New Student Convocation Introduces Rider Rock Tradition to Freshmen, Transfer Students

Freshmen and transfer students will be welcomed as members of the Rider community during the Lawrenceville campus’s New Student Convocation on Tuesday, September 7, at 1 p.m. in the Student Recreation Center. The hour-long ceremony not only marks the start of a new academic chapter for incoming students, but it also introduces one of many Rider traditions.

Rider University President Mordechai Rozanski will give the opening remarks, and the students will hear from a number of Rider faculty, staff and current students. In addition, many faculty members will process in their academic attire during the ceremony.

Following the ceremony, all new students will have the opportunity to touch the Rider Rock, a 5-foot-high hunk of granite, located adjacent to the Bart Luedeke Center Patio. According to tradition, students and recent graduates reaffirm their commitment to Rider by touching the rock during the recessionals of the New Student Convocation and again at the Lawrenceville Commencement in May.

The Rider Rock was initiated by students in 2006 to honor generations of Rider students, past, present and future, and to connect them to the symbolic Rider Elm, the emblem of learning and the cycle of life. The Rock is inscribed with Rider’s motto, the Latin words “In Omnia Paratus,” which translates to “in all things, go prepared,” along with the insignia of the tree of knowledge and 1865, the year Rider was founded. The inscription continues, “By touching the Rider Rock, we affirm our commitment to the pursuit of knowledge and the betterment of the world. Through the time we spent here, we are forever joined to the past and future generations of students and to Rider University.”

Members of the Student Government Association will also hand out small “Rider Rocks” to the students during the New Student Convocation. “The Rider Rock is a symbol of our unity. We all touch the Rider Rock when we enter the University at convocation, and we touch the rock again as we graduate at commencement,” explained Lindsay Galbraith, SGA University Affairs Team Leader. “ SGA provides the students with their own mini Rider Rock to remind them of their times here at Rider.”