IU president Herbert addresses freshman class for first time

At Tuesday's Freshmen Induction Ceremony, hundreds of new faces eager and nervous to begin their first year at IU crowded Assembly Hall.\nIncluded among the new faces was IU's new president, Adam Herbert.\nBefore addressing students about the keys to a balanced education, IU-Bloomington Chancellor Sharon Brehm welcomed Herbert, saying that his arrival has brought a sense of joy and renewal to the University.\nThe Induction Ceremony marked the beginning of Welcome Week for freshmen and transfer students. The event, which began and concluded with a performance by the IU Brass Ensemble, included several welcoming speeches from Herbert and Brehm among others.\nHerbert addressed students about the importance and value of a liberal arts education, urging students to expand their minds and take advantage of the University's resources in order to strengthen their minds and character.\n"From Plato to Pascal, from Emerson to Einstein, a liberal arts education will bring you in contact with the great works of the past and, in so doing, will better prepare you to meet the challenges of the future," he said. "This kind of education is as much about how we know as what we actually know."\nBut Herbert was also quick to mention that an education does not just happen in the classroom. He challenged students to become better citizen and asked to "widen your circle of compassion."\nAfter taking a moment to thank the students' parents, Herbert made it clear that their children will be well taken care of and promised that each student will be challenged intellectually and that their core values will be improved.\nPatty Brumbaugh from Carmel, Ind., one of the hundreds of mothers at the ceremony, said Herbert's words were very reassuring and touching.\n"I was so impressed by (Herbert) and the entire event," she said. "I enjoyed the tradition and the history of it all. I'm very glad we decided to come."\nAfter Herbert's speech, Brehm stressed the importance of the basic foundations of an education -- reading, writing and arithmetic -- and offered students her recipe for a well-rounded education, which Chef Brehm said calls for four basic ingredients:\n• Learn something about the United States.\n• Learn something about the rest of the world you haven't lived in.\n• Learn something about science.\n• Learn something about the arts and culture.\nThroughout her speech, Brehm spoke enthuiastically about the potential of IU students. \n"Only when the students out-do the teachers do the teachers get high marks," Brehm said. "We all look forward to your success."\nThe students also had a chance to hear college advice from a student when IU Student Association President Casey Cox spoke to the freshmen about college life and the importance of staying focused on education rather than the party aspect of college. And to get his point across, Cox borrowed a line from the film, "Animal House."\n"Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life," Cox said. "Beer and pizza are overrated."\nRahul Vora, a freshman from St. Louis, Mo., said he appreciated the student's perspective from Cox and the "cool advice he gave us."\nBefore concluding his address, Herbert drove home the importance of the purpose of a liberal education and welcomed the long-awaited arrival of his and the students' experience at IU.\n"Intelligence is not enough," Herbert said. "Intelligence plus character is the goal of a true education."\n-- Contact senior writer Colin Kearns at cmkearns@indiana.edu.