An Official Welcome Aborad
	Members of the Ithaca College community will join with family, friends, and distinguished guests as Peggy R. Williams is inaugurated as the seventh president of Ithaca College on Saturday, March 28. The ceremony will be held at 1:30 p.m. in the Ben Light Gymnasium on campus, and will feature inaugural remarks by President Williams. Her formal investiture will cap two days of festivities, which begin with a "Day of Service" to the Ithaca area on March 27. With the theme, "You Can’t Spell Service Without IC!" it is intended to encourage the campus community to participate in the inauguration through organizing and supporting special projects that benefit the local community (see the list of activities and sponsorships at right). Special guests at the inaugural will include delegates from learned societies, professional organizations, and colleges and universities in both New York and Vermont; Ithaca College trustees; and the new president’s friends and family members. Faculty, staff, and students, as well as Ithaca College alumni, have also been invited to attend the ceremony and reception following. Delivering greetings to President Williams on behalf of the College’s constituencies will be Jock Bethune ’66, president of the Ithaca College Alumni Association Board of Directors; Mark Darling ’97, staff representative on the board of trustees; Catherine Henry ’98, president of the Student Government Association; associate professor of psychology Linda McBride, chair of Faculty Council; and Carl Sgrecci ’69, vice president and treasurer. Cornell University president Hunter R. Rawlings III will present greetings from his neighboring institution and from the higher education community. Herman E. Muller Jr. ’51, chairman of the Ithaca College Board of Trustees, will preside over the inauguration and present Williams with a specially crafted medallion as a symbol of her office. Remarks will be delivered by Sister Elizabeth R. Candon, former president of Trinity College in Burlington, Vermont. Currently a professor of English at Trinity, Candon has been recognized for her outstanding contributions to education and human services. As secretary of Vermont’s Agency of Human Services, she served on the Governor’s Cabinet. She is a member of the Religious Sisters of Mary, an order founded in Ireland. The invocation will be delivered by the Reverend Kathyrn Beach-Verhey, associate pastor at the First Presbyterian Church in Wilmington, North Carolina, and the niece of President Williams. The ceremony will include musical performances by the Ithaca College Wind Ensemble, Choir, and Trombone Troupe, and the Amani Gospel Singers. Ithaca College’s student-run television and radio stations will cover the entire ceremony live. The inauguration telecast by ICTV’s Newswatch 54 team can be seen on cable channel 54 in the Ithaca area beginning at 1:00 p.m. Coverage will also begin at 1:00 p.m. on WICB-FM at 91.7 on the radio dial, and on 106-VIC, which can be heard locally on FM cable at 105.9. Inauguration coverage won’t be limited to the local community, however, as anyone with access to the World Wide Web can listen to the ceremony via their computer from VIC’s site on the Internet at www.ithaca.edu/radio. To hear the broadcast, click on the VIC logo and follow the "listen here" links. President Williams took office in July of 1997 after the Ithaca College Board of Trustees selected her as the seventh—and first woman—president in the College’s 105-year history. She came to Ithaca from Lyndon State College in Lyndonville, Vermont, where she had been president since 1989. She had previously served as associate academic dean, chair of the business and economics department, and associate professor at Trinity College, and held various administrative positions within the Vermont State Colleges system. She holds a bachelor of arts degree in psychology from St. Michael’s College of the University of Toronto; a master of education degree from the University of Vermont; and a doctorate in administration, planning, and social policy from Harvard. A native of Montreal who holds dual American and Canadian citizenship, Williams and her husband, David, reside at 2 Fountain Place, the home of Ithaca College presidents since 1938.