Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
>> I was president of Jones when there was only one women's college.
Back when dinosaurs roamed the earth.
And I -- I graduated in '66.
But don't tell anybody I was four years old at the time, child prodigy.
And my favorite Rice story probably concerns the fact that.
This is the little known fact, but Rice actually invented lesbians.
And I know that it's not very well publicized.
But let me tell you, I know that.
Before I was president I was residents chairman.
And they came to me in a big fuss.
And as you may have guessed, I'm kind of a rule breaker.
So making me residents chairman was kind of like making a pyromaniac a fire person.
But anyway that was residents chairman.
They came to me and they said these women are getting it on.
And they're disrupting their roommates.
And I said, okay.
Let's put them in together.
Because there was no double donut pro about being lesbian.
There was nothing in the news.
And I said, you know.
Who cares what people do as long as they're not disrupting one another.
And the extraordinary thing about this story is that I went to the dean at the time,
whose name was Moorhead, I believe.
And I said this is what I want to do.
I was a punk 16-year-old.
I started college early.
And he let me do it.
He said if you'll take responsibility for it, I'll do it.
I think they were -- the other thing that I did was.
I was involved -- because I have a lot of energy as you may guess.
And I got involved in what we called the blue triangle project.
It was -- which is getting kids from the projects over to Rice two or three times a week.
And we taught them art.
And we taught them theater.
And we taught them math.
And we tutored them.
And in a moment of true brilliance, I took them to a homecoming game.
And I had them all wearing Rice beanies, sitting on the 50-yard line
when Rice had not yet integrated.
So the president called up and said, Joy, if you're going to do this, at least let me know.
The alums were not amused.
But for me Rice was a great place to go to school.
Because if I could make an argument about why I wanted to do something like having kids
from the projects at homecoming on the 50-yard line.
Or letting two little girls room together so they didn't disrupt everybody else.
They would let me do it.
And it was a great -- I'm not sure if it was very good
or very bad practice for the rest of life.
Because to a certain extent, the rest
of the world doesn't necessarily let you get away with things.
But Rice taught me that, if I could make a cogent argument, they would listen to me.
I think they were ever so glad to see anybody graduate in their whole life
as they were to get me out of there.
But Rice was a great place for me to go to school.
I will only add one other thing.
Which is I actually went to medical school at a very well-known medical school in Boston.
With only my Rice undergraduate and never having had a biochem course.
For some reason I was scared of it.
Not only got in, but passed immunology never having taking a biochem course.
On the basis of my Rice education.
Which taught you to think.
So yay, Rice.
Happy 100 years.
[ Music ]