By
Dr. Peter Likins
University of Arizona President
As I walk the campus at the beginning of each Fall semester, I try to identify students who are new to our campus. Often students in small groups have an excited, animated way about them, but sometimes I detect a dazed look in the eyes of students walking alone.
I try to look them all in the eyes, so I can catch a smile and say "Hello." Dark glasses hide some secrets, and sometimes students without shades cast down their eyes or look past me. I wish I could connect with every new student I pass so I could welcome them with my eyes. I wish everyone would do that or even say "Hi." New students need to feel welcome, so they can make this place home.
We proudly refer to the University of Arizona as a "student-centered research university." You should try to understand the meaning of that phrase, and make it work for you.
If you are a new student, you should consider the fact that all new students need friends. Don't hang back waiting for them to come to you. Take the initiative. We expect you to learn many things during your college years, and one of those things is to take the initiative. You will make friends faster, and, even more importantly, you will learn more. You will even learn differently if you become an active participant in that process, and not a passive learner.
People learn in many different ways. Much of what we learn we accept from the authority of a book, a website or the words of someone we trust and respect. A deeper kind of learning that stays with you longer and builds inside you is learning by discovery. That's the fundamental mission of a research university - learning by discovering either external reality or your own internal creativity. At the University of Arizona, we encourage you to learn by discovery because this is the kind of learning that will serve you best over a lifetime.
Finally, I will tell you what you want to hear, and maybe what you also need to hear. Work hard, but don't take yourself so seriously that you miss the fun of college life. A great adventure is beginning, and, through this experience, you will come to know that life is good.
