McMurtry College

Established	March 27, 2007
Namesake	Burt and Deedee McMurtry
Masters
President
Location	Houston, Texas, USA
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McMurtry College, the tenth residential college at Rice University in Houston, Texas, is scheduled to open in the fall of 2009. The college is named for Burton and Deedee McMurtry, 1956 graduates of Rice University. Burt McMurtry was part of the student-faculty committee that evaluated the need for and eventually instituted the college system at Rice University, beginning in 1957 with the original five colleges, Baker College, Jones College, Will Rice College, Hanszen College, and Wiess College.

The architectural plans and models for McMurtry College, the adjacent Duncan College, and the new servery were unveiled in March 2007. Both colleges are constructed in a horseshoe shape around a quadrangle, and will rise to a height of five stories, dwarfing nearby Martel and Jones Colleges. The floor plans for the new colleges consist of double and single rooms that open directly out onto hallways, with common showers located around the stairwells at each "elbow" in the shape of the building. The first floor contains classrooms and common spaces; McMurtry College will feature a round-shaped Commons, while Duncan will have a rectangular Commons.

The new colleges will share the distinction of being larger than any of the nine current residential colleges at Rice University both in size of facilities and in size of student body. The decision to construct these 'sauropod colleges' has been met with some controversy on campus, controversy fueled by the fact that the construction of the new buildings will effectively delete half of the available faculty parking and weekend student parking on the northeast side of campus. Affectionately known as "McCollege" due to its large size, McMurtry will be situated immediately adjacent to Duncan Hall. Duncan College will be located just north, adjacent to Martel College. They will be connected by a new servery that will be located between the two, parallel to the Abercrombie Engineering Laboratory.

First Jacks

McMurtry has the distinction of having been 'jacked' before it was even built. During 'Willy Week', the week before the annual 'Beer Bike' race, Rice's residential colleges traditionally play pranks on each other. Hanszen College holds the honor of being the first to 'jack' McMurtry. On the night of March 27, 2007, Hanszenites raised a McDonald's sign just south of Virgin's Walk with the slogan "McMurtry's: Supersizing Rice." Wiess College came second by laying down a large slab of concrete nearby the following night as the cornerstone of the new building, officially welcoming McMurtry as the ninth member of the residential college system, playing off a campus-wide joke that "Martel is not a college". Continuing the welcoming pranks, Jones College constructed McMurtry's "commons" during the early morning hours of March 30, 2007, by stealing tables and chairs from the commons of Brown College. Students were invited to eat lunch in McMurtry's new commons, and the many attendees filled most of the spaces available.

External links

* [http://www.media.rice.edu/media/NewsBot.asp?MODE=VIEW&ID=8635&SnID=63388356 Press release announcing McMurtry College]