1970
The Allyn R. and Gladys M. Cline Professorship in Economics and Finance is created by the estate of Gladys M. Cline to encourage outstanding instruction in economics and finance, the professional fields in which she and her brother were engaged for many years. Professor Charles McLure holds the first chair.
Anthropology and Sociology become two separate departments. The separation agreement is formalized in 1971. The new Anthropology Department has six faculty members and its first department chair is Professor Stephen Tyler. The new Sociology Department has four full-time faculty members and its first department chair is Professor Chad Gordon.
The Department of Economics and Business Administration is renamed the Department of Economics and Accounting.
The Ph.D. program, offering the three fields of comparative politics, American politics and international relations is inaugurated with an entering class of five.
1970-1987
Professor William C. Howell becomes chair of the Psychology Department and serves for 17 years.
1971
Cleveland Sewall Hall opens. It houses the Psychology Department, along with other social sciences departments and the fine arts program.
Managerial Studies program created.
1972
The Psychology Department initiates its own Ph.D. program. Three specialty areas in the Ph.D. program are initially established in 1976: cognitive-experimental psychology, industrial/organizational psychology and social psychology. Engineering psychology is added in 1985.
1974
The first Ph.D. in Political Science is awarded to Kim Quaile Hill.
1976
The George A. Peterkin Chair of Political Economy is established by Mrs. George A. Peterkin, George A Peterkin, Jr., and Patricia Peterkin Pryor in memory of George Peterkin. Its purpose is to promote teaching and scholarship in the field of economics. In addition to establishing an endowed chair, the gift enables the department to create a lecture series, to bring in Nobel prize winner Douglass North as a visiting professor, and to invite Nobel prize winners James Mirrlees and Robert Solow to lecture. Professor Dagobert Brito holds the first chair.
1978
Walter G. Hall '28 gives East Texas timber land to Rice with the instructions that the proceeds from the sale of the land be divided between the Department of Sociology and the Jones School of Business. The Walter G. Hall Endowment in Sociology is established in 1985 with the sale of the land "in the hope that it will contribute to a better understanding of the increasingly complex nature of our society."
The Lena Gohlman Fox Endowed Chair in Political Science is established. Professor Joseph Cooper holds its first chair.
1979
Rice President Norman Hackerman establishes the School of Social Sciences, separating the former Division of Humanities and Social Sciences. Social Sciences begins with 38 full-time faculty.
The department takes on its current name of the Department of Economics when Accounting becomes part of the Jones School of Business. Professor Gaston V. Rimlinger is department chair.
Professor Joseph Cooper is appointed as the first dean of social sciences. Besides having been the first chair of the Department of Political Science, 1967-1972, he served as acting provost, 1973-1974.
Professor Richard A. Butler receives the George R. Brown Award for Superior Teaching.