Rice University Statistics for Prospective Undergraduate Students
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Rice Resources
(as of October, 2000)

Rice University endowment: The quoted market value of Rice’s endowment as of June 30, 2000, was approximately $3.37 billion.

Sources: Rice’s audited financial statements included endowment and investment information. In addition, an Investment Systems database is maintained by the Office of the Vice President for Investments and Treasurer. Total consolidated budget for the fiscal year 2000: The consolidated budget (the university’s operating budget) reflected the financial year July 1, 1999, to June 30, 2000. The revenue side of the budget was primarily comprised of endowment distribution, tuition and fees, and sponsored research cost recovery. Educational and general expenses were primarily salaries and benefits, sponsored research, scholarships and fellowships, and supplies. Source: Financial data are maintained by the Budget Office and the Controller’s Office on the Banner Financial and Human Resources Systems database. These budget figures are taken from an e-mail message from the Budget Director dated October 1, 2000. Campus acreage: This acreage reflected the physical dimensions of the campus within its fringe of stately oaks, bounded by Main Street on the east, Rice Boulevard on the north, Greenbriar on the West and University Boulevard on the South. It did not include any other property in the vicinity that was owned by Rice University. Source: Surveyors’ Records housed in the Technical Services division of the Department of Facilities and Engineering. Research Centers, Institutes, and Consortia

Descriptions of most of these research centers, institutes and consortia can be found on the Rice web site at http://riceinfo.rice.edu/directory/departments.html#research.
 

Research Groups, Institutes, and Consortia
 

The Baker Institute is a nonpartisan, multidisciplinary public policy institute dedicated to building bridges between the worlds of action and ideas. Its research agenda covers domestic and international affairs. The institute's professional staff includes scholars in economics, political science, sociology and other fields as well as practitioners of public policy. It is endowed in the name of James A. Baker, III, 61st Secretary of State.
  The Center for Applied Psychological Systems (CAPS) is a nonprofit entity that is an integral part of the Department of Psychology and the School of Social Sciences. The mission of CAPS is to facilitate the procurement and implementation of sponsored applied research on issues of human resources management and human-machine interaction.
 

The Center for Education is a center for research and teacher development programs sharing common goals of reducing teacher isolation, reorganizing schools to make students more involved in learning, and rethinking ways to evaluate students' learning. The Center aims to identify and create links between research, policy, curriculum, learning, and school organization.
 

The CETE was created to meet a growing need for research facilities and an administrative infrastructure dedicated to university-industry collaborations focusing on tissue engineering research. This center opens exciting opportunities for industry and university scientists to work together in an intellectually stimulating environment with advanced laboratory and research facilities.

 

Rice University established the Center to serve the mutual interests of scholars and of the Southwest’s business, professional, and public service communities–public and private, manufacturing and professional, entrepreneurial and nonprofit. The Center researches, writes, and ultimately seeks publication for the scholarly histories of individual contracting leadership institutions.
  Formerly known as the Center for Ethics, Medicine, and Public Issues, it was created in July 1982 as a joint project of Baylor College of Medicine, the Institute of Religion of the Texas Medical Center, and Rice University. While Baylor College of Medicine is primarily responsible for administering the program, the joint sponsorship of the program enables the Center to draw on the rich intellectual resources of all three institutions, even now that the Institute of Religion is no longer an official sponsor. The mandate of the Center is to develop teaching and research programs that address the moral, legal, and public policy questions raised by health care and the biomedical sciences. The Center cooperates with the philosophy department at Rice University in offering in a Ph.D. in Philosophy and Bioethics.
  The Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology at Rice University is devoted to nurturing science and technology at the nanometer scale.
  The mission of the Center for Neuroscience is to promote research and education in the neurosciences, broadly construed, by advancing our efforts at Rice and by coupling them with the strengths of neighboring institutions in the Texas Medical Center.
  The Center for the Study of Cultures exists to promote the study of cultures across time and around the world, both as unique examples of human behavior and creativity and as interconnected phenomena that can illuminate one another. The goal of the Center is to provide a forum for conversations that make visible the connections between cultures and the
particularities that divide them. The Center seeks to advance humanistic knowledge by supporting research that deepens our understanding of particular cultures, and by encouraging the exploration of new configurations of materials, methods, theories, or cultures through interdisciplinary work and comparative collaborations.
  The Center is a source of funding for research in the social sciences. Its goal is to encourage and support scholarly research of the highest quality. While the expectation is that the research will result in publications, the focus is also on the initial stages of research development in helping researchers prepare grant proposals for outside funding.
  The Center for the Study of Languages (CSL) was founded in August 1997 to promote and enhance all aspects of language learning at Rice University. The role of the center is to establish innovative approaches to language education, expand opportunities for language learning across the curriculum, and increase Rice students' participation in study and work abroad.
  The Center for the Study of Science and Technology is an interdivisional center, reporting directly to the University's Provost. The Center's primary mission is to promote the uses of the history and philosophy of science and technology in general education courses, focusing on science and engineering courses designed for non-technical majors.
  This Center is organized around the study of sustainable technologies in building and construction. Issues addressed in past and present research include: Thermal Comfort, Energy Consumption, Experimental Building Structures, New Materials, and New Construction Technologies. This Center includes the Building Design Workshop and the Advanced Structures and Materials Workshop.
  The Rice Center for Urbanism was founded in order to describe and act upon the new and rapidly evolving relationship between the forces of global and local capital. As more and more of the decisions that shape the urban environment come from ever larger and abstract entities, the ability to intervene and control our own urban destiny is slipping away. The Center seeks to highlight this phenomenon and develop strategies that are commensurate with the present day urban realities.
  The Center on the Management of Information Technology (COMIT), a component of Rice University's Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Management, began its first program of activities in 1984. The center is sponsored by business and government organizations. Its objectives are to provide training, development, and continuing education for information systems professionals; to provide research opportunities for faculty and students in the area of information systems; and to promote interaction between information systems professionals and representatives of the academic community.
  CML is a mathematics laboratory collaboration, involving various mathematical scientists from Computational and Applied Mathematics Department, Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, Mathematics Department of Rice University, and Mathematics Department of University of Houston. CML's current research efforts concern wavelet theory and its application in a variety of areas of numerical analysis and signal processing, especially the Automatic Target Recognition (ATR) program.
  The Computer and Information Technology Institute (CITI) at Rice University is a research institution whose purpose is to facilitate interdisciplinary research across the university's departmental, center, and laboratory boundaries with industrial and government partners, and in collaboration with other universities. There are approximately eighty Ph.D. faculty and research scientists and more than 120 graduate students affiliated with CITI.
  The mission of the Center for Chemical Processing Technology (CCPT) is to engage Rice University faculty, graduate, and undergraduate students in the study of problems relevant to today's chemical industry; conduct collaborative research projects to solve problems of interest to Center faculty and member companies; enhance graduate and undergraduate education through interactions with chemical industry personnel; and provide a focal point for the exchange of ideas between the chemical industry and the greater Rice community.
  The W. M. Keck Center for Computational Discrete Optimization is an interdepartmental center within the Computer and Information Technology Institute (CITI) of Rice University.
  The Center encompasses all aspects of Computational Geoscience research now active at Rice, with particular emphasis on 3-D seismic exploration for petroleum and environmental remediation, as well as seismic topography, mantle convection, and geomagnetism.
  This center involves the design and implementation of programming support tools which are based upon cooperation between compiler systems, program tuning and debugging for HPC environment, including research for highly-optimized and parallel compilers for JAVA. This is a research center within the Computer and Information Institute (CITI), comprised of faculty members and researchers in Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE), Computer Science (CS), and Computational and Applied Mathematics (CAAM). Research efforts focus on many facets of telecommunications, from multimedia networking to
communications systems and signal processing.
  In 1995, Rice University established the Center for Technology in Teaching and Learning (CTTL) to address the ways in which information technology can expand and enrich education on the Rice campus as well as in other settings.
  This laboratory creates a formal forum for faculty members who share interests in computer science and electrical and computer engineering, enabling discussion of common issues in education,  research and faculty development. The Statistical Consulting Lab (SCL) at Rice University has been established to advance, promote,
and support the use of statistical methodologies and computing within the Rice University research
community. The focus of the SCL is to broaden both the understanding and use of statistical
applications in this community.
  This laboratory is dedicated to fostering interdisciplinary interactions encompassing the biological and
chemical sciences and engineering disciplines. It focuses on research in the biomedical and biotechnical areas and promotes active collaboration with the Texas Medical Center, NASA's Johnson Space Center and other public, private, and industrial organizations.
  This is a research facility funded by the Department of Defense, Army Corps of Engineers, Waterways Experiment Station (WES) through the Energy and Environmental Systems Institute at Rice University. The participating University Research Centers include Stanford University, The University of Texas, Rice University, Lamar University, University of Waterloo, and Louisiana State University. The DOD/AATDF is supported by five state-of-the-art consulting engineering firms, along with advisory groups from the DOD, industry and commercialization interests. The AATDF program forms a critically important and unique bridge between academic research and industrial development and practice of environmental remediation technology. The mission of the DOD/AATDF is to develop the quantitative performance and economic data required for commercial and/or government application of innovative technologies for the remediation of DOD sites.
  The mission of EESI is to initiate, promote and enhance university-wide research, teaching and outreach in a broad range of energy and environment-related issues. In addition, EESI fosters the development of partnerships with government and industry to help meet national needs for sustainable energy, economic development, and environmental protection. The Institute is currently organized into five research divisions: Processes in Porous Media; Mechanics of Solids and Structures; Engineering and Process Chemistry; Earth Systems; Energy and Environmental Policy.
  The GCHSRC is a seven-university research consortium funded by the U.S. EPA Office of Research and
Development. Current consortium members are: Lamar University, The University of Texas at Austin, Texas
A&M University, the University of Houston, the University of Alabama, and the University of Central
Florida.
 
  The Hazardous Substance Research Center/South and Southwest is a competitively awarded, peer-reviewed research consortium led by Louisiana State University with the cooperation of the Georgia Institute of Technology and Rice University to address critical hazardous substance problems, especially as they relate to contaminated sediments. Technical specialty areas are the remediation of contaminated sediments and dredge materials with projects focusing on in-situ chemical mobilization processes in beds and confined disposal facilities; in-situ remediation; and
in-situ detection. The Center has the ability to assemble teams of researchers that cross departmental and institutional boundaries to better address these problems. Through its training and technology transfer activities, the center disseminates information about research advances to the public and private sectors. Some of these activities include one-day regulatory update conferences, technical briefs, workshops, an annual symposium, and an annual report.
  This industrial consortium which focuses on mechanistic and applied research and development on scale and corrosion inhibitors in natural gas wells.
  Processes in Porous Media Consortium which addresses questions in basic and applied research on oil and gas well logging, subsurface wettability, and environmental remediation.
  The mission of this center is to ensure that quality German classes will be offered to the Houston community and to offer testing and certification of language proficiency. It will also provide support for university teaching, at both undergraduate and graduate levels, at Rice University and other universities in the area; to establish relations with universities in Europe to further this aim, in particular with the International University Bremen.
 
  The mission of the Institute is to promote cross-disciplinary research and education encompassing the biological, chemical, and engineering disciplines at Rice and collaboration with colleagues at other institutions. In addition, the institute has a mission to strengthen the cross-disciplinary educational programs at the undergraduate, graduate, and postgraduate levels. Members of the institute include thirty-five faculty from the Departments of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Chemistry, Chemical Engineering, and Electrical and Computer Engineering, and twenty faculty members from the Texas Medical Center. Research is carried out in the three major laboratories that make up the Institute: The Cox Laboratory for Biomedical Engineering, the Mabee Laboratory for Biochemical and Genetic Engineering, and the Grenwood Laboratory of Basic Medical Science.
  The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) established the NSCORT program to create effective methods for solving specific problems in space life sciences.  As a designated gravitational biology center, researchers from Rice and the JSC will study how gravity, or the lack of it, affects cell functions and assemblies of cell tissues.
  The Journal of Southern History, sponsored by Rice University is published quarterly by the Southern Historical Association. The Journal circulates to more than 5000 members and libraries in the United States and foreign countries. It focuses on southern history, broadly interpreted. Issues contain scholarly articles, historical notes, book reviews, reports of the annual meetings, and news of historical interest. Contributors to the Journal include almost everyone who is doing or has done significant work in the field of southern history.
  The National Center for Ground Water Research (NCGWR), a consortium of universities charged with conducting long-range exploratory research to help anticipate and solve the nation's emerging ground water problems.
  The Keck Center brings together computational, physical, and biological scientists in a stimulating and nurturing environment for the development and training of a new type of scientist—one who can incorporate theory, simulation, and experiment to expand our understanding of modern biological problems. Students are provided an intellectual environment for considering problems that transcend traditional disciplinary boundaries, and they have access to training opportunities with mentors in different disciplines.
  The Papers of Jefferson Davis is a documentary editing project based at Rice. From the roughly 100,000 Davis documents in their files, the project is producing a selective letterpress set that is being published by Louisiana State University Press. Nine volumes have been published thus far; the series is projected for fifteen volumes. Since this is the largest collection of Davis materials, the office also serves as a research center for scholars and others interested in the life and career of the Confederate president.
  The Rice Advanced Visualization Lab is located in Anderson Hall. Its primary users are members of the school of Architecture; however, it is open to all members of the Rice community. It houses high-end Macintosh, PC, and SGI workstations with specialized design and visualization software (Alias, Photoshop, Illustrator, etc).
  The Alliance is an official Rice University "center" and is the University's principal organization devoted to the support of technology and entrepreneurship. The Alliance is a collaborative effort among the Schools of Engineering, Management, and Natural Sciences. Designing this initiative as a strategic alliance enhances the breadth of its teaching, research, and business incubation activities. In this regard, the Alliance is differentiated from entrepreneurship centers located in university business or engineering schools. Rice's relatively small size as a university facilitates the development and cultivation of this collaborative alliance. Prof. Steve Currall, Director (Jones Graduate School of Management).
  The Rice Center for Organizational Effectiveness Studies (RCOES) is a nonprofit, interdisciplinary entity affiliated with Rice University. Its mission is to promote interactions and alliances among faculty at Rice who are concerned with issues of organizational effectiveness and to promote basic and applied research on organizational effectiveness and to secure funding for this research by establishing relationships with the business community.
  The Rice Design Alliance (RDA), established in 1973, is a non-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of architecture, urban design, and the built environment in the Houston region through educational programs, the publication of Cite, and active programs to initiate physical improvements. By sponsoring lectures, seminars, symposia, exhibits, and tours, RDA seeks to involve the general public in issues related to the design of public spaces, parks, offices, retail centers, residential areas, and private homes. The organization attempts to create a public forum to stimulate discussion, involvement, and cooperation among the many groups of citizens who are able to improve the quality of life within Houston and its environs. RDA includes a broad base of Houstonians, comprising of faculty, students, and alumni from both Rice University School of Architecture and the University of Houston College of Architecture, other design professionals, and the general public. Currently RDA has 1,100 members.
  The mission of Rice University Art Gallery is to stimulate the creation and understanding of contemporary art for the benefit of Rice University and the larger community. Goals in support of this mission complement and support the educational mission of Rice University through exhibitions, publications and educational programming in                      accordance with the highest professional standards.
  The Rice University Media Center was founded in 1969 by international art patrons Jean and Dominique de Menil, with the assistance of Colin Young, then chair of the UCLA Theater Arts department, and Roberto Rossellini, the premier Italian filmmaker of the post-war period. As the home of film and photography at Rice University, the founders' intent was, essentially, that the Center provide a channel through which different peoples of the world could communicate. The Media Center is part of the Department of Art & Art History.
  In 1979, a collaborating group of chemists, physicists and engineers comprising about twenty Rice faculty members formally joined forces under the name of The Rice Quantum Institute (RQI). It has grown from 20 to about 35 faculty members, and has over 100 ongoing research projects, each of which presents outstanding opportunities for graduate research in an intellectually stimulating environment.
  The Rice Space Institute brings together space plasma researchers, researchers from various Rice departments and space specialists from other Houston-area institutions.  The institute will advance such Rice programs as computational modeling of the Earth's space environment, investigation of the causes and consequences of "space weather," advanced interplanetary rocket  propulsion based on plasma technology and studies of the surfaces and space environments of solar system objects. It will also include efforts in spacecraft command, tracking and data analysis and in the history of astronomy and space science.
  Scientia is an institute of Rice University faculty founded in 1981 by the mathematician and historian of science Salomon Bochner. Scientia provides an opportunity for scholarly discussion across disciplinary boundaries; its members and fellows come from a wide-range of academic disciplines. Scientia sponsors an annual series of colloquia devoted to the exploration of a broad topic from a variety of points of view. These colloquia are open to the general public.
  Studies in English Literature 1500-1900 is a quarterly journal of historical and critical studies, published by Rice University. Each issue is devoted to one of four fields, and includes an article reviewing books recently published in that field. The themes are English Renaissance, Tudor and Stuart Drama, Restoration and Eighteenth Century, and Nineteenth Century.
  The Wetland Center for Biogeochemical Research is part of the Earth Systems Division of the Energy and Environmental Systems Institute. This Institute originated in 1991 in order to coordinate energy and the environmental research in various departments of science, engineering, public policy, and computing.
 
 

Fondren Library

The scope of Fondren Library's collection is broad with coverage in art, architecture, history, literature, music, philosophy, languages, economics, social sciences, natural sciences, and engineering. Rare books, manuscripts and university archives are in the Woodson Research Center. The library is a selective depository for U.S. and Texas government publications and a depository for U.S. patents and trademarks. The Electronic Text Center is a research facility in the Fondren Library, established in 1995, designed to help Rice faculty and students incorporate computer-based textual information into their research, study, and teaching and publish their own work electronically. RICE, the Regional Information and Communication Exchange, is a comprehensive information service available for the Houston area community.

The Fondren Library subscribes to approximately 14,300 current journals and houses over 2,010,000 volumes. Satellite collections include the Business Information Center and the Brown Fine Arts Library. The library uses the Sirsi software system for its online catalog. Several dozen journal indexes are available to the Rice community only via RiceInfo, the campus wide information system. The Fondren Library also subscribes to the a wide variety of online fulltext journals, which are also found on RiceInfo. For more information on the Fondren Library Collections view http://riceinfo.rice.edu/Fondren/Info/collections.html.

Source: This information was accessed from the automated library systems for catalog and acquisitions, Collection Development and Electronic Information Resources.


Varsity Athletic Facilities and Other Athletic Facilities
(as of January, 2000)

Descriptions of the Rice varsity athletic facilities can be found at www.riceowls.com/facilities. Reckling Park is the new, state-of-the-art baseball stadium. The stadium, built on the side of the Owl’s current home, Cameron Field, seats more than 5,600, almost doubling the previous baseball field’s capacity. Temporary bleachers will bring the total capacity to 5,667, enabling the Owls to host NCAA regional tournaments and other major events.

Sources: In addition to the web site, this information was accessed from paper records, maintained in the Athletic Department by the Assistant Athletic Director, Media Relations; and from records maintained in the Department of Human Performance and Health Sciences by the Department Manager.


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Last updated March 19, 2001.