Dalhousie's official welcome

Dal's newest student enter the auditorium wearing different coloured T-shirts. (Pearce photo)

They arrived dressed in their separate colours. Dalhousie’s newest students entered the auditorium first, decked out in their Orientation Week T-shirts, each colour of the rainbow denoting their residence loyalty. The university leadership followed, marching down the aisles in flowing robes as the sound of the piper filled the room.

Yet when the final words were spoken Sunday evening at the Dalhousie induction ceremony, hundreds of new undergrads who had taken their pledge to the university were all sporting the Nova Scotian tartan. And when the platform party exited the room, the students walked with them as one.

The induction ceremony is designed as an official welcome for incoming undergraduates, serving as a mirror to the convocation ceremony they’ll experience when they graduate from the university. The ceremony, in its second year of existence, also gives new students an opportunity to meet members of the university administration.

“This is start of a lifelong relationship between you and Dalhousie University,” said President Tom Traves, who opened the proceedings. “I am already certain that you are going to succeed and flourish.”

Following Dr. Traves’ remarks, Dalhousie Chancellor Dr. Richard Goldbloom led the crowd in the Dalhousie pledge, where they agreed to uphold and protect the integrity, good character and scholarly legacy of the university. “I feel as if I should pronounce you married,” he joked, after the students responded with a roaring “I do.”

This year’s keynote speaker was Dalhousie atmospheric scientist Dr. Tom Duck, who urged the students not to think of university as four years in search of a degree, but as a time to start asking big questions and thinking about solutions to the challenges our world faces. He recommended that students get to know their professors and take part in the groundbreaking research that goes on here at the university.

“Your minds are going to explode with different ideas,” said Dr. Duck. “Seize the opportunity you have here at Dalhousie. It’s a great chance to learn something more.”

With those inspiring words, Dalhousie’s newest faces marched out into the September evening, their new blue-and-green scarves flung about their necks. Their first day as Dalhousie students had come to an end with the promise of great things to come.