In the golden month of September, 9,137 freshmen from across the country gathered at Sichuan University to start a new chapter in their life.
The opening ceremony for Class 2021 undergraduates was held on Jiang’an campus on September 6. Chairman Wang Jianguo of the university council and President Li Yanrong attended the ceremony. Also, Xie Heping, Gao Jie and Shi Bi(academicians of CAE), the alumni representative Zhao Yuliang, academician of CAS, SCU outstanding professors Cao Shunqing and Zhan Shichuang, university leaders Xu Weilin, Cao Ping, Zhang Zhuo, Zhang Lin and Guo Yong, as well as teacher representatives, and all the new students of 2021 attended the ceremony. The ceremony was presided over by Guo Yong, deputy secretary of the SCU’s CPC Party committee.
On behalf of the university, President Li welcomed the new students and congratulated them on becoming students of Sichuan University. He then gave the students their first lecture of the new semester: "From ‘excellence’ to ‘outstanding’". He notedthat theuniversity is the turning point of "going from ‘excellence’ to ‘outstanding’" in life. To achieve that, it is necessary to "deepen general knowledge, broaden horizons and adopt an interdisciplinary approach" while strengthening the foundation. That is what SCU’s undergraduate school has stressed all the time. As far as deepening general knowledge is concerned, (I hope) the students will learn about the history of science and technology, and human civilizations. Also you need to learn more about the origin of human beings as well as the relationship between man and nature. Then, you can have a feeling of looking at the changes of world science and technology, and human civilizations from the height of human history, and you can really stand on the shoulders of predecessors, and giants of science in particular. The second is to broaden horizons. The breadth of a person's vision determines his/her excellence. When we possess a big outlook of the world, we will open our mind and have a high standard for our undertakings. The third is to have an interdisciplinary approach. Being a large comprehensive university, Sichuan University has the soil and ecology for disciplinary integration. I hope that you can strive to understand and master the knowledge of relevant fields, and be able to establish more connections and integration of different disciplines while conducting in-depth study of your majors at the university. The president stressed that a university is the amplifier of life. As long as the students can take the "open, inclusive, deep and tolerant" culture of Sichuan University as the background of life, form a habit of harboring lofty goals and pursuing perfection, then you can go from ‘ordinary’ to ‘excellence’ and from ‘excellence’ to ‘outstanding’.
Student representatives, Liu Tong, a Class 2018 undergraduate of the School of Mechanical Engineering and He Yuyue, a Class 2021 freshman of the School of Public Administration, delivered speeches.
At the ceremony, the university leaders, academicians, distinguished professors and guests presented the school badges to the representatives of Class 2021 freshmen. All the new students have officially become "people of Sichuan University".
The Chinese names begin with family name in this report.