Miami Student

Issue date: 8/26/08 Section: Campus

The Miami University drum line marches around the Hub at the 2008 Convocation.

Miami University President David Hodge welcomed the class of 2012 with the challenge of a broomball game and a piece of advice: using Febreeze isn't the same as doing laundry.

However above all, Hodge encouraged students to be part of an "engaged university"-a theme widely promoted as part of Miami's new mission statement released spring 2008.

"Your Miami experience is not an interlude in your life," Hodge said. "You are joining, not observing this community."

Hodge said Jeffrey Bennett, the author of Beyond UFOs: The search for extraterrestrial life and its astonishing implications on our future, explains the planet in a way that is significant to this community, specifically Miami's internationalized curriculum.

During his speech, Bennett provided first-year students with hope and a warning for the future.

At one point, he spoke of taking your children to the moon for spring break or "really study abroad-on Mars."

Then in the next breath, he warned that technology could become a more destructive force.

"Instead of great achievements, could this century be known for horrible wars?" Bennett said.

Ultimately, though, his message was one of hope.

"I believe we live in a universe full of life … we can join this galactic society-if we can navigate," Bennett said.

First-year Julie Banyas said although some of the speakers were a bit long, she was excited to see the video the university prepared about its connection with the Miami tribe. She said she also enjoyed the Glee Club's song in Chinese, a performance which garnered a round of applause from Miami's international students.

Following tradition, upperclassmen lined Tallawanda Road as first-years walked from the Hub to Millet Hall in the convocation procession Friday.

However, as compared to convocation in 2007-when six or seven citations were issued by the Oxford Police Department (OPD) for open container violations, public intoxication and disorderly conduct along Tallawanda-OPD Sgt. Jim Squance said only one citation was issued Aug. 22.

Miami University Police Department Lt. Benjamin Spilman said he thought it still seemed as if there were a lot of people out early in the morning with drinks along the road.

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