Syracuse UniversityChancellor Inauguration

Thank you. I am deeply honored, on behalf of Syracuse University trustees and alumni, to convey our enthusiastic and warm greetings to our 12^th Chancellor and President, Kent Syverud.

I would also like to take a moment to recognize and acknowledge some very special guests among us today:

• Our 10^th Chancellor and President, Kenneth “Buzz” Shaw, and his  wife, Mary Ann.
• And also there are family members of the Melvin Eggers family, who served as Syracuse University’s ninth Chancellor and President. They are present, as well. Let's welcome them.

I am thrilled and privileged to have the opportunity today to share some thoughts about what this inauguration day ceremony represents in the ongoing story of this beloved institution. From the historian’s standpoint, it marks the beginning of that chapter that will be recorded for posterity as the “Syverud Years.”

For all of us, it marks the continuation of a long legacy in which time and again, our University welcomed just the right leader at just the right time. A leader who would build on our strengths and core values, our intrepid spirit, and our capacity for innovation to address the evolving changes and needs of the times, and steer us into a new era of promise and prosperity.

Our history is studded with such leaders, beginning with those very first visionaries who had the wisdom to open all doors. Our institutional history has consistently been informed by individuals who knew how to draw out the best in us and inspire us to dream big.

Consider the legacies of our two longest-serving Chancellors—James Roscoe Day and William Pearson Tolley. Chancellor Day, who was Chancellor from 1894 to 1922, said upon his arrival, “I see in my mind’s eye a great University on the hill,” and then proceeded to rally the people and resources to build it. During his tenure, he oversaw the addition of 22 new buildings and the establishment of 13 new divisions and schools, simultaneously expanding our physical presence and our academic horizons.

William Pearson Tolley, who was my Chancellor, came into office of Chancellor in September 1942, during one of the most tumultuous and traumatic periods in our nation’s history. Early in his tenure, he threw open our doors to record numbers of returning World War II soldiers who were eager to embrace the newly implemented GI Bill and the promise it held for a more prosperous future. In the process, he nearly tripled enrollment overnight, set off another building boom, and further solidified our standing as a university dedicated to meeting the evolving needs of our communities and world.

These were defining periods for Syracuse University, and James Roscoe Day and William Tolley were the right leaders at the right time.

The spirits and aspirations of all the Chancellors who served Syracuse University over the course of its remarkable 144-year history are very much alive and with us today as we begin what I know will be another exciting and rewarding chapter in our institutional story—the Syverud Years.

And so I close by extending once again, on behalf of all our trustees and alumni near and far who cherish this University as their own, my warmest congratulations and an enthusiastic welcome to Chancellor Syverud—the right leader for the right time at Syracuse University.

Thank you. Go Orange.