At Yale, it’s a different breed of inauguration

Check out this piece from the New Haven Register.  Looks like a great weekend coming up.  Don’t miss it!

At Yale, it’s a different breed of inauguration

(Photo by Peter Hvizdak — Register)Kim Goff-Crews, left, and Daniel Harrison, co-chairs of the Yale Presidential Inauguration Committee Friday, October 3, 2013 at Woodbridge Hall on the Yale University Campus with a painting of Elihu Yale who helped found Yale, right.
By Jim Shelton, New Haven Register
Posted: 10/04/13, 8:33 PM EDT | Updated: 7 hrs ago
NEW HAVEN >> Nothing kicks off an Ivy League inauguration like a palaver of campus pooches.
That’s just what New Haven will get on Oct. 12-13, when Yale University officially installs Peter Salovey as its 23rd president. There also will be a monster block party, a community-wide open house, an Instagram challenge and an original poem read by Elizabeth Alexander, the Yale poet who spoke at President Barack Obama’s first inauguration.
“We’re treading a line between tradition and non-stuffiness,” said Daniel Harrison, a music theory professor at Yale who is co-chairman of the presidential inauguration committee with Kimberly M. Goff-Crews, Yale’s secretary and vice president for student life.
“No black tie,” Goff-Crews agreed. “We wanted to open up Yale for this event.”
What this means to the wider community, including those with no Yale affiliation, is a rare chance to see performances, visit collections and tour residential colleges. Also, because Salovey is a bass player and founding member of the Professors of Bluegrass, there will be plenty of music.

“Nearly every band was chosen by Peter,” Harrison said. “They’re almost all bluegrass, different shades of bluegrass.”
The variety of things open to the public is in keeping with Salovey’s wishes, according to Goff-Crews. “He’s been very clear about inclusiveness and openness,” Goff-Crews said. “From the beginning of the planning process, he’s talked about accessibility.”
That includes access to some celebrity canines. A doggie delegation led by Handsome Dan XVII and Portia, the Havanese owned by Salovey and his wife, Marta Moret, will convene at 10 a.m. Oct. 12 on Yale’s Cross Campus.
Saturday is the big open house day. Also at 10 a.m., there will be events at Mory’s, the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, a “Science Saturdays” robotics demonstration at 225 Prospect St. and a “family fun day” at the Shubert Theater.
A full listing of inauguration-related events is available at inauguration.yale.edu/openhouse or by calling (203) 432-2300.
As the day progresses, there will be tours of the human brain collection at the Yale School of Medicine Cushing Library, the nuclear accelerator at Wright Laboratory, telescope viewing at the Leitner Family Observatory and Planetarium, guided tours of the greenhouses at Marsh Botanical Garden, a walking tour of religious spaces on campus, a photo op with the national champion Yale hockey team at Ingalls Rink, tours of the Yale Carillon at Harkness Tower and a tour of Payne Whitney Gymnasium, one of the largest gyms in the world.
All 12 of Yale’s residential colleges will host open houses from 2 to 4 p.m. on Saturday. There will be campus tours in Spanish, Polish, Korean, Italian, Japanese and English. There also will be performances by jugglers, a magician, Punjabi/hip-hop dancers, choruses, Chinese martial artists and the Yale Precision Marching Band.
“There will be performers everywhere,” Goff-Crews said.
Cupcakes will be served at the open house’s closing ceremony at 4 p.m. Saturday at Cross Campus.
As for the actual inauguration, that happens on Sunday, Oct. 13.
Visiting dignitaries from universities around the world, in robes, will march with Yale faculty in a procession from Yale Law School to Cross Campus, where they will meet up with Yale officers and members of the Yale Corporation. Yale Corporation Senior Fellow Margaret H. Marshall will officiate at the inauguration at 2 p.m. at Woolsey Hall.
“It’s a coronation, in some respects,” Harrison said.
Although that part of the festivities will be invitation only, there will be a couple of large screens broadcasting the event ‑ one at Battell Chapel and one at a public block party on Hillhouse Avenue. The block party goes from 3 to 5 p.m. and will include music, food and dancing.
If that wasn’t enough, Yale will have an Instagram Challenge. Visitors are asked to post photos from Saturday’s open house on Instagram with the hashtag #InspiringYale, between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. Saturday. Prizes in 10 categories include everything from theater tickets and dinners at local restaurants to lunch with the new Yale president.
Call Jim Shelton at 203-789-5664.

At Yale, it’s a different breed of inauguration