to make judgments about what change is appropriate is equally important.

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