Greek Week at Martel College

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Many of the residential colleges at Rice University find fun ways to celebrate their founding. Learn a little bit more about Martel's annual tradition, Greek Week, celebrating the Greek heritage of their college's founders.

While everything from Martel’s colors to its crest pay homage to the college’s Greek heritage, as an ode to Marian and Speros Martel, we also host an annual Greek Week celebration. Organized by Martel’s Traditions Committee, the week is full of events ranging from bonding events between upperclassmen and lowerclassmen to dance parties on Martel’s sundeck.

This year, our week kicked off on Sunday, February 20th, with the entire college gathering for a toast and Martel cheer. Next, on Monday the college hosted a Greek-themed movie night, and this year we watched My Big Fat Greek Wedding.

My favorite part of the week was big/little. Like in sororities, each upperclassmen is paired with an underclassmen based on a survey that asks questions about personality and interests. All of the bigs are secretly given the names of their little. On Wednesday, everyone gathers on the sundeck for the reveal. One by one, each big will come to the middle of the sundeck. Then it is announced who their little is and everyone starts to cheer as you run up to your big to give them a hug (this was a true highlight for me). Each big gets their little a small gift. I love tea so my big got me a tea mug and my favorite candy. The night continues as each of the big/little pairs compete to be the best pair, through an egg toss. My big and I did pretty well coming in third place. This tradition is one of the favorites among Martelians and helps bond the underclassmen with older individuals, giving them a mentor as well as another friendly face around the college. 

Four students stand with large Greek letters that represent Martel College - Sigma Pi Mu.
Two male students from Martel College stand in front of the large Greek letters that represent Martel College - Sigma Pi Mu.

Thursday marked Mr. Martel, a pageant where the people of Martel compete in different categories such as swimsuit and talent. Each contestant has a grand musical entrance which is often followed up with stylish dance moves. Some of the highlights of the talent competition were singing, comedy shows and painting. The winner of Mr. Martel gets to compete for Rice’s Finest next year, and all of Martel will be rooting for this year's winner, Francesca Bliss. 

Friday rounded off Greek Week with a huge birthday party for the college. With everything from a birthday banner to a cake, the sundeck was the perfect place to gather in celebration of Martel.

Two female students from Martel College stand facing Martel's annual birthday cake in order to cut it up and pass it out.
Three male students at Martel College smile for a picture.

- Audrey P., Martel '25

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