Amid grand community celebration, conversation and art, SU inaugurates Cantor as 11th Chancellor and President

Amid grand community celebration, conversation and art, SU inaugurates Cantor as 11th Chancellor and President
November 05, 2004
Matthew R. Snyder
mrsnyder@syr.edu

Syracuse University formally installed Nancy Cantor as its 11th Chancellor and President today, Nov. 5, in a grand inaugural ceremony in the Carrier Dome. The celebration was joined by an audience of thousands, including University students, faculty and staff; members of the Central New York community; SU alumni and friends; delegates from other universities and learned societies; and many others.

For a complete webcast of the morning’s events, visit http://soulofsyracuse.syr.edu/multimedia/webcasts.html, where a recorded version of the ceremony will be available for viewing beginning the afternoon of Nov. 5.

“We start where every first-year student, every new Chancellor, every expert learning new disciplines, every traveler coming to a new home starts-with the realization that things are in flux, in transition, full of migrations that can change things profoundly in ways we don’t expect,” said Cantor in her inaugural address. “In such a world, we’d better learn to cross boundaries and engage new partners or we won’t survive. In such a world, we need to believe that our efforts might just produce something special.”

The morning ceremony began with a traditional academic procession, accompanied by music from the SU Symphony Orchestra and SU Brass Ensemble. Following the presentation of the ceremonial mace by Professor Nancy Weatherly Sharp and the invocation by Rabbi Daniel A. Jezer, presiding speaker the Rev. Thomas V. Wolfe, dean of Hendricks Chapel, opened the floor to the ROTC Color Guard and a delegation from the Haudenosaunee Confederacy for presentation of colors. The National Anthem was performed by soprano and faculty member Janet Brown, and greetings were given on behalf of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy and Onondaga Nation by Haudenosaunee Tadodaho Sidney Hill and Oren R. Lyons, Onondaga chief and professor of American studies at the University at Buffalo.

Remarks were offered by Jeffrey S. Lehman, president of Cornell University, and University of Michigan Board of Regents Chair Rebecca McGowan. Then guests were entertained by the giant puppets of the Open Hand Theater acting out a musical storytelling performance by Francis McMillan Parks, director of Students Offering Service, and the SU Brass Ensemble. Vice Chancellor and Provost Deborah A. Freund and Chairman of the Board of Trustees John A. Couri offered remarks. Then, Couri introduced Chancellor Emeritus Kenneth A. Shaw, presenting Shaw with a coin commemorating his 13 years of successful leadership at SU.

Couri then introduced Cantor, formally declaring her installation as the University’s 11th Chancellor and President. Cantor addressed the audience, using the opportunity to illustrate her hopes for improved connections between SU and the community. “What is most inspiring here in Central New York is the optimism, the survivors’ spirit, and the will to be responsible. New things are possible here. All we have to do is begin,” she said. “We know that we have to be adventurous, some of us coming off the Hill and others coming up the Hill, some of us working locally and others traveling globally, but all of us sharing.”

After Cantor spoke, the SU Symphony Orchestra premiered a piece by Professor Joseph Downing, written in honor of Cantor’s inauguration.

The music was followed by 10 brief comments on the theme, “I am the Soul of Syracuse,” offered by a group of students, staff, alumni and community members. They included Jessie Cordova, student; Jesse Dowdell ’80, community member; Craig Forth, student; Regina Jones, staff member; Travis Mason, student; Cheryl McGinley ’04, community member; Tabitha Moore ’03, community member; Eliza Morlins, student; Joy Mutare, student; and Professor Emeritus Jim Wiggins, community member.

A dozen seniors from the SU Marching Band brought the program toward its close with an a capella performance of the University’s Alma Mater, after which the piece was performed together with the SU Symphony Orchestra. Following the playing of the recessional music, the Black Celestial Choral Ensemble rose and gave voice to a fitting musical transition into the “street fair” entertainment that took place during the informal lunch on the turf. The morning’s events were capped off by lunchtime performances from eight SU student vocal and dance groups, who took turns entertaining guests while Cantor and her party circulated throughout the Dome.

In the afternoon, SU hosted an inaugural symposium, “Universities and Moral Responsibility: Respecting Humanity at Home and Abroad,” in the Schine Student Center’s Goldstein Auditorium. For complete details on the symposium, including webcast links, visit http://soulofsyracuse.syr.edu/symposium.

Heralded by the compelling readings of poet Martin Espada, and punctuated by eye-witness accounts from Pulitzer Prize-winning author and reporter Samantha Power, with a satellite address from Christiane Amanpour, chief international correspondent for CNN, this series of three consecutive panels focused on issues of racism at home and genocide abroad. Bringing together leading thinkers and scholars from the nation, the University and the community, the roster of speakers included William Safire and Aaron Sorkin, among many others. It was also attended by a select gallery of Central New York community members, who will continue the conversation as part of SU’s 20th Annual Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration seminar, to be held Jan. 23, 2005, at 3 p.m. in Maxwell Auditorium. A twin event to the Nov. 5 symposium, the MLK seminar will feature the gallery members speaking on their own experiences in Syracuse with the issues of racism and genocide.

Several art exhibitions have been created to mark Cantor’s inauguration, highlighted by “SIX CURVED WALLS (SYRACUSE),” a 140-foot-long, 12-foot-high installation on the Crouse College lawn by conceptual artist Sol LeWitt ’49. Other exhibitions include “Diverse Voices from the Light Work Collection,” in the lower-level lobby of the Goldstein Student Center; Light Work’s “A Conversation With the World,” featuring the work of Lonnie Graham, at the Robert B. Menschel Media Center, 316 Waverly Ave.; and “Surrender,” a video installation by Bill Viola ’73 at the Menschel Center. For complete details on inaugural art and artists, including photo galleries, visit http://soulofsyracuse.syr.edu/symposium/exhibitions.html.

Nov. 5 represents the formal launch of Cantor’s yearlong plan for “University as Public Good: Exploring the Soul of Syracuse,” which uses the opportunity of her inaugural year to engage the University and its extended communities in the exploration of four fundamental questions: What do we mean by “liberal education”? What critical societal issues can we tackle? How can Syracuse build on its unique historical landscape, which has served as an arena in the struggle for the rights of women, slaves and Native Americans? And in a society where knowledge is power, how should the University serve as a power broker?

Full recaps of the Nov. 5 events are available at http://soulofsyracuse.syr.edu. Details on the inaugural year events to come will be posted on the site throughout the year.