University to celebrate Randel’s inauguration as 12th President

A special convocation will be held at 2:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 2, in Rockefeller Memorial Chapel to inaugurate Don Michael Randel as President of the University. The ceremony is part of a series of events to mark the formal induction of Randel as the University’s 12th chief executive.

A procession, beginning at Kovler Gymnasium at the Laboratory Schools, will precede the convocation. Beginning at 2 p.m., the University Pipe Band will lead members of the faculty and the President’s party, as well as delegates from colleges and universities, as they walk along 59th Street to Rockefeller Memorial Chapel. Marchers will be dressed in the multihued academic attire of several dozen of the world’s universities.

Don Michael Randel will be officially inducted as the University’s 12th President at a special convocation in Rockefeller Memorial Chapel on Thursday, Nov. 2.

Seating in the chapel is by invitation, but members of the campus community may watch the procession and ceremony live on remote broadcasts in Ida Noyes Hall in Max Palevsky Cinema and the Cloister Club. As an additional viewing alternative, a live Webcast will be offered through a link on the University’s home page at http://www.uchicago.edu.

After his inaugural address, Randel will confer honorary degrees on 10 distinguished scholars.

Several performance groups will provide music during the inaugural convocation, including the Inauguration Festival Orchestra, led by Barbara Schubert, Senior Lecturer in Music; the Inauguration Festival Choir, which includes the Motet Choir, led by Randi Von Ellefson, Senior Lecturer in Music; and the Millar Brass. Also performing will be Thomas Weisflog, Rockefeller Memorial Chapel Organist, and Wylie Crawford, University Carillonneur.

To commemorate Randel’s inauguration, members of the University community have been creating artistic tiles as part of the University Inauguration Tile Project 2000, which was initiated by the Student Inauguration Committee. The tiles will be presented at the inauguration celebration as a gift to Randel and then later displayed in a campus building.

Members of the campus community are invited to attend an inauguration celebration, which will begin with the broadcast of the procession at 2 p.m. in Ida Noyes Hall. A tent will be erected on the Midway Plaisance just south of Ida Noyes Hall, and an awning will be stretched over 59th Street to connect the tent with the hall. Following the inaugural ceremony, Randel and his party will join members of the University community in the tent, where Edgar Jannotta, Chairman of the Board of Trustees, will toast Randel. The celebration will continue until 8 p.m. with musical entertainment throughout Ida Noyes Hall and in the tent.

Classes will be held the day of the inauguration and residence hall dining facilities will operate on their regular schedules.

Jess Basta, administrative assistant at the Smart Museum of Art, paints a tile for the University Inauguration Tile Project 2000. The Student Presidential Inauguration Committee initiated the project to commemorate President Randel’s formal induction as the 12th President of the University and invited various students, faculty and staff from academic units, RSOs and administrative units to participate. One day remains before the Friday, Oct. 20 deadline to create tiles, which are being designed and painted at Brush Strokes, 1369 E. 53rd St.

Parking will be available in a lot located at 61st Street and Woodlawn Avenue to accommodate people who normally park on Woodlawn Avenue between 59th and 58th streets and University Avenue between 59th and 57th streets. These streets will be closed to parking on Thursday, Nov. 2. Additionally, 59th Street will be closed from 2 to 8:30 p.m. from Dorchester Avenue to Woodlawn Avenue.

In addition to the campus community festivities, members of the faculty and University Trustees will celebrate Randel’s presidential appointment at a special faculty and trustee dinner on Wednesday, Nov. 1.

Previous inaugural events included a civic dinner on Navy Pier and an all-University picnic on the Main Quadrangle.

At the civic dinner, Mayor Daley and his wife, Maggie, presented Randel and his wife, Carol, with gifts to welcome them to Chicago.

Randel, who had been provost at Cornell University, became president-elect of the University on Dec. 13, 1999. He began his term of office at Chicago on July 1.