Nearly 1,000 Expected at President Gormley’s Inauguration

Duquesne University will host nearly 1,000 alumni, students, friends, dignitaries and guests for President Kenneth G. Gormley’s Inauguration Ceremony tomorrow, Sept. 22.

Dressed in academic regalia, more than 300 delegates from Duquesne and numerous other colleges from across the United States will process to the ceremony beginning at 3:30 p.m. from Academic Walk, past the Mary Pappert School of Music onto Magee Street and then into the A.J. Palumbo Center via the Forbes Ave. entrance.

Duquesne University students wearing special edition Inauguration t-shirts will line both sides of Academic Walk as part of the procession.

The guest speakers at the 4 p.m. ceremony include:

  • The Very Rev. Jeffrey T. Duaime, C.S.Sp., chairman of the Duquesne University Corporation and provincial superior for the Congregation of the Holy Spirit
  • James Daher, president of Duquesne’s Student Government Association
  • Dr. Anne Burrows, president of the Duquesne Faculty Senate
  • Linda Hernandez, Duquesne graduate
  • Jeffrie Mallory, director of the Office of Multicultural Affairs
  • The Most Rev. David A. Zubik, D.D., bishop of the Diocese of Pittsburgh
  • Mark Nordenberg, chancellor emeritus and chair of the Institute of Politics at the University of Pittsburgh
  • David B. Wilkins, the Lester Kissel Professor of Law at Harvard Law School
  • The Hon. William Peduto, mayor of Pittsburgh
  • The Hon. Rich Fitzgerald, Allegheny County executive
  • The Hon. Christine Donohue, justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court
  • The Hon. Michael J. Stack III, lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania
  • The Hon. Mark R. Warner, U.S. senator of Virginia.

Marie Milie Jones, as chairman of the Board of Directors, will officially install Gormley as the 13th Duquesne president, presenting him with the presidential medallion and special hood bearing the University seal.

An Inauguration video will then be screened, followed by Gormley delivering his inaugural address.

During the ceremony, retired University President Dr. Charles J. Dougherty will be presented with a president emeritus medallion. This will be followed by the reading of a poem by Dr. Samuel Hazo, McAnulty Distinguished Professor of English Emeritus and former Poet Laureate of Pennsylvania.