New Wiess, Same Old Wiessmen

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

Dedicated in a ceremony held October 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 retains 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’s identity is clearly more than just physical spaces,” adding that regardless of which building houses the college, Wiess is still Wiess. “Social scientists will tell you that 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 professor of chemistry, and his wife, Paula, were Wiess College masters. They handed their duties off to Donato and her husband, Daniel Kalb, in 2001, but the Hutchinsons remained interested in being personally involved with students, and this spring they accepted the position of masters at Brown College.

At the Wiess dedication ceremony, Hutchinson 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 the 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 Company who, at his death in 1948, was vice chairman of the Rice Board of Trustees.

—Jennifer Evans