Opening Convocation 2004

Opening Convocation 2003: "The Socratic Challenge"

President Anthony W. Marx addressed faculty, students and guests at Opening Convocation on Monday, Sept. 1, 2003. Read the full text of the speech.Honorary M.A. degrees were awarded to three faculty members who recently reached the rank of full professor: Jyl Gentzler, professor of philosophy; Helen Oi-Lun Leung, professor of chemistry; and K. Uday Sinha Mehta, professor of political science.

Welcoming new students at Convocation 2016, Amherst College President Biddy Martin unpacked one of the more curious but appropriate adjectives used to describe the college: yeasty.

“When I agreed to be interviewed for the presidency here, there was a summary statement about Amherst’s culture that made me laugh: ‘Amherst,’ it read, ‘with its independent faculty, committed staff and actively engaged alumni and students, has a distinctive, yeasty culture,’” Martin told new students gathered at Johnson Chapel Sept. 5.