Kinders give for research

By Brooke Bullock     11/18/10 6:00pm

Rich and Nancy Kinder announced a $15 million gift to Rice's Institute for Urban Research on Wednesday. The institute has been renamed in their honor as the Kinder Institute for Urban Research.An event was held at Baker Hall to announce the newly named institute as well as to thank the Kinders for their donation to Rice. Speakers at the event included President David Leebron, Houston Mayor and Rice alumna Annise Parker, Sociology Professor and Co-Director of the Institute for Urban Research Stephen Klineberg and Rich Kinder. Many prominent figures of Houston attended the event, such as religious leaders, heads of museums and local government members like City Council member Oliver Pennington.

The Institute for Urban Research was established in the School of Social Sciences at Rice in February as a combination of two pre-existing centers at Rice: the Center on Race, Religion and Urban Life and the Urban Research Center. The mission of the institute is to conduct sociological research. The Kinder Institute supports educational programs for Rice students and public outreach.

"[The institute] was founded on a hope and prayer," Leebron said. "We're a secular university but there are things we pray for."

---

---

One reason the Kinders decided to donate to Rice is because they believe Rice is a world-class institute that sets the bar high for other universities. They also believe in Klineberg and Emerson's work for the Houston Area Survey.

"A major commitment of the Kinder Institute is to provide a permanent home for the Houston Area Survey to ensure that it will continue well into the future," Klineberg said.

The Kinders have also prospered greatly in Houston, Rich Kinder said. They want to give back something to the city to help it in return.

One of the biggest reasons the Kinders want to give back to Houston is because of the people and their enthusiasm for the city and the future.

"In Houston, you are what you achieve," Kinder said. "That's my idea of the American dream."

Speaking briefly before Kinder's speech, Parker told the audience about her love of Houston and excitement for the program and said there was no better place than Houston to conduct the research that the Kinder Institute will be doing.

"Houston is already predicted to be a city of the future," Parker said. "This is the perfect laboratory for this kind of research."

One of the initiatives the Kinders' gift will help support is the 30th annual Houston Area Survey. Along with the survey, the Kinder Institute for Urban Research will produce its first publication, a full-colored, printed report on the research conducted. The publication will be given to the city of Houston as a gift on Houston's 175th anniversary.

The donation will also help the Houston Area Survey expand into a transnational program. In collaboration with colleagues across the US and around the world, the program will conduct similar surveys in cities all over the globe, such as New York, Shanghai, Buenos Aires and Mumbai.

The donation will go to the endowment to ensure that the Kinder Institute will always be a part of Rice.

"We are extremely grateful to the Kinders for both their gift and for their appreciation of the important role played by the growing diversity in our cities and our institutions," Leebron said.

---