Members of the class of 2016 gathered in Kenan Stadium Sunday to participate in the University’s inaugural “First-Year Photo.”
The class photo event, which asked all freshmen to attend in Carolina blue, was hosted by the Order of the Bell Tower.
Senior Joey DeRusso, president of the order, said the novelty of being the first class to do something would make the event fun.
“Maybe in 40 or 50 years this will still be around, and you can look back and be like, ‘Wow, our class started that — we had the first picture to be taken,’” DeRusso said.
Jon Ogrodnick, vice president of the order, said he had no prior expectation of how many students would show up. A few hundred members of the nearly 4,000-member class ended up in the stands.
Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Winston Crisp was one of the event’s speakers.
“Nowhere else do you get to come to campus and have the very sky proclaim its allegiance to Tar Heel blue,” Crisp said to the crowd.
Several freshmen in attendance took to Twitter to complain about the heat, using the event’s hashtag, #fyp2016.
Some said they were proud to be members of the first class to take part in what organizers hoped will become a University tradition.
