Muskingum University Opening Convocation

NEW CONCORD, Ohio- Muskingum University started their 2016 school year off with the 179th Opening Convocation.

The Muskingum University Wind Ensemble started the processional for the first convocation for Muskingum University’s 21st President, Dr. Susan Hasseler. The first year students were welcomed by Muskingum University’s President, Dr. Hasseler who told the students every year is “a time of new beginnings” especially for the first year.

“We educate the whole student for the whole world and that means everything they do here is a part of that exciting learning journey,” said Dr. Hasseler. “So I say engage, explore more, discover, and take full advantage of what you have here because it’s a great place to be.”

Dr. Hasseler invited this years guest speaker Dr. Kim Ronald Smith, who was the first Muskingum Alumnus that Dr. Hasseler met. Muskingum University Alumnus Dr. Kim Ronald Smith talked about how she felt when Dr. Hasseler contacted her about speaking.

“I was so thrilled and very excited to be here,” said Dr. Smith. “It’s such a honor I love Muskingum and so being able to come back and particularly because I knew [Dr. Hasseler] when she was at Messiah College and I was on the board there. So it really just was an honor for her to ask me to be her convocation speaker for her first convocation.”

Dr. Smith gave her address based off her experiences as a student and Associate Dean of Students for Muskingum University. Dr. Smith told the students to stand up and take a selfie as remembrance of their time in college.

Most of the students today are very tech-savvy and I new that they would all have cellphones. So I thought it would be fun for them to just get them up moving and have them take a selfie with themselves and then to hopefully hold on the that selfie as a turning point in a picture and remembrance of what today really means. So hopefully they’ll do that and they can look at it and think that this was the beginning of their new college experience.

The 179th Opening Convocation ended with the Alma Mater followed by the recessional.