Prez reflects on college
The Thresher sat down with President David Leebron to find out what he was like as a college student. Leebron received his undergraduate degree from Harvard University in 1976.Ruby Gee: How is college different now in comparison to when you attended as an undergrad?
Leebron: The students in some ways are more focused and sophisticated. They enter college thinking a little more about what they're going to do in the end. When I was going to school, there were some kinds of diversity. In comparison, our student population at Rice is massively diverse. There's no real majority. And of course the drinking age was 18.
L: What is your favorite alcoholic drink?
L: Wine - red Boudreaux - dessert wines.
R: Do you have any funny experiences you want to share from freshman year?
L: I wrote in my roommate form that I wanted to room with a foreign student and someone who didn't smoke. Harvard thought one out of two was okay, so I had a chain-smoking Turkish roommate. I didn't have too much trouble with alcohol because I was used to living in Germany, used to drinking socially. I actually think there was less alcohol abuse then than now. I attribute that to the drinking age.
R: What kind of college student were you? In other words, how would you characterize yourself, looking back?
L: I think I was kind of typical. I worked pretty hard in my courses and did a number of extracurricular activities, but didn't do any of them in great depth. I lived in a very small freshman dorm; I developed pretty quickly a small group of friends. I was a little bit of a procrastinator. Back then, I would probably say I was reasonably hard working, somewhat shy and interested in a wide variety of subject matters. I liked talking about politics. I liked going to parties.
R: Are there any parties in particular that you remember?
L: The parties that were fun were the ones that weren't too large. Since the drinking age was 18, all that was pretty relaxed.
R: Did you guys have themed parties?
L: Not that I went to. It was a very relaxed time. I didn't feel any pressures. You went to parties, you talked to people and you danced - or tried to find people to dance with you. I remember parties that were just on a smaller scale.
R: What bands or musical artists were popular during your college years?
L: So I always liked the Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel, which by the college years had become Simon, and Garfunkel [separated]. I think Queen was around then, Cat Stevens, who now has some other name, Johnny Mitchell, Fleetwood Mac and Janis Joplin. It was rock and on the edge of rock, a folk music sound.
R: Did they play this type of music at parties?
L: Parties would have been rock music - this was pre-disco. It's not that different from the music people listen to now because the beat is universal.
R: What about popular fashions?
L: This was after the worst of the 60s fashion crimes. People wore things like bellbottoms and Nehru jackets. I think that one thing people wore that they don't wear much anymore were corduroys. There were people who had a really preppy look while I would probably be more like jeans and khakis.
R: Any particular popular movies during your time?
L: The Rocky Horror Picture Show at midnight was at its peak. It was the thing college students did. It had a cult following.
R: Did you partake in the now popular college tradition of late-night food runs?
L: Where my dorm was as a freshman and later, the city part of Cambridge was very close. Any hour of the day, we could sort of go out. As I remember as a college student, occasionally that was really late, or really early in the morning, depending on how you look at it. But I think that late-night food runs are a bad thing to do. It's important to get enough sleep. Back then I ate terrible things: cheeseburgers, french fries, things I try not to eat anymore. Hot chocolate - there was nothing better than a hot chocolate on a cold night.
R: As a college student, what did you want to be when you grew up, in terms of career aspirations?
L: I wasn't really sure. I thought I wanted to be a lawyer of some sort, or work for the government, in politics or something. I was very interested in issues of justice and societal change.
R: What sort of politics were you into?
L: When I was in college, it was the end of the Nixon administration and Carter had won the presidential election. It was the end of the Vietnam War, so there was talk about that. There was a swing back to a conservative environment in the political landscape. There were big issues of civil rights and women's rights. I wasn't out there demonstrating and didn't get arrested, though.
R: Do you have any miscellaneous college experiences you'd like to share?
L: The most exciting thing was just meeting new people. I was a pretty happy college student. It wasn't all that stressful of an experience. I loved just walking around the campus.
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