Ottoline

Getting excited -- and it just occurred to me that being part of the
Class of 2012 is something to hoot about!

Recently heard something about the Pavilion being ready?
Some of the colleges being renovated --
Ben and Jerry's is open ...

Any further details would be appreciated!

Clendenenator

You'll be a senior for Rice's centennial, but you'll only be the 98th or 99th graduating class. Sorry.

Ottoline

Really? I wonder why not -- sounds like an interesting piece
of Rice history ...a mere 99th rather than a centennial!

Also curious about the new pavillion, colleges being renovated ...
I'm just itchy to read about what's going on. Graduation
is on Saturday ...

- an excited pre-frosh Owl mom, who can't help feeling curious

anxiousmom

DD graduating on Sunday!! Yeah! Ottoline: I like to read the construction update information on the rice website, and even check out the webcams. The new pavillion is very nice (but I think it needs some student artwork and some wall color). The landscaping is very nice near the pavillion, and the fountains are just lovely.

Singersmom07

The students are calling the new pavilion a peoplequarium or humanquarium. If you look at all the glass, you can see everyone walking around, sitting, talking etc. I understand there is even a facebook group referencing the peoplequarium.

Tikimoof

I'm not too fond of the pavilion, from what little I've seen. It got rid of a lot of the lovely lawns on Rice, and the new sidewalks that they built don't even line up with the rest of the campus.


But I'm really happy to be part of the centennial - even if we aren't the 100th class!

blackeyedsusan

And I just drove by the area that used to be a soccer field where they have started construction for the new student center.

Clendenenator

Checked and this is the 95th commencement, so the class of 2012 will be the 99th. I guess none of the students who matriculated in 1912 graduating in one year. Slackers.

NYSkins1

I actually really like the pavilion. It is a great space to go and sit with a cup of coffee (from the Rice Coffeehouse, not Dirk's, of course) and read a book and enjoy the natural light. The landscaping around it is gorgeous. I also really like the idea of reinvigorating the central quad as a hotbed of campus activity. Tikimoof complains about getting rid of the lovely lawns, but the lawns that it took over were generally muddy and unusable. There is still a very large green space immediately behind the pavilion, and it's in much better shape than it was before. The paths are not the same as the rest of campus; they're kind of an updated version. They fit in with the campus aesthetic, but they look cleaner and more modern.

A lot of people say that everyone will think the pavilion is ugly 10 years from now, but I don't think it's fair to judge a building from what it will be in a decade. Modern architecture succeeds when it can be seen as a relic of its era; it fails when it just looks out-of-place. Hopefully the pavilion will be the former.

Why are Rice students so given to loud complaining? People complain about the current student rec center, and how we need a new one, but then they complain when the trustees are nice enough to give us a brand-new, state-of-the-art, shiny rec center with an outdoor olympic-sized swimming pool and all sorts of other great amenities. They complain that we don't have many great meeting spaces outside of the colleges, and they complain when we get a pavilion specifically designed for that purpose in the dead center of campus.

Ottoline

NYSkins1,

Somebody should write a thesis about Springtime and all the signs of minor discontentment ... some people sneeze and others complain.

Come August, with all those freshly oriented owls discovering all the wonderful things that upperclassmen take for granted ... I suspect complaining will drop off. Lots of oohing and ahhing, instead.

Any chance the Peoplequarium will make national news?

r-crispie

95th commencement? That's interesting. Rice opened in the fall of 1912, with the first commencement in 1916. Traditionally Rice has one commencement only, in the spring. I am left wondering if the World War II V-program or some other accelerated program slipped in the extras, see Information Files — Fondren Library

Class/Commencement, February 1944
Class/Commencement, October 1944
Class/Commencement, 1945
Class/Commencement, 1946 Mar. 4 & June 28.

Perhaps someone at Rice could help us out.
Rice Historical Society - Calendar

wrprice

Sounds like you answered your own question. With one commencement per year, and 1916 being the first, the 100th commencement would be in the Spring of 2015. Spring 2016 would be the first commencement of the *second* set of 100. 2008 is seven years before 2015, so you would expect this to be the 93rd, but you found the "extra" ceremonies -- one each in 1944 and 1946 -- making this the 95th.

deb08

From tons and tons of digging around in old Threshers on microfilm last semester for an independent study project, I can say that the academic calendar did get screwed up during WWII-- students had gotten drafted/joined the armed forces and in at least one year, the university had to cancel final exams to conserve paper for the war effort. I imagine this probably had something to do with messing up commencements.