Duncan College establishes 'fresh' identity

By Kevin Lin     2/11/10 6:00pm

Serving as Rice's newest residential college, Duncan College has come into its own following its first semester on campus. Named after Rice alumnus Charles ('47) and Anne Duncan, the 11th college has both turned its green reputation into a mecca of environmental friendliness and brought an entirely new meaning to the word 'BaDunc'.Made up of 79 freshmen, the Duncan class is sharing its rooms with its sister college, Baker College. However, this integration goes beyond just living spaces, as the two colleges eat meals together, play intramural sports together and even vote together. Instead of differentiating Baker students from Duncan students, the combined student body is referred to as "BaDunc."

"It speaks to our joint relationship together as sister colleges," Baker College President Kathy Kellert said. "We work together on a lot of things. For example, we don't cheer, 'Baker? Hell yeah!' anymore. We cheer, 'BaDunc!'"

The BaDunc moniker has taken on a life of its own almost as much as the new college itself. For instance, the powderpuff team this year was a joint effort from both colleges. Instead of Baker jerseys, players were given BaDunc tank tops to acknowledge the relationship between the two colleges.

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All Baker committees are open to Duncan freshmen and have at least one Duncan freshman on them. Baker also added two new voting spots for the Duncan freshmen: the Duncan freshman representative and the Duncan liaison to the ambassadors.

These ambassadors serve as members of other colleges who live at Duncan and are responsible for managing respective college weeks where Duncan freshmen visit other colleges to learn about their traditions. During Lovett College week, for instance, Duncan freshmen went to the Lovett Board Game Night on Monday, the Lovett Central Committee meeting on Wednesday and ate in Lovett's servery throughout the week.

Associate Dean of Undergraduates Matthew Taylor said there are 15 ambassadors at Duncan, with three officially transferring to Duncan next year.

The new Duncan masters will be former Head Resident Fellows Luis Duno-Gottberg and his wife Marnie Hylton. Duno-Gottberg teaches film and Carribean studies, and he and Hylton will soon become the first master of Duncan College via a petition signed by nearly all the Duncan freshmen.

Duno-Gottberg said he was impressed by the Duncan freshmen and stressed the incredible sense of community that they share with one another.

"[Duncan had] an amazing personality before [students] arrived here," Duno-Gottberg said. "They were using social media to communicate with each other. Duncan existed before the first freshmen arrived. It's kind of a metaphysical thing."

It is that connection that has sped up the process of socialization within the Duncan freshmen. Kellert said the original plan was for Duncan freshmen to have the same experiences as Baker freshmen in order to get them acclimated to the college system.

However, the freshmen took it into their own hands, starting a weekly meeting called Forum and proposing ideas in committees ranging from lawn furniture to the upcoming Duncan/Baker party, which will take place tonight. While the party, "Sensation: White Out," is officially a Duncan party in name, it is being thrown by Baker students because no one in Duncan is over 21 and therefore cannot legally host a public party.

"I like to think of them as a fresh rhythm," Kellert said. "They like music, have fresh ideas and like to put themselves out there."

Forum of the future

Duncan freshman Estevan Delgado said Duncan's leadership revolves around its committees. Committees were brainstormed in Forum last semester with joint input from all the Duncan students and Duno-Gottberg. Committee applications were sent to Duno-Gottberg to ensure an equal representation among freshmen and transfers, but committee heads were chosen separately within each committee.

Committees are the unofficial sources of power at Duncan, Duncan freshman Katherine Hsu said, and are led by at least one Duncan freshman and one transfer student.

A Duncan student or potential Duncaroo transfer can be in multiple committees at any one time. For instance, Hsu is a member of the Spirit and Electoral Committees and head of the Socials Committee alongside Jones College sophomore Jonathan Stewart and Baker sophomore Ruben Sandoval, both of whom are transferring to Duncan next semester.

Hsu's committee is tasked with party-related happenings within the college, which, she admits, is not necessarily the easiest task.

"Duncan is perceived as boring and lame," Hsu said. "We want to have fun at our college. We don't always want to leave to have fun."

The framework of a more official government is currently being formed by the Electoral Committee, which is headed by Duncan freshman Kelvin Pho and includes six transfers and six freshmen.

The Electoral Committee is currently working on making a temporary government to replace the loose system of committees, but will hold off on writing a permanent constitution until next year, when all the transfers begin to live in Duncan, Pho said. Sitting at the top will be the president who shall, among other things, establish an agenda for Forum and represent Duncan to Rice and the Student Association.

Below the president will be three vice presidents: the internal VP, who will be responsible for internal affairs like College Night and socials; the external VP, who will focus on events taking place around Rice; and the legislative VP, who will be a key figure in forming the constitutional council that will write a permanent constitution next fall, Pho said.

The work done by the Electoral Committee is currently going around Forum for a vote and elections are expected to be held in mid-February after the Baker elections, Pho said.

New Duncaroos

Duncan has 96 confirmed transfers. The target goal is 140. The two biggest groups in terms of numbers are 20 transfers from Sid Richardson College and 17 from Jones.

The Transfer Welcome Committee is responsible for greeting the transfers and organizing events like D-Day and a barbecue, both of which were aimed at wooing transfers, Delgado said. Duncan also hosted a semi-formal black-tie affair last week to draw in more transfers.

Delgado described the reception of the transfers to be very positive and the transfers themselves to be highly enthusiastic.

"I haven't met a transfer yet that doesn't want to be involved," Delgado said.

Beer Bike bumps

The Spirit Committee brainstormed possible colors and presented candidates at Forum where they were given both input and permission to decide on a final college color, Delgado said. Duncan's official colors will be a combination of green, white and gold.

The colors will be in full view for next month's Beer Bike, which will also provide one of the biggest questions for the new college.

As the track is not large enough to support 11 teams at a time, the Beer Bike Committee elected to host an exhibition race for Duncan and McMurtry College in between the men's and women's races this year.

Pho is the unofficial captain of the Duncan Beer Bike team. The team will be half the size of the teams at the other nine colleges because of the smaller pool of people from which the college can recruit onto the team. The men's team will have five male bikers and chuggers and the women's team will have five female bikers and chuggers. Thus far, Pho said coordinating the event has been far more difficult than he originally believed.

"Coordinating Beer Bike is like shooting fish in a barrel - it looks easy, but have you ever actually shot fish in a barrel?" Pho asked.

Duncan does not have a big budget, so it will only be able to buy a few bikes, sharing most with Baker, Pho said.

Of course, Beer Bike is not the only college-wide event taking place within the upcoming months. While Duncan is still looking for resident associates and associates, it has recently finalized its 2010 Orientation Week coordinators: Duncan freshman Karen Jong, Lovett sophomore Michaela Reynolds and Hanszen College junior Kate Coley.

Creating a culture

Many events have already taken place over Duncan's short life, but Delgado cautioned that it is hard to say what will make it as a tradition given the brevity of Duncan's existence as a college.

"Traditions are things that happen over time," Delgado said. "As the years go on we'll find things we'll like and some things that we don't. We don't want everything to be figured out at once."

Suggested events include an annual camping trip before Thanksgiving, dance parties and barbecues. Duncan has already had two major barbecues, one of which was hosted in honor of transfers, and both have involved grilling gourmet sausage featuring exotic flavors like mango.

"Baker has this saying that Baker likes meat," Pho said. "I guess Duncan loves sausage. Or I guess Duncan loves exotic food."

The similarities between the two colleges are not complete, though.

"[Duncan freshmen] act different," Baker sophomore Austin Williams said. "They grind to Black Eyed Peas."

Baker sophomore Taylor Britt agrees, noting the distinct taste in music.

"[Duncan freshmen] are goons that like techno," Britt said.

Though the college's true identity will not form until all of the transfers arrive next year, Duno-Gottberg feels that Duncan has a lot of potential and looks forward to what happens next, a sentiment that Hsu agreed with.

"We have no restrictions," she said. "We don't know where we're going. We're just going to take it as it goes.

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