On Ash Wednesday, I departed Dallas slowly. Before I left, I went to noon mass in the Cathedral downtown, where the Bishop of Dallas celebrated the mass. Then I traveled down to College Station, Texas to meet with ISI Campus Representative Beth Donalson, who hosted an ISI soiree on her campus during the visit. Three graduate students, one assistant faculty member, and two undergraduates attended, as did my friend and Texas A&M alum, Jeff Frazee from the Leadership Institute. We used the period to focus on how to revamp the existing ISI Group at Texas A&M. I gave them advice on how to get more people involved, diversify their activities, and use ISI’s resources.
I didn’t spend too long in College Station, but I will say it was a remarkably beautiful day. It must have been 75 degrees. After the soiree, I departed towards Houston. There’s literally nothing out there between College Station and Houston. But, the “sprawl” of Houston starts a good 30 miles out. I got to my hotel around 9:30pm and the next morning, I slept in and did some work from the hotel room.
On Thursday night, I visited the campus of Rice University, where ISI Campus Representative Sarah Duke (the daughter of former ISI staff member, Eileen Duke) hosted an ISI soiree. Students from the College Republicans, libertarians, and others attended, as did two faculty members from other campuses, a professor of history froma the University of Houston and another ISI Faculty Associate from Houston Baptist University, who was once an ISI Weaver fellow (I swear I’ve met about 100 of the 500 former Weaver fellows). I used the technology savvy classroom at Rice University to show the students the ISI history video, walk them through features on ISI’s website, and talked to them about the history of conservatism and how they can get involved with the future of conservatism with ISI.
Some of the students there are already planning a Right-leaning publication on campus, bringing together conservative and libertarians to explore “free thought” on campus. I spoke to them about the Collegiate Network and showed them examples of other CN papers on the CN’s website. We gave out an assortment of materials, including ISI’s Student’s Guides, brochures, journals, and free books. Several students expressed interest in the ISI honors program. Before this visit, we had virtually no activity going on at Rice University, so I am hopeful that this group of students are really developing something nice here. Things certainly seemed promising.