Leebron on new Rice international campus: 'The Paris location offers an incredible range of opportunities'

Officials from Rice University, the City of Houston and other entities participated in the ceremonial launch of Rice’s new international campus in Paris on Wednesday.

A Rice-issued press release said the aptly-named Rice University Paris Center is part of the private institution’s plan to expand global education and research opportunities for students and faculty.

“The Paris location offers an incredible range of opportunities, in fields ranging from art and architecture to international business and global relations and politics,” university president David Leebron said in the release.

According to Rice, the center is inside of a historic 16th-century building in the center of the French capital and will serve as a home for the university’s student programs, independent researchers and international conferences.

It’ll also be the core of Rice’s European research activity, the university said in the release.

Valerie Baraban, France’s consul general in Houston, assumed hostess duties for the Houston delegation.

She documented the visit and the ceremony on her Twitter account.

“With @RiceUniversity, the 'hotel de la Faye' becomes a hub for innovative collaboration, research and inspired teaching in the heart of @Paris,” Baraban tweeted.

The consul general described the center, which is slated for a January 2023 opening, as “not an island of Rice University in Paris but an open door toward an international, diverse and cross-fertilized education.”

Rice’s release said that certain faculty researchers and a small group of graduate students will call the center home for an academic year with no set number on attendance as it’ll vary at different times.

The official opening of the Rice University Paris Center will be one of the milestones marked during the upcoming presidency of Dr. Reginald DesRoches, who’s currently the university’s Howard Hughes Provost.

“Rice University’s mission statement commits us not only to path-breaking research and unsurpassed teaching, but also to the betterment of our world,” DesRoches, who’ll succeed Leebron next month, said in the release. “We’re eager to extend that mission internationally, and the opening of the Rice University Paris Center demonstrates that commitment.”