Before classes started Monday morning, the Johns Hopkins University Class of 2028 and transfer students were officially welcomed to campus Sunday evening at the annual Convocation ceremony, an event that offers a bit of pomp and circumstance. After a twilight procession of new students to the O'Connor Recreation Center's Robert Scott Gymnasium, three campus a capella groups—the Allnighters, Octopodes, and Sirens—performed the national anthem. On display were some of the university's ceremonial items—the mace, president's chair, and chain of command—that students will next see at Commencement.
In his remarks, JHU President Ron Daniels first light-heartedly sympathized with new students trying to find their first class: "Which red brick building is Mergenthaler, anyway?" The former law professor then introduced the legal term "duty of care" and how it applies to life at Hopkins and "the freedom to pursue ideas wherever they lead." All of us, he said, have a "duty to find ways to listen to the ideas of others and truly open yourselves to the possibility that those ideas might contain some seed of truth within them.
"In embracing this duty, the goal is not to force agreement, but to resist the temptation to do maximal damage to those with whom you disagree," he continued. "In other words, a duty to treat the person next to you as you would a neighbor. And so, as you embark upon this journey of learning and of probing, testing and contesting ideas together, we cannot lose sight of this foundational duty we owe to one another."
Sydnor Duffy, a first-year student from Houston, won the Class of 2028 banner contest with a winning design featuring a stylized blue jay flying along a beam of light. Rachelle Hernandez, vice provost for student affairs, wrapped up the evening by leading a rousing chant of "Forever a Blue Jay—go Hop!"
Read the president's full Convocation remarks online.
Image credit: Will Kirk / Johns Hopkins University
Image credit: Will Kirk / Johns Hopkins University
Image credit: Will Kirk / Johns Hopkins University
Image credit: Will Kirk / Johns Hopkins University
Image caption: JHU President Ron Daniels
Image credit: Will Kirk / Johns Hopkins University
Image credit: Will Kirk / Johns Hopkins University
Image credit: Will Kirk / Johns Hopkins University
Image caption: Sydnor Duffy, winner of the Class of 2028 banner contest, with President Daniels
Image credit: Will Kirk / Johns Hopkins University
Image credit: Will Kirk / Johns Hopkins University
