Sonnenschein inauguration Oct. 20 in Rockefeller Chapel

Hugo F. Sonnenschein will be inaugurated as the University's 11th president in a special convocation at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, Oct. 20, in Rockefeller Memorial Chapel. The ceremony will be followed by an afternoon of symposia presented by faculty members in five leading areas of research and teaching. The festivities will continue into the evening with an all-University party and fireworks display.

Although tickets for the inauguration ceremony in Rockefeller Chapel are no longer available, the event will be televised live in Mandel Hall, Max Palevsky Cinema, the Law School Auditorium and Breasted Hall. After his inaugural address, Sonnenschein will bestow honorary degrees on eight distinguished scholars from around the world.

The inauguration will be the formal induction of Sonnenschein as the University's 11th chief executive. Sonnenschein assumed the presidency on July 1, when Hanna Gray retired after 15 years as president. He was elected by the Board of Trustees on Dec. 18, 1992, after an eight-month search. A search committee of 10 Trustees worked closely with an advisory committee of 10 faculty members before coming to its unanimous decision to elect Sonnenschein.

Inauguration activities will begin Tuesday evening at a black-tie civic dinner at the Chicago Hilton and Towers presented by the Trustees for the University's donors and friends in honor of Sonnenschein. Poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko is scheduled to give a reading at the dinner.

Inauguration-day events will begin with a 10 a.m. procession to Rockefeller Chapel by faculty members and the president's party. The marchers, led by a bagpipe band and color guard and wearing the multihued academic dress of several dozen of the world's universities, will depart from Bartlett Gymnasium and proceed south on University Avenue to the front entrance of Rockefeller Chapel. Sonnenschein's inaugural address and the awarding of honorary degrees to eight distinguished scholars (see pages 4 and 5) will be highlights of the ceremony. Music will be provided by organist Wolfgang Ruebsam, the Motet Choir and the Symphony of the Shores. When the ceremony concludes at about noon, the inaugural party will march north on University Avenue and through the Main Quadrangle on its way to Bartlett. Crowds of well-wishers are expected to line the recessional route to enjoy the pageantry and celebration.

Wednesday afternoon, five symposia, planned by the faculty inaugural committee, will present analyses of five leading areas of research and teaching (see story this page). At 2 p.m., faculty members will discuss the state of the art in organ transplantation and the attendant ethical issues; the origin and evolution of the physical universe; and the American tradition of incorporating a liberal-arts college within the framework of a major research university and the challenges such a relationship presents. At 3:30 p.m., faculty members will analyze the interaction between the scholarly study of music and its performance, and others will discuss the assumption that rational self-interest best explains human social behavior.

The all-University party will begin at 5 p.m. and will take place both indoors and outdoors at Ida Noyes Hall. The party will offer food, a cartoon festival and a wide variety of music, from klezmer and jazz to rock and country, with lessons in country line dancing and karaoke singing for the more ambitious.

Fireworks will explode over the Midway at 7 p.m., and the party will resume at 7:30 p.m.

The inaugural activities were planned over a period of many months by the 10-member faculty inaugural committee.