Jones College (Rice University)

Mary Gibbs Jones College is one of nine residential colleges at Rice University in Houston, Texas.

The college is named after Mary Gibbs Jones (April 29, 1872 - August 20, 1962), wife of prominent Houstonian Jesse Holman Jones.

History

Jones College was built as the first women's dormitory at Rice University. The building was made possible because of a $1 million donation from Houston philanthropist Jesse H. Jones. The college was named in honor of his wife, Mary Gibbs Jones. Jones College, which consisted of two buildings - Jones North and Jones South - opened to the first female residents in September 1957.

In the early days, Jones College's culture was quite conservative since the college was all-female. The women were always expected to maintain "ladylike" manners. At meals, each table had a hostess, and dinner was served family style. Strict rules were enforced by house mothers when men from the south colleges visited the female students. The students even had to abide by a strict curfew - 11 p.m. on weekdays and 2 a.m. on weekends.

In the 1970s, Jones began phasing out many of the strictest rules, but some women were still unsatisfied with the college. In 1972, some Jones women took the opportunity to transfer to Baker and Hanszen, the first two co-ed colleges. However, even before Jones went co-ed, there was a long tradition of co-habiting "uncles" - in fact in 1981 (the first year Jones went co-ed) 3rd South officially all-female was proclaimed the most co-ed floor with 24+ males. And the Jones lobbies offered inviting hospitality to "uncles" who were not overnight guests.

In the fall of 1980, Jones made a major change that would alter life at the college forever - it went co-ed! Male students from the south colleges were given the chance to apply for transfer to Jones. Since Lovett went co-ed the same year as Jones, many of the new Jonesians were former Loveteers. Jones women who disagreed with the decision to go co-ed were allowed to transfer to Brown College, which remained all-female until 1987.

In 2001, construction began on the new Jones Commons and Jones Central, which would connect North and South. The new Jones Commons opened for use in March 2002. Jones Central opened in August 2002. During the same time, Jones lost its parking lot to the newly constructed Martel College. The loss of the Jones lot was a significant blow to student representation at Rice. The university administration had slowly been reducing free parking to students since 1992 when the then vice-president of student affairs told students about a shuttle that would be "Free to students forever" in exchange for a nominal reduction in the availability of free parking adjacent to the residential colleges. Today, none of the parking is free to students and all students pay a shuttle fee regardless of whether they have a car or not.

Buildings

The college was built in 1957, consisting of two four-story buildings named "North" and "South." In 2002, a four-story building, "Central," was built in between North and South. The new building connects to both buildings at every level except the ground floor (a short walk separates South and Central). The wing was designed by noted post-modern architect Michael Graves [http://www.michaelgraves.com/project_type.asp?tID=45&id=54] .

Food is available from the North Servery, which also serves Brown and Martel. The Servery is accessible through Jones Commons, the dining and multi-use area on the ground floor of Jones Central.

The Isle, a volleyball pit and sun-deck named after Jones Master Walter Isle, was demolished along with the Jones soccer field and the Jones College parking lot when "Martel College" was built. However, as part of the 50th anniversary of Jones it was rebuilt in March 2007. This time as an outdoor sitting area built around a central firepit.

Jones College was an all-female dormitory until 1980. However, even before going co-ed Jones had a number of live-in "uncles." In 1981, the all-female 3rd South was voted "most-coed" with 22 males as either full-time or part-time "residents." Jones 3rd South (all men) and 4th South (all women) are the only two remaining single-sex floors at Rice. They became co-ed in Fall 2006.

Stoll's, named after long-time Jones associate Dr. Richard Stoll [http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~stoll/] , is the lounge in the basement of Jones South. The entrance to the steam tunnels is behind the green door in the Jones South laundry room.

Housing

Jones is a college with an indoor setup which has a kitchen and two lounges on every floor. Freshman rooms are fairly standard with all but 8 assigned to a double and the rest assigned to two double-bedroom suites. However, Jones is unique among the colleges due to the vast number of singles (36). This, in addition to 4 4-single suites and 2 6-single suites, means that most upperclassmen and essentially all seniors never have a roommate unless they want one. In the only other colleges this is true(Martel & Wiess) there exists an outdoor suite set-up.Fact|date=May 2007

Masters and RAs ["History of Jones College" (2001)]

The current Jones College masters are Rudy and Nancy Guerra. Rudy is a Professor of Statistics and has been at Rice since 2000. [http://jones.rice.edu/page/masters]

Previous Masters:
*Robin Forman and Ann Owens (2002-2005)
*Rick and Maribel Barerra (1997-2002)
*David and Caroline Minter (1992-1997)
*Walter Isle and Pamela Walker (1989-1992)
*Sam Davis and Priscilla Huston (1988-1989)
*Walter and Brenda Isle (1982-1987)
*Ron and Mona Stebbings (1977-1982)
*Franz and Francis Brotzen (1974-1975)
*Neil ("Sandy") and Helen Havens (1971-1977)
*Trenton and Audrey Wann (1965-1971)
*Calvin and Bernice Class (1957-1965)

The current Residential Associates are Linda Evans (North) and Marissa Howat (South). Evans is the Graduate Program Coordinator for the English Department at Rice and Howat is an Assistant Director in the Wellness Center.

The current College Coordinator is Lisa Bryan, former staff member from the Admissions Office and former Master of Hanszen College with Rice English professor Dennis Huston. [http://jones.rice.edu/page/college-coordinator]

Previous College Coordinators:
*Jackie White (1973-2005)
*Georgia Hines (1972)

Government [http://jones.rice.edu]

Jones' student government is set up as a "Cabinet." Jones does not observe strict separation of powers, as one body exercises executive and legislative authority. This body, Cabinet, consists of the Executive Officers, elected representatives from each floor, and two elected off-campus representatives. The Jones Student Association Senator, the Historian, and the Parliamentarian serve as non-voting ex-officio members of Cabinet. The Cabinet generally meets every month during the school year, with a private "Pre-Cabinet" meeting of voting members on Tuesday and a public meeting on Wednesday. By tradition, Cabinet meetings are preceded by a study break.

The current Executive Officers of Cabinet are:
*President, Daniel Hodges-Copple '09
*Executive Vice President, Patrick O'Connor '09
*Associates Vice President, Susan Wu '10
*Treasurer, Alex Mrozack '09
*Secretaries, Matt Amdahl '11 and Skyler Johnson '11
*Chief Justice, Stephen Goggin '09
*Historian, Ricky Mercado '10
*SA Senator, Leticia Camara '09
*Rice Program Council Representative, Eric Friedlander '11
*Parliamentarian, Christopher Warrington '09

Past Jones College Presidents: ["History of Jones College" (2001)]
*Marilyn Butler Hornung '74 (1973-74)

*Kathryn Vanderbeck Smyser '75 (1974-75)

*Anne Martin '76 (1975-76)

*Tarja Nyrhinen Hammon '77 (1976-77)

*Shelley Pennington '78 (1977-78)

*Vivki Whamond Bretthauer '79 (1978-79)

*Pamela Daniels (1979-80)

*Paula Desel '81 (1980-81)

*Diana Howard '82 (1981-82)

*Megan Clark Bruckner '83 (1982-83)

*Robert Stone '84 (1983-84)

*Gregory Roberts '85 (1984-85)

*Harrison Latimer '86 (1985-86)

*Scheleen Johnson-Walker '87 (1986-87)

*Stacy Gilstrap '88 (1987-88)

*Neal Ague '89 (1988-89)

*George Gonzalez '90 (1989-1990)

*Tony Carmona '91 (1990-1991)

*John Castle '92 (1991-92)

*Kenneth Herz '93 (1992-93) - Kenny is now a partner in the Finance Section at the Houston law firm of Haynes & Boone.

*Audrey Chun '94 (1993-94) - Audrey is now an Assistant Professor in Geriatrics and Adult Development at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine.

*Damian Abreo '95 (1994-95) - Dee is now an attorney practicing bankruptcy law in Houston with the Heston Law Firm.

*Rick Lopez '96 (1995-96) - Rick is now a Senior Associate with the San Antonio office of the education law firm of Feldman, Rogers, Morris & Grover.

*"Sammy" Kalyan Lakshmanan '98 (1996-98) - Sammy is now a Principal Consultant with Environmental Resources Management in London, England.
*Michael Sorensen '99 (1998-99) - Mike received his doctorate in biomedical engineering from Georgia Tech and is now President of Simatra Modeling Technologies in Asheville, North Carolina.

*Malcolm Wardlaw '00 (1999-2000) - Malcolm is now getting his Ph.D in Finance at the University of Texas.

*Avinash Pinto '01 (2000-01)

*Steve Wilbur '04 (2001-02) - Steve is now the Editor and Founder of One Publications focusing on public policy in Austin, Texas.

*Reed Macy '04 (2002-04) - Reed is now an analyst at the Houston office of Goldman Sachs.

*Ellen Montz '05 (2004-05)

*Breck Garrett '06 (2005-2006) - Breck is getting his MBA at University of Virginia.

*Patricia Mahoney '07 (2006-2007) - Patricia is working for Baker Hughes in Houston.

*Teddy Bucher '09 (2007-2008) - Teddy is taking a 5th year at Rice to finish his BS in Chemical Engineering.

The Judicial branch is led by the Chief Justice of the Jones College Court. Associate Justices are then appointed.

Activities and Traditions

Jones College spends more money on "study breaks" than any other college. This results in generous amounts of food before each cabinet meeting and a study break occurring every night of finals period. This money is also used to host a grandiose holiday party every December which attracts students, alumni and associates.

The generous Resident Associate budget also allows for them to subsidize tickets to the local Angelika theatre and the RAs host 3-4 Jones movie nights a semester.

Jones College tends to lead Rice in support of Rice athletics. The Student Owl club draws more of its members from Jones than any other college and the Student Owl Club interns have been from Jones a disproportionate number of times.Fact|date=May 2007

Hard Men and Fast Women (Jones Beer Bike)

Relative to other colleges at Rice, Jones puts significant effort into organizing and training its Beer Bike team, including bikers, chuggers and pit crew.

1972 was the year of the first Women's Beer Bike Race. Jones Fast Women lost Beer Bike to Brown that year, but it went on to win in 1975, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1990, and 2002.

The Jones Hard Men debuted in 1980 when the college went co-ed. They finished last that year, but progressively got better until they won their first Beer Bike victory in 1988, narrowly defeating Lovett by twenty-four hundredths of a second. The Jones Hard Men have maintained a tradition of excellence, winning in 1989, 1992, 1993, 1996, 2001, 2005, and 2006. [http://www.jencooper.com/jencooper/winners.htm]

Although college cheers are a sensitive topic at Rice, Jones has a long history of developing and using cheers explicitly for the purpose of rooting at Beer Bike. Such notable cheers include:

*"Don't cross the track" (Hands above head with forearms crossed in an 'X')
*"J"aberwocky, "O"ligarchy, "N"ecrophilia, "E"at, "S"hit" (Left hand raised in a "J" shape)
*"Jones wins again" (resolution of "don't cross the track", hands uncrossed and then double tomahawk chops - used irrespective of outcome)
*"We ride because we must, we must because we ride, now Jones let's ride" (fists above head making a bicycle pedaling motion)
*"JIBA" (Hand signal has varied from year to year)
*"Don't fuck with Jones" (often used after "Jones wins again" and using the double tomahawk)

References