Ciao, Chao!

For the first time, 12 residential colleges were represented on the O-Week welcoming committee.

Chao banner and students walking through the Sallyport with cheering students holding Chao signs
Chao College, Rice’s newest residential college, joins the Sallyport tradition for the first time during matriculation. Photo by Jared Jones

By Andrew Bell

On Aug. 16, the newest Rice undergraduates were greeted by a slew of cheering, sign-holding students, faculty and staff who welcomed each new Owl to campus. But for the first time, 12 residential colleges were represented on the O-Week welcoming committee. Ting Tsung and Wei Fong Chao College, known as Chao College, is now home to 400 undergraduate students, with 300 of them taking residence in the new building. These founding “Chaosens” have already begun to build a community that will shape Rice’s newest college for generations. “Starting a new college is nothing short of a magical experience,” says Luis Duno-Gottberg, the Lee Jamail Professor of Latin American Studies and Chao’s founding magister. “They are giving us a beautiful building, and we’re going to very shortly give them a community and a college, which is something that is alive, living, changing.”


From the Fall 2026 issue of Rice Magazine