Yale University will inaugurate Maurie McInnis as its 24th president — a role she officially assumed in July — with a week of events for the Yale and New Haven communities, culminating in an installation ceremony on April 6 that will be attended by representatives from universities around the world.
The inauguration will recognize not only a new president but the university writ large — the essential and intertwined relationship between Yale and New Haven, the impact of academic research on society, and a continued legacy of leadership in education and innovation.
Events will include volunteer opportunities for both the Yale and New Haven communities; open houses across campus and city that offer tours, exhibits, and special events; and symposia that explore the university’s legacy of knowledge creation and its impact on society. And a Presidential Panel discussion will convene leaders of four major research universities, including McInnis — all of whom are also Yale graduates.
“The inauguration is an opportunity to share with the wider Yale community and others the collaboration and innovation that take place across campus, along with the excitement of living in a community like New Haven,” said Kimberly Goff-Crews, the secretary and vice president for university life and co-chair of the inauguration planning committee. “And it’s an invitation to see who we are as a university at this moment — to see how 324 years of tradition and lives and experiments and innovations now meet this time.”
The installation ceremony will take place on the morning of Sunday, April 6, in Woolsey Hall (and will be livestreamed). McInnis will be greeted by representatives of the university and by U.S. and international representatives of the academy. She will then be presented with the ceremonial objects of office and will deliver an inaugural address. McInnis officially began her tenure as Yale president on July 1, 2024; the installation ceremony marks the traditional and symbolic transfer of the rights and responsibilities of the office.
The inauguration…. is an invitation to see who we are as a university at this moment — to see how 324 years of tradition and lives and experiments and innovations now meet this time.
The installation ceremony will take place on the morning of April 6, in Woolsey Hall.
Along with members of the Yale community, the installation — the first of a Yale president in more than a decade — will also be attended by delegates and representatives of the higher education community from around the world.
“Inauguration is a moment for us to mark this transition for the university and to welcome a new generation of leadership,” said Josh Bekenstein ’80, senior trustee of the Yale Corporation, who will ceremonially induct McInnis as president during the installation. “In these first months of her presidency, Maurie has shown her deep commitment to Yale’s community and to the university’s mission and academic priorities. With this formal inauguration, we can look forward to her leadership continuing to advance Yale’s education, research, and innovation in ways that benefit society today and for the future.”
Celebrating community, expanding knowledge
In the week before the installation, events across New Haven will give community members the opportunity to participate in the university’s commitment to service and neighborhood partnerships; to explore the rich artistic, cultural, and historical resources of Yale and its host city; and to consider the impact of the modern university on knowledge, research, and innovation across many disciplines and fields.
These events begin with two days of volunteer activities on March 29 and April 2, led by the Yale Alumni Association and United Way of Greater New Haven and in collaboration with several local nonprofit organizations. The events on March 29 will include food distribution at the New Haven food pantry Loaves & Fishes; courtyard clean-up and activities with residents at the Mary Wade nursing home and assisted living facility; outdoor clean up at the Pond Lily Nature Preserve; and food preparation and meal service with Yale Community Kitchen.
On Wednesday, April 2, community members are invited to help prepare garden beds for spring at the Ward Street Farm Community Garden and to participate in a read-aloud for preschoolers at the YMCA, St. Aedan’s Preschool, and Farnam Nursery School in New Haven. Events open to the Yale community include writing letters to senior citizens experiencing loneliness or isolation, an event at The Good Life Center in Yale Schwarzman Center, organized in partnership with the non-profit Love for Our Elders, and, at the Yale School of Public Health, creating toiletry kits to be distributed at the Haven Free Clinic and card making for residents at Mary Wade.
All volunteer events, their locations, and dates and times can be found on the inauguration website, along with details for advance registration, if needed.
Inauguration events will take place across campus and New Haven.
Starting on Friday, April 4, a series of open houses will offer community members the opportunity to engage in activities and events across the Yale campus and New Haven. Among the highlights are tours and artmaking at the Yale Center for British Art, which reopens March 29 after a two-year renovation; an architectural tour of Sterling Memorial Library and exhibits from the archives; pizza and live music at the Yale Farm on Edwards Street; and sketching and other activities in the galleries of the Yale University Art Gallery.
The open houses will also showcase art and history across New Haven, including:
- A pop-up art gallery at 63 Audubon St. This collaborative effort between the Yale School of Art, Yale School of Management, and several community organizations, including the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven, the Arts Council of Greater New Haven, Ely Center for Contemporary Art, and others will highlight works from local artists and showcase an experimental entrepreneurial space.
- Open studios at NXTHVN, a multi-use arts and creative center in New Haven’s Dixwell neighborhood, featuring works in progress by its fellows. A youth and family program will also be offered.
- Guided tours of Grove Street Cemetery, the nation’s first chartered public burial ground, with Michael Morand, director of community engagement for Yale’s Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library and New Haven’s official city historian.
On Saturday, April 5, two academic symposia featuring faculty will offer a chance to consider Yale’s community of knowledge and innovation — and its commitment to the generation, preservation, promotion, and practice of knowledge.
The first symposium, to be held at 11 a.m. in Sudler Hall (100 Wall St.), will explore the challenges and opportunities in contemporary higher education, including the development of effective teaching and learning, the fostering of critical thinking and diverse viewpoints, and maintaining a balance between academic freedom and the responsibility to combat misinformation.
The second symposium, also to be held in Sudler Hall, at 3 p.m., will examine the societal impact of academic research — and its ability to address current and future global challenges. Through concrete examples, the discussion will highlight how academic institutions can shape policy, drive innovation, and foster positive change in society.
Details on these symposia can be found on the inauguration website.
Inauguration weekend is an opportunity to reflect on the values that bring us together in the first place, to learn from each other, and to place ourselves within the context of what it means to be in community at Yale.
Also on Saturday will be the Presidential Panel, held at 1 p.m. in Sprague Hall (470 College St.), during which McInnis will be joined by three other university leaders to discuss the critical importance of higher education in shaping our collective future. The panelists include Jennifer Mnookin ’95 J.D., chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Madison; Melissa Gilliam ’87, president of Boston University; and Deborah Prentice ’89 Ph.D., vice-chancellor at the University of Cambridge.
“Inauguration weekend is an opportunity to reflect on the values that bring us together in the first place, to learn from each other, and to place ourselves within the context of what it means to be in community at Yale,” said Daniel Colón-Ramos, the Dorys McConnell Duberg Professor of Neuroscience and Cell Biology at Yale School of Medicine and co-chair of the inauguration planning committee. “We are an institution that was designed and aspires to serve the world, through our values of preserving knowledge, of disseminating it through teaching, of producing it through research, and of applying it and benefiting others.”
Honoring tradition, with an eye to the future
The weekend will conclude with a day of festivity and tradition. Two processions will form: one, at Yale Law School, will include McInnis, deans, tenured faculty, and university delegates from around the world, all of whom will wear traditional academic gowns and colored hoods.
Meanwhile, university leadership — including trustees, former trustees, and officers, along with the former presidents Richard C. Levin and Peter Salovey — will gather in the Sterling Memorial Library nave.
The two processions — led by honorary marshals carrying historic maces, including the university mace and a mace depicting the head of the Yael, a mythical beast symbolizing the university — will depart simultaneously and meet on Cross Campus, where McInnis will symbolically cross over to join university leadership.
Inside Woolsey Hall, McInnis will sit in the Wainscot Chair, a 17th-century piece long regarded as the official “chair of the president.” The chair first belonged to Reverend Abraham Pierson, who was the first rector, a role synonymous with that of the president, of the Collegiate School (renamed Yale College in 1718). The chair, which typically resides at the Yale University Art Gallery, has been a part of Yale inaugurations for more than a century.
The university mace and Wainscot Chair are among the ceremonial objects of the inauguration.
The installation ceremony will begin with an invocation from the chaplain and a welcome message from the provost, followed by greetings from two members of the academy, both Yale alumni.
Music will play an important role in the proceedings: the Yale Band will help lead the procession to Woolsey Hall, where McInnis will enter to “Processional for the President,” played on the Newberry Memorial Organ by Martin Jean, university organist. And the Yale Glee Club will sing a selection of verses from the late poet and Yale professor Marie Borroff, set to an original score composed by Jeffrey Douma, the Marshall Bartholomew Professor in the Practice of Choral Music at the Yale School of Music and director of the Yale Glee Club.
McInnis will be presented with the historical objects that signify her new rights and responsibilities as president — the university’s charter, its seal, and keys to Connecticut Hall, Dwight Hall, the Harkness Tower gateway, and Sterling Memorial Library.
Bekenstein, as senior trustee, will then place the president’s collar (an ornamental chain) on her shoulders, and Goff-Crews, as secretary of the university, will fasten it — symbolically transferring to her the authority of the Yale presidency. (Henceforth, McInnis will wear the collar at events at which she wears her academic regalia.) And, finally, McInnis will deliver her inaugural address.
For more information on the inauguration and the schedule of events, please visit the official inauguration website.
