Rice University, Houston, has launched a five-year, $2 billion capital campaign, the largest in the university’s history. Be Bold: The Campaign for Rice takes its name from a Sept. 12, 1962 speech President John F. Kennedy gave from a football field at the university. During that speech, Kennedy publicly introduced the idea of the moonshot.
“[W]e shall send to the moon, 240,000 miles away from the control station in Houston … and then return it safely to earth, re-entering the atmosphere at speeds of over 25,000 miles per hour, causing heat about half that of the temperature of the sun – almost as hot as it is here today – and do all this, and do it right, and do it first before this decade is out – then we must be bold,” Kennedy said.
Rice has already raised $1.2 billion in pledges, including the two largest gifts in its history. The Galveston, Texas-based Moody Foundation, which makes bequests designed for the betterment of Texas communities, gave $100 million to construct a new student center and fund new student programs. The Robert E. Welch Foundation, a Houston-based philanthropy that funds chemical research, pledged $100 million to establish the Welch Foundation, which will support advanced materials research.
Initial funds have also been earmarked for a wide spectrum of disciplines and physical improvements, including improvements to the Brockman Hall for Opera, the Cannady Hall for Architecture, the Doerr Institute for New Leaders, the Kraft Hall for Social Sciences, the Liu Idea Lab for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Maxfield Hall (the Mechanical Engineering Lab renovated as the new home for the Department of Statistics) and the Sarofim Hall for Visual and Dramatic Arts, as well as 13 professorships and new teach facility and athletic facilities and support.
“Rice is now dramatically expanding not only its faculty and its enrollment, but also its ambitions and its impact on the world,” President David Leebron said via a statement. “We’re building this campaign upon our commitment to be transformative, visionary, innovative, creative and equitable. We’re setting a bold goal for a bold future of Rice that will provide greater opportunities to address the needs of our world.”
In pursuit of these goals, the capital campaign includes $150 million in scholarships and financial aid, a 4,800-student increase to its undergraduate body by fall 2025 (which would bring total university enrollment to around 9,000 individuals), and the goal of opening a 12th residential college and increasing the population of students living on campus.
The campaign has designated $625 million for faculty endowments and programmatic investments across the university’s eight schools, and $400 million for technology and building projects, including a new science and engineering building.
