It was the year Edgar Odell Lovett died and the year ground was broken on the "Rice Memorial Student Center" across the street from the almost-completed biology building. A survey found that 40 percent of students felt that the Rice Institute should never be racially integrated. A Student Council president was removed from office for being caught drinking beer on campus; he wrote a letter to the Thresher to apologize. Meanwhile, the brand-new Rally Club held a dance.

The physical plant for the new colleges was simple: The existing male dormitories (now Wiess College as well as the old parts of Hanszen College, Will Rice College and Baker College) were enlarged with new wings and all but Baker provided with new commons. Across campus, Jones College, the first women's dormitory on campus, was completed.

Socially, though, the transition was difficult. While the Thresher seemed to welcome the changes ("Almost everyone was pleased with his College assignment and his College mates," it said cheerily a week later), there was more than a tinge of uncertainty. Students were concerned about just what colleges would mean and about staying in contact with old friends. The Thresher noted a general resistance to change while worrying itself that the "chaos system" was not getting enough guidance from masters and administrators.

Students were allowed to state college preferences (or a group of four they wanted to stay with), but decisions were made by the masters, trying to spread majors and geographical origins among the colleges. Students moved out of their own rooms and into the new colleges during the spring semester. WRC moved in on March 16, Hanszen on March 30. Wiess, then Baker, followed.

The new college councils were elected in March. The first college party, a "beer bust" followed by a formal dance, took place at WRC on March 30, and all four male colleges had their first college nights. Beer-Bike took place for the first time on April 27 on the Inner Loop. First prize: a keg of beer to be consumed by the winning college in Hermann Park. Baker won; Hanzsen was disqualified for not completing the course.

A meal plan cost $500 a year for 19 meals a week. Purchased individually, lunch and breakfast cost 75 cents and dinner $1.50. Dress code for most meals was slacks and sport shirts; coats and ties were required on Sunday and at College Night. Hanszen ordered charcoal blazers with the college emblem for its members.

The new Inter-College Council dealt with issues like electricity consumption (no refrigerators or air conditioners and no continuous use of radios or fans), women visiting the men's colleges (a more lax policy of visits on Saturday and Sunday only, during hours approved by the college), and food storage in rooms (only in vermin-proof containers).

Controversy arose when the Campanile decided to print individual photos by college rather than year. The uproar that resulted led to Student Council intervention. The vandalism of the Hanszen Christmas tree, presumably by students from another college, sparked more letters.

The following April, the Thresher published a one-year review of the college system. It noted a number of successes: better housing, increased fellowship, improved social life (by putting women on campus), more contact with faculty members and new opportunities for student leadership. Overall, it concluded, "the college system has been successful."

But the same article also saw problems: the inclusion (or lack thereof) of "townies" (off-campus students) in college activities, the ambiguity of the master's role and an "unhealthy rivalry" among the colleges.

Forty years later, many of those issues are still with us. So we're asking the questions again: What's good about the college system? What should be changed? Next week, we ask students, administrators and faculty. If you want your voice heard, write us a letter. We won't run more than three paragraphs of it, so keep it brief and to the point, and send it to us at thresher@rice.edu or by campus mail to the Thresher

The Rice campus of 1953 would be changed drastically by the end of the decade with the addition of five new colleges, the Rice Memorial Center and the new science buildings past Fondren Library.

ALL PHOTOS FROM WOODSON RESEARCH CENTER

This item appeared in the Features section of the February 21, 1997 issue.

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