Convocation for new UC Santa Barbara Freshmen is reinvented into a series of activities with no formal speeches

SANTA BARBARA COUNTY, Calif. - The traditional convocation for UC Santa Barbara incoming freshmen will not take place this year.

Instead, UCSB will pivot from the ceremony and speeches at the lagoon and offer a new introduction to the campus.

Students are starting to return now in anticipation of the first day of school a week from Thursday.

For freshmen, they will be offered activities including informational sessions, safety training, movie nights, a medieval carnival, and a workshop on decorating a dorm room.

UCSB says it wants to focus on interactive events instead of a formal session with speeches.

The full UCSB statement reads:

“We are excited to welcome our new students to campus. The University always provides a wide range of activities for our students to learn about and help them settle into our academic community. These activities take place across campus and include both informational as well as social events. Events include residence hall information sessions, campus safety training, movie nights, a medieval carnival, and even workshops on decorating dorm rooms, to name a few.  

We are continuously evaluating what works well and making refinements using student feedback to guide our efforts. This year, we are focusing on interactive events where students can make new connections and directly experience all the programs and services our campus has to offer rather than asking students to attend a more formal session with speeches.

We look forward to enjoying other welcoming and community-building traditions with our campus community this fall.”