University Officials Welcome First-Years

University and College administrators welcomed the Class of 2006 to Harvard under starry skies last night, at opening exercises pushed back to accommodate students celebrating Rosh Hashanah.

Students, many still with family in tow, filled Tercentenary Theatre for the traditional hodge-podge of Harvard history, humor and advice served up annually by three deans and the University president.

Dean of the College Harry R. Lewis ’68 officially declared open the 367th session of Harvard College, and he and Dean of Freshmen Elizabeth Studley “Ibby” Nathans stuck to their yearly script kidding new students about the long history of “inept” and now forgotten students that preceded them.

University President Lawrence H. Summers delivered the main address, asking students to make the most of their time at Harvard, appreciate the diverse and talented class surrounding them and find their passions.

A year ago, delivering his first opening exercise speech, Summers joked that as a first-year president he considered himself a member of the incoming class. Now entering his sophomore year, Summers updated his speech to speak of the first-year difficulties he faced, telling again the story of how he tried unsuccessfully to obtain a Harvard Coop number.

But most of this year’s new material came from newly appointed Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences William C. Kirby, who delivered a more sober and specific address, mentioning a number of the issues he was brought in to tackle.

Students should study abroad during their time at Harvard and the University will work to make that possible, Kirby said. Fewer students at Harvard currently go abroad than do students at peer institutions.

“In the last century [Harvard] became a national college. In this century its becoming an international institution,” Kirby said. “An international education cannot take place within the confines of Cambridge, Massachusetts.”

Faculty-student interaction is central to the College and Harvard is working to improve in that area, Kirby said, citing a threefold increase in the number of freshman seminars in the last several years.

And students will need to play their part as well, Kirby said. Harvard has been known as a serious, sober institution, and remains so to an extent, Kirby said.

“You are here to work, and your business here is to learn,” he said.

In between last nights speeches, the audience was treated to selections by three of Harvard’s choirs: the Collegium Musicum, the Radcliffe Choral Society and the Harvard Glee Club.

With the comfortable temperature and cloudless night Harvard’s streak of good weather at major outdoor events began anew after it was snapped by torrential rains at last June’s commencement.

—Staff writer David H. Gellis can be reached at gellis@fas.harvard.edu.