Convocation Ceremony Welcomes New Students

Convocation means “calling together” in Latin.

It’s also the name of the ceremony that inducts new students into the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Thousand of first-year and transfer students were asked to stand up on the Faculty Green to be presented to their professors and UCSB Chancellor, Henry T. Yang.

They are now officially part of the Gouchos family.

Yang gave them some scholarly and fatherly advice.

He told them to budget their time wisely, since they can’t phone home for time.

Yang also encouraged them to phone, email, Skype, Facebook or text their families as much as possible. He said, “Call me maybe.”

And if students crash, he said to crash in the library.

Yang also bragged about the near perfect GPA of the first-year students.

They were selected out of a record number of 67,000 applicants.

Yang said about 92 percent of the student body is made up of Californians.

The remaining 8 percent are from all over the U.S. and the world.

The next time the same students will be together on the Faculty Green will be during their graduation.

First quarter classes start Thursday.