Convocation 2016

Welcome, Class of 2020

Incoming students arrived on campus on the morning of August 29, greeted by a well-choreographed display of move-in magic as New Student Orientation Program leaders whisked boxes and bins all across campus. That afternoon, the Class of 2020 began its Columbia journey under white tents on South Lawn at Convocation. Following a procession of students carrying flags (representing the home states and countries of all College and Engineering students), alumni marched with banners representing their class decades in the Alumni Procession to demonstrate to new arrivals their lifelong connection to the College and Engineering. In his welcome speech, Dean James J. Valentini said: “I am congratulating you on your good fortune in being presented with an opportunity — an opportunity to profit from and contribute to the special experience that a Columbia education offers. That special experience is fundamentally an endeavor to find knowledge, to develop understanding and to knowledge, to gain insight.”