McNair Hall at Rice University. The Moody Foundation has given Rice $100 million for a new student ... [+]
Rice University announced on Wednesday that it had received a $100 million gift from the Moody Foundation. The gift ties the record for the largest private gift in Rice’s history, matching a $100 million donation from the Robert A. Welch Foundation to establish The Welch Institute, which focuses on advanced materials research.
Rice will use the Moody gift to build a new student center - the Moody Center for Student Life and Opportunity - which will replace the existing Rice Memorial Center. Plans call for it to be designed by Sir David Adjaye of Adjaye Associates, an architect whose other works include the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African American History and Culture.
A portion of the gift will also create endowments supporting student opportunity and success, both as part of the center and in other areas of the university.
“As a Rice University alumna, I know this gift will have a profound and lasting effect on the campus and its students,” said Elle Moody, a trustee of both the Moody Foundation and Rice University. “This investment is supporting much more than just a building. We’re investing in every student, so they have access to pursue any endeavor whether it’s leadership, artistic, athletic, global or more.”
Rice enrolls about 4,000 undergraduate students and a bit more than 3,000 graduate students. Under its growth plan, Rice’s undergraduate enrollment would reach 4,800, and its graduate enrollment would also increase so that total enrollment would stand at about 9,000 students by fall 2025. Currently ranked the nation’s 24th best national university by Forbes, Rice is one of the smaller elite research universities in the U.S.
The new student center will be a central element in Rice’s recently announced plans for a 20% expansion of the undergraduate student body by fall 2025. In addition to the new student center the Rice enrollment growth plan includes:
- opening a 12th residential college and increasing the number of students who live on campus,
- adding about 50 full-time instructional faculty so it can maintain the existing undergraduate student-faculty ratio,
- building additional facilities such as a new engineering building and a new building for the visual and dramatic arts,
- enhancing its research capabilities by focusing on some of its unique areas of scholarly excellence in materials research, clean energy, and new technologies for national security.
The planned expansion follows an approximately 35% increase in undergraduate enrollment between fall 2005 and 2013, in addition to growth in Rice’s graduate programs. If it achieves its 2025 goal, Rice will have seen its student body grow by about 80% in two decades. Part of the growth stems from the increasingly generous financial aid that Rice has introduced, known as the Rice Investment.
Ground-breaking for the new student center project is expected in early 2022. Some components of the existing student center such as the chapel and the cloisters will be integrated into the new design. Construction is expected to be finished in late 2023.
About the Moody Foundation
The Moody Foundation was established by W.L. Moody Jr. and Libbie Shearn Moody in 1942. William Moody was an entrepreneur from Galveston, Texas, who founded a bank and an insurance company, in addition to his charitable foundation. Across the years, the Foundation, with assets in excess of $1 billion, has pledged and awarded more than $1.8 billion in grants to various organizations throughout the state of Texas, including several other gifts to Rice. The Moody Foundation operates under the direction of a board of three trustees: Frances Moody-Dahlberg, Ross Moody and Elle Moody.
