‘This is my freshman year, too’
Leading his first Freshman Convocation, President L. Rafael Reif welcomed MIT’s incoming Class of 2016 in Killian Court on Monday under a blazing sun and clear blue skies. “For those of you who haven’t been in Boston or Cambridge,” he joked, “every day feels like this.”“I feel a very special connection to this class,” the Institute’s new president said. “This is my freshman year, too.”But while it’s his first year leading the Institute, Reif pointed out that he has actually been at MIT “since before many of you were born.” When he first arrived at MIT in 1980, he said, he was excited but had many of the same worries that this year’s new arrivals are likely feeling: “Would my work be good enough? Would my English be good enough? Would I fit in? What would I do when it started to snow?”But very soon, he said, “I came to...