The University of Washington Class of 2030 was welcomed officially at the University’s 43rd annual New Student Convocation held Sunday morning in Alaska Airlines Arena at Hec Edmundson Pavilion.
New Student Convocation is one of two landmark occasions where the University president, the Board of Regents, the deans of the schools and colleges, and the faculty gather in academic regalia for a ceremony focused on students. The other is the graduation ceremony, Commencement. These two events are the seminal bookend events of a college career.
Students heard from President Robert J. Jones, Vice President for Student Life Denzil Suite, Vice Provost and Dean of Undergraduate Academic Affairs Ed Taylor and others.
Alexes Harris, the Gordon Hirabayashi Professor for the Advancement of Citizenship and a professor of sociology in the College of Arts & Sciences, was the featured faculty speaker. Harris’ research fundamentally centers on issues of inequality, poverty and race in United States’ legal systems. In 2022, Harris was appointed by Gov. Jay Inslee to serve as the inaugural faculty representative to the Board of Regents. She is also the chair of the Department of American Ethnic Studies and the UW faculty athletics representative.
Following the Convocation ceremony, incoming students formed a giant block “W” on the field inside Husky stadium.
Preliminary fast facts on the incoming class:
- Preliminary figures project the incoming first-year class at UW Seattle at about 7,455 students.
- Around 4,720 first-year students, or about 63%, are projected to be from Washington state.
- An additional 1,719 transfer students are projected to enroll at the UW’s Seattle campus this fall, including about 1,457 from Washington community colleges.
- UW Bothell is projecting about 1,153 first-year students and 660 transfer students.
- UW Tacoma is projecting 730 first-year students and 730 transfer students.
Official enrollment data will be announced later in the quarter.