Rice’s Class of 2025 is notable for many reasons: With over 1,200 students, it’s the largest incoming freshman class in the university’s history — all part of the plan to increase the undergraduate student body to 4,800 by the time many of these new freshmen graduate.
Chosen from nearly 30,000 applicants, a new record number for Rice, these students represent cultures and communities from across the United States and the world, with no single ethnic or racial majority.
They’re also the second class to matriculate during a global pandemic, said President David Leebron during his video address to the new students in their college commons Aug. 16 — an address that would have taken place in person at Tudor Fieldhouse if not for COVID-19 restrictions. And, as Leebron poignantly pointed out, theirs is the final class he’ll greet as president before stepping down in 2022.
After wishing a happy birthday to four new students, Leebron cut to the heart of the matter in his matriculation speech with a challenge to the new Owls.
“Will you be the best class ever?” Leebron asked.
“You are the generation that will define our world at the middle of this century,” he said. “When you return to Rice for your 25th reunion in the year 2050, what will the state of the world be? And how will we — I mean you — have addressed the problems that are now so apparent?”
Boldness, courage and optimism will be necessary tools for solving those problems in the years ahead, Leebron said. They’re the same tools employed by the scientists tasked with putting a man on the moon after President John F. Kennedy’s famous “moonshot” speech at Rice in 1962, and the tools employed by Leebron’s Olympic hero, Wilma Rudolph.
Born premature and weighing less than 5 pounds, Rudolph later contracted polio at age 5 and wore a leg brace until she was 12. Rudolph overcame those challenges to become the first American woman to win three gold medals in a single Olympic Games, at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome.
“Rudolph was not so much built to run as determined to run,” Leebron said. “Getting to the Olympics for Rudolph was as much a moonshot as, well, getting to the moon was in 1969.”
As a Black woman in 1960s America, Rudolph also faced other challenges, he said, and met those with the same courage and determination.
“When she returned, the hero of the Olympics, the segregationist governor of Tennessee wanted to throw her a welcome home celebration. Wilma said she wouldn't attend a segregated event and her welcome party was the first integrated event in our hometown of Clarksville. Wilma immediately and boldly turned her personal accomplishment into a way to advance the cause of equal justice,” Leebron said.
Participating in and supporting the values of Rice — responsibility, integrity, community and excellence — will help equip students with the tools they need to confront the challenges of defining and achieving their own personal goals as well as the broader challenges of our time, Leebron said.
“Our moonshot challenges today span the scientific and the social, the local and the global,” he said. “And perhaps that is the best way to think of your time at Rice: preparation for a life of boldness, a life of courage, a life of contribution.”
Dean of Undergraduates Bridget Gorman reminded the students that although they were beginning an overwhelming journey — ”a goodbye to how life used to be” — each of the O-Week advisers and upperclassmen at Rice went through this experience too and they’re here to offer guidance and support.
Embracing this community and the opportunities presented by a sea of new peers was first of the three pieces of advice Gorman gave to the new undergraduates. (“Read my emails!” was the fourth, strongly emphasized piece of advice.)
First, Gorman said, take the time to make friends. It will make your time at Rice more meaningful than simply studying alone could ever provide.
“I've been here almost 20 years and in that time I've gotten to know many cohorts of Owls, watching them as they progress from their freshman to senior year and beyond,” Gorman said. “One thing that always makes me smile is the strength of ties I see among students and the depths of lasting friendships.”
Second, Gorman said, take the time to explore. Not just Rice’s campus or Houston itself, but explore internally as well. College is the time to take thought-provoking classes that have nothing to do with your major, to join clubs that appeal to you for reasons beyond resume-building, to find new hobbies or interests or simply new ways to have fun.
“You are all launching down a path filled with obligations related to career and family,” Gorman said. “You will never again have this level of flexibility to facilitate exploration as you do now. Take advantage of it, and I promise you, you will never regret it.”
Third, Gorman said, follow your interests, wherever those may lead. Don’t be afraid to pick a major with a less determined career path, and believe in your creative ability to apply the knowledge you gain into a fulfilling working life.
“When I was young, my grandfather made a comment that always stuck with me: ‘Life is long, and you will spend it working. You'll be a happier and healthier person if you like your work,’” she said. “Some of the most interesting and contributing people I've met in my life followed unconventional paths in how they wound their way through college; what unites them is that they followed their interests, and I sincerely hope that each of you will do the same.”
Student Association (SA) President Kendall Vining addressed the Class of 2025 last, encouraging the new Owls to take advantage of their time here to create a Rice experience as unique as they are.
“I'm proud and happy to say that this experience is one that that cannot be squarely defined,” said Vining, a Martel senior majoring in English and pursuing a minor in politics, law and social thought.
“My Rice experience is heavily connected to my Blackness and my passion for advocacy and student government,” Vining said. “I've taken really cool classes that have helped me learn a lot about race and law around the world. I've attended and co-organized Black experience panels at Martel and campuswide. I had the unique opportunity last summer to join a group of students in co-organizing a major fundraiser to advocate for Black life. I've been able to critique and brainstorm inclusivity efforts at Rice. And throughout it all the Rice community has challenged, stimulated and fed my passion, and allowed me to grow as an individual.”
Vining echoed Gorman and Leebron’s encouragement to embrace the Rice community and its culture of care, which manifests in innumerable ways: volunteers helping new students feel at home during O-Week, peers staying up all night to help each other with astronomy problem sets, professors giving extensions on assignments, resident advisers offering rides to the pharmacy at a moment’s notice, and even Rice’s own willingness to examine the inequities and gaps in the Rice experience as a way to make our campus more inclusive and welcoming.
Importantly, she said, Rice’s culture of care changes and adapts alongside our community.
“Now it is your turn to shape and influence our culture of care in the wake of unique challenges presented to us this year as variants of COVID-19 demand that we continue to place high value and attention on our health, well-being and safety,” Vining said. “It remains more important than ever that we as a community continue to support and uplift each other during this time as we enter fall 2021 with hope and optimism.”
As SA president, Vining said, she’s eager to see the Class of 2025 bring its unique array of backgrounds and talents to campus, which helps fuel her own excitement for the year ahead.
“Truly, your class is one of a kind,” Vining said.
Following the matriculation video, students streamed out of their college commons across campus and headed toward the Sallyport at Lovett Hall for the final act of the night, marking their official entrance into Rice.
Starting with Baker College at 9:30 p.m., all 11 residential colleges marched through the Sallyport. At the head of each procession, new college presidents held aloft each college’s banner, while fireworks burst in the sky above Fondren Library.
The Class of 2025 had arrived.