In the golden autumn month of September, 9,093 freshmen gathered here from all corners of the world to usher in a new chapter of their life at Sichuan University.
On September 21, the SCU Opening Ceremony for Undergraduates 2020 was held on Jiang'an campus. Chairman Jianguo Wang of the university council, President Yanrong Li, the Chinese Academy of Engineering academicians Heping Xie, Jie Gao, and Xingdong Zhang, the Chinese Academy of Sciences academician An-min Li, SCU’s distinguished professors Chu Xiang, Zhisheng You, Shunqing Cao, Shichuang Zhan, Wei Huo attended the ceremony. Other attendees included the university administrators of Zhijian Chen, Shijing Yan, Taiping Hou, representatives of faculty members against COVID-19, teacher representatives, and heads of individual colleges and schools. All freshmen of the class 2020 were present at the ceremony. Yong Guo, deputy secretary of the university Party committee, presided over the ceremony.
First of all, President Li welcomed, on behalf of the university, the new students and congratulated them on becoming students of Sichuan University. Then, he gave the students their first lecture on the theme of "Learning ability is the real ability". He pointed out that there are three important points in improving learning ability. First, open information reception, rather than closed, selective and fixed source information reception. Second, the training of getting down to the bottom rather than staying in the superficial level of a problem. Third, To overcome the dependence on outmoded methods and think out of the box. Finally, he stressed that learning ability is the real ability as well as the core competitiveness of a person.
In his speech, Professor Yan Kang of the Department of Critical Medicine, West China Hospital, looked back upon his studies at the West China School of Medicine. He also gave a vivid narration of SCU’s medical workers fighting COVID-19 and putting their own lives on the line.
In his speech, Professor Li Chen, a consultant of the Central Research Institute of Culture and History and professor of the School of History and Cultures, encouraged students to make good use of learning resources and cultivate their learning ability. He said that in the history of human civilization, the library is a symbol of knowledge and wisdom. Among these splendid libraries, Sichuan University Library is the most dazzling one. It is among the most important learning abilities to make good use of a library. He hoped that students would go into the library, take the library for a second classroom, and spend their university days studying in the library.
Xin Wang, an outstanding alumnus of SCU and chief designer of Hualong One of China General Nuclear Power Group (CGN), expressed his gratitude for his training at SCU in his speech. He said that teachers not only teach us the knowledge in books, but also teach us the ability to think independently and how to deal with problems independently. He hoped that students would not only learn their own major well, but also constantly expand the scope of knowledge and dare to explore the unknown.
Ruilin Shen, a student representative from the College of Foreign languages and Cultures and Yuxia Shi, a freshman representative from the five-year program of Clinical Medicine of the West China School of Medicine, delivered a speech respectively. They expressed their heartfelt gratitude toward the school, teachers and parents for their training. They indicated that they would continue to inherit and innovate, cherish the time for study, and link their personal future with the destiny of the motherland. They would strive to grow into a new generation with a sense of social responsibility.
At the ceremony, university leaders, academicians, outstanding professors and distinguished guests presented SCU’s school badges to the representatives of Class 2020 freshman students. Finally, all the teachers and students sang the song "Singing in Praise of the Motherland", and the opening ceremony concluded in the passionate singing.
