Academic quad to reopen Sept. 12 with fanfare, celebrations
The academic quad is set to reopen Sept. 12. According to Kelly Fox, the executive vice president for operations, finance and support, the opening will be commemorated with a campus-wide event.
Rice’s academic quad was initially projected to be completed by late April 2024. As of April 2, construction was still on schedule, according to Fox. Over the summer, minor delays occurred due to above-average rainfall and unprecedented weather events such as Hurricane Beryl. No further delays are expected, according to Fox.
“We are excited to hold a grand opening celebration on Sept. 12 at 3 p.m., and the entire campus is welcome,” Fox wrote in an email to the Thresher. “There will be a special event just for students that evening from 7 - 9 p.m. complete with a DJ and light bites to celebrate the new, beautiful space for outdoor convening at Rice.”
“It was no problem for our team to adjust the timeline,” Fox wrote. “The team has been working hard, and we are in the final stages of the project. There is no major work left to be done.”
The Board of Trustees first announced the redesign project in January 2022. The redesign was informed by input from the Task Force on Slavery, Segregation and Racial Injustice, the Rice community and a resolution passed by the Student Association. The plan involved relocating the Founder’s Memorial, creating new paths and adding other redesign elements such as benches. According to The Board of Trustees, the final redesign aimed “to be more welcoming, to be an active heart of the university and more completely represent our history, our achievements and our values.”
The Sallyport entrance was temporarily reopened for commencement in May 2024, and was again temporarily reopened for Fall 2024 matriculation. New students walked through the arch before taking a hard right and looping around back to Founder’s Court, where they waited up to an hour for the fireworks to go off for the entire matriculating class at once.
Duncan College sophomore Summer Orr said the matriculation process changed only slightly, despite the quad’s construction.
“The main thing is that it changed where fireworks were happening,” Orr said. “So instead of … walk[ing] through the Sallyport and you see everyone that you know and then immediately there’s fireworks and it’s beautiful and all that kind of stuff, the way [the new students] had to do it was after you walked through the Sallyport, you then had to go and stand in the assigned portion of Founder’s Court and wait for fireworks, which kind of takes away a bit of the magic of it when you’re having to wait your turn.”
Orr said that matriculation retained a lot of its magic in large part to Orientation Week coordinators working hard to make sure things ran smoothly.
“The [Orientation] Week coords were just such amazing people, and they worked so hard, even when they got last-minute information about matriculation,” Orr said. “That’s part of being behind the scenes, but they really did so much for us and made it run so smoothly.”
Many freshmen had no complaints — Saami Baig, a Duncan College freshman, said that he enjoyed matriculation and had a good experience overall.
“It was really cool, the fireworks were really interesting; it was really good fun watching that with my O-Week family and then being able to talk with Rice students while we were talking to Tudor and then back to the Sallyport,” Baig said. “They also walked us through the Sallyport and everyone was there holding signs. It was really cute.”
Alexander Hernandez-Garcia, a Baker College freshman, said that he appreciated being able to see each residential college’s distinctive set of fireworks despite the wait.
“We all came together to honor each other’s cultures, each other’s legacies on campus,” Hernandez-Garcia said. “Even though they make us wait, it kind of forces us to interact with one another.”
Matriculation is a special part of O-Week, which Fox said is something that the administration at Rice also recognizes.
“We value our special traditions at Rice, and so that was something we definitely needed to make happen,” Fox wrote.
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