Residential Colleges of Rice University - Martel College

Marian and Speros P. Martel College is the ninth-founded residential college. It was established with a $15 million donation from the eponymous Marian and Speros Martel Foundation, a longtime benefactor of Rice University. The college's building was designed by noted architect Michael Graves and housed its first students during the 2002-2003 school year. Martel is one of eleven residential colleges at Rice University; it is located adjacent to Jones and Duncan colleges on the north side of campus, sharing the North Servery with the former. The college prides itself on its adopted Greek heritage, a tribute to its benefactors' country of origin. Aspects of Greek culture are incorporated into a number of college events, and an interior staircase of the college features a four-story map of Athens painted by Joshua Krezinski (class of 2007). The second and fourth quadrants of Martel's crest represent the cross and stripes of the Greek flag, while the other two are reserved for the Athenan owl, a symbol of wisdom taken from the University's academic seal, and the "MC" glyph representing the college's name. The crest was designed by the building's architect. The Martel College colors are representative of the Greek flag and the building's architecture. The blazon of the Greek flag is "Azure, four bars Argent; on a canton of the field a Greek cross throughout of the second." While azure often associates with a deeper blue, Martel College uses a lighter tincture of azure known as bleu celeste or "sky blue." Also, the argent used by the College favors a bright, reflective white instead of the more silvery tincture. Maroon represents the building's brick and paint scheme. Members of Martel College are known as "Martelians."

As the third-most-recently founded college, Martel's history is short, and commonly includes the story of Speros Martel, the Greek immigrant whose estate provided the funding necessary to build the college. The official groundbreaking of the new Martel College took place on April 10, 2000. Among those attending were the newly instated Martel Masters Joan and Arthur Few, who had previously been Masters at Baker College from 1994 to 1999.

The first new students accepted as members of Martel were required to live off campus during the fall 2001 semester until the completion of the College's construction, which was scheduled for early 2002. However, in June 2001, Tropical Storm Allison struck the Houston area and delayed this by two months. Applications for freshman transfers were made available in October 2002. Sixty-three freshman were accepted, five each from Brown and Jones Colleges, and up to 12 from each of the other colleges. Martel members named physics instructor Gary Morris and intramural sports director Tina Villard as Martel's first resident associates.

Martel's student government is named the Parliament, and meets weekly in the college commons. Elected officials include President, Vice President, Prime Minister, Treasurer, Secretary, Chief Justice, and Class Representatives (4 per class).

Michael Graves, architect of Martel College, designed the four-story, 134,000-square-foot (12,400 m2) building. Formed around a central quadrangle, Graves’s design follows the style of the 1910 general plan of Boston architect Ralph Adams Cram for the Rice campus. Martel was erected on the parking lot that formerly served the adjacent Jones College. Martel is an open, four-sided shape. Each side of the shape forms a wing of the college. The wings terminate on the side closest to North Servery in a five-story rotunda, a spiral staircase enclosed within a stack of rounded floors, providing the college with its sundeck, where many events are held. The easternmost wing contains common areas, the game room, a kitchen, and the TV room. The rotunda leads into the Commons, a cathedral-like room with a high ceiling that serves as a cafeteria, meeting room, and auditorium, among other functions. The college also includes two apartments for Martel's resident associates, a faculty apartment for visiting professors, and a neighboring house for the College Masters and their family. Martel is also the only college to feature a sally port in its construction; newly matriculated students traditionally walk through it passing a torch between themselves as the final step to becoming new Martelians.

Alumni include Jason Colwick, 2009 NCAA pole vault champion.