Chancellor’s inauguration looms
Planning for the inauguration of the university’s 10th chancellor will culminate Wednesday in a celebration with food, music and top-secret things.

By Lacey Krause
Staff Reporter

Chancellor Victor Boschini’s inauguration Wednesday will cap off more than six months of planning by faculty and staff. Margaret Kelly is keeping her fingers crossed.

“What is not seen from the outside are all the details,” said Kelly, inauguration committee co-chairman. “It should appear flawless. That’s the mark of a successful event.”

In August, the chancellor appointed Kelly, director of special projects, and Bob Seal, university librarian, to co-chair the committee on the inauguration. Kelly and Seal then appointed a committee of 11 faculty, staff and students, representing several areas of campus.

“It’s like planning a wedding and a funeral,” said Tracy Syler-Doctson, director of communications.

Both Kelly and Seal were involved in planning former chancellor Michael Ferrari’s inauguration in 1999. This experience helped them in planning Boschini’s inauguration, Seal said.

“The good news is, we did this five years ago,” Seal said. “We hadn’t done it for 20 years before that.”

Many aspects of Boschini’s inauguration are similar to Ferrari’s, Seal said.

“We followed the program fairly closely,” he said. “I had my old to-do list.”

An inauguration takes an absolute minimum of six months to plan, Kelly said.

Boschini arrived in June, but the committee gave him some time before beginning work on his inauguration.

“You need to give your new chancellor a chance to get his feet on the ground,” she said.

A lot of work goes into choosing the date for the ceremony, Kelly said. The committee had to work around the Boschini’s personal calendar, as well as the academic calendar and community events. The committee wanted to plan the ceremony on a day when community leaders like the mayor and city council would be able to attend.

“They’re the same people everybody wants at their big event,” Kelly said.

The chancellor has been directly involved with planning several aspects of the ceremony, Seal said. Boschini personally selected the keynote speaker, George Kuh, director of the Center for Postsecondary Research at Indiana University.

“He chose Dr. Kuh because he’s a national expert in the area of student engagement,” Seal said.

Boschini also had a role in selecting some of the ceremony’s music. The TCU Symphony Orchestra will play Anton Dvorak’s “New World Symphony” at Boschini’s request.

Robert Garwell, professor of music, was commissioned to compose an original musical piece for the ceremony. Garwell will premiere his composition, “Inaugural Fanfare,” at the ceremony.

The Office of Communication staff has been busy getting the word out about the inauguration. They have placed ads in the TCU Daily Skiff and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, and sent press releases to local media outlets, Syler-Doctson said. A Web site for the inauguration has also been set up.

“To create a Web site for something like this took quite a bit of work,” Syler-Doctson said.

Approximately 2,000 guests are expected at a buffet-style lunch following the ceremony in the Kelly Alumni Center. Several buffets lines will be set up, serving pasta, salad, carved turkey and beef, and desserts.

“We’re in charge of figuring out, do we have enough plates, napkins, silverware, tablecloths,” Kelly said. “It’s just minutia.”

Dinner at Daniel-Meyer Coliseum will be a more formal affair. The menu for the dinner is top-secret, Kelly said.

“This is sort of our gift to the chancellor after the ceremony,” she said.

After dinner, guests will dance to music provided by The Swing Machine.