Math teacher and slam poet Taylor Mali welcomed the class of 2013 at convocation Friday morning with a rhyming performance of "What Teachers Make," from his poetry book What Learning Leaves.
"If you got this (pointing to head), then you follow this (pointing to heart) and if someone ever tries to judge you by what you make, you give them this (the finger)," Mali said, standing in front of the podium at Millett Hall and addressing some 3,220 new first-year students and their families. "Teachers make a difference, now what about you?"
Mali's book is the first book of poetry selected as the summer reading book all incoming students read in the 28 years since the program began, said John Tassoni, director of liberal education.
"For some, a collection of poetry seemed like an odd choice," Tassoni said. "For others, especially in my own department of English, it's baffling that it's taken so long."
Mali said he chooses not to wonder why it took so long to pick a poetry book for the summer reading but to simply celebrate the fact.
"If the love of poetry that we're naturally born with is not drained by poets' competition to be the most senseless … it's drained in high school," Mali said. "High school is where poetry goes to die."
He advised first-years to live their life like a poem, adding that silence is occasionally the key to eloquent speech. Alternating between performing and talking, he encouraged students to follow their heart.
"There is nothing so fulfilling as walking the path you know you were meant to walk," Mali said.
Mali's performance impressed first-year business major Chelsea Foster. She said it motivated her to do her best at Miami.
"When he read his poem at the end … I thought he was really funny and he left you with a bang," Foster said. "I really liked him."
President David Hodge welcomed the first entering class of Miami's third century with a challenge to a broomball game and a warning that Febreze doesn't cut it when it comes to laundry.
His overall message encouraged the new first-years to jump into their lives at Miami as "engaged learners."
"The days of passive learning are gone," Hodge said. "You will now be immersed in a 24/7 learning environment."
So what's a nonstop learning environment like?
Hodge said academic achievement and learning are not spectator sports. He then advised that students should not limit learning to the classroom.
Hodge encouraged students to build relationships with professors, get involved in extracurricular activities and discover who they really are. He compared this self-quest toward discovery with a jigsaw puzzle.
"Each collegiate experience is one piece of that puzzle - only at the beginning you don't get to see the picture on the box," Hodge said. "At the end, you're better able to learn from failures and take chances … you're ready to begin working on new, more complex puzzles, or as I like to say, figure it out."
Oxford Mayor Prue Dana welcomed new students "home" to Oxford and Student Body President Jonathan McNabb assured that first-year jitters and anxiety do not last long.
Upperclassmen lined the traditional parade route from the Hub to Millett Hall.
The procession did not stream down Tallawanda Road but underneath the Engineering Building arch, behind Withrow Hall and then onto Tallawanda, according to Dionn Tron, associate vice president for university communications.
Chief John McCandless of the Miami University Police Department (MUPD) said upperclassmen ran across Tallawanda to see the procession. He said upperclassmen yelled some "disparaging and rude comments" at the procession although he did not personally overhear them.
Foster said she wouldn't categorize the yelling as hazing and assured that it didn't bother her.
"There were upperclassmen on both sides of the sidewalk," Foster said. "They were yelling at us and stuff. I just didn't know why they were up so early, and thought it was kind of pointless. It didn't make me nervous. They were just yelling 'freshmen' and stuff."
McCandless said the MUPD did not make any arrests or issue tickets, and no officers observed students with alcohol while on the altered procession route.
