All roads led to the Lokoja-Ajaokuta highway campus of Salem University, Lokoja, where the faith based institution held its tenth matriculation Ceremony amidst pomp and pageantry.
From the gate of the institution, it was an unseal sight in the morning as the university’s environment witnessed high vehicular and human traffic as parents, guardians, friends and other well wishers gathered to celebrate the new matriculating students.
In her address, the Vice Chancellor of the University, Professor Dorcas Oluwade expressed joy for witnessing the day, expressing hope that the newly admitted students would bring positive change to the society.
She was however quick to intimate the students and their wards about the philosophy of the institution, saying that the hope of the school is to raise leaders that are spiritually alive, mentally alert and intellectually developed for a better society.
The Vice Chancellor noted the need for students to work together and ensure creation of outcomes by learning to perceive individual and collective impacts on the environment and sense the intricate web that exist among members of the society.
“We have to develop our the ability to sustain new behaviours and ways of carrying out activities, develop new habits, learn from experiences and be sensitive to what is being created,” she highlighted.
She stressed the need for people to be imaginative by recognising systems and skills that can help the society get better in all ramifications through collective efforts.
She said the institution does take the issue of entrepreneurship with levity, noting that deciding on a particular profession requires commitment towards actualising the objective for engagement.
An entrepreneur, she said, perceives everything as a chance and displays bias in taking decisions to exploiting the opportunities that may have been noticed, saying teaching students on how to spot opportunities is among the cardinal objectives of studies in the institution, hence graduates from Salem University are job creators, rather than job seekers.
She warned the new students against acts capable of bringing the institution into disrepute, and said management frowns at anyone caught engaging in them.
The Vice Chancellor mentioned truancy, absenteeism, disrespect for constituted authorities, noncompliance to dress codes among others, as vices that are not treated lightly and admonished the students to take their studies seriously so as to be worthy ambassadors of the university upon graduation.
The parents and guardians that were present at the ceremony all expressed gratitude to God for the opportunity to be at the university, and promised to contribute their quota towards the success of their programmes.
