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8/16/2009

Two of a kind
O-Week brings life to new North colleges

BY MIKE WILLIAMS
Rice News staff

You've got to get up pretty early in the morning to beat Jarrod and Tyler Boyd.

	TOMMY LAVERGNE
	Tyler, left, and Jarrod Boyd of Burleson, Texas, set Jarrod's TV down in his new Duncan College digs. Tyler, his twin, is entering Rice at Lovett College.

The twins, both new Rice students, were first in line Sunday to move Jarrod into Duncan College as the new residential facility opened to this year's class of freshmen at the start of a busy O-week.

Amid the whooping and shouting, Jarrod and his family rolled up to Duncan at 9 a.m. sharp, where dozens of O-week volunteers waited to unpack and transport his belongings. Tyler, in the family's second car, had to wait a bit longer to get settled. He's taken up residence at Lovett College, where move-in started half an hour later.

It seemed fitting that a twin should be first into one of Rice's new twin jewels. Construction and landscaping crews have been racing to finish Duncan and McMurtry colleges in time for opening day, and while there's still some final work to be done, both were ready to welcome students this weekend.

"It kind of makes it more hectic," said Jarrod of his family's double duty. "But I'm pretty excited to move in and meet my new roommate."

O-Week
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Do you want to become an Owl? Learn about Rice's admission process, residential college system and more Getting Jarrod situated first just seemed appropriate, said his mom, Suzanne Boyd. "Jarrod was accepted first," she said. "We were really keeping our fingers crossed that Tyler would get in too, and he did.

"I don't mind bragging on them," she said with a smile, adding that her boys were valedictorian and salutatorian at their high school in Burleson, Texas.

The twins hadn't planned to stick together, but the call of Rice was too hard to resist. "This wasn't the goal," she said. "Tyler looked at the University of Denver. He auditioned at their school of music there, and made it -- but he's always had his eye on Rice. So we're thrilled to have them both here."

The excitement of new beginnings burst from nine of Rice's 11 colleges Sunday morning. There'll be no freshmen at the Will Rice or Baker college buildings this year, as both are undergoing renovations; Baker students will live in Duncan for a while (they're calling themselves Ba-Duncs), while the adjacent McMurtry, Rice's other new residential college, will host a contingent from Will Rice.

TOMMY LAVERGNE
Martel College students Emily Larimer and Fahad Punjwani took time for a high-five while directing traffic at Entrance 23, near Duncan and Martel colleges, on Sunday morning.

But elsewhere on the north and south sides of campus, students moved 904 new Owls from curb to crib with remarkable efficiency. Volunteers studied freshman profiles for months before the big day so that each newcomer was greeted by name the minute they got to campus, and their belongings were in their rooms within minutes of arrival.

"Every year I come out to the screaming and yelling, and it's louder than I remember it," said Dean of Undergraduates Robin Forman, visiting the gang of students cheering new residents of McMurtry College just after 8 a.m.

University officials were ever-present and available to help excited students and nervous parents get through stage one of O-week. Rice President David Leebron and his wife, University Representative Y. Ping Sun, made the rounds at all the colleges to greet new members of the community and welcome them to campus.

At every residential college they belong to, members of the Rice football team -- even the freshman Owls who've been here for weeks -- got an extra workout by helping lift and load. "That's the way it works at Rice," said head coach David Bailiff, also making the rounds. "We all have to be involved with each other.

"We're not outworking anybody, we're just here to be a part of it," he said. "I don't want them to be just athletes -- they need to help in the community, help the university. They need to be involved in their residential colleges and get involved in campus life."

The Owls' first game isn't for another couple of weeks, but at least on this opening day, everybody wins.

See more O-week photos here.