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KANSAN.COM
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Thousands of new students practice waving the wheat at the Office of First Year Experience's annual Traditions Night in Memorial Stadium on Saturday, Aug. 22
JAMES HOYT/KANSAN
The "Not So Late Show" host Mike Anderson interviews Kansas coaches Brandon Schneider, David Beatty and Bill Self on Kwisto Field on Saturday. Anderson hosted the annual Traditions Night, an event the Office of First Year Experience puts on each year to get new students acquainted with the University and its traditions.
JAMES HOYT/KANSAN
Dylan Guthrie, lead singer of Pink Royal, performs at the Union Plaza on Friday. The Lawrence band and The Phantastics, a band based in Kansas City, Mo., played at the annual Student Union Activities Unionfest event.
FINNEY/KANSAN
What you missed at the 2015 annual Convocation ceremony
ANANDA BHATIA
@abb48ca
In her speech at this year's Convocation, Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little said recent problems in today's society exemplified long-running challenges regarding race and equality that were prevalent when the University was founded in 1866.
She asked students to begin addressing these challenges among themselves, from wealth disparity to climate change, even though it might
make them uncomfortable.
"That's precisely why you're here: to be challenged, to experience intellectual discomfort, to have the opportunity to learn and to test new ideas," she said.
Congressman Kevin Yoder, a former University class president, said the key to unlocking the University's potential was becoming immersed in the campus.
The Convocation ceremony marks the start of the academic year. This year is the University's 150 anniversary.
"KU will provide you with world-class education if you reach for it," he said.
The deans on stage wore robes with academic regalia representing different degrees they earned. In the opening remarks, Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor Jeffrey Vitter said it might look as if they "just flew in from Hogwarts," but that the University was magical like Harry Potter because subjects inspire students to think in new and creative ways.
DANI MALAKOFF/KANSAN is in the 150th
Bernadette Gray-Little, the chancellor of the University of Kansas, speaks to the new freshman class in the 150th Convocation Address.
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