Rice dedicates McMurtry, its 10th residential college

BY JENNIFER EVANS
Rice News staff

As undergraduates in 1955, Deedee and Burt McMurtry were active members of the Rice community. She was vice president of the Student Association; he was SA president and a student representative on a committee that planned the original mission and basic organizational design of one of the most distinctive aspects of undergraduate life at Rice — the residential college system. Little could they have imagined that 55 years later they would join university officials, delegations from other colleges and well-wishers from across campus to officially dedicate a residential college named in their honor.

“McMurtry College is in many ways a reflection of an almost lifelong abiding commitment to Rice University, a commitment to the spirit of the university, to the success of the university,” President David Leebron said at the Oct. 29 dedication.

Named for Burt and Deedee McMurtry, both from the Class of 1956, McMurtry College is the 10th college in Rice’s residential system.

“A university is a little bit like a city and our colleges are like the neighborhoods in our cities,” Leebron said. “They are unique and have a personality. A new college both embraces and challenges our college system. It asks anew the questions and ambitions that marked the founding of the system more than 50 years ago.”

More than just residential halls, the colleges are students’ home away from home. They are where students dine, study, socialize and develop lifelong friendships. Assignment to the colleges is random, so they are enriched by the diversity of their students’ backgrounds, academic pursuits and experiences, extracurricular interests and talents.

The inception for McMurtry, which officially opened in fall 2009, along with Rice’s 11th residential college, Anne and Charles Duncan College, came as part of the Vision for the Second Century (V2C), a strategic plan for the university’s future growth.

A major objective of the V2C was the expansion of the undergraduate body by 30 percent, said Rice Board of Trustees Chair Jim Crownover ’65: “It would not have been possible without the generous donations of Burt and Deedee and the Duncans as well.”

Each college has a faculty master, who lives with his or her family in an adjacent house and helps cultivate a variety of cultural and intellectual activities for its residents. McMurtry masters Karim Al-Zand ’93 and Dereth Phillips voice the same appreciation of the McMurtrys’ contribution to Rice.

“They have enabled something truly remarkable here at McMurtry College, a place which will serve as a comforting home and inspirational heart to generations of Rice students to come,” Al-Zand said. The masters also thanked the many people who provided guidance during the college’s first year, including Mike Wolf and Paula Krisko, masters of Will Rice College, who served as foster parents to the fledgling Murts, as the student residents call themselves. They also thanked the students of Will Rice College, many of whom were housed at McMurtry during that first year while their own building underwent renovations. The Will Rice students integrated McMurtry into the college atmosphere and helped the new college find its identity, they said.

Burt McMurtry expressed his appreciation for the leadership and guidance offered by students of Will Rice and repeated a charge he issued to the first McMurtry residents when they moved in last year: “Love and support your college, but be known as the most collaborative and most inclusive college that Rice has ever seen; revel in the fact that you’re in an environment where almost everyone expects, encourages and respects excellence; enjoy yourself, and be thankful.”

Deedee McMurtry stressed that students should have fun. “You’ll remember these as some of the most carefree days of your life,” she said. ”And please become faithful, supportive alumni — you’ll enjoy it. This is such a thrill for us; you just can’t imagine.”

McMurtry College is a five-story, 324-bed facility and is certified LEED Gold (see sidebar).