Wiess College celebrates its new building at Oct. 5 dedication ceremony

Wiess College celebrates its new building at Oct. 5 dedication
ceremony
…………………………………………………………………

BY JENNIFER EVANS
Rice News Staff

More than 50
years after students moved into Old Wiess College, Wiessmen
have a new home for the War Pig, tabletop theater and pumpkin
caroling.

Dedicated in
a ceremony held Oct. 5, the new Wiess College is a state-of-the-art,
163,500-square-foot building that can house 228 students,
two resident associates and one visiting faculty member.
The new facility features classrooms and seminar rooms,
an exercise room, kitchenettes with dishwashers, lounges
and more. Most important to Wiessmen, however, is that the
new building includes many of the elements that made Old
Wiess so distinct: motel-style suites, external balconies
and an enclosed courtyard or “Acabowl.”

“These architectural
elements are a permanent staple of Wiess life and will continue
to define the social landscape of Wiess for years to come,”
said the college’s president, Robert Morgan.

Wiess master
Katharine Donato, associate professor of sociology, observed,
however, that “Wiess’ identity is clearly more
than just physical spaces,” adding that regardless
of which building houses the college, “Wiess is Wiess.”

“As social
scientists will tell you, cultural traditions don’t
disappear in a matter of months,” Donato said. “As
an institution, Wiess College will remain what it has always
been: Wise, different and strong.”

Located south
of Old Wiess and west of Hanszen College, the new building
marks an enhancement in the residential college system not
only because of its many amenities, but also because its
completion marks the attainment of one of the goals of the
“Rice: the Next Century Campaign”: housing no
fewer than four-fifths of the undergraduate students in
on-campus housing.

“The demand
for on-campus housing has exceeded supply for several years,”
Rice President Malcolm Gillis noted at the dedication ceremony.
“This building — along with Martel College and
the expansion of Jones and Brown Colleges — allows
us to house 80 percent of our undergraduates. Before these
improvements, we could house only 67 percent.”

Ground for the
new Wiess building was broken at a ceremony held exactly
three years earlier when John Hutchinson, assistant vice
president for student affairs, and his wife, Paula, were
the college masters. They handed their duties off to Donato
and her husband, Daniel Kalb, in 2001, but spoke at the
dedication ceremony on behalf of Wiess alumni.

Hutchinson, also
a professor of chemistry, said, “We shared in the dream
that as Wiess evolved into the future we would be able to
preserve those things about Wiess that were always so important
to us: a united college, undivided into cliques or factions,
where all parts of the community live as one unit. A very
inclusive college where students are drawn out of their
rooms and into the rich activities of the community. A very
supportive college where the new students become comfortable
and at home due to the mentoring of the juniors and seniors
who live amongst them. A progressive college where students
can test the edges and challenge themselves but where the
backing of the college government is self-correcting. And
a very compassionate college where the students care for
each other, watch out for each other and stay close to one
another. We are here today to celebrate that that dream
we shared has in fact come true today. We are now surrounded
by a new Wiess College building which will indeed preserve
this wonderful sense of community that is in fact the essence
of Wiess College.”

Built in 1949,
Old Wiess was one of the original five dormitories that
made up the college system created in 1957. It was originally
called North Hall until being renamed Wiess Hall in 1950
in honor of Harry Carothers Wiess, the founder of Humble
Oil Co. who, at his death in 1948, was vice chairman of
the Rice Board of Trustees.

The demolition
of the old Wiess building currently is under way, with utility
shutdowns and asbestos abatement ongoing. The structure
will be demolished in December during the winter break.