TCU faculty and staff celebrated convocation on Tuesday with an address from Chancellor Victor Boschini and the presentation of several awards to members of the TCU community.

Convocation took a virtual approach due to COVID-19 restrictions, but Boschini said this moment is still “a moment to commemorate important milestones in the history of Texas Christian University.”

The convocation began with an invocation by Rev. Todd Boling, the senior associate chaplain for the university, and a song performed by the TCU Concert Chorale.

Provost Teresa Dahlberg welcomed the 38 new full-time faculty members to TCU and introduced the new deans of the AddRan College of Liberal Arts, the College of Education and the Mary Couts Burnett Library. 

“Our academic learning environment thrives with the addition of new ideas, new scholarship and new people that inspire our students and all of us at TCU,” Dahlberg said.

The convocation continued with a remark from Paige Shiring, the student body president of the Student Government Association.

Shiring recalled a story from her first year at TCU, when she was struggling in her first accounting course. She said she overcame this struggle with the help of her professors and peers.

“To know that my professors truly cared about me drives me to put forward my best work.”

Paige Shiring

She concluded by saying that TCU faculty and administrators “invest, believe and push us to reach our greatest potential. We are not a number, we are a student.”

The Chancellor’s Address, a time for Boschini to share his visions and aspirations on the upcoming school year, followed. 

“This year, a year unlike any other, requires that we pause and reflect on who we are today, and who we strive to become tomorrow,” said the Chancellor. “How we get there will define us as a community.”

He encouraged the TCU community to address issues of social injustice, work to navigate the pandemic and ensure that TCU remains a vital and sustainable university for the next 150 years.

Chancellor Boschini continued by highlighting the efforts of several TCU faculty who exemplify top leadership qualities, including Dr. Miriam Ezzani, an assistant professor of educational leadership for the College of Education, and Dr. David Cross, the Rees-Jones director of the Karyn Purvis Institute of Child Development. 

Recently, the late Anne Marion’s Burnett Foundation, based in Fort Worth, made a $25 million gift intended to support the TCU and UNT Health Science Center School of Medicine.

This year’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Award was presented to Adam McKinney, an assistant professor of dance for the College of Fine Arts.

McKinney spoke on the importance of looking back on history to make meaning in the present.

“We as Horned Frogs…have an opportunity and responsibility to get it right,” he said. 

The celebration concluded with a parting message from the chancellor, who told the TCU community that this year’s convocation is a “celebration of our culture, our traditions and of our academic community.”

Convocation can be viewed on TCU’s Youtube Channel and can also be found on the Fall Convocation Experience website.