Syracuse UniversityChancellor Inauguration
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On Friday, April 11, 2014, Kent Syverud was inaugurated as Syracuse University’s 12th Chancellor and President. This important moment in the University’s 144-year history included a series of campus ceremonies, events, and celebrations to bring the University community together and mark Chancellor Syverud’s formal installation. The day’s events began at 7 a.m., with students, faculty, and staff joining the Chancellor on an inaugural run across campus and concluded with a campus community celebration on the Shaw Quad. The inauguration also included reflections by U.S. Supreme Court Justice (retired) Sandra Day O’Connor, for whom Chancellor Syverud served as law clerk in 1984. Learn about the Academic Ceremony and Traditions that played a role during the formal installation ceremony.
More than 500 students, faculty and staff laced up their sneakers and joined Chancellor Syverud at 7:00 a.m. for a 1.2-mile inaugural run across campus, kicking off a full day of inauguration events.
Chancellor Syverud invited a distinguished and diverse panel of Syracuse University experts to participate in a thoughtful conversation about “Great Universities in the Next 25 Years.”
Syracuse University students pitched their ideas for new inaugural-inspired projects at this event in Hergenhan Auditorium, Newhouse 3, with winning students being given grants of as much as $1,500 to fund their projects.
The formal inauguration ceremony took place at Hendricks Chapel, with the academic procession into the chapel preceding it. Attendees included Syracuse University student, faculty, and staff representatives. The ceremony was webcast and viewing locations were available throughout campus, including a large screen in a tent on the Shaw Quad.
Chancellor Kent Syverud's inauguration address reflected on the University’s past, examined where it must go, and celebrated the campus community and its greatest asset—its students.
An inaugural celebration on the Shaw Quad concluded the day, with members of the campus community and public joining with Chancellor Syverud for food, music and entertainment.