ROMÂNĂ 
ENGLISH VERSION 
Buna dimineaţa. Sper ca sunteti bine! Mă bucur să vă văd pe toți.
My name is Dr. Steve O. Michael and I have the pleasure of serving as the Rector and CEO of Danubius University. It is my utmost delight to welcome all the new students as well as all the returning students to the new academic year starting today. To our new students, I thank you for choosing Danubius University as the place to receive your education and to our returning students, I thank you for returning to complete the journey you’ve started with us.
The Opening Day ceremony has two purposes. First, we organize ourselves to welcome our new and returning students to the campus so as to kick start the academic year and second, we, members of the university administration and professors, use this opportunity to convey our pledges and promises to you. As part of the welcome, you will engage in extended orientation that should facilitate smooth transition for you. By joining this university, you have placed your trust in us to help fulfill your expectations, which include the realization of your dream, personal growth, professional advancement, quality education, preparation for leadership, and fun and pleasure of being a student. As an American who has led several very large universities before coming to Danubius, I have given this speech to thousands of Americans students in the past and I am glad to give the same speech to you. As your Rector, I take your trust very seriously and pledge to do everything I can leading the team to ensure that your expectations are fulfilled and hopefully surpassed.
Our highest priority at Danubius University is and must be student success. As a private institution, we have the privilege to do things better and that include responding to your needs promptly, checking on you if you miss several classes, advising you if you are falling behind with your grades, ensuring you complete your program on time, providing opportunities for you to engage in a short study abroad, and providing opportunities for you to exercise your leadership talents. As a small university, you are not just a number. We want to know you. We want to hear of your own story. We want to mentor you and we want to be there for you when you need us. You are not an empty brain waiting to be filled by uncaring professors. You are a human being with all the potentials that the good Lord has endowed you with. At Danubius, we want to amplify these potentials, nurture your growth, and celebrate your accomplishments and continue to do so even after your graduation.
To achieve our mutual goals, you must do your part. I want you to know that academic success has a formula. The formula starts with a strong determination to succeed and followed by action to enroll in the classes assigned to you, read the materials provided to you, never miss a class, engage with your professors, spend time studying, complete your assignments on time, ask questions in class, and if your class is online, turn on your cameras, and participate actively. From my experience, students who turn on their cameras and participate actively tend to be those who end up getting A’s. If you do your part, your success is guaranteed. As a university, we will do our part.
Lastly, there is pleasure and fun being a student. I want to see some of the things we do in the United States here at Danubius University. Students do organize social events, be the one to initiate them. Students do organize community service events, be the one to introduce one. Some of our best friends in life are those we met as students, be the one to reach out to others. Soon, we will have more international students at Danubius, be the one to integrate them. I encourage you, please have fun. I know some of you have families and children and perhaps full-time jobs also, yet you must find a way to broaden your life beyond the daily chores. By the way, I would like to challenge you. I do play Ping Pong or Table Tennis and if any student wants to challenge me, I will pay you in dollars with a T-shirt if you beat me. Every time you beat me, you get a dollar. You will get a tee-shirt that says, “I Beat Rector Michael of Danubius University.” Come to the campus, I want to see you there.
As you can tell from my Romanian accent, I am not from here. I am an American who is trying to be a Romanian, so I invite you to be my teacher. Whenever you see me, please teach me how to say something in Romanian. Welcome to the 2023-24 academic year and let us make this year a year of fun and a year of success.
Vă mulțumesc și Dumnezeu să vă binecuvânteze în studiile voastre
Dr. Steve O. Michael, Professor, Rector & CEO
