Dean Michael San Francisco explains:
BELL HOUSE IS ONE HOUSE
WITHIN OUR FOUR-HOUSE SYSTEM
Bell House Keys, symbolic of entrance into the House, are awarded to new House members at the Convocation and Sorting Ceremony each fall.
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"The four houses of the Honors College recognize the support, the vision, and the persistence of four administrators who helped to found the College on Texas Tech campus. The Dr. Gary Bell House of Knowledge, the Dr. Robert Lawless House of Integrity, the Dr. Donald Haragan House of Service, and the Dr. Jane Winer House of Courage represent the four pillars of the Honors College by which we educate, learn, live, dream, and innovate together as a community.
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The four house system, seeking to welcome freshmen and inspire community, harkens back to Dean San Francisco's primary education in India. "When I attended St. Joseph's Boys High School in Bangalore, students were placed into one of four houses. Everything we did from academic performance to the sports field to theater and behavior counted towards the house. This sense of 'belonging' taught me not to work just for myself but also for a 'greater good.'"
Photo: Ashley Rodgers,
TTU Communications & Marketing
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OUR NAMESAKE
Dr. Gary Bell has been at Texas Tech for 22 years. A professor of History, he earned his B.A. degree from Brigham Young University and his M.A. and Ph.D. at the University of California at Los Angeles. Before coming to TTU, he served as the Director and Dean of the Honors program at Sam Houston State University. In 1993, he was chosen as Director of the Honors Program at Texas Tech University which at that time had only 4 students. With the support of the President, Provost, and Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, and a good deal of ingenuity and hard work, the program grew into a College. He became the founding Dean of the Honors College in 1999. He stepped down from the deanship in 2009. During the decade of his deanship, Dr. Bell established the Honors College as one of the few comprehensive Honors Colleges in the nation with its own faculty. The stature of the College as it is today is in large measure a legacy of Dr. Gary Bell, and Bell House of Knowledge is proud to carry his name as our legacy of excellence.
Dr. Gary Bell, Founding Dean
of the TTU Honors College
From Associate Dean Aliza Wong's Welcome to House members at the annual Honors Convocation and Sorting Ceremony: "The Honors College asks that all of you - students, faculty, and staff - open your minds to ideas, to learning, to creativity, to engagement. We offer you, within our College, the opportunity to explore your curiosities, to change the world with wisdom and intelligence, but to retain your humility and your humanity as you illuminate the world with your dreams and your inspirations. Remember that knowledge is not without its burden, as Dumbledore described: 'The truth is a beautiful and terrible thing, and should be treated with great caution.'"
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Read more about our Convocation and Sorting Ceremony here.