First-year students welcomed to the "renaissance"
New students learn the role of Tulane in the city’s rebirth.
 |
| With new first-year students filling McAlister Auditorium, a parade of gonfalons starts off the 2011 Convocation Ceremony. |
In their first gathering as a single entity, incoming students paused amid the hubbub of move-in weekend to join together for the 2011 Convocation, held Aug. 29. Hailing from 48 states and 20 countries, with average SAT scores above 2000, the more than 1,630 members of the newest entering class were notified by Tulane President Scott Cowen of the special role they were taking on.
Post-Katrina New Orleans is "in the midst of a renaissance the likes of which this country has never seen," President Cowen told the students, adding, "Most people thought New Orleans and Tulane would never recover, and if they did, they would never regain their stature and reputation. You being in this audience bears witness to the fact that they were absolutely wrong."
Today the city is a hotbed of innovation as well as an incubator for new ideas and new industry in areas of bioscience, filmmaking, video game design and green technology. |
_elcohen Ellen Cohen