As the highlight of an intensive introductory week, TU Ilmenau welcomed the new students into the academic community at the start of the winter semester 2022/23 with a ceremonial matriculation in the Audimax. The event was framed by the chamber choir and the string ensemble of the Academic Orchestra.
"Whatever the reason you have chosen Ilmenau as your place of study - you will not regret it." With these words, University President Prof. Kai-Uwe Sattler welcomed the new students to TU Ilmenau. At the same time, he encouraged the young people to get involved in the university community: "You are now a member of this university - help shape your university!" Ilmenau also has a lot to offer besides studying, he said: "If you want to tap beer at the club, put on music, make radio, construct racing cars or learn new sports - you can do it here!"
Ilmenau's mayor, Dr. Daniel Schultheiß, and Niko Kron, student consul at TU Ilmenau, also encouraged students in their greetings to get involved in life on campus and in the city.
A campus should be a place of participation, for this we need you, your ideas, your commitment!
Niko Kron said. "My recommendation for you is: Get involved!" At the TU Ilmenau, the new students could gain experiences that they would not take away from any lecture. They would have it in their own hands to participate in committees to further the development of the study programs, improve the study conditions and to stand up for student interests:
You can organize events that are unique in Germany. In the clubs, you can make new friends that go beyond the boundaries of your degree programs.
About one third of all students at the university have come to Ilmenau to study from countries all over the world, he said.
This is a very big concern for me - make contacts, be open to each other, learn from each other and broaden your horizons [...] Show here in Ilmenau how solidary cooperation works and build bridges between people with different backgrounds!
Keynote speaker Lars Dittrich, himself a graduate of the TU Ilmenau as well as founder and managing director of 5microns GmbH, also encouraged the first-year students, based on his own experiences, to try out the university with the "uniqueness factor", to take lectures, seminars and internships to the right and left of their path and to consciously and proactively take charge of their own time. But also to "speak up" and address things, even if this supposedly puts an exam grade in jeopardy:
In my opinion, a campus must not only be the source of visions for the future and solutions to current problems. Rather, on a campus, the factual arguments should also be allowed to clash fiercely.
At the end of his speech, Lars Dittrich not only wished the new students a "great, experiential and inspiring time in Ilmenau", but also "from the bottom of my heart a belly landing with kettledrums and trumpets":
It is good to have once consciously learned to deal with defeat.
The ceremonial matriculation was musically framed by a modern version of the traditional student song "Gaudeamus Igitur", performed by the Chamber Choir of the TU Ilmenau, as well as the string ensemble of the Academic Orchestra, which inspired with an own composition by conductor Pamela Mayorga.