As a bookend to commencement, the Chancellor’s Convocation for New Students is your inauguration into the campus community.
New students enjoy the student of color social during Wisconsin Welcome. See this year’s schedule of events.
When and where: Noon, Friday, Aug. 29, 2008, at the Kohl Center (map)
The event will mark the first time new Chancellor Biddy Martin addresses UW-Madison students. Martin, who served as provost at Cornell University for the past eight years, officially begins her tenure on Sept. 1.
“I spent some of the most intellectually stimulating and pleasurable years of my life in Madison,” she says. “I received an excellent education and made lifelong friends. I love the lakes, the Arboretum, and the advantages of a lively and livable mid-sized city. My time as a student at UW-Madison weighed heavily in my decision to return!”
Advice for your first year
As part of the event, we have collected a selection of advice and feedback from other students and faculty and staff about adjusting to campus life and making the most out of your first year.
Ask for help before you need it — or at least before you get in too deep. Get involved. Try a new organization or sport. Make friends and create memories. Keep an open mind. Think for yourself. Manage the peer pressure.
— Lori Berquam, dean of students
When your teacher is working hard with you to convey a difficult concept or issue, don’t ask, “Will it be on the exam?”
— Robert Skloot, professor of theatre and drama
This vast university is a wonderful and wonderfully varied resource for students — socially, culturally and intellectually. My first piece of advice is to use that resource to the fullest. That means take courses in subjects not available to you previously. Join clubs, take part in scheduled activities, attend some performances and lectures. Make an effort to get to know people not like those you grew up with. My second piece of advice is to remember that you are here to go to school. Keep your job hours to the minimum you can afford financially. Even while enjoying the social and cultural and athletic resources of the UW and Madison, stay focused on your responsibility to your formal education: Attend your classes, keep up with your assignments, and reach out to individual faculty members. They are eager to help you succeed and to help you identify the course of study that will prove most rewarding for you.
— Lynn Keller, professor of English
Sit up front.
— Michael Hinden, professor of English
College is a short period of your life, it seems long, but it will be brief
when you look back later in life. This period of intense learning is something
which most of you will never do again. Cherish it. Learn to manage it well. It
is a sacred time, and the habits you form now will last for life. Time management
is the key to success. The people in the high places in this world all manage
their time well. Time management is learned. A little structure goes a long way!
College is essentially about three things: learning to think, learning to manage
your life and learning how not to overly offend potential friends or partners
too greatly. Structure your study time. Everyone wastes free time, so you want
to decrease unstructured time, but save some time just for you. Show up for all
your classes and do your homework; that’s how you learn. Asking for help is a
valuable skill. See your advisers and faculty and get to know them so they know
you! Learn to talk to the “old” people running this place. We all went
to college too! The world is largely run by an intricate web of personal connections.
Developing relationships with professors, advisers, organizations and your peers
will lead to unexpected opportunities! The world is waiting to know you..
— Aaron Bird Bear, student services coordinator, L&S Student Academic Affairs
Think through more carefully now what you expect of a university education; don’t wait until you are a senior to do that. Be your own person; develop your own system of ideals. You will be, should be, influenced by others, by your reading, your conversations, classroom lectures. But you’re not an automaton; it’s not necessary to think the way everyone else thinks. Bask in that myriad of influences, but in the end your view of the world should be a unique one. It doesn’t have to be the cookie-cutter template: You’ve got your own identity, and there will be a lot of pressure to mesh that identity with the received “wisdom” of what a university student is. A university student thinks independently, is in the process of developing not simply a gregarious personality but the complexity of character. There will be as lot of pressure, both within you and from outside, to measure yourself according to everyone else. You can learn from everyone else, but it is the unique blend of all of these influences that should be the essential goal here. Be wholly involved at times, ironically detached at others, as you move through the welter of people, words, images; as you deepen your ideas, expand your ideals. And read, read, read.
— Harold Scheub, professor of African languages and literature
- Go to class: There is no substitute for the learning that derives from instructor and classmate interaction.
- Go to office hours: Even if you are not having problem in the course, get to know your professors and TAs — they want to help you succeed in the class and beyond. If they know you better, they can better help you.
- Join a student group: Begin to build a support network outside of class. When you decide on a major, join the group related to your major.
- Take care of yourself: Sleep well, eat well, and take advantage of the free “health clubs” on campus.
— Terry Warfield, professor of accounting
Smart students save time by scheduling tutoring. Use academic support services around campus. The writing center, for example, is a place to make friendships and to talk about your assignments or frustrations in addition to reading aloud your work, gaining a second reader’s perspective and learning more about the writing process. When you schedule a tutorial, you set your own deadline for a next product or revision. Tutoring can help with time management and pacing in addition to strengthening the work you do for classes and for your own learning. UW-Madison offers a range of tutoring services, which can help you save time, build relationships and learn in a social environment beyond class.
— Beth Godbee, English 100 teaching assistant
It is likely that you will look back on your freshman year as a major turning point in your life. Your relationships with parents, friends, professors and other mentors will all change during this year and take on more of an adult quality. You will probably meet people this year who will be significant to you for the rest of your life. Everyone is scared when they start college — no one admits it, but everyone is scared. Try not to let your fear prevent you from embracing the full experience of your freshman year. It is natural to want to retreat to old friends and old ways of doing things, but challenge yourself to step outside the comfort zone of family and high school and experience all that UW-Madison has to offer.
— Wren Singer, director, Center for the First-Year Experience
Take intellectual risks — explore new subjects and keep an open mind. You never know where it might lead you. Perhaps more importantly, if something sounds better at 1 a.m. than it did at 10 p.m., it’s probably not a good idea to begin with...
— Jon Pevehouse, professor of political science
Convocation video
Returning students — and Abraham Lincoln — offer their advice to the incoming class.
See also:
Convocation speeches
In keeping with tradition, a UW-Madison student serves as keynote speaker at the convocation.
Junior Kim Roberts was selected a group of applicants who wrote essays answering the question: What would you tell a new student about life at UW-Madison?
Roberts, of Wrexham, Wales, is both the first international student and student-athlete to serve as speaker. She is a member of the UW women’s tennis team and is double majoring in political science and women’s studies.
“A new life is hard,” she writes. “Strange, scary and so unexpected. Second guessing yourself is second nature and it’s hard to break out of that box you’re so comfortable in. If you don’t let Madison into your heart, if you don’t let UW pump through your veins, then you may just miss out on one of the best experiences you will ever have.”
View Roberts’ essay, along with those of two other finalists.
Video music credit
The music in the video shown at the 2008 convocation was written by Miles Comiskey, a sophomore studying music education. Read a bio of Comiskey and see the lyrics.