The Marching Illini led the procession of nearly 500 students, faculty and staff members, alumni and 90 representatives of other American universities and learned societies clad in academic regalia from the Illini Union to Krannert Center for the Performing Arts on Sept. 22. The occasion was the official inauguration of B. Joseph White as the university’s 16th president.
UI Board of Trustees Chair Lawrence C. Eppley presided over the ceremony, which included greetings from Edwin Goldwasser, a former provost and 55-year faculty member at Urbana, who was representing Harvard University, his and White’s alma mater. Other guests spoke on behalf of other schools and UI faculty members, staff members, students and alumni.
Several state and local officials attended, as did White’s parents; his wife, Mary; his son and daughter and his sister.
Gov. Rod Blagojevich, U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert and U.S. senators Dick Durbin and Barack Obama delivered their congratulations by video.
Hastert said that White was uniquely qualified to lead the UI and that “under his leadership there is little doubt that the best days of this storied institution are yet to come.”
Obama congratulated White but also challenged him to keep the university affordable.
Sterling D. Plumpp, professor emeritus of African-American Studies and English at UIC, read a poem that he had written for the occasion. The combined choirs and symphony orchestra of the Urbana campus performed selections that included the spiritual “I Wanna Be Ready” and the state song, “Illinois.”
Stanley Ikenberry and James Stukel, the university’s 14th and 15th presidents respectively, presented White with a reproduction of the UI’s 1867 charter, certified by Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White, who also attended, and a gold medallion on a chain surrounded by smaller medallions inscribed with the names and dates of service of all the UI’s presidents.
After accepting the gifts, White quipped: “I feel like I made it through my probationary period.”
White recognized distinguished faculty guests, such as 2003 Nobel laureates Paul Lauterbur and Anthony Leggett, 2003 Crafoord Prize for Biosciences winner Carl Woese, and alumnus Jared Perry of Decatur, an Illinois Army National Guard soldier who continued his studies online while stationed in Iraq during 2004.
After reflecting on the institution’s 138-year history, White talked about the challenges the university faces, such as dwindling state funding.
“Understand: I did not come here to preside over decline,” White said. “Our university is fast approaching a tipping point. In one direction is the slippery slope of decline. In the other is what I call our brilliant future. A future in which we will be excellent; win against our best competitors; serve the state, nation and world; and be a continuing source of pride for millions.”
To achieve that future, White said the university will need high aspirations, big ideas, resources and strong leadership at every level. He suggested three innovative ideas that the university could explore in the future: the creation of a fourth, virtual campus that would “combine the academic quality of the UI with the ‘user friendliness’ ” of an online program to compete in the for-profit sector; collaboration with other universities and organizations to make the state of Illinois “a global spire of excellence in sustainable energy production and consumption”; and becoming the best in the world at “enabling people to become extraordinarily effective in their professional lives, in their personal lives, (and) in achieving their goals.”
White has initiated a universitywide strategic planning process that, when it culminates in 2006, will set the institution’s course for the next decade.
The ceremony was simulcast to audiences at UIC, UIS and the College of Medicine sites in Peoria and Rockford and was broadcast on a Champaign-Urbana cable television channel and on WILL-AM (580). Photos of landmarks at the three UI campuses and even a photo of White’s parents as newlyweds were displayed on a screen behind the stage during his speech.
A reception in White’s honor was held immediately after the ceremony.
The last inaugural celebration for a UI president was held in honor of David Dodds Henry, who served from 1955 until 1971. White, 58, took over as president on Jan. 31 upon the retirement of James J. Stukel, joining Illinois after a 30-year career as a faculty member and administrator at the University of Michigan.
