Johns Hopkins Gazette: February 18, 1997

Installation:
Ceremony Marks
New Beginning

Four former Hopkins presidents will join elected officials and representatives of academia as William R. Brody is formally installed as the university's 13th president at 2 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 23, in the Shriver Hall Auditorium on the Homewood campus.

Only the university's annual commencement exercises compare in pomp and ceremony to the presidential inaugural convocation and installation, which follows a long, rich tradition of formally recognizing the start of the university president's term of office. Seven of Hopkins' 12 previous presidents--beginning with founding president Daniel Coit Gilman--have been inaugurated on Feb. 22, now celebrated annually as Commemoration Day, the anniversary of the founding of the university in 1876. Past presidents Lincoln Gordon (1967-71), Steven Muller (1972-90), William C. Richardson (1990-95) and Daniel Nathans (1995-96) are scheduled to join President Brody at the installation, which this year will take place on Feb. 23 because of religious observances.

The inaugural convocation will begin with a procession to the stage of trustees, faculty and honored guests led by chief marshal Bruce Marsh, Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, and faculty marshals Michael Rosenberg, School of Continuing Studies; Judith Vessey, School of Nursing; John Scocca, School of Medicine; and Grace Brush, Whiting School of Engineering. Charles Doran, Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, will serve as marshal representing the trustees; Victor McKusick, School of Medicine, will represent the university officers, deans and administrators; and John Spitzer will lead the delegates of learned societies.

Representatives of peer institutions, academic organizations, students, and state and local governments will offer remarks; board of trustees chairman Michael Bloomberg will place on Brody's shoulders the chain bearing the presidential insignia (which is the actual installation, conferring upon him the powers of the president granted by the trustees); and then Brody will make an installation address.

The music thoughout the ceremonies will be performed by members of the Peabody Symphony Orchestra and the Unified Voices choir of the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions. Included in the musical selections will be a piece written specifically for the occasion by Peabody director Robert Sirota.

The installation is actually the final ceremony in a monthlong series of inaugural activities, including divisional celebrations, exhibits, symposia and community events. President Brody already has toured the Applied Physics Laboratory, spoken at SAIS and been honored at the Peabody at a performance of Don Giovanni.

This week he will join School of Continuing Studies faculty, adjunct faculty and doctoral students for a symposium titled "Partnership and Scholarly Activity," from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. on Thursday in the Glass Pavilion on the Homewood campus.

On Friday, the Whiting School of Engineering will mount an electronic poster session in the Clipper Room of Shriver Hall. Hosted by Dean Don Giddens and open to the community, the poster session will highlight computer-based research and teaching initiatives involving the school and other university divisions. Faculty and graduate students will be on hand to demonstrate and explain each of the 10 projects featured.

The poster session will be open from 2 to 6 p.m., before, after and during breaks in the university-wide symposium, "Rethinking Institutions in the Information Age," which will be held from 2 to 5 p.m. in the Shriver Hall Auditorium. Keynote speaker Mario Morino, an expert on the transforming power of information technology, will lead a discussion on the impact of the communications revolution on universities and other institutions. Admission to the symposium is free, and tickets are not required.

On Saturday, President Brody and student and staff representatives will take a walking tour of the Waverly neighborhood, from 9:45 to 11:15 a.m. That afternoon in the AMR1 Multipurpose Room on the Homewood campus, he will participate in the Alpha Phi Omega fraternity's volunteer effort, making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for Our Daily Bread. The president also is expected to formally welcome to the Hopkins campus Boy Scout Troop No. 1, the first troop to be sponsored by the university.

The schools on the East Baltimore campus are planning spring activities to mark President Brody's installation.


Sunday's presidential inaugural convocation and installation is open only to those with tickets. It will be broadcast on the World Wide Web, and information about that broadcast--and other facts about the inauguration--can be found by pointing your Web browser to http://www.jhu.edu/brody.

The university-wide symposium on Friday is open to the public, and tickets are not required.


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