Crisis in Texas Higher Education: The Need for Leadership

Texas has the fastest growing Hispanic population in the nation. Hispanics will soon comprise a majority of the state's population. Yet this population has a high school drop-out rate of nearly 60\% and is vastly underrepresented in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) disciplines in the student bodies and faculties of the state's universities. The scientific and economic health of the state is threatened with the formation of such a large scientific underclass. But Rice is making a difference, positioning its underrepresented minority students for STEM leadership throughout the state and nation. The speaker will discuss several successful national award-winning undergraduate and graduate programs that he directs at Rice University that are being heralded as models for the state, region, and nation.