Nor could the changes made to this year’s procession dim the significance of the event or the welcome being extended to the University’s newest members, said President Christina H. Paxson in remarks shared with first-year students by video, prior to the event.

“When you take part in this tradition, you follow in the footsteps of Brown students who have been participating in this ritual for decades,” Paxson said. “Of course, your experience will be different. But please know that Brown’s welcome to you — and my welcome to you — is as heartfelt and as vibrant as ever.”

From start to finish, this year’s procession — dubbed the Van Wickle Gates Walkthrough — was planned with careful attention to public health and safety needs.

To allow so many first-year students to partake in the ceremonial walkthrough, the event was held over the course of three hours, with students lining up — masked and 6 feet apart — on Prospect Street at 20-minute intervals according to their residence hall assignments.

As the students passed through the gates and up the path toward University Hall, Paxson, Vice President for Campus Life Eric Estes and Dean of the School of Public Health Ashish Jha cheered them from behind their masks, under a tent erected at a safe distance from the path. Students then moved onto the College Green, where they received gift bags with Brown-themed cold-weather gear, before departing the center of campus.

Residential Peer Leaders guided first-year students for the duration of the procession, and representatives from the Department of Public Safety greeted students at posts on the procession route, offering reminders about healthy COVID-19 behaviors including social distancing and mask requirements. Hand sanitizer and extra masks were available throughout the main route, which was peppered with signs reinforcing public health guidelines.

Even the class year banner — which students typically hold as they walk through the gates — was printed on vinyl this year so that it could be disinfected for each new group of students who passed through.

“I really think it’s awesome that Brown has made a real effort to preserve these traditions and make sure that we have the full Brown undergraduate experience,” Shanmugam said.

The Van Wickle Gates will open again in March, when a sister ceremony — organized according to similar procedures — will be held for the mid-year transfer and Resumed Undergraduate Education (or RUE) students, as well as graduate and medical students who joined the community this academic year.

Each student walks through the gates only one other time while at Brown — at Commencement, when they exit campus through the gates, symbolizing the culmination of their academic experience at Brown.

But today, the Class of 2024 relished its first procession through the Van Wickle Gates — a moment made all the more poignant, Williams said, after a first month at Brown during which activities have been largely virtual.

“For those of us on campus, it was the first thing we could all share in person,” said Williams, who watched much of the procession from her dorm room in Slater Hall before joining in at her assigned time. “It was a really cool moment getting to see our classmates going through the gates.”