Newsroom

LA Times’ Steve Lopez to Address Incoming CSUN Freshmen

With pomp and circumstance usually associated with commencement, Cal State Northridge will welcome its first-year students at the university’s annual Freshman Convocation on Thursday, Sept. 3.

CSUN President Jolene Koester with a student at last year's convocation.

The convocation, which is designed to formally celebrate the students’ transition to university life, is scheduled to take place at 6 p.m. on the Oviatt Lawn at the center of the campus at 18111 Nordhoff St. in Northridge.

“With the convocation, we hope to convey to our new freshmen that they are important to us and that we are glad that they are joining the Northridge community,” said Tom Piernik, director of Student Development and International Programs and chair of CSUN’s Freshman Convocation Committee.

The keynote address will be presented by Los Angeles Times columnist Steve Lopez, who authored the bestselling book “The Soloist,” which was this year’s selection for the “One Campus, One Book” reading program that invites members of the Cal State Northridge community to join the incoming freshman class in an exploration of a common subject.

“The Soloist” is the true story of Lopez’s discovery of Nathaniel Ayers, a former classical bass student at Juilliard, playing his heart out on a two-string violin on Los Angeles’ Skid Row. Deeply affected by the beauty of Ayer’s music, Lopez took it upon himself to change the musician’s life—only to find that their relationship had a profound change on his own life. The book was adapted into a movie with the same name that was released earlier this year.

First-year students have been invited to assemble at 5 p.m. in Matador Square on the east side of the campus. From the square, they will march in a procession down Matador Walk to the Oviatt Lawn. Northridge President Jolene Koester, accompanied by University Library Dean Susan Curzon bearing the symbolic mace, will lead the procession in full academic regalia, along with formally robed university vice presidents, deans and associate deans of each college, and all department chairs.