Editing Rice University (section)

==History==

===Background===
[[File:William Marsh Rice.gif|thumb|left|upright|[[William Marsh Rice]]'s estate funded the establishment of the Rice Institute.]]
Rice University's history began with the death of Massachusetts businessman William Marsh Rice, who had made his fortune in real estate, railroad development and cotton trading in [[Texas]]. In 1891, Rice decided to charter a free-tuition educational institute in Houston, bearing his name, to be created upon his death, earmarking most of his estate towards funding the project. Rice's will specified the institution was to be "a competitive institution of the highest grade" and that only white students would be permitted to attend.<ref>{{cite journal|title=The Short History of Race-Based Affirmative Action at Rice University|journal=The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education|date=Autumn 1996|issue=13|pages=36–38|publisher=The JBHE Foundation|doi=10.2307/2963155|jstor=2963155}}</ref> On the morning of September 23, 1900, Rice, age 84, was found dead by his valet, Charles F. Jones, and was presumed to have died in his sleep. Shortly thereafter, a large check made out to Rice's New York City lawyer, signed by the late Rice, aroused the suspicion of a bank teller, due to the misspelling of the recipient's name. The lawyer, [[Albert T. Patrick]], then claimed that Rice had changed his will to leave the bulk of his fortune to Patrick, rather than to the creation of Rice's educational institute. A subsequent investigation led by the District Attorney of New York resulted in the arrests of Patrick and of Rice's butler and valet Charles F. Jones, who had been persuaded to administer [[chloroform]] to Rice while he slept. Rice's friend and personal lawyer in Houston, [[James A. Baker (born 1857)|Captain James A. Baker]], aided in the discovery of what turned out to be a fake will with a forged signature. Jones was not prosecuted since he cooperated with the district attorney, and testified against Patrick. Patrick was found guilty of conspiring to steal Rice's fortune and he was convicted of murder in 1901 (he was pardoned in 1912 due to conflicting medical testimony).<ref name="poisoner"/> Baker helped Rice's estate direct the fortune, worth $4.6 million in 1904<ref>{{Cite web |last=Wermund |first=Benjamin |date=2016-06-04 |title=The vision of William Marsh Rice becomes a university after... |url=https://www.chron.com/local/history/major-stories-events/article/The-vision-of-William-Marsh-Rice-becomes-a-7963782.php |access-date=2023-07-09 |website=Chron |language=en |archive-date=July 9, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230709194542/https://www.chron.com/local/history/major-stories-events/article/The-vision-of-William-Marsh-Rice-becomes-a-7963782.php |url-status=live }}</ref> (equivalent to ${{Format price|{{inflation|US-GDP|4600000|1904|r=-6}}}} in {{Inflation/year|US-GDP}}), towards the founding of what was to be called the Rice Institute, later to become Rice University. The board took control of the assets on April 29 of that year.
In 1907, the Board of Trustees selected the head of the Department of Mathematics and Astronomy at [[Princeton University]], [[Edgar Odell Lovett]], to head the institute, which was still in the planning stages. He came recommended by Princeton's president, [[Woodrow Wilson]]. In 1908, Lovett accepted the challenge, and was formally inaugurated as the institute's first president on October 12, 1912. Lovett undertook extensive research before formalizing plans for the new Institute, including visits to 78 institutions of higher learning across the world on a long tour between 1908 and 1909. Lovett was impressed by such things as the aesthetic beauty of the uniformity of the architecture at the [[University of Pennsylvania]], a theme which was adopted by the institute, as well as the [[residential college]] system at [[Cambridge University]], which was added to the Institute several decades later. Lovett called for the establishment of a university "of the highest grade," "an institution of liberal and technical learning" devoted "quite as much to investigation as to instruction." [We must] "keep the standards up and the numbers down," declared Lovett. "The most distinguished teachers must take their part in undergraduate teaching, and their spirit should dominate it all." [[File:Rice University Texas.jpg|thumb|Rice University]]

===Establishment and growth===
[[File:RiceInstitute1913.png|thumb|An illustration of the Administration Building of Rice University in 1913]]

In 1911, the cornerstone was laid for the institute's first building, the Administration Building, now known as Lovett Hall in honor of the founding president. On September 23, 1912, the 12th anniversary of William Marsh Rice's murder, the ''William Marsh Rice Institute for the Advancement of Letters, Science, and Art'' began course work with 59 enrolled students, who were known as the "59 immortals," and about a dozen faculty. After 18 additional students joined later, Rice's initial class numbered 77,<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://scholarship.rice.edu/bitstream/handle/1911/64903/thr19160612.pdf?sequence=1|title=Graduating Class Has 35 Members|work=Rice Thresher|access-date=26 September 2019|date=12 June 1916|archive-date=November 25, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201125061346/https://scholarship.rice.edu/bitstream/handle/1911/64903/thr19160612.pdf?sequence=1|url-status=live}}</ref> 48 male and 29 female. Rice accepted coeducational admissions from its beginning, but on-campus housing would not become co-ed until 1957.<ref name="Jones College, Rice University">{{cite web |title=Jones College, Rice University. |url=http://jones.rice.edu/history/ |access-date=21 July 2018 |archive-date=July 21, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180721192420/http://jones.rice.edu/history/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[File:Administration Building, Rice Institute, Houston, Texas.jpg|thumb|Administration Building, Rice Institute, Houston, Texas (postcard, circa 1912–1924)]]Per William Marsh Rice's will and Rice Institute's initial charter, the students paid no tuition. Classes were difficult, however, and about half of Rice's students had failed after the first 1912 term.<ref>{{Cite news|url = https://scholarship.rice.edu/bitstream/handle/1911/99377/sallyport-vol-09-no04.pdf|title = McCants Recalls Earliest Days|last = McCants|first = J.T.|work = Sallyport|access-date = 26 September 2019|date = June 1953|archive-date = September 26, 2019|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20190926185057/https://scholarship.rice.edu/bitstream/handle/1911/99377/sallyport-vol-09-no04.pdf|url-status = live}}</ref> At its first commencement ceremony, held on June 12, 1916, Rice awarded 35 bachelor's degrees and one master's degree.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://scholarship.rice.edu/bitstream/handle/1911/64903/thr19160612.pdf?sequence=1|title=Splendid Celebration Marks First Commencement|work=Rice Thresher|access-date=26 September 2019|date=12 June 1916|archive-date=November 25, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201125061346/https://scholarship.rice.edu/bitstream/handle/1911/64903/thr19160612.pdf?sequence=1|url-status=live}}</ref> That year, the student body also voted to adopt the Honor System, which still exists today.  The first [[Ph.D.]] was awarded in 1918 in mathematics.

In the 1920s, many of the university's early students were active supporters of the [[Ku Klux Klan]], with a 1922 yearbook showing approximately twenty students wearing Klan robes in a posed photograph.<ref name="auto">{{Cite web | title=At Rice, a tweet-storm sets off discussion of the university's racist past - HoustonChronicle.com | work=Houston Chronicle | url=https://www.houstonchronicle.com/local/article/At-Rice-a-tweet-storm-sets-off-discussion-of-the-13608211.php | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190212043559/https://www.houstonchronicle.com/local/article/At-Rice-a-tweet-storm-sets-off-discussion-of-the-13608211.php | access-date=2025-02-22 | archive-date=2019-02-12}}</ref> President David Leebron reacted to the re-circulation of these images in 2019 by stating that "It is unsurprising but nonetheless deeply disturbing that racist imagery, including students in blackface and KKK outfits, appeared at Rice with some frequency during the years prior to the admission of black students."<ref name="auto"/> In 1923, a Ku Klux Klan event was held on a Rice-owned Louisiana Street location, near to the home of a Black woman who had filed a lawsuit against the institute in 1909.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://taskforce.rice.edu/final-report|title=Final Report – September 2023 &#124; Task Force on Slavery, Segregation and Racial Injustice &#124; Rice University|access-date=August 21, 2024|archive-date=August 21, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240821130840/https://taskforce.rice.edu/final-report|url-status=live}}</ref>

The Founder's Memorial Statue, a bronze statue of a seated William Marsh Rice, holding the original plans for the campus, was dedicated in 1930, and installed in the central academic quad, facing Lovett Hall. The statue was crafted by [[John Angel (sculptor)|John Angel]].<ref name="Little"/> In 2020, Rice students petitioned the university to take down the statue due to the founder's history as a slave owner.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Monumental changes require removing monuments to the Confederacy|url=https://kinder.rice.edu/urbanedge/2020/07/08/racism-confederate-monuments-protests-Houston|access-date=2020-08-10|website=The Kinder Institute for Urban Research|language=en|archive-date=August 8, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200808165628/https://kinder.rice.edu/urbanedge/2020/07/08/racism-confederate-monuments-protests-Houston|url-status=live}}</ref> In January 2022, the Board of Trustees announced plans to relocate the statue within the academic quadrangle.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Rice Founder's Memorial statue to be relocated in Academic Quad|url=https://news.rice.edu/news/2022/rice-founders-memorial-statue-be-relocated-academic-quad|access-date=2022-01-25|website=Rice News {{!}} News and Media Relations {{!}} Rice University|language=en|archive-date=January 25, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220125194304/https://news.rice.edu/news/2022/rice-founders-memorial-statue-be-relocated-academic-quad|url-status=live}}</ref> In November 2023, the statue along with its plinth were taken down in conjunction with a renovation of the Academic Quad, and eventually were relocated to a different location in the Quad.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Simpson |first=Stephen |date=2023-11-30 |title=Rice University relocates its founder's remains after reckoning with his ties to slavery |url=https://www.texastribune.org/2023/11/30/rice-university-founder-statue-remains/ |access-date=2023-12-08 |website=The Texas Tribune |language=en |archive-date=December 8, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231208160614/https://www.texastribune.org/2023/11/30/rice-university-founder-statue-remains/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

During [[World War II]], Rice Institute was one of 131 colleges and universities nationally that took part in the [[V-12 Navy College Training Program]], which offered students a path to a Navy commission.<ref name="list-of-v-12"/>

The [[residential college]] system proposed by President Lovett was adopted in 1958, with the East Hall residence becoming [[Baker College (Rice University)|Baker College]], South Hall residence becoming [[Will Rice College]], West Hall becoming [[Hanszen College]], and the temporary Wiess Hall becoming [[Wiess College]].

[[File:JFK at Rice University.jpg|thumb|upright|[[John F. Kennedy]] speaking at [[Rice Stadium (Rice University)|Rice Stadium]] in 1962]]

In 1959, the [[Rice Institute Computer]] went online. 1960 saw Rice Institute formally renamed William Marsh Rice University.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Announcement of Rice Institute's name change to William Marsh Rice University |journal=Fondren Library / Woodson Research Center |date=1 July 1960 |url=https://hdl.handle.net/1911/68439 |access-date=24 September 2021 |publisher=Rice University Archives |hdl=1911/68439 |archive-date=July 6, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220706033609/https://scholarship.rice.edu/handle/1911/68439 |url-status=live }}</ref> Rice acted as a temporary intermediary in the transfer of land between Humble Oil and Refining Company and [[NASA]],<ref name="multiple"/> for the creation of [[NASA]]'s Manned Spacecraft Center (now called [[Johnson Space Center]]) in 1962. [[John F. Kennedy|President John F. Kennedy]] then [[We choose to go to the Moon|gave a speech]]<ref name="nasa"/> at [[Rice Stadium (Rice University)|Rice Stadium]] reiterating that the United States intended to reach the Moon before the end of the decade of the 1960s, and "to become the world's leading space-faring nation". The Rice Space Institute has collaborated with the [[Johnson Space Center]] for more than 50 years.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Welcome to RSI |url=https://rsi.rice.edu/welcome-rsi |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200921195249/https://rsi.rice.edu/welcome-rsi |archive-date=September 21, 2020 |access-date=9 September 2020}}</ref>

The original charter of Rice Institute dictated that the university admit and educate, tuition-free, "the white inhabitants of Houston, and the state of Texas". In 1963, the governing board of Rice University filed a lawsuit to allow the university to modify its charter to admit students of all races and to charge tuition. Ph.D. student Raymond Johnson became the first black Rice student when he was admitted that year.<ref>{{cite web|title=Black History at Rice|url=https://alumni.rice.edu/black-history-rice|publisher=Rice Alumni|access-date=February 28, 2022|archive-date=February 28, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220228121351/https://alumni.rice.edu/black-history-rice|url-status=live}}</ref> In 1964, Rice officially amended the university charter to desegregate its graduate and undergraduate divisions.<ref name="rice1"/> The Trustees of Rice University prevailed in a lawsuit to void the racial language in the trust in 1966.<ref name="university"/> Rice began charging tuition for the first time in 1965. In the same year, Rice launched a $33-million development campaign (equivalent to ${{inflation|US-GDP|33|1965}} million in {{Inflation/year|US-GDP}}). $43 million (${{inflation|US-GDP|43|1970}} million) was raised by its conclusion in 1970. In 1974, two new schools were founded at Rice, the [[Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Management]] and the [[Shepherd School of Music]]. The Brown Foundation Challenge, a fund-raising program designed to encourage annual gifts, was launched in 1976 and ended in 1996 having raised $185 million (${{inflation|US-GDP|185|1996}} million). The [[Rice School of Social Sciences]] was founded in 1979.

On-campus housing was exclusively for men for the first forty years, until 1957.<ref name="Jones College, Rice University"/> [[Jones College (Rice University)|Jones College]] was the first women's residence on the Rice campus, followed by [[Brown College (Rice University)#Brown College|Brown College]]. According to legend, the women's colleges were purposefully situated at the opposite end of campus from the existing men's colleges as a way of preserving campus propriety, which was greatly valued by Edgar Odell Lovett, who did not even allow benches to be installed on campus, fearing that they "might lead to co-fraternization of the sexes".<ref name="multiple"/> The path linking the north colleges to the center of campus was given the tongue-in-cheek name of "Virgin's Walk". Individual colleges became coeducational between 1973 and 1987, with the single-sex floors of colleges that had them becoming co-ed by 2006. By then, several new residential colleges had been built on campus to handle the university's growth, including [[Lovett College]], [[Sid Richardson College]], and [[Martel College]].

===Late twentieth and early twenty-first century===
[[File:Vladimir Putin in the United States 13-16 November 2001-25.jpg|thumb|right|[[George H. W. Bush]] meeting [[Vladimir Putin]] at Rice in 2001]]
The [[G8|Economic Summit of Industrialized Nations]] was held at Rice in 1990. Three years later, in 1993, the [[James Baker Institute|James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy]] was created. In 1997, the Edythe Bates Old Grand Organ and Recital Hall and the Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology, renamed in 2005 for the late Nobel Prize winner and Rice professor [[Richard E. Smalley]], were dedicated at Rice. In 1999, the Center for Biological and Environmental Nanotechnology was created. The [[Rice Owls baseball]] team was ranked #1 in the nation for the first time in that year (1999), holding the top spot for eight weeks.

In 2003, the Owls won their first national championship in baseball, which was the first for the university in any team sport, beating Southwest Missouri State in the opening game and then the University of Texas and Stanford University twice each en route to the title. In 2008, President [[David Leebron]] issued a ten-point plan titled "Vision for the Second Century" outlining plans to increase research funding, strengthen existing programs, and increase collaboration.<ref name="Vision for the Second Century - Ten Points"/> The plan has brought about another wave of campus constructions, including the newly renamed [[BioScience Research Collaborative]]<ref name="rice3"/> building (intended to foster collaboration with the adjacent [[Texas Medical Center]]), a new recreational center and the renovated [[Autry Court]] basketball stadium, and the addition of two new residential colleges, [[Duncan College]] and [[McMurtry College]].

Beginning in late 2008, the university considered a merger with [[Baylor College of Medicine]], though the merger was ultimately rejected in 2010.<ref name="ricethresher"/> Select Rice undergraduates are currently guaranteed admission to Baylor College of Medicine upon graduation as part of the Rice/Baylor Medical Scholars program. 

In 2018, the university added an online MBA program, MBA@Rice.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://campustechnology.com/articles/2018/05/21/rice-to-work-with-2u-on-launch-of-online-business-short-courses.aspx|title=Rice to Work with 2U on Launch of Online Business 'Short Courses' – Campus Technology|website=Campus Technology|language=en|access-date=2018-06-20|archive-date=June 20, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180620180719/https://campustechnology.com/articles/2018/05/21/rice-to-work-with-2u-on-launch-of-online-business-short-courses.aspx|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://business.rice.edu/online-mba-rice-business|title=MBA@Rice: Hybrid Online Degree|date=2017-12-07|work=Jones Graduate School of Business at Rice University|access-date=2018-06-20|language=en|archive-date=June 15, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180615163320/https://business.rice.edu/online-mba-rice-business|url-status=live}}</ref>

In June 2019, the university's president announced plans for a task force on Rice's "past in relation to slave history and racial injustice", stating that "Rice has some historical connections to that terrible part of American history and the segregation and racial disparities that resulted directly from it".<ref>{{Cite web|last=Britto|first=Brittany|date=2019-06-14|title=Rice's reckoning: University to launch task force to address its segregationist history|url=https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/education/article/Rice-s-reckoning-University-to-launch-task-14061581.php|access-date=2020-06-22|website=HoustonChronicle.com|language=en-US|archive-date=June 26, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200626003557/https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/education/article/Rice-s-reckoning-University-to-launch-task-14061581.php|url-status=live}}</ref>

In 2021, President Leebron decided to pursue a development agreement with the City of Houston in response to requests from community members and Rice students regarding the [[Rice Innovation District]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Britto |first=Brittany |date=2020-01-29 |title=In victory for students, community groups, Mayor pledges city will strike deal ensuring innovation district provides far-reaching benefits |url=https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/City-to-negotiate-community-benefits-agreement-15018292.php |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210908235505/https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/City-to-negotiate-community-benefits-agreement-15018292.php |archive-date=September 8, 2021 |access-date=2021-09-08 |website=Houston Chronicle |language=en-US}}</ref> This decision was made instead of implementing a [[community benefits agreement]], which had been suggested by the community. Typically, community benefits agreements involve a community coalition as a signatory, but the proposed agreement with the City of Houston will not include such a coalition.<ref>{{Cite web |title=It's time for Rice Management Company to get serious about a Community Benefits Agreement |url=https://www.ricethresher.org/article/2020/03/time-for-rice-management-company-to-get-serious-about-a-community-benefits |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210909000402/https://www.ricethresher.org/article/2020/03/time-for-rice-management-company-to-get-serious-about-a-community-benefits |archive-date=September 9, 2021 |access-date=2021-09-09 |website=The Rice Thresher}}</ref>