Does my calendar really say August? How did that happen?!?!
We have had a very busy, productive, and fun summer here in
Conference and Events. I usually mark
the summer and fall seasons by Commencement (summer starting) and Orientation
(summer ending, fall starting). So our
summer kicked off with the Conference and Events staff and 3,092 of our closest
friends (not to mention their families and friends) having their degrees
conferred over a three day weekend; May 18-20.
The weather was absolutely beautiful on Friday for the
School of Nursing and School of Medicine and Dentistry’s Commencement
Ceremonies at Eastman Theatre and stayed that way the entire weekend. On Saturday, the Doctoral and Warner Graduate
School of Education Commencement Ceremonies were held at Eastman Theatre, with
the School of Medicine and Dentistry Master’s degree ceremony in Kilbourn
Hall. We capped the weekend off on
Sunday with the College Commencement ceremony on picturesque Eastman Quad on
the River Campus. Ruth Simmons,
president of Brown University, delivered the Commencement address to 1,200
graduating students, their families, and friends.
Many people at the University of Rochester think of
Conference and Events, and think “Commencement”…..and rightfully so! After Commencement, we will often here “I bet
it will slow down for you all now”.
Well, not so much. Our office
oversees the Conference Summer Housing process for visiting summer guests. We work with the Office of Residential Life
to make the process smooth for our residential visitors in the summer. We will coordinate efforts with Security, the
ID Office, the Athletic Center, Parking and Transportation, and the Post Office
to make sure our summer guests have a memorable experience while on
campus. Summer housing guests started
checking in the week after Commencement and we still have a few stragglers on
campus that are checking out this week.
Our residence halls were pretty much at a maximum capacity this past
summer.
We also put the “Conference” in Conference and Events this
past summer. From May 30 to June 3 we
worked on the 2012 International Viola Congress. This was the 40th annual Congress,
and the first time a school had hosted it twice, as the Eastman School had
previously hosted it in 1977. The
Congress featured concerts, a banquet, exhibitor space, and lectures. It truly was an event to see!
On Sunday, June 10 it was back down at Eastman Theatre for
another Commencement ceremony. The Simon
Graduate School of Business has their annual Commencement in June, as they are
on the quarter system. However, two of
us were on campus that day working with the Biostatistics Department. The Sunday through Thursday conference
brought students from all over the world to the University of Rochester for an
introduction to mathematical and computational modeling techniques and their
applications to problems in immunology.
Following the Summer School, a two day Symposium was held in
the Class of ’62 Auditorium, which was open to both Summer School attendees and
the University of Rochester community.
The Symposium focused on the use of computational modeling approaches in
immunology research and the exchange of research ideas and information on
computational immunology between the Modeling Immunity for Biodefense network
and other networks and investigators.
After two very large conferences, combined with Conference
Summer Housing, we are knee deep in billing right now. But we are also looking towards one of my
favorite seasons in fall. I work very
heavily with a group called the Association of NROTC Colleges and Universities
in the fall, and I promise to write about it more in the upcoming months. We also have a lot of exciting things planned
for our Facebook fans and readers of our blog.
Events, giveaways, and more. Stay
tuned!
-Scott
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