The inauguration ceremony will take place in The Riverside Church on Wednesday the 31st, beginning at 2:00 p.m. All members of the TC Community are invited, while universities and colleges from around the country are expected to send representatives. The ceremony will begin with formal greetings from Congressman Charles Rangel, former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Donna Shalala (Fuhrman's mentor during her years at TC, and now President of the University of Miami) and leaders from New York City's government and public schools. Fuhrman herself will deliver an address.

The previous day will be marked by an academic program themed "Living the Legacy," which will focus on models for effective education research and ways of translating it into policy and practice. Lee Shulman, Director of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, will deliver opening remarks. He will be followed by two panels of speakers that will include Ellen Lagemann, former Dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Education, past President of the Spencer Foundation and the National Academy of Education and currently the Charles Warren Professor of the History of American Education at Harvard University; Edmund Gordon, TC's Richard March Hoe Professor Emeritus of Psychology; Sharon Lynn Kagan, Virginia and Leonard Marx Professor of Early Childhood Education at TC and Co-Director of the National Center for Children and Families; and Professor Emerita Patricia Albjerg Graham, at Harvard Graduate School of Education, former Director of the National Institute of Education and President of the Spencer Foundation, the nation's leading funder of educational research.

TC faculty members Aaron Pallas, Professor of Sociology and Education, and Lucy Calkins, Robinson Professor of English Education, will serve as moderators. The program will be held at TC's new Cowin Center and will run from 1:00 p.m. to 4:45 p.m., with a reception following.

A 14-member committee, co-chaired by Margaret Crocco, Professor of Social Studies in Education, and Joseph Brosnan, Vice President, Development and External Affairs, and with representatives from faculty, staff, union employees and students, is working to plan the event.

"A presidential inauguration is a major occasion in the life of an academic institution," says Crocco. "The pomp and festivity are fun, but the event is also a celebration of ideas and values, and of the energy and redoubled commitment that a new president brings to the table. We're entering a new era, but we're also affirming the things we have always stood for: excellence in education and research, a commitment to helping poor and disadvantaged students, and a focus on education in all areas as the best means for sustaining and improving a democratic society."

Published Friday, Oct. 27, 2006