Convocation and Candlelighting Ceremony

The night before classes start, the campus community gathers in the Weis Center for the Performing Arts to mark the beginning of the academic year. The evening provides a context for the intellectual challenges that students will face over the course of the year. Following convocation, first-year students and faculty parade to the Academic Quad where the students stand side-by-side along the quad's outer edges. The president lights a candle - representing the "Light of Knowledge" - and spreads that light to all the students, forming a circle of light. The candle-lighting ceremony comes to a close with faculty, staff, and students joining together to sing the alma mater, Dear Bucknell. The ceremony is repeated the night before commencement.