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09/20/2024 | News release | Distributed by Public on 09/21/2024 05:02

BU Celebrates Melissa L. Gilliam’s Inauguration as President

BU Celebrates Melissa L. Gilliam's Inauguration as President

Weeklong lineup includes musical performances, community parties, and Friday's momentous ceremony at Agganis Arena

Melissa L. Gilliam at Boston University's Matriculation ceremony on Sunday, September 1st 2024. Photo by Hannah Rose

University News

BU CelebratesMelissa L. Gilliam's Inauguration as President

Weeklong lineup includes musical performances, community parties, and Friday's momentous ceremony at Agganis Arena

September 20, 2024
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A week of celebration is in the works leading up to Melissa L. Gilliam's swearing-in as BU's 11th president at Friday's inauguration ceremony at Agganis Arena. The inauguration of a new president is among the most notable and significant rites in academia (it's been 19 years since BU's last one), and the events of the coming days will be a nod to the historic nature of the occasion.

The festivities, designed to be as inclusive as possible, will include a meet-and-greet for students, a showcase of BU research, and cultural performances in the days beforethe inauguration, as well as community celebrations on the Charles River and Medical Campuses immediately following the ceremony.

Michael Ciarlante (COM'79, MET'83), director of Events & Conferences, says a team of staff and administrators has been hard at work mapping out the logistics for the inauguration since Gilliam's appointment was first announced last October. He says this week's events have required "Commencement-level" coordination and that in preparation, the team has occasionally consulted programs from previous BU inaugurations.

Pomp and circumstance

The inauguration of a university president celebrates not only that institution, but also the entire academic community. For that reason, presidents, trustees, deans, and delegates from other universities, both in Boston and around the country, are expected to attend Friday's Inauguration Ceremony in full academic dress. Gilliam will wear a new, custom-made presidential doctoral gown (as did her predecessor, BU's 10th president, Robert A. Brown). The gown is distinguished by its velvet sleeve bars and lined bell sleeves. Fun fact: the academic procession, which will include representatives from colleges and universities across the country, will line up in order of their founding date-oldest schools at the front, newer ones at the back.

The President's collar. Photo by BU Photography

Events & Conferences staff have been busy preparing some of BU's institutional treasures for Friday's ceremony. The first is the mace, fashioned of sterling silver with two University seals intertwined on the button end, carried at the front of formal academic processions. The President's collar-which symbolizes the office of the University president-is a chain built of decorative links of entwined Bs and Us alternating with small Boston University seals, with the seal of the University suspended from it. Gilliam will be presented with the President's collar at her inauguration. Similar collars were often worn in the Middle Ages as a badge of office. Both the collar and the mace were designed by the late Arthur G. B. Metcalf (Wheelock'35, Hon.'74), a BU Board of Trustees chair emeritus and a former professor.

During one point in the ceremony, Gilliam will sit in the Founder's chair, so named because in 1869, the three founders of Boston University-Lee Claflin, Isaac Rich, and Jacob Sleeper-met in Rich's home on Beacon Hill to sign a petition asking the state legislature to charter Boston University as a new corporation and each sat in Rich's favorite chair to sign the document.

Teresa Batista, left, polishes the sterling silver mace that is used ceremoniously at Boston University's Presidential Inaugurations. Photo by Cydney Scott

Lineup

Several events have sold out-including the BU Night at Time Out Market Boston and BU Night at Fenway Park-while others, among them private dinners, for BU's Board of Trustees on Wednesday and an Inaugural Celebration Dinner on Thursday, are invitation-only. Below is a list of all of the public events planned to mark the occasion. See the inauguration website for more details.

Monday, September 23

BU Night at Time Out Market-SOLD OUT
401 Park Drive, Boston

An evening of mingling for students to meet President Gilliam, this indoor "block party" will feature music from a jazz combo of BU students, free swag, and discounted food and drinks for students. Time Out Market is in the historic Landmark Center, the Fenway arts deco building that was once a Sears Roebuck department store.

Wednesday, September 25

Research on Tap
2:30 pm, Center for Computing & Data Sciences, 665 Commonwealth Ave., 17th floor

This event is a high-level showcase of BU's research, as top researchers discuss how their work is making change. Presenters include Pamela Templer, a College of Arts & Sciences Distinguished Professor and chair of biology; Ahmad "Mo" Khalil, a College of Engineering professor of biomedical engineering; Naomi Caselli, a Wheelock College of Education & Human Development associate professor of deaf education, director of the BU Deaf Center, and director of the BU AI and Education Initiative; and Nahid Bhadelia, a Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine associate professor and founding director of the BU Center on Emerging Infectious Diseases.

Note: the in-person event is invitation only, but members of the BU community can Livestream it here.

Friday, September 27

Inauguration Day Hip Hop Workshops
10 am to 1 pm, College of Fine Arts studios, 855 Commonwealth Ave.

President Gilliam has said publicly that one of her goals is to increase BU's commitment to the arts. As part of the week's public events, the BU Dance Program and the College of Fine Arts School of Theatre have collaborated to offer three free dance workshops that celebrate the history and culture of hip-hop movement: Roots of Hip Hop Movement, with McKersin Previlus (10 to 11 am, CFA Room 105); Stepping, with Izaiah Lawton (11 am to noon, CFA Room 105); and Breaking, with Alan Kuang (noon to 1 pm, CFA Room 109).

Inauguration Service of Prayer and Thanksgiving
10:30 am, Marsh Chapel, 735 Commonwealth Ave.

An interdenominational service of prayer and music acknowledging the University's Methodist roots while remaining inclusive of all religious traditions, led by Marsh Chapel Dean Rev. Robert Allan Hill. An American Sign Language interpreter will be on site and the livestream will have closed captioning in 12 languages.

Note: Members of the BU community can attend in person or watch the livestream here.

The Inauguration of Melissa L. Gilliam
2 pm, Agganis Arena, 925 Commonwealth Ave.; in-person or watch the Livestream here.

Registration is required to attend in person; do so here

The formal installation ceremony will include a procession of 725 faculty and invited guests, greetings and remarks from BU trustees, state and city dignitaries, and BU faculty and students. Of course, Gilliam will address the crowd as well. BU's Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) Color Guard will present the flags of the United States and its military branches, and musical groups, including the BU Brass Choir, the BU a cappella group the Treblemakers, and classical crossover quartet Sons of Serendip, featuring BU alumni, will also perform.

The ceremony will be translated into a dozen different languages, and there will also be an American Sign Language interpreter.

Doors to the arena will open at 1 pm. All attendees will be subject to screening and a bag check as they enter the arena. Bags larger than 12" x 12" x 6" are prohibited.

To mark the occasion and to enable the entire BU community to attend the ceremony, Gloria Waters, University provost and chief academic officer, announced in August that all classes and nonessential operations on the Charles River and Fenway Campuses would be suspended at 1 pm on Inauguration Day. On the Medical Campus, didactic classes will be canceled after 1 pm, but dental clinics will remain open and students on clinical rotations or electives will need to continue their clinical assignments.

Nonessential employees will not be required to request paid time off for that afternoon, while on-campus essential employees are expected to report as scheduled.

Medical Campus Watch Party and Community Celebration
2 pm, Watch party at the main instructional building Hiebert Lounge (72 E. Concord St.) and at the Goldman Dental School main auditorium (635 Albany St.); 3:15 pm celebration on Talbot Green

Medical Campus faculty, staff, and guests unable to make it to the Charles River Campus will be able to view and celebrate the inauguration. Free food, live music by the BU Medical Campus Band, and other festivities will follow on Talbot Green after the ceremony has ended.

Charles River Campus Community Celebration
3:15 pm (immediately following inauguration), Fitness & Recreation Center 4-Court Gymnasium, 915 Commonwealth Ave.

After the ceremony has ended, there will be food, music, and festivities.

BU Night at Fenway Park-SOLD OUT
6 pm, 4 Jersey St.

The celebration continues at Fenway Park, where the Red Sox take on the Tampa Bay Rays in their last home game of the season. At 6 pm, BU will host a pregame ceremony honoring President Gilliam and BU. The Presentation of Colors will be made by the ROTC Color Guard. Keep an eye out for other BU surprises sprinkled throughout the game-and don't forget to wear your Terrier red!

Saturday, September 28

Boston University Symphony Orchestra Concert
7:30 to 9:30 pm, Tsai Performance Center, 685 Commonwealth Ave.

This season-opening concert by the BU Symphony Orchestra celebrates three things: the presidential inauguration, the University's student musicians, and the conducting debut of Sarah Ioannides, the new College of Fine Arts director of orchestral activities. The evening's program is meant to embrace diversity and excellence and opens with Grammy-winning composer Joan Tower's "Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman No.1" (1986), followed by two symphonic poems that reflect the importance of cultural identity and nature's beauty: Bedřich Smetana's The Moldau (1874) and Florence Price's Ethiopia's Shadow in America (1932). The night also features Minyung Suh (CFA'24), winner of the 2023 Concerto Competition, performing the first movement of Dvořák's Cello Concerto (1894-1895), followed by Gershwin's An American in Paris (1928). The event is free and open to the public.

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BU Celebrates Melissa L. Gilliam's Inauguration as President

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