Rice University

William Marsh Rice University, also known as Rice University, is a private research university in Houston, Texas, United States. Established in 1912, it spans 300 acres. The university consists of eight constituent schools in the fields of architecture, business, continuing studies, engineering, humanities, music, natural sciences, and social sciences.

Established in 1912 as William M. Rice Institute for the Advancement of Literature, Science and Art after the murder of its namesake William Marsh Rice, Rice has been a member of the Association of American Universities since 1985 and is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity". Rice competes in 14 NCAA Division I varsity sports and is a part of the American Athletic Conference. Its teams are called the Rice Owls.

The alumni include 26 Marshall Scholars, 13 Rhodes Scholars, 7 Churchill Scholars, and 3 Nobel laureates.

History

Background

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.

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, 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). (equivalent to $ in ), 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. He was impressed by 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."

thumb|Rice University

Establishment and growth

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, 48 male and 29 female. Rice accepted coeducational admissions from its beginning, but on-campus housing would not become co-ed until 1957.

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. At its first commencement ceremony, held on June 12, 1916, Rice awarded 35 bachelor's degrees and one master's degree. 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. 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."

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. In January 2022, the board of trustees announced plans to relocate the statue within the academic quadrangle. 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.

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. Rice acted as a temporary intermediary in the transfer of land between Humble Oil and Refining Company and NASA,

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. In 1964, Rice officially amended the university charter to desegregate its graduate and undergraduate divisions.

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".

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. 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.

Campus

Located near the city of West University Place, Rice University's campus covers a area within Houston's museum district and is heavily wooded.

thumb|The main entrance to Rice University

210px|thumb|Rice University Mechanical Laboratory and Power House. The second building on campus.

The campus is bounded by five streets: Greenbriar Street, Rice Boulevard, Sunset Boulevard, Main Street, and University Boulevard. Throughout its history, Rice University's buildings have been situated within this "outer loop." However, in recent times, new facilities have been constructed in proximity to the campus. Despite this, most of the academic, administrative, and residential structures are still situated within the original pentagonal area. Some off-campus buildings include the Collaborative Research Center, graduate student housing, the Greenbriar building, and the Wiess President's House.

thumb|upright|A stone bench in the Academic Quad

Rice University's campus houses around 50 buildings that are dispersed between the main entrance located at its easternmost corner and the parking lots and Rice Stadium situated at the western end. The Lynn R. Lowrey Arboretum, consisting of more than 4000 trees and shrubs is spread throughout the campus.

thumb|177x177px|View of Rice campus outside Brochstein Pavilion

The university's first president, Edgar Odell Lovett, intended for the campus to have a uniform architecture style to improve its aesthetic appeal. Nearly every building on campus is noticeably Byzantine in style, with sand and pink-colored bricks, large archways and columns being a common theme among many campus buildings.

thumb|Duncan Hall is Rice's hub for engineering and computation.

Lovett Hall, named for Rice's first president, is the university's landmark building. Through its Sallyport arch, new students symbolically enter the university during matriculation and depart as graduates at commencement. Duncan Hall, Rice's computational engineering building, was designed to encourage collaboration between the four different departments situated there. The building's foyer, drawn from many world cultures, was designed by the architect to symbolically express this collaborative purpose.

The campus is organized in a number of quadrangles. The Academic Quad, anchored by a statue of founder William Marsh Rice, includes Ralph Adams Cram's masterpiece, the asymmetrical Lovett Hall, the original administrative building; Fondren Library; Herzstein Hall, the original physics building and home to the largest amphitheater on campus; Sewall Hall for the social sciences and arts; Rayzor Hall for the languages; and Anderson Hall of the Architecture department. The Humanities Building, winner of several architectural awards, is immediately adjacent to the main quad. Further west lies a quad surrounded by McNair Hall of the Jones Business School, the Baker Institute, and Alice Pratt Brown Hall of the Shepherd School of Music. These two quads are surrounded by the university's main access road, a one-way loop referred to as the "inner loop". In the Engineering Quad, a trinity of sculptures by Michael Heizer, collectively entitled 45 Degrees, 90 Degrees, 180 Degrees, are flanked by Abercrombie Laboratory, the Cox Building, and the Mechanical Laboratory, housing the Electrical, Mechanical, and Earth Science/Civil Engineering departments, respectively. Duncan Hall is the latest addition to this quad, providing new offices for the Computer Science, Computational and Applied Math, Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Statistics departments.

right|thumb|McNair Hall, home to the Jones School of Business

Roughly three-quarters of Rice's undergraduate population lives on campus. Housing is divided among eleven residential colleges. The colleges are named for university historical figures and benefactors. Five colleges, McMurtry, Duncan, Martel, Jones, and Brown are located on the north side of campus, across from the "South Colleges", Baker, Will Rice, Lovett, Hanszen, Sid Richardson, and Wiess, on the other side of the Academic Quadrangle. Of the eleven colleges, Baker is the oldest, originally built in 1912, and the twin Duncan and McMurtry colleges are the newest, and opened for the first time for the 2009–10 school year. Will Rice, Baker, and Lovett colleges are undergoing renovation to expand their dining facilities as well as the number of rooms available for students.

thumb|Rice University's football stadium

The on-campus football facility, Rice Stadium, opened in 1950 with a capacity of 70,000 seats. After improvements in 2006, the stadium is currently configured to seat 47,000 for football but can readily be reconfigured to its original capacity of 70,000.

right|thumb|The Ion building under construction in the [[Rice Innovation District]]

Students of Rice and other Houston-area colleges and universities making up the Student Coalition for a Just and Equitable Innovation Corridor are advocating for a community benefits agreement (CBA), a contractual agreement between a developer and a community coalition. Residents of neighboring Third Ward and other members of the Houston Coalition for Equitable Development Without Displacement (HCEDD) have faced consistent opposition from the City of Houston and Rice Management Company to a CBA as traditionally defined, in favor of an agreement between the latter two entities without a community coalition signatory. The trustees serve without compensation and a simple majority of trustees must reside in Texas, including at least four within the greater Houston area. The endowment provides 40% of Rice's operating revenues.

In August 2021, an economic development agreement that would provide Rice Management Company with up to $65 million in cost reimbursement from local taxes was given initial approval by the Midtown Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone. The agreement does not require a community benefits agreement in exchange for funding. Final approval requires a vote by the Houston City Council. The majority of enrollments are in the full-time, four-year undergraduate program emphasizing arts & sciences and professions. There is a very high level of research activity.

Student body

{| class="wikitable floatright sortable collapsible"; text-align:right; font-size:80%;"

|+ style="font-size:90%" |Student body composition

! Race and ethnicity

! colspan="2" data-sort-type=number |Total

| White

|align=right|

| Asian

|align=right|

| Hispanic

|align=right|

| Foreign national

|align=right|

| Black

|align=right|

| Other

|align=right|

! colspan="4" data-sort-type=number |Economic diversity

| Low-income

|align=right|

| Affluent

|align=right|

As of fall 2022, men made up 51.1% of the undergraduate body and 63.1% of the professional and post-graduate student body. 36.9% of degree-seeking students were from out of state, 35.9% were from Texas and 27.2% were from outside of the United States.

Honor Code

The Rice Honor Code plays an integral role in academic affairs. Almost all Rice exams are unproctored and professors give timed, closed-book exams that students take home and complete at their own convenience. Potential infractions are reported to the student Honor Council, elected by popular vote. The penalty structure is established every year by Council consensus; typically, penalties have ranged from a letter of reprimand to an 'F' in the course and a two semester suspension.

Baker Institute for Public Policy – a leading nonpartisan public policy think-tank
BioScience Research Collaborative (BRC) – interdisciplinary, cross-campus, and inter-institutional resource between Rice University and Texas Medical Center
Boniuk Institute – dedicated to religious tolerance and advancing religious literacy, respect and mutual understanding
Center for African and African American Studies – fosters conversations on topics such as critical approaches to race and racism, the nature of diasporic histories and identities, and the complexity of Africa's past, present and future
Chao Center for Asian Studies – research hub for faculty, students and post-doctoral scholars working in Asian studies
Center for the Study of Women, Gender, and Sexuality (CSWGS) – interdisciplinary academic programs and research opportunities, including the journal Feminist Economics
Data to Knowledge Lab (D2K) – campus hub for experiential learning in data science
Digital Signal Processing (DSP) – center for education and research in the field of digital signal processing
Humanities Research Center (HRC) – identifies, encourages, and funds innovative research projects by faculty, visiting scholars, graduate, and undergraduate students in the School of Humanities and beyond
Institute of Biosciences and Bioengineering (IBB) – facilitates the translation of interdisciplinary research and education in biosciences and bioengineering
Ken Kennedy Institute for Information Technology – advances applied interdisciplinary research in the areas of computation and information technology
Kinder Institute for Urban Research – conducts the Houston Area Survey, "the nation's longest running study of any metropolitan region's economy, population, life experiences, beliefs and attitudes"
Laboratory for Nanophotonics (LANP) – a resource for education and research breakthroughs and advances in the broad, multidisciplinary field of nanophotonics
Liu Idea Lab for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (Lilie) - experiential learning and co-curricular activities in entrepreneurship
Moody Center for the Arts – experimental arts space featuring studio classrooms, maker space, audiovisual editing booths, and a gallery and office space for visiting national and international artists
OpenStax CNX (formerly Connexions) and OpenStax – an open source platform and open access publisher, respectively, of open educational resources
Oshman Engineering Design Kitchen (OEDK) – space for undergraduate students to design, prototype and deploy solutions to real-world engineering challenges
Rice Advanced Materials Institute - interdisciplinary research institute focused on materials discovery, design, and manufacturing for applications in energy, sustainability, and national security.
Rice Cinema – an independent theater run by the Visual and Dramatic Arts department at Rice which screens documentaries, foreign films, and experimental cinema and hosts film festivals and lectures since 1970
Rice Center for Engineering Leadership (RCEL)
Religion and Public Life Program (RPLP) – a research, training and outreach program working to advance understandings of the role of religion in public life
Rice Design Alliance (RDA) – outreach and public programs of the Rice School of Architecture
Rice Center for Quantum Materials (RCQM) – organization dedicated to research and higher education in areas relating to quantum phenomena
Rice Engineering Initiative for Energy Transition and Sustainability (REINVENTS) – research initiative on energy generation, long-term energy storage and the development of processes and materials for sustainable energy systems
Rice Neuroengineering Initiative (NEI) – fosters research collaborations in neural engineering topics
Rice Space Institute (RSI) – fosters programs in all areas of space research
Smalley-Curl Institute for Nanoscale Science and Technology (SCI) – the nation's first nanotechnology center
Welch Institute for Advanced Materials – collaborative research institute to support the foundational research for discoveries in materials science, similar to the model of Salk Institute and Broad Institute
Woodson Research Center Special Collections & Archives – publisher of print and web-based materials highlighting the department's primary source collections such as the Houston African American, Asian American, and Jewish History Archives, University Archives, rare books, and hip hop/rap music-related materials from the Swishahouse record label and Houston Folk Music Archive, etc.

Admissions

{| style="float:right; font-size:85%; margin:10px" "text-align:center; font-size:85%; margin:auto;" class="wikitable"

|+ Fall freshman statistics

!2024

!2023

!2022!! 2021!! 2020!! 2019!! 2018

|-align="center"

! Applicants

|32,473

|31,059

|31,443

| 29,544 || 23,455 || 27,087 || 20,923

|-align="center"

! Admits

|2,597

|2,447

|2,730

| 2,802 || 2,555 || 2,361 || 2,328

|-align="center"

! Admit rate

|8.0%

|7.9%

|8.7%

| 9.5% || 10.9% || 8.7% || 11.1%

|-align="center"

! Enrolled

|1,148

|1,125

|1,203

| 1,226 || 993 || 964 || 960

|-align="center"

! SAT range

|1510–1560

|1500–1570

|1490–1570

| 1490–1570 || 1460–1570 || 1470–1560 || 1460–1550

|-align="center"

! ACT range

|34–35

|34–36

| 34–35 || 34–36 || 33–35 || 33–35

Admission to Rice is rated as "most selective" by U.S. News & World Report.

For fall 2025, Rice received 36,791 freshmen applications of which 2,948 were admitted (8.0%) slightly higher than the record-low 7.9% acceptance rate in 2023. Of those, 1,263 enrolled. The 25th and 75th SAT scores for the class of 2025 were 1500 and 1570 respectively; the same range for the ACT Composite score was 34–36.

Admission to the university is need-blind for domestic applicants.

Rankings and reputation

{| class="wikitable sortable collapsible collapsed" style="float:right" "text-align:center"

! colspan=4 |National program rankings

! Program

! Ranking

| Biological Sciences || 39

| Business || 25

| Chemistry || 32

| Computer Science || 20

| Earth Sciences || 24

| Economics || 42

| Engineering || 33

| English || 35

| History || 34

| Mathematics || 26

| Physics || 28

| Political Science || 33

| Psychology || 50

| Statistics || 43

{| class="wikitable sortable collapsible collapsed" style="float:right" "text-align:center"

! colspan=4 |Global subject rankings

! Program

! Ranking

| Arts & Humanities || 194

| Biology & Biochemistry || 222

| Chemistry || 119

| Clinical Medicine || 684

| Engineering || 224

| Environment/Ecology || 248

| Geosciences || 163

| Materials Science || 14

| Mathematics || 87

| Molecular Biology & Genetics || 333

| Physics || 82

| Social Sciences & Public Health || 386

Rice was ranked tied at 17th among national universities and 108th among global universities, 6th for "best undergraduate teaching", 5th for "Best Value", and tied for 16th "Most Innovative" among national universities in the U.S. by U.S. News & World Report in its 2022 edition. In 2024, Forbes magazine ranked Rice University 9th nationally among 500 liberal arts colleges, universities and service academies, 1st among universities in the south, and 9th among research universities.

In 2020, Rice was ranked 105th in the world by the Times Higher Education World University Rankings. In 2020, Rice was ranked tied for 95th internationally (41st nationally) by the Academic Ranking of World Universities. Rice was also ranked 85th globally in 2020 by QS World University Rankings.

The Princeton Review ranked Rice as one of the top 50 best value private colleges in its 2020 edition.

Residential colleges

In 1957, Rice University implemented a residential college system, which was proposed by the university's first president, Edgar Odell Lovett. The system was inspired by existing systems in place in England and at several other universities in the United States. The existing residences known as East, South, West, and Wiess Halls became Baker, Will Rice, Hanszen, and Wiess Colleges, respectively.

List of residential colleges

Below is a list of residential colleges in order of founding: Students generally remain members of the college that they are assigned to for the duration of their undergraduate careers, even if they move off-campus at any point. Students are guaranteed on-campus housing for freshman year and two of the next three years; each college has its own system for determining allocation of the remaining spaces, collectively known as "Room Jacking". Students develop strong loyalties to their college and maintain friendly rivalry with other colleges, especially during events such as Beer Bike and O-Week. Colleges keep their rivalries alive by performing "jacks," or pranks, on each other, especially during O-Week and Beer Bike Week. During Matriculation, Commencement, and other formal academic ceremonies, the colleges process in the order in which they were established.

Baker 13

Baker 13 is a tradition in which students run around campus wearing nothing but shoes and shaving cream at 10 p.m. on the 13th and the 31st of every month, as well as the 26th on months with fewer than 31 days. The event, long sponsored by Baker College, usually attracts a small number of students, but Halloween night and the first and last relevant days of the school year both attract large numbers of revelers.

Coffeehouse baristas are referred to as K.O.C.s, or Keepers of the Coffee. Rice Coffeehouse has also adopted an unofficial mascot, the squirrel, which can be found on T-shirts, mugs, and bumper stickers stuck on laptops across campus. The logo pays tribute to Rice's squirrel population, claimed by students to be unusually plump and frighteningly tame.

The Pub at Rice

Formerly known as Willy's Pub, The Pub at Rice is Rice's student-run pub located in the basement of the Rice Memorial Center. It opened on April 11, 1975, with Rice President Norman Hackerman pouring the first beer. The original name was chosen by students in tribute to the university's founder, William Marsh Rice. After the drinking age in Texas was raised in 1986, the pub entered a period of financial difficulties and in April 1995, was destroyed in a fire. The space was gutted but renovated and remains open.

Rice Bikes

Rice Bikes is a full-service on-campus bicycle sale, rental, and repair shop. It originated in the basement of Sid Richardson College in February 2011. In 2012, Rice Bikes officially became the university's third student-run business. Rice Bikes merged with a student-run bicycle rental business in 2013, and operations moved to the Rice Memorial Center in 2014. In 2017, the business moved to the garage of the Rice Housing and Dining department's headquarters.

Student-run media

Rice has a weekly student newspaper (The Rice Thresher), a yearbook (The Campanile), college radio station (KTRU Rice Radio), and now defunct, campus-wide student television station (RTV5). They are based out of the RMC student center. In addition, Rice hosts several student magazines dedicated to a range of different topics; the spring semester of 2008 saw the founding of two magazines, a literary sex journal called Open and an undergraduate science research magazine entitled Catalyst.

The Rice Thresher Associated Collegiate Press and Texas Intercollegiate Press Association.

The Rice Campanile was first published in 1916, celebrating Rice's first graduating class. It has published continuously since then, publishing two volumes in 1944 since the university had two graduating classes due to World War II. The website was created sometime in the early to mid-2000s.

KTRU Rice Radio is the student-run radio station. It plays genres and artists of music and sound unavailable on other radio stations in Houston, and often, the US. The station takes requests over the phone or online. In 2000 and 2006, KTRU won Houston Press' Best Radio Station in Houston.

RTV5 is a student-run television network available as channel 5 on campus. RTV5 was created initially as Rice Broadcast Television in 1997; RBT began to broadcast the following year in 1998, and aired its first live show across campus in 1999. It experienced much growth and exposure over the years with successful programs like "Drinking with Phil”, “The Meg & Maggie Show”, which was a variety and call-in show, a weekly news show, and extensive live coverage in December 2000 of the shut down of KTRU by the administration. In spring 2001, the Rice undergraduate community voted in the general elections to support RBT as a blanket tax organization, effectively providing a yearly income of $10,000 to purchase new equipment and provide the campus with a variety of new programming. In the spring of 2005, RBT members decided the station needed a new image and a new name: Rice Television 5. One of RTV5's most popular shows was the 24-hour show, where a camera and couch placed in the RMC stayed on air for 24 hours. One such show is held in fall and another in spring, usually during a weekend allocated for visits by prospective students. RTV5 has a video on demand site at rtv5.rice.edu. Rice is the second-smallest school, measured by undergraduate enrollment, competing in NCAA Division I FBS football, only ahead of Tulsa.

In 2006, the football team qualified for its first bowl game since 1961, ending the second-longest bowl drought in the country at the time. On December 22, 2006, Rice played in the New Orleans Bowl in New Orleans, Louisiana against the Sun Belt Conference champion, Troy. The Owls lost 41–17. The bowl appearance came after Rice had a 14-game losing streak from 2004 to 2005 and went 1–10 in 2005. The streak followed an internally authorized 2003 McKinsey report that stated football alone was responsible for a $4 million deficit in 2002. Tensions remained high between the athletic department and faculty, as a few professors who chose to voice their opinion were in favor of abandoning the football program. The program success in 2006, the "Rice Renaissance," proved to be a revival of the Owl football program, quelling those tensions. David Bailiff took over the program in 2007 and has remained head coach. Jarett Dillard set an NCAA record in 2006 by catching a touchdown pass in 13 consecutive games and took a 15-game overall streak into the 2007 season.

In 2008, the football team posted a 9–3 regular season, capping off the year with a 38–14 victory over Western Michigan University in the Texas Bowl. The win over Western Michigan marked the Owls' first bowl win in 45 years.

Rice Stadium also serves as the performance venue for the university's Marching Owl Band, or "MOB." Despite its name, the MOB is a scatter band that focuses on performing humorous skits and routines rather than traditional formation marching.

Rice Owls men's basketball won 10 conference titles in the former Southwest Conference (1918, 1935*, 1940, 1942*, 1943*, 1944*, 1945, 1949*, 1954*, 1970; * denotes shared title). Most recently, guard Morris Almond was drafted in the first round of the 2007 NBA draft by the Utah Jazz. Rice named former Cal Bears head coach Ben Braun as head basketball coach to succeed Willis Wilson, fired after Rice finished the 2007–2008 season with a winless (0–16) conference record and overall record of 3–27.

Rice's mascot is Sammy the Owl. In previous decades, the university kept several live owls on campus in front of Lovett College, but this practice has been discontinued, due to public concern regarding animal welfare.

Rice also has a 12-member coed cheerleading squad and a coed dance team, both of which perform at football and basketball games throughout the year.

Notable people

, Rice has graduated 98 classes of students consisting of 51,961 living alumni. Over 100 students at Rice have been Fulbright Scholars, 25 Marshall Scholars, 25 Mellon Fellows, 13 Rhodes Scholars, 6 Udall Scholars, and 65 Watson Fellows, among several other honors and awards.

Rice's distinguished faculty and alumni consists of five Nobel laureates, a Turing Award winner, five Pulitzer Prize award winners, six Fulbright Scholars, 29 Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Recipients, 14 members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1 Abel Prize winner, 3 members of the American Philosophical Society, 36 Guggenheim Fellowships, 12 members of the National Academy of Engineering, 2 members of the National Academy of Medicine, 10 members of the National Academy of Sciences, five fellows of the National Humanities Center, and 86 fellows of the National Science Foundation.

In science and technology, Rice alumni include 14 NASA astronauts; Robert Curl, Nobel laureate discoverer of fullerene; Robert Woodrow Wilson, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics for the discovery of cosmic microwave background radiation; Matthew Sands, physicist and co-author of The Feynman Lectures on Physics; David Eagleman, celebrity neuroscientist and NYT bestselling author; and NASA former Apollo 11 and 13 warning systems engineer and motivational speaker Jerry Woodfill. founder and CEO of Coinbase

Elizabeth Avellán, co-founder of Troublemaker Studios
Thomas H. Cruikshank, former CEO of Halliburton
John Doerr, billionaire and venture capitalist
Howard Hughes, film producer and aviator
Ali Koç, president of Fenerbahçe SK football club, Turkish Union of Clubs, and vice chairman of Koç Holding
Fred C. Koch, chemical engineer and entrepreneur
Tim and Karrie League, founders of the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema and Drafthouse Films

In government and politics, Rice alumni include:

George P. Bush, politician
Charles Duncan, former secretary of energy
Josh Earnest, White House press secretary for President Obama
Alberto Gonzales, former attorney general
William P. Hobby, Jr., former lieutenant governor of Texas
John Kline, former member of the U.S. House of Representatives
Annise Parker, 61st mayor of Houston
Ben Rhodes, deputy National Security advisor for President Obama
Glenn Youngkin, governor of Virginia

In the arts, Rice alumni include:

Candace Bushnell, author of Sex and the City, who attended for three semesters
John Graves, author of Goodbye to a River
Larry McMurtry, Pulitzer Prize–winning author and Oscar-winning writer of the screenplay for Brokeback Mountain
Joyce Carol Oates (who left her Ph.D. to become a full-time writer), novelist and Pulitzer Prize finalist
Caroline Shaw, Pulitzer Prize-winning musician

In athletics, Rice alumni include: Lance Berkman, Brock Holt, Bubba Crosby, Harold Solomon, Frank Ryan, Tommy Kramer,Jose Cruz, Jr., O.J. Brigance, Larry Izzo, James Casey, Courtney Hall, Bert Emanuel, Luke Willson, Tony Cingrani, Anthony Rendon, Mike MacRae, and Leo Rucka, as well as three Olympians (Funmi Jimoh '06, Allison Beckford '04, and William Fred Hansen '63).

File:James Allred in 1937.png|James V. Allred, 33rd governor of Texas

File:L to R- Howard Huges, Jesse Jones, Rene St. Quentin LCCN2016873814 (cropped).jpg|Howard Hughes, aviator, engineer, industrialist, film producer and director

File:Tommy Kramer.jpg|Tommy Kramer (1977), former quarterback for Minnesota Vikings

File:Secretary Duncan (cropped).jpg|Charles Duncan Jr., second United States secretary of energy

File:Gary H Stern (14103256853) (cropped).jpg|Gary H. Stern, eleventh chief executive of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis

File:Annise Parker.JPG|Annise Parker (1978), 61st mayor of Houston

File:Alberto Gonzales - official DoJ photograph.jpg|Alberto Gonzales (1979), former U.S. attorney general

File:PeggyWhitson-NASA.jpg|Peggy Whitson (1986), NASA astronaut

File:Josh Earnest 2011 (cropped).jpg|Josh Earnest (1997), 29th White House press secretary

File:Lance Berkman on June 29, 2011.jpg|Lance Berkman, professional baseball outfielder and first baseman

File:George P. Bush crop.jpg|George P. Bush (1998), commissioner of the Texas General Land Office

File:NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine Official Portrait (NHQ201907240001).jpg|Jim Bridenstine (1998), thirteenth NASA administrator

File:Youngkin Governor Portrait.jpg|Glenn Youngkin (B.S., B.A.), governor of Virginia

File:Former Commissioner Stephen Hahn (49484140217).jpg|Stephen Hahn (1980), 24th commissioner of Food and Drugs (2019–2021)

</gallery>

Notes

References

</references>

External links

Rice University Athletics website