UNLV President Carol C. Harter was inaugurated as the university's seventh president on Oct. 21 in a ceremony staged on the steps of the Performing Arts Center at the north end of the academic mall.
Attended by more than 900 guests, the ceremony featured introductory remarks by University of Nevada, Reno, President Joseph Crowley, an address by Harter, and music by UNLV music department ensembles.
Among the guests were representatives of universities across the country; state and local government officials; representatives of the University and Community College System of Nevada and the Board of Regents; representatives of the UNLV Alumni Association and the UNLV Foundation; faculty, staff, and students; and local business and community leaders. The public was also invited.
"One of the purposes of a presidential inauguration in the university setting is to reinforce the values of the academic community," said Leonard Goodall, former UNLV president and chair of the inauguration committee. "It is a symbolic act that brings people together-members of the university community, as well as friends from the community at large at a time of institutional change."
A colorful event, the inauguration included a procession on the mall of visiting representatives and members of the UNLV faculty dressed in formal academic robes.
Welcoming remarks were offered by representatives of the UNLV Foundation and the UNLV Alumni Association, the CSUN student government, and the Faculty Senate. UCCSN Chancellor Richard Jarvis presided over the ceremony.
The official investiture of Harter was performed by Jill Derby, vice chair of the UCCSN Board of Regents.
Immediately following the ceremony, a reception was held on Pida Plaza in front of the Moyer Student Union, and that evening world-renowned evolutionary biologist Stephen Jay Gould spoke in Artemus W. Ham Concert Hall as a Barrick Distinguished Scholar Lecturer.
