Rice announces major expansion of student body and campus

Rice University plans to increase its student body to 9,000 and to expand the campus footprint as well, officials said Monday. The private Houston university’s board of trustees approved a plan that will scale up the number of students annually over five years, and by fall 2025 increase the full-time teaching faculty by nearly 50. The number of undergraduate students will rise by 20 percent, to 4,800 by fall 2025, according to a release. And the number of graduate students is also expected to grow, which will bring total enrollment to around 9,000 students. Officials predict that the expansion and higher enrollment will help the university create a more diverse campus, recruit more talented faculty for teaching and research, and will create a larger alumni network across the world. “Welcoming more students to the Rice campus today will have an impact on the university for generations to come,” Robert Ladd, chair of the Rice Board of Trustees, wrote in a statement announcing the plans.

The physical expansion of the college will include a 12th residential college, a new engineering building, a building for the visual and dramatic arts, and a new student center that will largely replace the Rice Memorial Center, officials said. The three-story, 80,000-square-foot student center will be designed by the international architectural firm Adjaye Associates, the same firm that designed the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C. It will include a multicultural center and a variety of gathering and event spaces. The university plans to break ground on the center in the first quarter of next year. Rice’s projected growth follows two decades of expansion at the college and a surge in applications. Applications for admissions increased by about 75 percent over the last four years, with a particular spike following the university’s launch of the Rice Investment in 2018. The financial aid program offers a range of assistance to undergraduates with family incomes up to $200,000. Applications for the Fall 2021 semester alone totaled 29,519, which a university spokesman noted, is a 26 percent increase from last year. Enrollment at Rice has increased by 80 percent over the past 20 years and undergraduate enrollment, by 35 percent between 2005 and 2013.