Owl Have You Know
Professor, Ex-Bar Owner and Snoop Dogg’s Business Partner feat. Senior Associate Dean James Weston
Published: 9 April 2025 at 10:00 Europe/London
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Episode notes
In this special live episode of Owl Have You Know, James Weston, the senior associate dean for degree programs and Harmon Whittington Professor of Finance, reflects on his 25 years at Rice University.
Join James and host Maya Pomroy ’22 as they explore his journey from the Federal Reserve to Rice Business, the evolution of the school over the past two and a half decades, and his vision for the future of the university. They also dive deep into his groundbreaking research on racial disparities in auto loan pricing — a study that uncovered significant biases against minority borrowers.
Plus, get the inside scoop on his entrepreneurial venture, running a bar in Rice Village.
Episode Guide:
01:20 James Weston's Career Journey
04:25 Early Career and Mentorship
08:56 Teaching Philosophy and Student Relationships
13:52 Research on Auto Loans and Discrimination
18:58 Linking Mortgage and Experian Data
20:14 Evidence of Discrimination in Auto Lending
22:48 Challenges in Passing Auto Lending Regulations
24:00 The Realities of Owning and Operating a Bar
30:24 Transition to Administration at Rice Business
33:47 Reflections on a Diverse Career
Owl Have You Know is a production of Rice Business and is produced by University FM.
Episode Quotes:
How Dean James pursues scientific rigor across campus
34:50: [James Weston] I sort of view the thing that ties together all my papers as a foundational social scientist trying to measure things that are hard to measure. And so when I see things that I think have a lot of social import or a research question that I think has either a practical application or some large social question that I think needs answering, the fun for me is trying to figure out how to measure it and trying to come up with a clever way of identifying the research question in a way that's unambiguous and in a way that we can solidify and say, like, that's the answer. And I know it with as near scientific certainty as I can — you know, the existence of the Higgs boson particle.35:19: [Maya Pomroy] We can't get into that right now. Yeah.
35:33: [James Weston] But, but you know, but I'm saying, like, to treat it like a scientist.
35:36: [Maya Pomroy] Yes.
35:37: [James Weston] And study it like it's a real causal question. Yeah. And you attack it with the scientific method, and you attack it with the scrutiny and the scientific rigor that they use across campus.
On pushing for transparency in auto lending
How Dean James views his new job role
30:48: Moving into administration means, in my mind at least, it means I'm not working anymore. In the sense that I'm not executing the primary missions of the school, which are teaching and scholarship. And so I'm not teaching as much anymore, and I'm not doing as much scholarship anymore, which means I'd better be doing something to collect the paycheck. And the way I genuinely view it is that now I'm trying to enable the rest of my faculty to do better teaching and better scholarship. My role is as a service leader, which is how I view this job—as a tour of service, not a career pivot. I didn't take this job to then become dean someplace, to then become provost someplace, to then become Supreme Commander of University somewhere. But, like, it was someone else's turn to do this very important role, which is to coordinate all the programs, get the teaching schedules done, make sure I'm protecting junior faculty and their teaching loads, make sure I'm putting the right people into the right classes, making sure we're keeping track of it.
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