AYERS: Happy day at UR as the new president is feted

The University of Richmond should be a university for Richmond, its newly installed president said.

Edward L. Ayers' tenure as the ninth president of the school was formalized at noon yesterday in a resplendent ceremony in the Robins Center. He began his term July 1.

He was surrounded by faculty, staff, alumni, family and colleagues from universities as far away as Oxford, England. The fete, attended by several thousand, included music by various UR ensembles, a procession of several hundred educators in full academic regalia, and accolades for Ayers and the university.

"Much of what we have, we have because Richmonders have given it -- through decades of hard work as well as generous gifts," Ayers said in his inaugural address.

"We occupy a special place in American higher education, combining the intimacy of a liberal arts college with the creativity of a university."

Ayers, an American studies historian and scholar who came to UR after nearly three decades at the University of Virginia, spoke at length about the University of Richmond's history. He held several nails from Dunlora, a small farmstead whose schoolhouse, a small Baptist academy, was the forerunner of UR.

"Our past and our traditions serve as our guides as we continue this important work in making ourselves more self-aware, inclusive and generous," he said.

Ayers lauded generations of students of all backgrounds who came before.

"Now we need to open the doors of opportunity even wider.

"We have an exciting opportunity before us to do so -- even if that opportunity comes wrapped in the somewhat dull packaging of something called a strategic plan," Ayers said.

Ayers said the school will focus on diversity and integrating students, faculty and staff of different backgrounds, experiences and ideas into one community.

He also spoke of concentrating on affordability and pledged that the school would continue to admit students regardless of their ability to pay.

Other priorities are an increased focus on interdisciplinary work and offering students distinctive experiences outside the classroom. Finally, he said, the school will focus on preparing students for lives as engaged citizens.

The university, he said, should be the same way.

"The institution as a whole will become a more fully engaged citizen in the community where we live, a community that has shaped our identity in fundamental ways."

During the inauguration ceremony, Ayers was praised by colleagues and other dignitaries for his knowledge, leadership ability and congenial manner.

Drew Gilpin Faust, president of Harvard University and a friend of the new UR president, said he was the perfect choice for the post.

"If Ed Ayers did not exist, the University of Richmond would have wanted to invent him," she said.

In keeping with the mood of the ceremony, jubilant and never stodgy, Virginia Secretary of Education Thomas R. Morris offered a quote -- not from an academic luminary but from Barney Fife.

"This is big! This is BIG!"

Contact Lisa Crutchfield at (804) 649-6362 or lcrutchfield@timesdispatch.com.