Reminder: Faculty Participation in the New Student Welcome Convocation – Tuesday, Sept. 21, 11:00 a.m.
We are delighted to invite you to participate in the 16th annual Welcome Convocation for new undergraduate students to be held on Tuesday, Sept. 21, 2021 at 11:00 a.m., in person, on RIMAC Field.
Convocation is the inaugural academic event for incoming first-year and transfer students, and serves as their formal entrance into UC San Diego's scholarly community. It is the figurative bookend to Commencement. This year's program will feature remarks by Chancellor Pradeep K. Khosla, Executive Vice Chancellor Elizabeth H. Simmons, Associated Students President Manu Agni, and Alumni Board President Kimberley Boehm. There will also be a Faculty Keynote Address by Assistant Teaching Professor King Britt, as well as a traditional Kumeyaay blessing from Stan Rodriquez, representative of the Santa Ysabel Band of Kumeyaay Indians
Strong faculty participation in this milestone event demonstrates the great value we place in this symbolic first step on our students' academic journey. After our extended, but necessary hiatus from in-person events such as this, we hope you know your participation will be especially meaningful this year, as we gather together as a learning community. In addition to welcoming our Fall 2021 entering cohort, we will also receive those who joined our Triton community in Fall 2020 when we could not welcome them in this same way last fall. We hope you will join us in extending them a warm Triton welcome at Convocation.
Participating faculty will join in the Convocation Processional at the start of the Ceremony, and will be seated facing the audience as an extension of the Platform Party during the program. Faculty participants are invited to assemble beginning at 10:00 a.m. and no later than 10:30 a.m. at a designated staging tent on the west side of RIMAC Field (detailed instructions will be sent to those who RSVP). The Platform Party and Faculty Processional will begin at 10:45 a.m. led by Senate Chair Tara Javidi (regalia will not be worn). The health and safety of our campus community continues to be of utmost importance to us. Masks will be required for all participants and appropriate COVID-19 safety protocols will be followed. All attendees will be expected to demonstrate compliance with campus COVID-19 policies and display their green daily symptom and exposure screener upon check-in. For questions about the university processes and the approach to helping keep the campus safe, please consult the online safety resources. Further, as a health and safety precaution, we will forgo the shared lunch and faculty-student engagement that traditionally follows the Convocation ceremony. Thus, faculty participation in the processional and program will be especially important.
Please RSVP to evc-events@ucsd.edu by Wednesday, Sept. 15 with your attendance plans. We look forward to seeing you at Convocation.
Pradeep K. Khosla Chancellor
Elizabeth H. Simmons Executive Vice Chancellor
Alysson M. Satterlund Vice Chancellor, Student Affairs
University of California San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA, 92093
