(00:00:00) Only to find a leader in its midst if quality was our Quest than Excellence was our (00:00:06) Discovery indeed our choice reflects. Our highest (00:00:09) aspirations and deepest confidence. Faith is a scholar his idea and ideals trust in a leader his values and his vision. Our confidence is also symbolized in the presidential Medallion that we bestow for. The first time today inscribed on the front is the reagent seal and listed on the reverse are the names of the previous University of Minnesota presidents. Jen will you come up? Half of the Board of Regents I'm honored to present this Medallion to Kenneth Harris and Keller investing in him all the powers and duties of the offices of Chancellor of the University of Minnesota and XE official president of the Board of Regents. May your leadership Advance the course that was articulated by the Board of Regents in the opening of the university in 1869 with man's best FF Endeavors and smiles of Heaven there shall rise. You're a temple of learning which shall be an honor and blessing to the people of this Commonwealth for ages to come. (00:01:14) Chairman of the Board of Regents Charles mcguigan out placing the presidential Medallion from Bellman about connective Kenneth color and a very pageant refilled and very highly organized inaugural event kind of killer now taking the podium. (00:01:29) Governor perpich chairman mcguigan honorable members of the board honored guests colleagues friends It was December 22nd 1869 that William Watts Falwell was a 37 year old New Yorker been educated in a taught at Hobart College was inaugurated as the first president of the University of Minnesota. The inauguration took place in the presence of all nine faculty and probably most of the 16 students. In the large room on the third floor of a building known as old main, that's at somewhere to the northwest of this Auditorium a few blocks away near with a statue of John Sergeant Pillsbury presently stands. In the Years immediately preceding the event. Mr. Pillsbury and other members of the Board of Regents had saved old main from the threat of foreclosure. They'd actually rid it of squatters who used its classrooms and hallways to raise turkeys and to store. Hay the split firewood. And when they done that they then defeated a proposal by the legislature that would be converted into a hospital for the insane. It was in that setting that Falwell said it is hope not memory which inspires our hearts and dictates our utterances. We are gathered today in no historic audience chamber. We employ no ancient symbols new formula no Effigies and marble to remind us of the great and good of olden times. But looking forward to the future amid scenes as yet unused to academic displays, we celebrate and emphasize with song and praises and benediction beginnings. The beginnings were long president Falwell spoke for two and a half hours. a sign of Youth now in the hundred and sixteen years since that time the Hope has been fulfilled from those Beginnings in the class of 1873. Both of them almost 400,000 students have earned their degrees at this University and the lives of hundreds of thousands of other minnesotans have been touched and affected by this institution and we've built our traditions and we've accumulated our memories and the names of Pillsbury and Falwell Northrop and Vincent and many others now Adorn our buildings to remind us of our past thus today our nog Eurasian ceremony with his mace that's colors with seals and the symbols on the walls of this Auditorium celebrates our history and if we're proud of what's been accomplished in a prepared to build on it. We're all the more grateful to those who came before us and built so well on so much less. History and tradition take on particular meaning when we talk of change and in the past several months, we've talked a good deal about change indeed change is vital to a university new areas of knowledge develop new approaches to learning and teaching evolve new needs arise in the society. We serve change has occurred continuously in the life of this University. Although it space is obviously varied. Sometimes it was driven by such strong figures as Falwell who began at all or George Vincent who gave life to our graduate and research programs. Sometimes it's been driven by events outside the university the post-second world war Baby Boom or the social Awakenings and upheavals of the 60s and as we look at those and looked at today, we see that we are also in a time that appears to have all the makings of great change is every indication that the enrollments of traditional College age students will go down in the next few years in sharp contrast to our experience during the last 20 years in an important sense. That provides us with an opportunity to improve the quality of our institution and quite properly we focused on that opportunity in many of our recent discussions, but there are significant changes beyond the issue of enrollment levels that will challenge us that will demand response. Let me give you some examples even as enrollments decline the makeup of our student body will shift we will see an increased fraction of minority students of adult and part-time Learners whose needs must be met. Let me say more who's Justified aspirations must be encouraged that will require us to develop more flexibility in the ways we teach and in the times of day in which we teach it will offer us opportunities for cultural diversity. And if we are wise we learn to enrich the university community with that diversity, but the University's challenges are not simply within its physical boundaries. We Face an economic crisis that may well build to a social crisis in the rural areas of our state and that We must help to avert in contrast to the Past solutions to those problems will not come simply through improvements in the technical processes of production agriculture. They will require a much broader involvement of widely diverse disciplines within the university. If we're to address the complex social economic and legal issues that confront us and up till now have confounded us. In still another area the rate of technological innovation. So important Economic Development in Minnesota as elsewhere has changed the relationships between universities and industries the speed with which the results of basic research a converted into practical products is brought University and Industrial scientists much closer together the extraordinary expense of equipment for research and development has required that we share it and those developments and the recognition the technology transfer is the only practical way by which the fruits of our scientific accomplishments can improve the lives of people have encouraged us to seek new and Innovative relationships with industrial Partners, but these relationships must be crafted in such a way that our essential Independence is maintained. Finally in and I think in some sense ironically the very success universities have had in promoting technological growth has brought its own changes the all-encompassing nature of the computer age the arrival of the Information Society place a new burden on us in an age so defined by technology the preservation and the transmission of human values becomes both more difficult and more necessary more difficult because technology can create its own values and become Master rather than servant more necessary because that Distortion is and should be unacceptable. Now, none of these is a trivial matter for the University. They have led to our discussions of planning and focus of priority and choice and short of institutional change. But if we're to make that change intelligently if we're to make it thoughtfully we must see our role as one of linking the past with the future. We have to recognize in our history and in our Traditions those principles that are vital to our identity so that we can preserve and enhance them but at the same time we must be able to distinguish those principles from what Matthew Arnold referred to as those stock Notions and habits, which we now follow staunchly but mechanically vainly imagining that there's a virtue and following them staunchly which makes up for the Mischief of following the mechanically. The great leaps in this University's history of occurred when we challenge the habits the great errors when we ignore the principles, but unfortunately the distinction between principle and habit is not always easy to see and that gives rise to the debates we have and will continue to have about change and that of course is as it should be and I believe that out of it will come a better understanding of our identity more than that. I believe that as understanding develops and matures. We will find that the links to the Past do not limit change but in many cases promote it and direct it. Let me share with you my own views about our identity. Our identity is a public research University our identity as a land grant institution University of Minnesota was created as part of a new movement in American higher education. The transition from colleges with a single rigid classical strongly value-laden even religious course of study to universities that in. Mr. Falwell's own words would be a Federation of schools embracing potentially all subjects of human and practical interest teaching always with reference to principles occupying ever an attitude of Investigation knowing no favorite subjects at all times thoroughly imbued with the scientific Spirit. Now I hasten to add that. Mr. Follows notion of science was very broad one with room for moral science and social science as well as physical science what he referred to as the Sciences of human nature. That's from the beginning. Our commitments were in place to provide a diversity of educational options. Not only to satisfy people's intellectual interests, but to prepare them for careers and to expand knowledge through research the public support that was implicit in an act establishing the university became a reality with the Morrill land-grant Act and added still other dimensions particular. It committed us to recognize that we educate people not only for their individual benefit, but for the benefit of society and it led us to recognize that our responsibility to society extends beyond the classroom that the talent and the knowledge of the University are resources that must always be available to the community. Now in more than a hundred years nothing has happened to change those commitments so much has happened to affect them to amplify them to help us to understand them. Falwell's attitude of Investigation gave rise to the graduate and research programs that characterize our institution his hope to embrace all subjects of human and practical interest led to the inclusion of professional schools in the Federation more recently its found expression in the development of our coordinate campuses his recognition of the need for a public institution to serve the public good has been Amplified in our recognition that our teaching and our research should respond to the needs of the people of this region and that we should reach out to them with programs of support and enrichment. But if he and those who followed him were successful in helping American higher education to break out of its narrow parochialism, if they're successful in helping us to recognize our obligations to society. I'm afraid they were less so and giving us guidance as to how to carry that out how to do. Well what it is that we've agreed to do. There is nothing easier than to read into the charge and the tradition the message that we should be all things to all people that where Society has a need the university should meet it as attractive as that notion might have been in simpler times. It's badly flawed today. It's flawed first because it fails to recognize that the university is only one of many post-secondary institutions only one of many public institutions each committed in its own way to the service of the community to assume that it of his if it's not done here. It will not be done. Well as a kind of arrogance that is inappropriate to us. It's flawed also because in Using the institution to provide services of programs for which it is not well suited. We dilute our efforts in the primary areas that are fundamental to our mission and to our unique strengths. As hard as it may be to believe of an institution this large and this complex a public research University is a fragile institution to carry out its work well to reach the level of quality that we've accepted as a goal not quality narrowly defined but quality rigorously defined requires that we achieve a number of delicate balances in our activities that we confront and resolve a number of ambiguities in our rules if we fail to do so, we won't fail as a university but we will indeed fail as a great University in a state is committed to education as Minnesota that distinction is important. What are the balances than the ambiguities that me suggest just a few there is of course the balance of teaching and scholarly activity with only a very few very specific exceptions the strength of every program in the University depends on that complementarity that integration of efforts not teaching and research has two legs of a stool. But teaching and research intertwined Inseparable mutually enriching teaching and research neither of which can be satisfied sacrificed without cost to the other listen to the words of President Vincent and his inaugural address in 1911. He who teaches with Zeal accuracy fullness and Authority must refresh himself constantly at the sources of knowledge while no man who pushes forward the frontiers of science can fail to impart with zest to at least a small group of his followers the new truth that he's discovered. Although we might well object to the reference to a single gender in a single field of study. It's interesting to find that even 75 years ago that essential understanding prevailed and in that respect public and private research universities are quite similar scholarly effort indeed Scholars themselves are similar in both types of Institutions advances in knowledge new technological developments and excellent education occur in both public and private research universities, but there are differences that me suggest a metaphor different from the stool. We so often talk about in a sense. We can view scholarly activities that integration of teaching and research as the basic stitch in the fabric of any research University, but the fabric itself will differ between public and private universities because the design is different. The stimulus for scholarly efforts the shaping of the broad directions of the public university of this University is a response to the needs of the society in the region. Thus we do not look for differences in the quality of the activities in public and private universities, but we do look for and find differences in the cluster of their activities service in this sense is not the Third Leg of the stool distinct from teaching and research but a part of the pattern of the fabric ensuring that are essential teaching and research activities are scholarly resources are shaped to serve not only the students and Scholars within the institution but the public at Large Now this public orientation of the University illustrates one of the ambiguities that we confront. For its health and its Effectiveness a university requires a certain independence from society Independence that allows it to consider a range of ideas some popular some unpopular and to debate them in order to strengthen our understanding of the issues Independence that allows it to serve as a loyal critic of the society and Independence that allows at the time and the space to discover new knowledge and to create new works but a public university must serve and respond to society and this obligation connects it closely to the political and social realities of the community. Thus there's a constant tension between its need to remain separate and its obligation to connect now. I view Our obligation to this community as a proud and unalterable tradition, but if we are not simply to play our role adequately but to play it well We have to work to preserve the independence that's vital to our usefulness as we work more closely with industry as we increase our role in Economic Development as we reflect in our teaching programs. The current social issues. We must preserve our identity. We must ensure that each thing. We do is consistent with our mission that each activity reinforces rather than confuses. Our role is as much Our obligation to society to maintain and build a strong University as it is to meet the needs of the day needs change the importance of a strong University does not And I began by talking about change and I'd like to come back to the subject when one talks about traditions and linkages when warns about the importance of preserving identity when presses for Independence and separateness. It's easy to mistake the message as endorsing the status quo that is not my intention. I believe that out of the disciplined and thoughtful processes of rational reflection and open dialogue will come new ideas and new insights to change the stock Notions of the society out of the processes of fundamental unconstrained research will come new knowledge to serve Society out of the rigorous academic programs grounded but not buried in disciplinary knowledge will come individuals with the capacity to lead their society in new directions the University can and should change but it's more important that it preserves its ability to change society to change and improve Lives if it compromises the activities that give it its basic strength pursuing change for the sake of change or pursuing changes without careful planning that it would have made a bad trade today perhaps more than at any time in the past. The university community has focused on and come to understand many of these issues moreover with part of a state that has traditionally understood the value of Education, encouraging it and supporting it. Those are reasons for seeing our future as a bright one and I certainly do those are reasons for seeing this day as a day of institutional celebration. Indeed as I look around this Auditorium, it's clear to me that inauguration ceremony has less to do with individuals and with institutions. We quite properly display honor and celebrate our University and I join in that celebration out of respect and love for this University of which I've been apart for 21 years in this audience are my mentors my colleagues my friends my professional family as well as my personal family. And as I stand here I find myself filled with memories of the excitement of this place of our place. In accepting the stewardship of the University. I do so with very deep pride in this institution and with a very deep commitment to it. It's a distinguished University in a great state and I can do no more than pledge to you my best efforts to care for it to advance it with your help and your support. Thank you. (00:20:51) 51 year-old Kenneth Harris and Keller the new president the 12th President of the University of Minnesota taking the Applause from the gathered in Northrop Auditorium at the University of Minnesota on the Minneapolis campus during live as it happens the inaugural ceremony of Annabelle. Good afternoon. Mrs. Daniels and by my side is Tom mirrors men who has covered for a number of our news stories on ksjn 1330 matters relating to the University of Minnesota will be chatting about that in just a moment. Dr. Franklin Chris Udo music director at the University of Minnesota is meeting the university Wind Ensemble and the brass Choir in a selection and at 18 minutes past 3 o'clock in the afternoon before we go to monitor radio for indeed we turn Back to Tom Lasky. Let's pick up some of the special music for this inaugural ceremony. The name of that Lord performed by the University of brass choir and the Wind Ensemble and Arrangement by Howard Hanson and dr. Frank Ventura 2200. At the inauguration ceremony for Kenneth Keller now coming to the podium professor emeritus Rutherford Eros like to take the (00:25:14) opportunity of thanking Jill Hartman for signing the ceremony for us and to the many people both staff and students who have helped make it successful. There are many more of them than we could possibly acknowledge in the printed program. There is as you will see there a reception in the Grand Ballroom of the Radisson University hotel, which is just a block to the south and east of here. There is a shuttle bus service from the west side of (00:25:47) the this Auditorium (00:25:49) and if you wish (00:25:51) by the way, we should know that Professor Harris is observation about the reception is rather interesting since in the program and says the public is invited to that (00:26:01) reception at the Radisson (00:26:03) University. So presumably if you're a University graduate alumni student, whatever you'd like to attend that it is indeed open to the public at the Radisson University Hotel. Here's the recessional it's going to be led by soloist James Mitchell stepping to the microphone. The audience is rising for Hail, (00:26:21) Minnesota. (00:27:54) Hail Minnesota with solo is James Mitchell leading the audience there and do we should set the scene for you for just a moment as we get ready to close this ceremony. The next item on the agenda is the recessional Crown Imperial Crown Imperial rather. And so now the people who have been on stage including the University of Minnesota Board of Regents led by President Kenneth Harris and Keller are taking a taking off taking off from the stage and Northrop Auditorium. The bearer of the mace is leading the procession and heading out up the middle aisle of Northrop Auditorium and out to the reception at Radisson University Hotel just a couple of blocks away Tommy Richmond. We mentioned your name a couple of times. This is a solemn pageantry filled event that has come to pass after quite a lot of search that has ended with Kenneth killer a man who He would not be president of the University of Minnesota, but who relented that he has and that as you may remember was challenged in court by some people who thought the whole search process for his appointment was was flawed and discriminated against women of that lawsuit after being heard last week was dismissed as far as I know. So this is the official inauguration and it doesn't look like there's going to be anything that will change and I heard Tom as you probably did to throughout his 20-minute approximately inaugural address fairly frequent reference to the commitment to focus theme that he has talked about which I read as basically a slimming down of what the university does and we've heard it in specific ways over the past few months some two-year programs that will no longer be around what other sorts of things might happen. He has talked repeatedly actually this whole commitment to focus was was put on paper. For the University last February and they're 23 proposals that are part of it. Generally it is talking about coordinating programs better and not trying to do things that are already done by community colleges and Metropolitan University system other things that are involved have to do besides with eliminating the two-year degree programs at virtually all the campuses and colleges accept Crookston and Waseca. The chance that this University is going to perhaps raise its standards for admission that is going to be another thing that is going to be some concern to many people. I talked with a former Regent just before the inauguration today and having to be John Yngwie, we know as a former legislator former director of Metropolitan Transit Commission and also former University of Minnesota region, the beliefs that Kenneth Keller has a fair degree of popularity and support at the University. How do you read that? As far as I can tell he does to his his proposals for changes. We're have been well received by the Board of Regents. They are concerned that the university remain as accessible as it has been in the past in spite of changes that may limit its programs and may strengthen other programs. They wanted very much to be a public institution open to the public and as president Keller said in his address repeatedly today, he too believes that this University should is here very much to serve the public and that was that was repeated as often as as his remarks about the fact that the university is going to be changing. I suppose. Some folks are put off their feed for just a moment by the drama thinking. Well, this is just another another University thing about the University of Minnesota though that sets it apart. It seems to me is its size is one of the state's largest employers 56 thousand students and an enormous operating budget much of which comes from State taxpayers and a good chunk of federal tax. Dollars rolls into the institution as well. It would be difficult to underestimate its importance in the state. That's that's true. It's also quite impressive when you come to an occasion like this and you really see how many people are connected with the university only a fraction of them are here. I'm sure I think at this point we're going to wrap it up from Northrop Auditorium. Turn it back to Tom laughs key in just a moment. We want to thank Joe junk as the technical director cooperated with Stephanie dismissed to help us bring you this live broadcast the inauguration of Kenneth Harris and Keller as the 12th President of the University of Minnesota. Thanks also to to University news service Personnel Pat kasuba and Dean Morrison who are instrumental in helping us with arrangements for this broadcast. And also thanks to executive producer Rich deep man who made sure that everything got on there. This is Daniel's and along with Tom years been reporting live from Northrop Auditorium. Broadcast of the preceding special program provided with funds from the McNeely foundation and Paul a Drake's here with a footnote to this story. (00:32:57) Thank you Tom an update here on the condition of the father of University of Minnesota president Kenneth Keller who was hospitalized this afternoon after collapsing while waiting for his sons inauguration. The university says Benjamin Keller has a history of recent heart attacks. There's still no word though on the condition of Keller or on another person who collapse prior to the inaugural ceremonies retired University Professor Ralph Miller collapsed and was taken to Hennepin County Medical Center will keep you posted on ksjn S newscasts later in the day. (00:33:27) Thank you Paula. The forecast says there's a possibility for an accumulation of slush tonight and we'll hear the weather details on later newscasts as well. Thank you technical producer here in the studio Randy Johnson for this afternoon. I'm Tom Lee ASCII monitor radio is next everyone make the best of the rest of this day and your weekend and we'll be back with you on Monday. It's 3:30.