“Your relationship with your thesis adviser is the closest possible relationship you will ever have with any other human being except perhaps your parents or spouse,” Rice said, reflecting on her work to earn a doctorate at the University of Denver.

Before she earned tenure, Rice was warned by superiors, including History Prof. David Kennedy ‘63, “about losing focus” by doing too much non-academic work. Kennedy remarked that she seemed unfazed.

While at Stanford, she dated Gene Washington “for the better part of a year.” He had played football for the Cardinal before going on to the San Francisco 49ers, and he later held a job as the University’s assistant athletic director and a commentary job for NBC. They have stayed close, even after Rice went to Washington.

Rice credited Prof. Sidney Drell, formerly deputy director of the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, with teaching her the physics of nuclear weapons. The lessons, said Rice, “came in handy as I’ve had to deal with Iranian enrichment processes.”

Several professors at Stanford said Rice earned tenure in the political science department at least partly out of consideration for her race. “Rice had published, but not extensively, and her work was not known for any originality or brilliance,” Bumiller wrote. “Although the committees that oversaw tenure decisions deliberated in secret, as was the practice, the view among many faculty members looking back was that Rice’s good but weighty academic record was overshadowed by the committee’s desire to keep such a promising young black woman at Stanford — in short, a clear case of affirmative action.”

— Compiled by James Hohmann

Notes

Bumiller interviewed more than 150 sources for her book. In the acknowledgements, she thanks Senior Associate Vice President for government and community relations Larry Horton, Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies Director Chip Blacker, History Prof. David Kennedy, former University President Gerhard Casper and Assistant Prof. Jessica Rose in the Medical School.

The Daily provided Bumiller with copies of articles from its archives during her research last year. In her source notes, she cites additional interviews with former University President Donald Kennedy, Hoover Senior Fellow Sid Drell, Political Science Prof. Scott Sagan, former Secretary of State George Shultz, Vice Provost Timothy Warner, former Prof. Luis Fraga, Vice Provost for diversity Patricia Jones, and International Relations Prof. Stephen Krasner.

— James Hohmann