Rice has this lovely little tradition called Baker 13. It's likely you heard about it before you even arrived for O-Week: it's extensively chronicled by college guides and Wikipedia as an example of Rice's unique culture and crazy traditions. Yet nothing can prepare you for what it's like to be Baker 13'd.
The first time that I ever witnessed the event was as a freshman during our college's first council meeting of the year (also called "cabinet" by lesser colleges). Since our council convenes at 10pm, everyone, including the upperclassmen had forgotten about Baker 13.
But Baker 13 had not forgotten about
us.
The run only had about six people on it, all dudes, and they ran straight into the middle of our council meeting. As they yelled, "Join us!," we all just stared and/or averted our eyes. Realizing that no one was about to get up, strip down, and leave council, they moved on to the next college. But not without leaving us some lovely Baker 13 prints to remember them by.
This is how it usually goes, or at least in my experience. Rice students will be burrowed somewhere: in their rooms, Fondren, practicing on an IM field, and be completely oblivious to the nude crazies rampaging around campus (it's easy enough to forget about, especially on the 26th). When they emerge later that night, or even the next morning, they find that everything has been Baker 13'd.
