On May 19th, the opening ceremony of Graduation Commemoration Activities -- Always be a USTCer and See You 2019 Tug-of-War Competition of University of Science and Technology of China were held on the East Campus playground. SHU Gequn, Secretary of the Party Committee of the University, attended and delivered a speech. YANG Xiaoguo and ZHAO Lin, Secretary and Deputy Secretary of the League Committee of the University respectively, Secretaries of League General Branches, student cadres of the Postgraduate Association as well as more than 300 teachers and students participated in the activities.

SHU Gequn delivered a speech for the opening ceremony.
(Image by School Youth League Committee, School Postgraduate Association)

SHU Gequn said in his speech that he was glad to see a series of commemorative activities with the theme of Always be a USTCer when the graduates were leaving their Alma Mater. As the opening session, Tug-of-War, a cohesive sports event could encourage and embody the collective and collaborative work of the graduates in particular, which was of special significance. He pointed out that it was very important for students to have a healthy body on their way. They were supposed to enhance their physical fitness, carry forward their sports spirit, keep in mind their identity as a USTCer in their future study and work, continue to follow their dreams and strive to grow into socialist builders and successors with all-round development of moral, intelligence, physical, aesthetics and labour education to write new chapters in their lives. He wished the competition a great success and hoped that students would enjoy the last good time on campus and draw a perfect closure at this stage.

Spontaneous moments in the competition.
(Image by: School Youth League Committee, School Postgraduate Association)

Next, SHU Gequn opened the whistle for the performing and the opening competitions. Teacher cadres competed against student cadres of Postgraduate Association, which unfolded the prelude to the formal competition. Influenced by the warm atmosphere, all participants could hardly sit still and itched to have a try. With the order of the referee, the members of both teams pushed with all their strength, clenched their teeth and refused to show weakness. All classes in the competition were united and devoted every effort to win the honor of the team. What’s more, the audience was full of enthusiasm and their shouts of support were rising all around. Despite winning or losing in every match, we gained much more from struggle, friendship and attachment to our Alma Mater as well. 

Prizes awarded to the wining teams.
(Image by: School Youth League Committee, School Postgraduate Association)

The Tug-of-War competition was divided into four groups that competed in pairs with the best of three. After several rounds of fierce competitions, the winners of the four groups came into being one after another, then the competition entered into the key stage. The atmosphere at this moment was pushed to the climax again by the deafening slogan on the field. After fairly intense competitions, the 1504 Team from the Institute of Information Science and Technology won the championship, the Shotgun of USTC from the Mathematics Institute came second and the Heaviest Team from the Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences got the third place. At last, teachers of the Youth League Committee awarded prizes to the winning teams and took group photos separately for memory. 

A photograph of all participants.
(Image by: School Youth League Committee, School Postgraduate Association)

To sum up, altogether 16 teams including 224 participants attended the See You 2019 Tug-of-War Competition. Many teachers and tutors of graduating classes either joined the competitions in person or cheered up for their classes and thus Always be a USTCer graduation commemoration activities here and now were kicked off. Then, basketball matches, graduate red-carpet show, See You graduation commemoration party and other activities will be carried out so that graduates could release themselves, save a good memory and mark the deepest imprint of Always be a USTCer in their hearts.

(USTC News Center, written by WANG Kaixin, edited by HU Dongyin)