Hello, good afternoon, and let me join with the others in welcoming all of you to this day, to this moment. To these new students, welcome to college. I want to start my remarks with special thanks to all the people who made today possible. Let me start with the links and the community leaders, who are your connections to the upperclassmen. Where are the links? You’re going to hear about them. These are some of the most adroit, accomplished students. They’re going to be your connections in so many ways. They’ll be connected to your FSEMs. Just listen and learn from them.
Thank you to the members of the Dean of the College staff for all that you have done in the months leading to today. It is a very complex thing to bring such a wide variety of people from around the world into this university community. So let’s thank the Dean of the College staff.
Thank you to the Buildings and Grounds crew — all those signs that you saw, all those directions, that’s our Buildings and Grounds crew. They’re phenomenal. We should always thank them. And as Lesleigh Cushing said, thank you, of course, to the admission office that found all of you and brought you together as the Colgate Class of ’29.
You are a remarkable group of students, as Dean McLaughlin said. I’ve had the chance to meet many of you, and I can say there’s already an aura about you — there is an energy and warmth.
Now, to the parents and guardians who are here today — and to those parents and guardians who came before today to drop off your children for outdoor ed programs, athletics teams, and other programs — thank you. You have brought to us to this campus the future. I’m here to remind you and myself that, beneath the crazy logistics of moving students to a campus — getting all those things from a car into a van and into a room, moving refrigerators and shelves and extension cords, feeling like you and the rest of the family are some sort of minions and schleppers for the day — is something profound, something important. It is hope. It is excitement. It is the future. It is a beginning.
Beginnings are always, of course, somehow connected to ends. For the parents and guardians today and those who’ve been here over the last few weeks, navigating between the sense of one thing ending (the years of childhood) and the sense of other things beginning (my child is now in college) is a complex dance and a complicated chapter in being a parent or a guardian. How can a heart both be full and be breaking on the same day? Perhaps it’s best to say to every Colgate parent and guardian, “Recognize that your emotions are a product of all that you have done to make this day possible.” I and this whole university will honor and respect those emotions. We are in covenant with you now, educating a new class of students in service of this nation and this world. The world needs these young people and needs this academic year to begin. And we do it with you.
Now, to the Colgate class of 2029, gathered for the first time as a whole class, there is so much I want to say to you and hear from you, and we will have four years to have all these conversations. But I can say one thing to you about today that I really want to emphasize. Today is many things. It’s a confusing and it’s an exciting day. It’s also an important one. There are few days in your life that you can be assured you’ll remember for the rest of your lives. This is one of those days. And as hard as it is to imagine and to try to figure out which building is which and where you’ll eat lunch, you will soon have days on campus that will feel normal, predictable. And they’ll even feel good. Now, to be honest, some days are six-seven, and some days are a bit harder than others, but other days are like butter.
On some days, someday very soon, you’ll wake up, and you’ll know where to go. You’ll head over to classes you love, even if they’re hard, and you’ll feel good in them. Walking to the dining hall, you might run into me and my dog, Emrys. I’d like to think a good day would be a day you run into me and my dog, Emrys. And my dog will give you a look that is a kind of dog-equivalent of, “Bro, looks like you’re having a good day.” Or, “Hey, you better scratch me behind my ears.” So if you see me and my dog, it’s the ear scratch thing that I’d like you to focus on.
On those days, you’ll see friends on the quad, you’ll see faculty. You’ll get an email telling you that a study abroad opportunity is open to you or a trip that follows up a class that you might want to take next semester. You’ll go to a place where you like to read, and you’ll read something difficult but sort of amazing. And you will get down to work. You are in college.
Later in the day, you might head over to Benton Hall, where our terrific Career Service team is, and you’ll find out about an internship that a Colgate alum has set up, and you think, “I want that one.” You’re going to try for that later. You’ll spend a little bit too much time in Frank Dining Hall talking to your friends. But then you’ll head over to Case-Geyer Library or to Olin Hall that night, and you’re going to meet a study group. And when you walk home from the library or Olin that night, you will feel a kind of competency, a mastery of new things, of new places, a happiness. You see, today’s beginnings lead to that day.
Now, some days ahead of you are marked by certain traditions. This is the 206th time that we have welcomed a new class, and it’s inevitable that very old universities have lots of traditions. Two important traditions will happen this week, and I want to let you know about them now.
First, on Tuesday night, you’ll gather as a class up on the hill behind Burke and Pinchin halls for First Sunset. You’ll eat some food, listen to music, and watch your first sunset together as a class. The sunsets on the hills — the hills face west — are spectacular. It’s a very Colgate thing to sit on the hill and watch them. It’s great to watch one as a class in your first week. So that is why we call it First Sunset. That tradition has its echo in Senior Sunset on the Thursday before graduation week, when Colgate seniors gather on that same hill and watch a sunset together for the last time. We have champagne for them on that night — not for you — and we call that Senior Sunset. So today’s beginning has tomorrow’s ends. First Sunset begets Senior Sunset.
A second tradition: On Wednesday, in one of our most solemn traditions, we will gather for the Founder’s Day Convocation. Some of it will feel very serious and very solemn. It might even feel a bit strange. You will all form a circle as a class in the academic quad. And for the first time, you will see the Colgate faculty. They will process in the quad in front of you in their full academic robes and regalia. These robes represent the degrees they’ve obtained and the universities where they studied. The robes are remarkably colorful and unusual. The ones from the European universities are the best. They’re the regalia that have these big velvet hats with plumes on them. So look for them. These are the degree holders who studied at Oxford and Cambridge and Heidelberg, the ancient universities of Europe, as well as the United States and Canada.
You might also notice that, during the procession, I am the one person not wearing an academic cap. I carry mine. I will also be following a very tall, big person carrying a mace — a big gold mace. The reason I will not have my hat on is that, as I am walking toward the chapel in front of all of you with the faculty, the formal academic year has not begun. So I cannot wear my academic hat. The mace bearer is there to protect me because, by tradition, before the academic year begins, the president is thought to not have any power. Once we are all in the chapel, the Dean of the College — you heard from him today — he will ask you all to stand up as a class, and by doing this, he’s formally presenting you to the faculty. He will turn to the Dean of the Faculty and Provost, whom you also heard from today, and she will nod in acceptance of the class. You are now the Colgate Class of ’29, formally entering the academic program. That is the moment I put my hat on, because the academic year begins at that moment.
Why am I telling you this? So what’s with the hats, Brian? Because, much like First Sunset begets Senior Sunset, Founder’s Day has the exact reflection at commencement. On that day, you will walk in front of the faculty. You’ll be in robes, and they will be greeting you. And after you’ve all received your degrees, I then return to my chair. Again, it’s a reverse of everything that will happen on Wednesday night. The Dean of the Faculty will get up and congratulate you. I take off my hat, and the year begins.
I can assure you, not one of you will notice, because on that day, just like today, you’ll be balancing the idea of beginnings and ends. You’ll be full of memories and thoughts. You’ll have studied with a great faculty as our provost talked about, and you’ll be surrounded by friends for a lifetime. The traditions of Colgate mark and honor these moments, and I hope you get to know and love these traditions.
Now, I need to be honest with you. You might not have known it, you might have sensed it, but you’ve been part of another tradition this very afternoon, and I need to explain it. Every year, as I prepare this welcome speech, I meet with the link staff. The link staff — you’ll soon call them linksters — are those upper-class students who are connected to your FSEMs. When I meet with the linksters, they give me five slightly odd words that I must somehow incorporate into my welcome speech to the new class. Five of the words they gave me were in this welcoming speech. You might have noticed the cheering. Tomorrow, this speech will be posted on the webpage. The first group of first-years who email me and correctly identify those five link words will have dinner with me at the President’s house. I look forward to this year’s link word champions and to dinner with all of you.
All of us who’ve been on this stage and all the upperclassmen in the back and every faculty member you meet could not be more excited to meet you. Your soon-to-be-best-friends-in-the-world are all actually here under the same roof as you, and you will soon meet them. Your classes will begin in just a few days, and memories you will store in your minds for decades to come are now just starting. This is a serious place, as our provost pointed out, and this is a serious day, but it’s a joyful day. Today is a beginning like no other in your life. To the class of 2029, we all cannot wait to meet you, to work with you, and to see who you become. Good luck in the days ahead and the years ahead. We are so happy you are here. Thank you.