For a number of years the Freshman Convocation has been a tradition at Fairfield, serving as a means of officially welcoming new students into the school.

And while this tradition still holds, this year the University has decided to extend this tradition to all students, faculty and staff with the first annual Fall Convocation.

On Sept. 9, roughly 300 people came out to the Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts according to Senior Vice President of Student Affairs Thomas Pellegrino. The event focused on the future of Fairfield and the implementation of Fairfield 2020.

The Convocation featured a panel discussion led by Pellegrino. Members of the panel included Father Jeffrey von Arx, S.J., Dr. Lynn Babbington, senior vice president for Academic Affairs and Kevin Lawlor, executive vice president.

Von Arx delivered opening remarks before the panel began, encouraging the Fairfield community to not be a spectator: “Fairfield 2020 begins now, and it is a call to action to all of us to take initiative.” He continued to say that we all must make the necessary changes to “make Fairfield the university it has the potential to become.”

According to Pellegrino, the panel discussion covered such topics as “what the University is doing to increase diversity, the efforts to build up the University’s programs for non-traditional students, new technology in the classroom, the ‘value proposition’ of a Fairfield education, the campus master plan and so on.”  

Pellegrino also said that the main objective of the University in holding Fall Convocation is to bring Fairfield together as a community at the beginning of the school year.

“We are in a very important time both in the landscape of higher education, and in Fairfield’s strategic planning for the future. With transformations this big, and this important, bringing people together as a team and a community is important,” he said.  

Von Arx feels that the addition of Fall Convocation into the University’s tradition was a smart move, saying, “Now it seems very clear to me that we owe it to ourselves and to the wellbeing of our community to begin every year this way — in fellowship and celebration — and talking about our plans, hopes and our desires for the coming year.”

Pellegrino agreed that Fall Convocation is the ideal way to motivate students, faculty and staff for the upcoming year.

“The immediate goal was to both educate and engage our campus community on our strategic plan, and get the University community excited and reengaged for the future ahead of us,” he said.

“We also wanted to make this a discussion that would capture the attention and imagination of the people listening,” Pellegrino continued.

For Pellegrino, Fairfield’s first Fall Convocation was “a positive first step and a model for future convocations,” noting that the University plans to make Fall Convocation an annual tradition.

According to Pellegrino, students with leadership roles on campus, such as resident assistants and FUSA representatives, were given a special invitation to attend the event. FUSA President Anif McDonald ’16 attended and felt that Fall Convocation was a beneficial addition the University’s student welcome this school year.

“I thought the new Fall Convocation was a well-organized event that allowed students to understand what the University is planning for the future,” McDonald said.

McDonald added that the event gave “us as students an idea as to what is going on within the University and how much work they are doing.”

However, he wishes that for future Fall Convocations more students who do not necessarily have leadership roles attend the event “to learn more about Fairfield’s plans to progress.”

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