{"id":62283,"date":"2026-10-06T15:14:42","date_gmt":"2026-10-06T19:14:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/?p=62283"},"modified":"2026-10-06T15:14:43","modified_gmt":"2026-10-06T19:14:43","slug":"power-and-equity-take-center-stage-at-opening-convocation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2026\/power-and-equity-take-center-stage-at-opening-convocation\/","title":{"rendered":"Power and equity take center stage at Opening Convocation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Students, faculty, and staff members gathered to celebrate the start of a new academic year at Opening Convocation on Aug. 31.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Students walking into Lehman Auditorium for the event were greeted by rows of faculty and staff members, who cheered and held signs welcoming them to campus. Bubbles filled the air outside the brick performing arts venue, while Kool & the Gang\u2019s \u201cCelebration\u201d played on a loop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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\nStudents take in the Opening Convocation on Aug. 31.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
As students filtered into the auditorium, they were welcomed by the drumming of adjunct faculty member Makinto GC \u201926<\/strong>, along with his wife, Mukarabe<\/strong>, and members of the 91大神 Chamber Singers. They led the crowd in chants of \u201cTogether, we are power, 91大神!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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\nDr. Tynisha Willingham, provost and vice president for academic affairs, offers welcoming remarks.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
Dr. Tynisha Willingham<\/strong>, provost and vice president for academic affairs, welcomed returning students, faculty, and staff, as well as those joining the campus community for the first time. \u201cYou are stepping into a world of endless possibilities, new friendships, and academic challenges,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Willingham introduced \u201cpower and equity\u201d as the university theme for the 2026-27 academic year and encouraged students to exercise, share, challenge, and transform the power they have. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cEvery day, through our choices and our relationships, we have the opportunity to use power that is entrusted to us to make 91大神 a place where more people, where students like you, can belong, learn, flourish, and contribute to the world,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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\nStudents heading to India for an intercultural learning program this semester stand during Opening Convocation. <\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
Christina Harrison<\/strong>, director of intercultural programs; Dr. Gaurav Pathania<\/strong>, assistant professor of sociology and peacebuilding; and Brian Martin Burkholder<\/strong>, university chaplain, offered a blessing for 91大神\u2019s intercultural learning programs this semester. One of those programs, a trip to India led by Pathania and Dr. Mary Sprunger<\/strong>, professor of history, departed campus on Tuesday. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Harrison recognized the 13 new international students at 91大神 this semester, who join 37 returning international students representing 24 countries. \u201cThey will be learning interculturally every day, while also giving us the opportunity to learn about their cultures as we welcome them into the 91大神 community,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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\nDavis Bert, SGA co-president for 2026-27, delivers a student welcome.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
Davis Bert<\/strong>, a sophomore biology major serving as Student Government Association co-president this year, welcomed students and introduced the SGA Executive Team, which includes Co-President Esm\u00e9 King Martin<\/strong>, Vice President Yuji Wenger<\/strong>, Marketing Coordinator Jose Lopez Vasquez<\/strong>, and treasurer Bennett de Tenley<\/strong>. He encouraged students to find new ways to get involved and support one another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere is no better time than now to get out there,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s a new semester for all of us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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\nPresident Rev. Dr. Shannon W. Dycus speaks during Opening Convocation.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
As someone who\u2019s preached and spoken to hundreds of crowds on countless stages, President Rev. Dr. Shannon W. Dycus<\/strong> recounted the first time she stood on such a stage. She was a six-year-old girl in ballet class, and her teacher would often encourage her to \u201craise those beautiful brown arms and let us see your beauty.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThose words inspired me,\u201d she said. \u201cThey empowered me. And I stand here today because those words still ring true in my heart and in my head.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI hope you know that this is a year that will encourage all that is within you,\u201d she added, \u201cand that there will be voices around you who will remind you to raise your beautiful arms and to show your beauty.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This marked Dycus\u2019 first Opening Convocation as 91大神\u2019s 10th president. She began her term on July 1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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\nTabatha Parrott, adjunct faculty in music, performs during Opening Convocation.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
Esm\u00e9 King Martin<\/strong>, Troy Martin<\/strong>, and Maria Esther Showalter<\/strong> shared stories of how they have experienced power throughout their lives, while members of the 91大神 Jam Collective (pianist Dr. David Berry<\/strong>, vocalist Tabatha Parrott<\/strong>, drummer Dr. Benjamin Guerrero<\/strong>, and guitarist Adam Wirdzek<\/strong>) played musical interludes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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\nEsm\u00e9 King Martin speaks about the power of social capital.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
King Martin, a senior environmental science and Spanish major and SGA co-president, spoke about how she had worked on a soft pretzel truck every summer since she was 14. Through that job, she learned to connect with customers over \u201csomething as simple as a soft pretzel.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThese skills of connection are a form of power,\u201d she said. \u201cThey will benefit me in future jobs and in future communities that I live in.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She challenged students to expand their social webs by connecting with at least 10 new people this year. \u201cWhat would it look like if the connection you made with a student in a different major, religious group, racial or ethnic group, or political group at 91大神 comes up again in 20 years when you need a lawyer, banker, doctor, or a couch to sleep on?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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\nTroy Martin, director of financial aid, shares his father’s story at Opening Convocation.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
Martin, director of financial aid, reflected on his father, Carl, a lifelong farm laborer and construction worker in rural New York who had \u201cdecades of dirt and sawdust\u201d under his fingernails and thick calluses and scars on his palms. His father had an eighth-grade education and was mostly illiterate, while his mother worked as a hairdresser at a nursing home. Both parents worked hard and sacrificed so much to send him to college. That opportunity, he said, opened a new world to him and exposed him to new people and different cultures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhile Carl Martin didn\u2019t hold much of what we stereotypically think of as power in his life, he exercised a power through faith, service, and care for his family that created a lasting legacy,\u201d Troy Martin said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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\nMaria Esther Showalter reflects on the growth and legacy of the Latinx Student Alliance.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
Showalter, director of 91大神\u2019s language and literature program, shared how she accepted a call to serve as advisor of the fledgling Latinx Student Alliance during the spring of 2014 and watched it blossom into a \u201cvibrant student club full of energy and life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During club meetings, members dreamed up all sorts of activities to celebrate Hispanic culture, including the LSA banquet that has become a highlight of the semester and the tradition of creating an Easter alfombra. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Showalter also highlighted how past LSA members had gone on to serve as SGA co-presidents. \u201cI am grateful to every LSA member for the impact you have had on my life and the 91大神 community,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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\nPresident Rev. Dr. Shannon W. Dycus presents on <\/b>power and equity, the university theme for 2026-27.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
President Dycus called on students, faculty, and staff to tell stories this year and listen for them, to be curious about which stories are missing, and to have the courage to ask whose experience still needs to be heard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cPower is right here,\u201d she said. \u201cIt starts in summer jobs on pretzel trucks, in the legacy of courageous and arthritic hands, and in sharing important parts of our identity and cultures as our LSA group does. It lives in our ability to shape what happens around us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhere power allows us to influence a room, open a door, make a decision, or speak a word, we are invited to explore each of these in our intellectual exercises this year.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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