With pomp and circumstance—including their first time singing the alma mater, the newest members of the Orange family were given a rousing, official welcome to the University during New Student Convocation Thursday in the JMA Wireless Dome.
An annual tradition, the academic program includes leadership and faculty processing into the JMA Dome with full regalia. As a highlight of Syracuse Welcome, it’s also the first time new students gather together as a class.
Family members were there to cheer on their students, share dinner on the turf after the ceremony and say their goodbyes, as classes start next week.
The nearly 4,000 new and transfer students hail from 48 states, including Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico; 14 indigenous nations and 56 countries from around the world. University leaders and student speakers imparted advice, words of wisdom and posed thoughtful questions to the new students, embarking on this new journey.
Thomas O’Brien (Photos by Jeremy Brinn)
“Today, I ask you a question, a question that will guide the choices you make and the experiences you encounter during your tenure at this university, and that question is ‘what is your purpose here?’” asked Thomas O’Brien ’25, a film major in the College of Visual and Performing Arts and the student speaker.
O’Brien then shared his experience as a first-year student and how it did not go as how he had expected but realized it was on himself to make a change. “Opportunities are not handed to you, but rather you must be open to find and seek the opportunities that already surround you on this campus,” he said.
“Understand, whatever you believe your purpose is here, know that Syracuse University will provide you with the resources you need to succeed,” O’Brien said. “However, it is up to you to pursue the things you want to achieve and pursue them with a confidence and a belief that they will come true.”
Chancellor Kent Syverud offered two pieces of advice to new students.
The first: come as you are. “If you have not figured it out already, you will pretty soon: there is no one way of thinking, no one way of dressing, no one person who is the ‘normal’ here. People are unique and amazing and dazzlingly different. And that’s why it’s wonderful. Given that there is no ‘normal’ here, why not try just being yourself here. Not the image of perfection that appears on social media, not the identical replica of someone else, but please just be you. I believe you will find that if you come as you are here, you will become Orange.”
The second piece of advice from the Chancellor: Become more Syracuse. “That’s the common thread in all the speeches you are hearing this week. People are trying to tell you to wake up. You have a chance that has been denied to so many people in this world: a chance to be part of a great university. So, take it. Please become more here, in your own unique and defining way. That’s what so many people have done before you, and you can too.”
Chancellor Kent Syverud addresses students and their families during New Student Convocation.
“Every one of you have earned your place here and every one of you deserves to be here,” said Allen Groves, senior vice president and chief student experience officer, sharing how 42,500 individuals applied to be part of the new first-year class and 1,600 applied to be transfer students.
“When you are here in these coming days and years, I want you to fearlessly explore many new ideas and expose yourself to diverse points of views,” said Groves. “You are living in a time in which social media algorithms feed you what it believes and analyzes that you already believe and think, and intentionally screen out from you ideas and viewpoints that do not match your own.
“So, you’re going to have to take the initiative and take full advantage of the next few years and open yourself to talking with and engaging with people different from you. I hope you are willing to debate big contentious ideas, respectfully, listening probably more than talking because listening is where true knowledge is gained.”
Nearly 4,000 new and transfer students gather during the New Student Convocation ceremony.
“Today you open the door to possibility—the possibility of who you will be as a student here, and the possibility of who you will become in the future,” said Gretchen Ritter, vice chancellor, provost and chief academic officer.
Provost Ritter shared there are many ways for students to seize that possibility, noting research, experiential learning and intellectual bravery as prime examples.
“There are so many things you can do as a student here. There are paths to discovery and paths that you will forge. In all of this, I challenge you to embrace the insight offered by the great education philosopher John Dewey more a century ago when he wrote that ‘Every great advance in science has issued from an audacity of imagination,’” Ritter said.
Before the conclusion of the program, the newest students to enter Syracuse University recited the charge and sang the alma mater. The next time they will all be together in the JMA Dome will be for their Commencement.
