David Leebron has been president of Houston’s Rice University since 2004; previously, he was dean of Columbia Law School. He returned to Los Angeles-where he’d clerked on the Ninth Circuit and taught as a visiting professor at UCLA’s law school-to participate in a panel on the role urban universities play in their cities. Beforehand, he sat down in the green room to talk about Los Angeles and Houston, Roald Dahl and J.K. Rowling.
Q. You clerked in L.A. and taught for a semester at UCLA Law. What do you like best about the city?
A. I like the energy. I think it’s a very dynamic city. And I love the fact that it’s sandwiched between the beaches and the mountains.
Q. Who is your favorite children’s book author?
A. My daughter is clearly committed to J.K. Rowling, so I guess her favorite’s my favorite. I like Roald Dahl-he’s very good, too.
Q. As a university president, who is easiest to please: the students, parents, faculty, or alumni?
A. I’m not sure the answer is the same at every university-but since Rice, according to The Princeton Review, has the happiest students in the country, it must be the students.
Q. Where do you go to be alone?
A. My car [laughs].
Q. What’s the best dessert you’ve eaten recently?
A. Clearly something chocolate … a chocolate dessert at one of our student resident halls. We have really good chefs-they do competitions and stuff-I had a really good chocolate pastry.
Q. What’s the biggest misconception your friends have about you?
A. Oh my god! They probably think I’m a little bit more serious than I am.
Q. In what class did you receive your worst grade in college?
A. I’m not sure-it might’ve been freshman expository writing.
Q. What’s your favorite spot on the Rice campus?
A. A path that passes right under the branches of overhanging trees-you can reach up and touch the trees as you walk past.
Q. What superpower would you most like to have?
A. Control over time.
Q. What’s underrated about Houston?
A. Almost everything. The amount of green space, the diversity of the population, the weather, its internationalism, its cosmopolitanism, the museums. There is almost nothing that is not underrated about Houston. It sounds canned, but it’s true.
*Photo by Sarah Rivera.