Rice University’s Student Newspaper — Since 1916

Sunday, June 04, 2023 — Houston, TX

Former Energy Secretary Charles Duncan namesakes 11th college

By Lily Chun     8/24/07 12:00am

Rice announced Tuesday that Charles ('47) and Anne Duncan gave $30 million to support the 11th residential college. Duncan College will be the first building on campus to be gold-level LEED certified. Construction of Duncan and McMurtry has already begun. 

Duncan said he and his wife decided to be the donors for the college a few weeks ago, although they discussed the possibility throughout the year. 

Duncan was not himself associated with any residential college, since the residential college system was not established until 1957. However, Duncan witnessed the residential college system from an administrative standpoint as chairman of the Rice Board of Trustees from 1982 to 1996. 



"We think that the college system has been very effective at Rice," Duncan said. "It's something that we believe in, and we think it's a key ingredient with the success Rice has had with students." As former U.S. Secretary of Energy and former chair of the Business Coalition for Clean Air, Duncan said he is a proponent of environmental conservation. He said he and his wife were not involved in planning the green aspects of the college, but he was pleased with the environmental characteristics. 

Director of News and Media Relations BJ Almond said the sustainable features of the new college include lights that switch off automatically, a classroom with sustainable materials and furnishings, automatic shut-off air-conditioners with open windows. pre-fabricated bathrooms, a system to monitor energy consumption, 25 percent reduced energy consumption, 30 percent reduced water consumption and a roof that will decrease heating and cooling usage. 

"We were very sympathetic with [constructing a green building], but a lot of the thinking came from the Rice community," Duncan said. 

In addition to funding Duncan College, the Duncans have contributed to the Duncan Hall of Engineering as well as the Shepherd School of Music.



More from The Rice Thresher

NEWS 6/2/23 11:44am
Rice will build two new colleges between Sid Richardson and Wiess

Rice intends to build two new residential colleges with an accompanying servery, President Reggie DesRoches and Vice President for Finance and Administration Kelly Fox announced in an email sent May 19.  The old Sid Richardson College building will be demolished as part of this project. One of the new colleges will take its place, and the other will be positioned closer to Wiess College.

NEWS 5/25/23 3:51pm
‘Always laughing, always smiling and singing’: Family, colleagues remember Triny Carranza

María Trinidad “Triny” Carranza, cook III at the Cohen House, passed away May 7 at the age of 50. Carranza’s daughter said Triny’s cause of death was complications from blood clots. Hailing from the city of Chihuahua, Mexico, Triny visited Houston in her early twenties and chose to stay after meeting her future husband, Salvador Carranza, in the same apartment complex. Once settled, she began working in the cooking industry that, according to her husband, she was in love with.


Comments

Please note All comments are eligible for publication by The Rice Thresher.