The Inauguration of President Danielle R. Holley

Image of the Gates, clock tower in the background.

The Inauguration of President Danielle R. Holley

On September 21, 2023, Danielle R. Holley was celebrated as the twentieth president of �Ӱ��̳ College. A noted legal scholar and educator, she is widely recognized for her broad intellectual interests and curiosity, as well as for her rigorous advancement of racial and social justice.

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Watch a video of inauguration highlights

Share a congratulatory message with President Holley

Livestreamed Events

The Inaugural Ceremony Program

Processional

Order of the Academic Procession

College Marshal
The Board of Directors of the Alumnae Association
Delegate Marshals
Delegates from Colleges, Universities and Learned Societies
Faculty Marshals
The Faculty
Officers of the College
Trustee Marshals
The Board of Trustees
Past Chairs of the Board of Trustees
The Eighteenth President of the College
The Nineteenth President of the College
The 2022-2023 Interim President of the College
Presenter of the Invocation
Honored Dignitaries
The Presenter of the Symbols of Office
The Bearers of Greetings and Song to the President
The Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees
The Chair of the Board of Trustees
The President

Call to Order and Land Acknowledgment

Karena Strella ’90, Chair of the Board of Trustees
Larry Spotted Crow Mann, Founder and Co-Director of the Ohketeau Cultural Center, Citizen of the Hassanamisco Nipmuc Tribe

Invocation

Dannye Holley, Professor and Dean Emeritus, Thurgood Marshall School of Law, Texas Southern University.

Welcome

Karena Strella ’90, Chair of the Board of Trustees

Remarks

Wayne A. I. Frederick, President Emeritus, Howard University

Musical Greeting

"Eternity Enables the Endeavoring" (composed in honor of Danielle R. Holley)
Poem by Emily Dickinson, class of 1849
Music by Colin Britt - Lecturer in Music and Director of Choral Activities
Sherezade Panthaki, soprano - Lecturer in Music and Coordinator of Voice Instruction
Mark Gionfriddo, piano - Director of Jazz Ensembles, Coordinator of Piano Instruction, Instructor of Music

Greetings

Christina H. Paxson, President, Brown University
Eboni S. Nelson, Dean and Professor of Law, University of Connecticut School of Law
Honorable Carl E. Stewart, Circuit Judge, United States Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals

Video Greetings

U.S. Senator Edward J. Markey
U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren

Video Presentation

The Future is Now

Greetings

Ellen Hyde Pace ’81, President, Alumnae Association, on behalf of the alums
Maille L. Romulus ’24, President, Student Government Association, on behalf of the students
Jordan Lassonde ’16, Associate Director of the Speaking, Arguing, and Writing Program, Co-chair of Staff Council, on behalf of the staff
Kavita R. Khory, ’84, Ruth Lawson Professor of Politics, Carol Hoffman Collins Director of the McCulloch Center for Global Initiatives, on behalf of the faculty

Presentation of the Symbols of Office and Investiture of the President

Karena Strella ’90

Inaugural Address

Danielle R. Holley, Twentieth President of �Ӱ��̳ College

“Lift Every Voice and Sing”

Led by Kiera Myrthil ’24 and the �Ӱ��̳ Glee Club, under the direction of Colin Britt

Closing

Rhynette Northcross Hurd ’71, Vice Chair, Board of Trustees

“Alma Mater”

Led by the Alums of �Ӱ��̳ College

Recessional

Five College West African Music Ensemble

“Lift Every Voice and Sing”

Hymn & Poem: James Weldon Johnson

Lift every voice and sing,
'Til earth and heaven ring,
Ring with the harmonies of Liberty;
Let our rejoicing rise
High as the list'ning skies,
Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.
Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us,
Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us;
Facing the rising sun of our new day begun,
Let us march on 'til victory is won.
Stony the road we trod,
Bitter the chastening rod,
Felt in the days when hope unborn had died;
Yet with a steady beat,
Have not our weary feet
Come to the place for which our fathers sighed?
We have come over a way that with tears has been watered,
We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered,
Out from the gloomy past,
'Til now we stand at last
Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast.
God of our weary years,
God of our silent tears,
Thou who has brought us thus far on the way;
Thou who has by Thy might
Led us into the light,
Keep us forever in the path, we pray.
Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met Thee,
our hearts drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee;
Shadowed beneath Thy hand,
May we forever stand,
True to our God,
True to our native land.

“Alma Mater”

Music: Gladys Pratt, Class of 1914
Text: Gertrude Brady Murphy, Class of 1914

Oh �Ӱ��̳ we pay thee devotion,
In the fervor of youth that is strong,
The courage of right is thy garland,
Our lives, Alma Mater, thy song.
So from east and from west now we gather,
And united in firm love to thee,
All years are as one, and their loyal pledge,
�Ӱ��̳ forever shall be,
�Ӱ��̳ forever shall be.

Through the heart of a new day’s endeavor,
Breathes the life of the old days that live,
For what thou hast given we honor,
But we love thee for what we can give.
So when soft in a whisper thou callest,
For the treasures unlocked by thy key,
Our achievements, our hopes and our glorious faith
Shall answer, �Ӱ��̳, to thee,
Shall answer, �Ӱ��̳, to thee.

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