Photos by Jenny Gerow

Curb space and parking lots were at a premium on Saturday as parents helped their children move into the first-year dorms.

Warm welcome

Staff report

After spending much of a hot summer Saturday moving their students into first-year dorms, the weary parents of the Class of 2006 received another warm welcome to the University community from U.Va. President John T. Casteen III.

Casteen thanked the more than 400 who gathered in Old Cabell Hall late Saturday afternoon for entrusting their children to U.Va., and for the “wonderful jobs” they had done in raising them.

“You have sent us a remarkable class,” Casteen said. “This is an extraordinarily well-prepared class. Eighty-four percent of the class graduated in the top 10 percent of their high school classes, 97 percent in the top 25 percent.”

Casteen proceeded to give a statistical profile of the incoming class:

Four first-year women check out the view from their dorm windows.

• 50 percent scored between 1,210 and 1,400 on their SATs.

• Four students scored perfect 1,600s.

• 46 states, plus the District of Columbia, and 58 countries are represented.

• 66.5 percent are Virginia residents, 33.5 percent are from out of state.

• 55.1 percent are women, 44.9 percent are men.

• 9.7 percent are African American.

• 9.5 percent are Asian American.• 3.1 percent are Hispanic.

• 0.03 percent are Native American.

• 4.9 percent are international.

He warned parents that they might have some difficulties letting go over the coming days and months, but advised that it was a natural process, one in which their children would learn and grow in new ways. He encouraged parents “to stand back and let your children make their own decisions – and their own mistakes.

“Your student’s job for the next four years is to not only get a college degree, but to begin shaping a life.”

Student volunteers greet incoming first-years.

Casteen asked that parents encourage their children to embrace the University and all that it offers. “The University belongs to them now – the extensive curriculum, the spectacular system of libraries, the faculty, one of the great treasures of American education – and it is up to them how they use it.”

Casteen also invited parents to return in October for Family Weekend to experience University life by attending classes with their children, getting to know the library – and even by eating at some of the favorite student haunts on the Corner.

“We want the next four years to be more than a good experience,” he said. “We want it to be a great experience, a transformational one, for our students. And we want you to share in it with us.”

U.Va. President John T. Casteen III addressed students on the Lawn during First-year Convocation Sunday evening.