A Ball Pit of Fun

Vada Burri, Staff Writer

When the personal finance website Wallet Hub recently included Rice University in its list of universities with the best dorms, it probably wasn’t thinking of ball pits. Rice dorms made the list for their “enjoyable atmosphere,” and senior David Nichol has no doubt been having a blast with the ball pit he installed November 19 in his room.

“One of my favorite things about it is that a lot of different people who ordinarily wouldn’t come to my room have come over to see it and hang out,” the computer science major told Rice’s media team.

When U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials learned that Rice University senior David Nichol had imported 26 fairly large boxes containing 13,000 plastic colored balls from China, they decided to investigate the contents due to the total bizarreness of the order.

“I actually didn’t pick them up from the Port of Houston,” he said to an interview he had with CNN. “They were taken to U.S. Customs and Border Protection to be tested to make sure they were certified balls and not something else. I’m sure it was kind of sketchy to have 13,000 plastic balls shipped to Texas.”

Nichol’s excuse was pretty straightforward: He wanted to create a ball pit in his dorm room at Rice. It wasn’t a childhood dream, nor does he have any vivid memory of ever being in a ball pit at Chuck E. Cheese. His family and friends didn’t really take his idea seriously at first, but were supportive.

“I think most people thought I was joking when I told them about it at first,” he said to a CNN reporter. “My family thought I was crazy, but they also know me. They didn’t say, “No, you can’t do this” or “Don’t waste your time doing this.”

To make room for the balls, Nichol had to move his desk, a dresser and other things into a space that he shares with his three roommates. He does have two drawers left in the room to keep some clothing, but the room primarily serves as a place to sleep, read and to relax with friends in the ball pit, where a kid’s basketball hoop is set up in the corner and new mini basketball games are created weekly.

Nichol will graduate from Rice in May with a computer science degree. Everyone keeps asking him what he is going to do with the 13,000 plastic balls in his room. His response is: “I think when you have an idea you should just go for it. You shouldn’t worry about what’s going to happen next or what’s going to happen after that. If you’re going to keep doing that, you’re never going to be able to do cool things like have a ball pit room. Which is my way of saying I don’t know what’s going to happen to them,” Nichol said.

“This is one thing. I really hope this isn’t how I’m totally remembered at Rice. I hope it’s for other things too, like when I was talking with classmates or telling them a joke, because this is one thing and not all of who I am. It might be a symbol of what I liked doing in my spare time, but it’s not the whole of my Rice experience.”