Why is Martel not a college?

Duncaroo
Fri, 06 Apr 2012 03:52:18 +0000

haha Well, actually, Martel was founded with every intention of being a college like the eight others before it. Rice did not receive a $15 million donation from Marian and Speros Martel in order to build a mere “dormitory” on the north side of campus. The Martels made that donation in 1998 as part of the “Rice: The Next Century” initiative, which included plans for a new residential college.

Martel’s current predicament was the product of the administration’s (in hindsight) poor handling of transfer students from other colleges. When Martel opened in 2003, its rooms were significantly nicer than any other place on campus. Unlike Duncan and McMurtry, though, Martel did not have the fortune of being closely shepherded into the college system by an older sister college. Also unlike Duncan and McMurtry, the administration chose not to recruit upperclassmen from other residential colleges. Instead, over 60 freshmen transfers were chosen from the older eight.

The students who were not invited to transfer labeled the departing students as traitors, and they unanimously decided to deny Martel recognition as a college - essentially rejecting the traitors who’d rejected them. Since it was a very nice facility full of “social rejects,” Martel was derisively labeled a dormitory or an apartment complex, but never a college. Enjoying Martel’s exclusion, the uninvited students propagated this view of Martel to subsequent classes of Rice students. It stuck and has been going on ever since.

The university learned from its experience with Martel, and it did a much better job of integrating Duncan and McMurtry recently. I think Martel will always suffer this exclusion, unfortunately.

Of course, these things are all for fun and games! With the several myths that circulate about Martel’s history, there may be a few students who really think Martel’s not a legit college. For the most part, though, I’m pretty sure many non-Martelians like myself recognize Martel as a college - even if we don’t often say it aloud. haha Also, recognition as a college doesn’t come from students anyway; it comes from the University.

You can see what the University thinks here: [Colleges : Rice University](http://www.students.rice.edu/students/Colleges.asp)

IssueSettled ;-)