Students welcomed, honored in ceremony

African drum music came into earshot as clusters of students in orange and black approached the University Chapel Sunday afternoon. They were met by a procession of faculty and administrators dressed in ceremonial academic garb, preceded by three students waving colorful, dragon-like kites.

All were headed to the University Chapel for Opening Exercises, an interfaith service marking the official start of the University's 259th academic year.

Joining members of the Class of 2009 in attendance were new graduate students, University employees and returning students.

Ceremonial greetings from President Tilghman and several campus religious leaders were at once statements of excitement and of concern.

Dean of Religious Life Thomas Breidenthal asked the freshmen and hundreds of others gathered in the chapel to pray for victims of Hurricane Katrina, U.S. soldiers fighting abroad and all those affected by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, exactly four years earlier.

Tilghman echoed Breidenthal minutes later in her greeting, expressing her enthusiasm for the new academic year alongside a note of sorrow for the Outdoor Action leader injured Friday, the hurricane aftermath and the terrorist attacks that marked the start of her first year as University president.

"The banners and drums you have just heard signal that this is traditionally a festive occasion," Tilghman said. "However, it is impossible to wholeheartedly celebrate in light of the tragic events that have been unfolding in Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi in the wake of Hurricane Katrina."

In her second speech, "Becoming a Princetonian," Tilghman painted Princeton as a serious yet fun-loving place, where being a Princetonian is not only about the academic work but also about "having a deep, emotional and lifelong attachment to your alma mater, and making no bones about it," she said, encouraging new students to make the most of what the University offers and to discover what exists beyond the gate.

Opening Exercises also included the traditional presentation of academic awards to five undergraduate students. Catherine Kunkel '06, a physics major from Woodstock, Md., was given the Class of 1939 Princeton Scholar Award for achieving the highest academic standing of any member of the senior class during her first three years at Princeton.

Josh Brodie '06, a mathematics major from Manhattan, and Jessica Gasiorek '06, a French and Italian major from Palo Alto, Calif., shared the George B. Wood Legacy Junior Prize for academic achievement during the 2004-05 school year. Brodie is also an opinion editor for The Daily Princetonian.

Another math major, junior Tamara Broderick, of Parma, Ohio, won the George B. Wood Legacy Sophomore Prize for her work as a sophomore. Amirali Shanechi '08, an electrical engineering major who emigrated from Iran to Toronto four years ago, was given the Freshman First Honor Prize for his first year of academic work at Princeton.