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'Freshman' Martin welcomes incoming students

Todd Finkelmeyer  —  8/29/2008 8:54 pm

Carolyn "Biddy" Martin gave her first public speech as soon-to-be leader of UW-Madison Friday afternoon, when a couple thousand people eschewed the near-perfect summer weather and headed into the Kohl Center to attend the Chancellor's Convocation for New Students.

As a bookend to commencement, the convocation is designed to inaugurate students into the campus community as they begin their studies. Classes begin at UW-Madison on Tuesday.

Martin, who officially will replace John Wiley as chancellor on Monday, received a loud whoop from the crowd when she asked: "How excited are you to be a Badger?"

"I'm very excited to be a Badger, too," added Martin, who had been provost at Cornell University since 2000. "And I'm just as new as you are. I moved in just a week ago, and I'm delighted to be here as the new chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. We're starting together and you, the class of 2012, are always going to be very special to me because we start this journey together."

One of the more interesting aspects of Martin's speech was when she broke down the numbers of the incoming class. Martin noted the class is approximately 5,700 students -- out of 25,586 applicants.

Of those new UW-Madison students, 59 percent were in the top 10 percent of their high school's graduating class, and 92 percent had grade-point averages between 3.5 and 4.0.

"Here's another interesting statistic," said Martin. "Seventy-eight percent of you said that you expect to have that same grade-point average at the end of your freshman year. So I hope you get back to me about that."

Martin also pointed out that 1,200 first-year UW-Madison students are first-generation college students -- as was Martin.

She urged the students to "get more than a degree" and to "claim an education."

"Learn to love ideas," Martin said. "And learn to love what it feels like to produce them in your own mind. Think about intellectual achievement on the model of sports. We are amazed and even awed by great Olympic and Big Ten athletes and what they can do with their bodies. ...

"While you're here, I want you also to learn the thrill of mental, or intellectual, athleticism -- as you witness it from others and experience it for yourselves. Push yourselves to see what your minds can actually do, and exercise those minds often."

The start of the convocation was somber as Martin asked for a moment of silence to remember three UW-Madison students who died Wednesday after the car they were in struck a tree on Midvale Boulevard. Lindsey T. Plank, 23, and Richard H. Putze, 22, both seniors majoring in chemistry, died in the crash, as did Daniel Myers, 22, who this summer completed his requirements to graduate with a major in music performance, with piano as a specialty.

After Martin spoke for 25 minutes, she turned the stage over to Ald. Eli Judge, a UW-Madison student who represents campus-area District 8.

Judge told of all the wonderful things the city of Madison has to offer, but also stressed the need for students to think of safety first. Safety is a prime concern downtown and on campus after high-profile murders shook the city in 2007 and 2008, including the murder of UW student Brittany Zimmermann in her West Doty Street apartment April 2.

"For the most part, when it comes to freshman convocation, you need to get the big-idea items out of the way," Judge said after the event. "That's why I brought up safety as being one of the more important issues. But pretty much I was just trying to give an introduction to Madison life and campus life."

After Judge spoke, the microphone was turned over to the event's keynote speaker, junior Kim Roberts.

Roberts, of Wrexham, Wales, is both the first student-athlete and first international student to be selected by the chancellor as the keynote speaker. She is a member of the Badgers' women's tennis team and has a double-major of political science and women's studies.

"A new life (at UW-Madison) is hard," Roberts told the crowd. "Strange, scary and so unexpected. Second-guessing yourself is second nature, and it's hard to break out of that box you're so comfortable in. If you don't let Madison into your heart, if you don't let UW pump through your veins, then you may just miss out on one of the best experiences you will ever have."

While leaving the event, students were asked what they thought of giving up an hour of a beautiful Friday to sit inside the Kohl Center.

"It was worth it to get the idea about how the faculty feels about us coming in and getting a chance to see the new chancellor," said Alexandra Curtis, a freshman from Chicago. "It was also interesting to get an idea of the scope of what the class was like -- all of us in one place."

"Pretty much everything that was said, I already knew," added Yahya Altal, a freshman from of Plymouth, Minn. "But it was good to hear things reiterated. I've met a lot of good people so far, and I'm excited to get things going."

For more information on the convocation, visit www.chancellor.wisc.edu/convocation.

For more information about being a new student at UW-Madison, visit www.newstudent.wisc.edu.

Todd Finkelmeyer  —  8/29/2008 8:54 pm