Rice University James A. Baker College Masters' Records

As codified by the Committee on Student Housing in the 1950s, each residential college has a master, often a husband and wife team. The college masters "would be the primary ones responsible for achieving the goals of social concern and intellectual curiosity. It was therefore important to choose the masters with great care; the committee recommended that they be chosen from the ranks of full professors. Although the committee originally thought that masters, faculty fellows, and student officers would handle disciplinary matters, the final report emphasized that masters were not to be thought of as disciplinarians. The master retained overall responsibility for student life in his college, but his main duties were to counsel students, provide an example, and advise student committees. Excerpted from A History of Rice University: The Institute Years, 1907-1963, by Fredericka Meiners, pg. 180.

Baker College was established as one of the five original residential colleges at Rice in the fall of 1957. It was named in honor of Captain James Addison Baker who served as the Rice Institute’s first chairman or the Board of Trustees. Following the opening of the Institute in 1912, the first buildings that comprise the present Baker College were constructed. The first unit to be completed in the residence area of the new institution was the present Commons of Baker, which was to serve as the central dining hall for the entire campus for forty-three years. The next building completed was “East Hall,” which is now known to members as the “Old Wing” of Baker. These buildings remained unchanged until the installation of the college system at Rice in 1957 when the addition of the “New Wing” and Baker House completed the present Baker College. The Baker House is home of the College Master and his family. The College went coed in the Fall of 1973.