On Sunday, Oct. 11, the College inaugurated Laurie L. Patton as its 17th president in a historic ceremony on McCullough Lawn to an audience of over 1,000. Patton is the first woman to hold the office of president in the College’s 215-year history and previously served at Duke University as the Dean of Trinity College of Arts and Sciences and the Robert F. Durden Professor of Religion. She arrived at Middlebury on July 1, 2015, after the Board’s announcement of her selection as president on November 18, 2014.
The ceremony commenced with a formal academic procession of faculty, administrators, the Trustees and delegates from 63 colleges, universities and learned societies. Patton’s undergraduate alma mater, Harvard University, and her graduate alma mater, the University of Chicago, were both represented in the delegation.
Marna C. Whittington, Chair of the Board of Trustees, conducted the investiture by presenting Gamaliel Painter’s original cane to Patton. President Emeritus John M. McCardell, Jr., returned to Middlebury to present the traditional pewter medallion worn by Middlebury presidents at all formal occasions. Patton received a standing ovation from the crowd before she delivered a 35-minute address. She spoke of the vital role that the Green and Adirondack Mountains play in shaping the community. She also gave five thoughts about a vision for the future, with a focus on making “arguments for the sake of heaven,” a philosophical principle in Judaism.
“I hope we are all thinking about that, because I believe that Middlebury’s collective genius of warmth, optimism, rigor and compassion can make us some of the best arguers in higher education — arguers who can think together with deeper respect, stronger resilience and greater wisdom,” said Patton.
Patton noted Middlebury’s heritage of open mindedness, high aspirations and innovative leadership in higher education as qualities that make it unique among its peer schools. “We have a love and care for languages and writing and sciences and society and arts and athletics all at the same time.”
Patton received a second standing ovation at the conclusion of her address.
The ceremony was preceded on Saturday by a series of academic panels in celebration of learning called to order by the new president. The first panel, moderated by Tara Affolter, Assistant Professor of Education Studies, was titled “Race, Gender, and Inequality.” The second, moderated by Eilat Glickman, Assistant Professor of Physics, was titled “Scientific Exploration and the Boundaries of Life.” The final panel, moderated by Timothy Billings, Professor of English and American Literatures, was titled “The Ethical Dimensions of Reading Classical Literature.” This panel featured Wendy Doniger, a Sanskrit scholar and President Patton’s thesis advisor in the Divinity School at the University of Chicago. After a public concert on McCullough Lawn featuring Dispatch (headed by Brad Corrigan ’96), the tradition of inauguration weekend continued with a fireworks show behind the Peterson Athletics Complex.
“It was very important to us and to President Patton that the inauguration weekend bring together Middlebury’s many and overlapping communities,” said Caitlin Myers, Associate Professor of Economics and a member of the inaugural committee. “We worked hard to plan events that students, faculty, staff, townspeople and friends of the College would be excited to attend.”
On Oct. 10, 2004, Middlebury inaugurated Ronald D. Liebowitz as its 16th president and simultaneously dedicated the new Davis Family Library. In his address, Liebowitz spoke of the beauty and remoteness of the Champlain Valley as an “ideal environment for contemplation and creativity.” He spoke of innovation in the College, which created the nation’s first undergraduate Environmental Studies program in 1965, created the Language Schools in 1915 and began the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conferences after Joseph Battell bequeathed 30,000 acres of his farm on Bread Loaf Mountain in Ripton to the College in 1915. “Middlebury is a college of experiments,” he said. “We must preserve these parts of the Middlebury culture that encourage creativity and innovation.” He and his wife, Jessica, started the Ron and Jessica Liebowitz Fund for Innovation to give financial support to innovative projects proposed by members of the Middlebury community.
Presidents Emeriti Armstrong, Robison and McCardell were in attendance at Liebowitz’s inaugural ceremony. At Patton’s inauguration on Sunday, McCardell attended, and the wives of Robison, who is in ill health, and Armstrong, who passed away, attended Sunday’s ceremony in place of their husbands. Liebowitz was not present at Sunday’s exercises.
Donna Donahue, a member of the Town of Middlebury Select Board, gave words of welcome and thanks. She acknowledged the many contributions the College has made to the town. She cited the completed Cross Street bridge, the current construction of a carbon-neutral town office building, planned construction of a gymnasium and recreation facility, a planned public park where the current town offices stand and development of commercial space behind Ilsley Library as examples of this constructive relationship.
Former Vermont governor Jim Douglas ’72, the Executive in Residence at Middlebury, spoke of the “demographic crisis” facing Vermont. Vermont high school graduates, he said, leave their home state for college at a higher rate than anywhere else. “Higher education allows Vermonters to expand their opportunities, increase their marketability, demand higher wages and gain personal fulfillment. I hope Middlebury will find ways to attract more Vermont students; we need to persuade them that there’s a higher education jewel right here in their own backyard.”
Richard Brodhead, president of Duke University and an honored speaker at the ceremony, praised Patton, with whom he worked at Duke. “Laurie actively listens, takes your ideas in and allows them to release thoughts of her own, in a free-form synthesis that’s always opening new vistas. Couple this with her endless energy, her endless interest in others, her passion for teaching and learning and her sheer joy in the drama of education, and Middlebury, you have met your match.”
In all, the inaugural ceremony lasted two hours. Provost Susan Baldridge gave several announcements in between welcome messages by representatives from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies, the Bread Loaf Schools, the Language Schools, the Alumni Association and Staff Council. Students at the College read original passages from texts in several religious traditions: Hanna Nowicki ’16 from Zen teachings, Trisha Singh ’18 from the Bhagavad Gita, Gioia Pappalardo ’16.5 from the New Testament, Hasher Nisar ’16.5 from the Qur’an and Josh Goldenberg ’18 from the Hebrew Bible. Natasha Trethewey, the United States Poet Laureate, read pieces of poetry in English, including a poem on learning sacred language in childhood written by Patton.
“The hardest part was the detail,” said David Donahue ’91, special assistant to the president and Secretary of the Corporation. “Luckily, we have amazingly talented staff who take great pride in these kinds of events and who think of everything. Making sure everyone knows where they are going, who’s doing what, shuttles, childcare, housing. Which to me was a thoughtful, thought-provoking, warm and welcoming experience.”
The ceremony ended with the singing of the alma mater, “Walls of Ivy,” and an academic recessional to a bagpipe tune played by Timothy Cummings, an affiliate artist at the College. Following the ceremony, students, faculty, staff and the new president walked up the hill toward Mead Chapel to join in a campus-wide picnic — the breaking of bread.
