
The opening ceremony for the freshmen of 2015 was held on 7thSept. 2015 at Playground 129 on Siping Road Campus amid the refreshing breeze in the golden fall. About 3900 freshmen and some parents attended the ceremony. Present at the ceremony were Prof. YANG Xianjin, Chairman of the University Council, President PEI Gang, professors MA Jingming, FANG Shouen, XU Jianping, vice chairmen of the University Council, vice presidents WU Jiang and JIANG Bo. Prof. YANG put on a university badge for a new student representative. President PEI delivered a speech at the ceremony which was chaired by Vice President WU Jiang.


The president extended his warm welcome, on behalf of the faculty and staff members of the university, to all freshmen and expressed his sincere gratitude to their families and friends. He also extended his kind wishes and gave suggestions to the new students. He encouraged them to further understand the concept of sustainable development and the significance of building Tongji University into a "world-class university of sustainable development", and to spare no efforts in consciously practising the concept. Besides, he hoped the freshmen to work hard and cover a wide range of subjects to lay a solid foundation for future development, to challenge authorities and to raise daring questions. He called for them to take active parts in various extracurricular activities to improve their interpersonal skills and team spirits and eventually to become students of Tongji who were characterized by being positive, competent and able to get things done. He urged students to form good living and learning habits by doing more physical exercises and less online surfing and computer games. He wished the students to dream big, think high and develop a strong sense of duty to shoulder their responsibilities. As the 110th anniversary of Tongji University would fall on their college years, the president appealed to all the students to add more credits to the university and become the brightest representatives of Tongji University



Prof. MA Jinming announced the winners of freshmen scholarships during the ceremony. 124 freshmen won the scholarships this year. Prof. ZHU Dajian, a professor from College of Economics and Management, Tongji University and vice director of the University Academic Committee who was well-known both at home and abroad delivered a speech on behalf of teachers. Mr. LIU Yichun, graduate from architecture of the year 1991 and founder of Atelier Deshaus, gave a speech as a representative of the university alumni. Miss. WANG Jiaqi, student of the year 2012 and the present chairman of Student Union of Tongji University also spoke to the new students on behalf of students at Tongji. Eventually, Mr. PU Ti from School of Civil Engineering spoke to the audience on behalf of the undergraduate students of 2015.
Translated by May Language Studio based upon
http://news.tongji.edu.cn/classid-6-newsid-48357-t-show.html