The Rice Board of Trustees recognized that Rice could not co

The Rice Board of Trustees recognized that Rice could not continue to be segregated and hope to remain a top tier institution of higher learning. There were manifold reasons behind this decision and clearly access to federal funding played a part in the decision.

Rice University “broke” the will’s stipulations through legal means, with the Board of Trustees passing a resolution in 1964 to amend the charter and enable the admission of students without regard to race and to charge a modest tuition (the definition of modest can be scrutinized).

This was a formal process to challenge the founder’s original conditions, rather than a single event of “breaking” the will.

I hold those visionaries in high regard. Anyhow, my tuition free status continued except there was a hiccup. I was in a five year professional master degree program that granted a rather meaningless bachelor of arts degree in engineering at the four year mark and the meaningful masters degree at the five year mark.