Inauguration

Overview

The inauguration ceremony featured poetry readings by United States Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey, musical performances and literary readings by students and faculty, greetings from numerous distinguished guests, and a keynote talk by Duke University President Richard Brodhead.

The ceremony followed a weekend of festivities that included academic panel discussions, an outdoor concert, and fireworks.

More than 70 delegates from other colleges, universities, and learned societies joined the celebration on Sunday, processing in academic regalia on a route from Old Chapel up Storrs Walk to the inauguration site adjacent to McCullough Student Center.

News Coverage

• Burlington Free Press: New Middlebury President Inaugurated
• Boston Globe (AP): College Inaugurates its First Female President
• WCAX: Middlebury Inaugurates First Woman President
• WPTZ: Middlebury College Inducts First Female President
• Addison Independent: Inauguration of College President to Feature Music, Fireworks, Panel Discussions

Middlebury Newsroom

• President Patton Points to Middlebury’s ‘Determined, Engaged Optimism’ in Inaugural Address
• Community Invited to Celebratory Inauguration Concert, Fireworks
• Inauguration Events to Include ‘Festival of Learning,’ Concert, Fireworks

Schedule of Events

Sunday, October 4

Inaugural Symposium

Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey

The Challenge of Translatability: 21st Century Practices, Policies, and Possibilities

Irvine Auditorium · 499 Pierce Street

6–8 p.m. Keynote Talk: President Laurie L. Patton

Symposium: A roundtable discussion with moderator Jeff Dayton-Johnson, Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of the Institute

8–9:30 p.m. Reception

Saturday, October 10

A Festival of Learning: Academic Panel Discussions

Middlebury, Vermont

Wilson Hall · McCullough Student Center

American Sign Language interpretation will be available

10 a.m. Race, Gender, and Inequality

Moderator: Tara Affolter, Assistant Professor in Education Studies

Panelists: David Simon, Baltimore-based journalist, author and television producer, and creator of “The Wire;” Gyanendra Pandey, Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor in the department of history at Emory University; Ruby Lal, professor of South Asian studies at Emory University; and William Darity, the Samuel DuBois Cook Professor of Public Policy at Duke University.

1:30 p.m. Scientific Exploration and the Boundaries of Life

Moderator: Eilat Glikman, Assistant Professor of Physics

Panelists: John Grotzinger, chief scientist and head of strategic planning for the Mars Rover Mission and Fletcher Johns Professor of Geology at the California Institute of Technology; Mohamed Noor, the Earl D. McLean Professor and Chair of Biology at Duke University; and Pat Marsteller, professor of practice in the biology department at Emory University.

3:30 p.m. The Ethical Dimensions of Reading Classical Literature

Moderator: Timothy Billings, Professor of English and American Literatures

Panelists: Wendy Doniger, Mircea Eliade Distinguished Service Professor in the History of Religions at the University of Chicago; James Romm, the James H. Ottaway Jr. Professor of Classics and director of the Classical Studies Program at Bard College; Karen Stolley, professor of Spanish at Emory University; and Luke Bretherton, professor of theological ethics and senior fellow at the Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University.

7 p.m. Middlebury Community Concert

Outdoors on the Main Quad (Rain location: Peterson Family Athletics Complex)

La Bottine Souriante – Traditional French Canadian folk music with a modern twist.

Taylor Watson, singer songwriter

Brad Corrigan ’96 – Cofounder of Dispatch

9:45 p.m. Fireworks

Fields behind Peterson Family Athletics Complex

11 p.m. DJ Dance Party

Wilson Hall · McCullough Student Center

Sunday, October 11

Presidential Inauguration

Outdoors on the Main Quad (Rain location: Peterson Family Athletics Complex)

American Sign Language interpretation available

9:45 a.m. Inauguration Procession Line-up

10:30 a.m. Presidential Inauguration Ceremony

Community luncheon to follow on Proctor Terrace. (Rain location: Pepin Gymnasium.)

Inauguration Committee

• David Donahue ’91, Co-Chair, Special Assistant to the President
• Caitlyn Knowles Myers, Co-Chair, Associate Professor of Economics
• Lisa Ayers, Director of Event Management
• Laura Burian, Associate Professor of Chinese, Interpretation, and Translation, Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey
• Stephen Diehl, News Director
• Elizabeth Karnes Keefe, Assistant Dean of Language Schools and Schools Abroad
• Alanna Shanley ’99, Director of Donor Relations

Past Presidents

2004 - 2015 Ronald D. Liebowitz

1991 - 2004 John Malcolm McCardell, Jr.

1990 - 1991 Timothy Light

1975 - 1990 Olin Clyde Robison

1963 - 1975 James Isbell Armstrong

1943 - 1963 Samuel Somerville Stratton

1921 - 1942 Paul Dwight Moody

1908 - 1921 John Martin Thomas

1885 - 1908 Ezra Brainerd

1880 - 1885 Cyrus Hamlin

1875 - 1879 Calvin Butler Hulbert

1866 - 1873 Harvey Denison Kitchel

1840 - 1866 Benjamin Labaree

1818 - 1839 Joshua Bates

1810 - 1817 Henry Davis

1800 - 1809 Jeremiah Atwater