The university and the Student Association (Studentenwerk) are holding a festive ceremony to welcome the freshers starting in both summer semester 2011 and winter semester 2011/2012. This year’s matriculation ceremony will take place on Monday, October 24, 2011 in the main lecture hall building (ZHG), at Platz der Göttinger Sieben 5. The keynote speaker is Ines Pohl, Editor-in-Chief of the taz. The event kicks off at 17:00 CET with a welcome speech by University President Professor Ulrike Beisiegel. The next welcoming addresses will be spoken by Wolfgang Meyer, Göttingen’s Mayor, Kay Bents, Chairperson of AStA University Student Union and by Professor Jörg Magull, managing member of the board of the Göttingen Student Association.

Ines Pohl, Editor-in-chief of die tageszeitung (taz), a Berlin daily newspaper, and alumna of Göttingen University, will speak on the subject of “The Right to Waste” [“Vom Recht auf Verschwendung”]. The journalist, born in 1967, studied Scandinavian and German in Göttingen and, after receiving her Master’s, worked as the women's affairs representative at the University of Göttingen for two years. Before becoming Editor-in-Chief of the taz in 2009, Ines Pohl worked in Berlin as a political correspondent for the Media Group Ippen. Prior to this, she was head of the political section of the Hessian Newspaper, Hessisch/Niedersächsische Allgemeine (HNA). In 2009, a jury of medium magazin, a German monthly for journalists, elected Pohl “Journalist of the Year” in the “Newcomer” category.

Following the keynote address, different University institutes, the Student Association, the City as well as Göttingen Cultural Initiatives will all be showcasing themselves in the “Forum Studium”, located in the Foyer of the ZHG, where the Student Association is throwing a champagne reception with hors d’oeuvre. Musical accompaniment of the matriculation ceremony will be provided by the Göttingen a-capella band Seven Up.