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The Rice Thresher
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by Leslie Liu Thresher editorial staff The 16 students charged with the task of creating a brand-new college identity met for the first time yesterday as members of the Martel College Founding Committee. The committee, composed of two students from each existing college and Martel Masters Arthur and Joan Few, met with Martel Foundation trustees at Cohen House. Members of the committee spoke Wednesday about making history, starting from scratch and building a community, all for a college that won't have a building to call home until January 2002. "I think it's one of the biggest opportunities any student has to influence the campus," said committee member Emily Venson, a Brown College sophomore. "It's a really neat opportunity for our side of campus to change in a really positive way." Jones College sophomore Cynthia Lu, also on the committee, said it was exciting to know that the committee is starting out with "a clean slate." "All the colleges are pretty much set, but Martel, we can help make its personality," Lu said. Although Martel will not have a home for its residents for more than a year, Lu said it will not affect the community. "A college is not necessarily the building, it's just the people," Lu said. Venson said the most important role of the founding committee is to build the Martel community by doing everything other colleges might do. "We need a powderpuff team, we need to be a competitor in IM sports and we need to have a fund for Pub nights and College Nights and Associates' Nights," Venson said. "We need to be a social hub for the students of Martel just like all the other colleges are for their students." Baker College senior David Cerutti said that creating a college identity requires a balance of charisma, zeal, organization, communication and legislation. "I've put together pictures in the back of my mind about how a college could be structured," Cerutti said. "This ... is a great opportunity to turn those pictures into reality." Arthur and Joan Few, who are also interim Baker College masters for the rest of this semester, said all applicants for the committee talked about starting Martel traditions. Arthur Few said many applicants talked about Martel's ties to other colleges. "They think that's very important and they would like to see [Martel as] the college that doesn't become introverted or closed-off," he said. "I like the idea of having cross-campus connections." The founding committee will decide how to select other members of Martel, will write the constitution, and will brainstorm ideas for the creation of a college identity this semester. Committee member Gavin Parks, a Hanszen College junior, said one of the main reasons he decided to apply for the committee was because he knew students would be able to make many of the decisions. "From what I know, this is the first time students have been included in the process, so I think that's going to bring a whole new voice to it," Parks said. "We can come in with all our previous experiences ... to figure out the best solution to some problems we're going to, of course, have to deal with." Arthur Few said although he couldn't say for certain until the founding committee meets, the tentative goal is to have 150-160 Martel members by the end of this semester. The Fews said another of the founding committee's jobs will be to select several associates to serve on the committee. Later, the college's associates will be selected from associates currently at the other colleges. Current Martel community associates include the trustees of the Martel Foundation and one interim associate. An interim associate is a new faculty member assigned to a college for a year to learn about the college system. The Committee of Masters approved the members of the Founding Committee Tuesday, and students were notified of their selection Tuesday evening. The Fews formally announced the list of committee members to the public Wednesday. "We're very pleased with the quality of applications," Arthur Few said. "We wanted these 16 people to represent as much as possible everyone on campus." Joan Few said the students selected are like ambassadors from their colleges. "For them to want to do this, they've got to be the type of person that would really want to work hard and be enthusiastic and have vision and see what can be done - innovative ideas about doing new things at new colleges," she said. The Fews will move in to Martel House when it is completed next summer, and the scheduled move-in date for students is January 2002.
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