Residential Colleges of Rice University

Will Rice College
Will Rice College, with Old Dorm (1912) at left, the commons building at center, and the quadrangle and New Dorm (2009) at right.
Location	6330 Main St., Houston, Texas, United States
Established	1957 (1957)
Namesake	William Marsh Rice, Jr.
Colors	Rust      Gold
Masters	Bridget Gorman, Mike Reed
President	Michael Devine
Chief Justice	Alan Wang
Membership	400 (approximate)
Mascot	The Phoenix
Website	willrice.org

The residential colleges of Rice University comprise eleven separate residential colleges which function as the primary housing, dining, and social organization for undergraduate students. The system was established in 1957 and was inspired by the residential college systems at the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge as well as the American adaptations of the same at Harvard and Yale. Each student is randomly affiliated with a residential college upon matriculation and becomes a lifetime member of the college. The residential college system takes the place of a greek system, and has contributed to a sense of community that other universities have sought to emulate.

At academic ceremonies, including Matriculation and Commencement, the colleges process in the following order: the four original colleges in the order Baker, Will Rice, Hanszen, and Wiess, followed by the other colleges in order of founding: Jones, Brown, Lovett, Sid Richardson, Martel, McMurtry, and Duncan. For the original four colleges, which became colleges at the same time in 1957, the processional order reflects the order in which the original buildings were constructed. For McMurtry and Duncan, which were built at the same time and opened simultaneously in August 2009, the processional order reflects the order in which the founding gifts were made.

The colleges are often classified by geographical location: Jones, Brown, Martel, McMurtry, and Duncan are the North colleges; Baker, Will Rice, Hanszen, Wiess, Lovett, and Sid Richardson are the South colleges.

The residential college system was instated in 1957 by converting East, South, West, and North Halls into the men's colleges of Baker, Will Rice, Hanszen, and Wiess, respectively. Jones, the first residential college built on campus for that purpose, was constructed the same year and became the singular women's college. Brown, Lovett, and Sid Richardson colleges composed the initial expansion founded between 1965 and 1971. To cope with increasing enrollment, Martel, Duncan, and McMurtry colleges were constructed in the period between 2001 and 2009. Today, when undergraduates are asked where they are from, many respond with the name of their college, not their home state. This is a testament to the centrality of the residential college system to the social life on the Rice campus.