Christina Lee, Head Photography Editor

The glitz and tradition of Yale’s presidential inauguration returned to Woolsey Hall in a Sunday ceremony weighed down by political attacks on the funding and reputation of higher education. Both University President Maurie McInnis and Provost Scott Strobel gave speeches acknowledging mounting criticisms of universities as elitist and propagandistic.

McInnis called these criticisms a “gale-force wind.” She noted how trust in institutions altogether is on the decline and said that many Americans no longer see higher education as promising. Strobel quoted Ezra Stiles, Yale’s seventh president, who described the role of a university president as “a laurel interwoven by thorns.” Today, he said, those thorns are “growing” as fewer Americans consider higher education to be fundamental to civic society.

Emotion choked both McInnis and Strobel at points during their speeches. Strobel sniffled as he pledged support to McInnis navigating “trials on Yale’s behalf,” the crowd applauding when he paused to regain composure. McInnis fought tears at the beginning of her speech as she told the room that the experience of leading universities is an honor second only to raising her children.

Many of Woolsey Hall’s 2,650 seats were empty. Few students or faculty members attended as there were only around 350 invited guests. “We find ourselves with quite a few extra tickets to Sunday’s presidential installation ceremony,” wrote the Director of Operations for Ezra Stiles College in an email before the event offering leftover tickets to graduate affiliates.

Around 150 pro-Palestinian protesters chanted from across a blocked-off street at the ceremonial procession as they marched into Woolsey. Inside, the event featured speeches, a prayer, poems, musical performances and the presentation of ceremonial objects, culminating in McInnis’ 10-page inaugural address.

The inaugural address

McInnis’ speech was premised on the idea that Yale is currently facing “uncharted and choppy waters” of challenge. She posed a question of what leadership should look like in response to this obstacle, drawing an extended metaphor of two buildings.

The first building, the schoolhouse her great-grandparents founded in the swampland of Frostproof, Florida, represented how education should be accessible to all, not a privilege. The second building she described, the Notre-Dame de Paris, represented how an exceptional institution can endure through wars, plagues, fires and culture shifts, and use those opportunities to adapt. McInnis is an art historian and was a graduate student in the Yale Department of the History of Art. 

“Time and again, we have been both challenged and refreshed by change,” she noted, using the Notre-Dame metaphor to say that difficult times can force improvements. “Sometimes change is essential. And I believe that in this moment, Yale will once again rise to improve ourselves, our community, and our world.”

McInnis also affirmed her commitment to free expression as a bedrock principle of Yale, referencing the Woodward Report, the University’s foundational document on the topic. She said the promise of the report today means ensuring that Yale is not an “ivory echo chamber” but instead encourages curiosity and individual ideas.

Yale’s future, she stated, should be defined by creating international partnerships, increasing research collaboration, expanding opportunities for students, attracting top scholars, welcoming “diverse viewpoints” and working with New Haven. McInnis previously told the News that she expected to deliver a “vision speech” at the inauguration but later sidelined that plan because the climate of higher education has changed.

The pomp and circumstance

Hours before McInnis’ speech, two processions formed at the Yale Law School and Sterling Memorial Library. The parades, consisting of deans, tenured faculty, trustees, former trustees, former presidents and other honored guests, marched oversized flags to meet on Cross Campus.

As the group waited on the Cross Campus grass to march into Woolsey, pro-Palestinian student protesters gathered across the street with the stated intention of disrupting the inauguration procession. Barricades enforced by Yale Police officers blocked the protesters from entering Cross Campus or proceeding down the sidewalk in front of Schwarzman Center.

From the sidewalk in front of Silliman College, protesters chanted the names of trustees followed by “face us” and slogans such as “Yale, Yale, pick a side; divestment or genocide.” Protesters tied banners and set framed portraits of Palestinians killed by the Israeli military against the barricades facing Schwarzman. The protest dispersed after around 40 minutes of direct confrontation with the procession.

The protesters, led by the Sumud Coalition, had first gathered on the New Haven Green at 9 a.m. Protest organizers delivered speeches criticizing how Yale’s trustees “coronated one of their own” in selecting McInnis as president last year. Organizers also called on McInnis to stand against the Trump administration’s moves to deport pro-Palestine student protesters. 

Once inside the venue, procession participants draped in multicolored robes sat in the front rows of the audience. Students, parents, alumni, faculty and staff scattered the rest of the room. A row of Yale’s outspoken conservative students sat in the back left. Students on University committees or who obtained tickets through their schools or residential colleges dotted the audience. McInnis’ children, husband and parents sat in the front row in the center.

On stage, members of the Board of Trustees sat in a row alongside Strobel, former president Peter Salovey and Vice President for University Life Kimberly Goff-Crews. McInnis sat off-center on the 400-year-old Wainscot Chair, the ceremonial seat of the president that is otherwise housed in the Yale University Art Gallery. Other guests flanking her on the platform included University of Cambridge Vice-Chancellor Deborah Prentice, University Chaplain Maytal Saltiel and Yale College Dean Pericles Lewis.

The carefully-choreographed ceremony unfolded over the course of an hour. Senior trustee Joshua Bekenstein ceremonially presented the university’s charter, seal and four keys to campus spaces to McInnis. Goff-Crews swept McInnis’ hair aside as Bekenstein laid the metal collar representing Yale’s schools on her shoulders.

In addition to McInnis and Strobel’s speeches, the ceremony featured addresses by Prentice and University of Virginia president James Ryan, an invocation delivered by Saltiel and two poems recited by Professor of African American Studies, English and American Studies Jacqueline Goldsby.

McInnis wiped tears from her face as the Glee Club filled the room with a benediction at the end of the ceremony. Director of the Institute of Sacred Music Martin Jean played the procession of robed guests out of the auditorium with solemn bagpipe music. Guests reconvened afterwards in Commons, the dining area of the Schwarzman Center, for champagne, meats and cheeses.

McInnis is the first woman to serve as president of Yale in a non-interim capacity.

Yolanda Wang contributed reporting.