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Dal Spirit and Tradition

At Dalhousie, we’re proud of our past and confident in our future. Here, you’ll find a diverse mix of students - from across Canada and around the globe - who, like you, are ready to do great things.

Opportunities make all the difference. And you’ll find all kinds of them here. Opportunities for self-discovery. Critical thinking. Understanding. Creating change. Becoming the person you want to be. At Dalhousie, you can explore your interests in ways you may never have imagined.

Dal's energetic campus is a place where you’ll thrive intellectually, socially and physically. With the broad range of extracurricular activities, athletic and volunteer opportunities available, there’s something for everyone. Check out the Campus Connections website and get involved!

Dalhousie University Teams: Dal Tigers

Dalhousie University Colours: Black and Gold

The Dalhousie Experience: Your Personal Journey
The Dalhousie Experience is all that you can learn in your classes, and all that you learn outside of your classes as well. Your time at DAL is more than an education for your future career - be prepared to discover the unexpected, to explore alternatives for thinking and living, to define what kind of person you want to be in today’s world. We hope you will be inspired for life by Dalhousie’s scholarly values: respect for continuous questioning, a thirst for new knowledge, a desire to collaborate with others and share that knowledge, and a compulsion to act for the betterment of our world.

Dalhousie's Motto: Inspiring Minds

Dalhousie Traditions
A tradition of welcome and friendship - from your first week on campus to the day you graduate and beyond, DAL students look out for each other.

A tradition of academic achievement - your professors expect a lot from you and you expect a lot from yourself. We’re here to help you succeed.

A tradition of service to those in need - over and above looking out for each other, DAL students look for ways to make the world a better place, today.

A tradition of great fun, hard work and huge success - so be sure to find your part in it all. Because wherever you go for the rest of your life, DAL’s great name and reputation goes with you!

Dalhousie’s Ceremonial Traditions
Like your Convocation Ceremony when you finish your degree, today’s ceremony starts with The Academic Procession. The University Mace (basically a big club) is carried at the head of the precession. The Mace includes oak from the estate of the ninth Earl of Dalhousie, who was the Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia when he founded the university almost 200 years ago in 1818.

The student leaders, faculty and administration in the Academic Procession wear academic regalia based on each person’s highest degree. Students studying for their first degree wear a plain black gown with pointed sleeves. Once you earn a Bachelors degree, you also wear an academic hood with different colour linings depending on your degree.

After a Bachelors degree, many students complete a professional degree such as a Bachelor of Laws or Doctor of Medicine, or work on graduate level study for a Masters degree or the highest degree, a Doctor of Philosophy - always called a PHD, whether it’s in engineering or history or physics. PHD gowns are longer, with fuller sleeves and bands of velvet on the front and longer, fancier hoods. Each university in the world has its own unique design. Both the Chancellor and the President have a unique ornate gown that they only wear while they hold that office.

Today’s pageantry is rooted in centuries of tradition, all the way back to the Middle Ages when the first institutions of higher learning were established in monasteries. Academic regalia developed from the long robes and hoods that monks wore to keep warm 700 years ago. You are now part of that centuries-old scholar community, symbolized in this formal ceremony and representing some of the deepest values of Western society.

DAL’s Induction Traditions
Today we celebrate new members of our Dalhousie community of learners and scholars: undergraduates starting a first university degree right after high school; transfer students from other universities; professional degree students in areas such as Architecture, Dentistry, Law and Medicine; graduate students working on Masters and Doctoral studies; and post-doctoral fellows working on research projects with our professors.

You will be asked to stand and take the Dalhousie University Pledge at the Induction Ceremony:

Today, each of you takes your place as a member of the Dalhousie University scholarly community - a community with two centuries of proud tradition, scholarly excellence and academic achievement. Do you as Dalhousie University students promise to uphold and protect the integrity, good character and scholarly legacy of Dalhousie University?

The traditional response is "I Do."

In turn, the members of the Academic Procession are asked to stand and make their University Pledge back to each of you:

Today, each of you stand to lead the charge through the gateway of intellectual discovery, and to commit yourselves to the academic success of your students in the lifelong learning process. Do you, as Dalhousie University faculty and staff, promise to provide students with an enriched educational experience; with academic challenge through active and collaborative interactions; and with a supportive and engaging campus environment?

The traditional response is "I Do."