AA E-Zine Editorial Note: The Office of the President has taken reporting to a new multimedia level. After each event, a videotape is put online. Here is the link where you can see the complete inauguration ceremony. If you move the button ahead to about the 50 minute mark, you get to the meat of the event, President Stanley's address. Afterwards his son Jack said about it, "I may be a little biased but I thought it was a really good speech." He is biased but he was right. If you want to know where SB is heading, listen to it.
http://www.stonybrook.edu/sb/inauguration/multimedia.html

Excerpts
Friday, October 23, 2009

Installed as president months ago as the successor to Shirley Strum Kenny, Stony Brook University gave Dr. Samuel L. Stanley an inauguration to celebrate his ascension to the position yesterday. In the nearly four-hour long event, the university faculty and local government officials heaped praise on the new president in the Sports Complex where more than 2,000 people attended the day’s main event.

Stanley used his address (full text can be found by clicking here) to propose several initiatives he would like to carry out as the university’s president in the next few years, proposals which will surely be heavily debated in the near future.

He said that he wants to review every program and activity the university currently has to try and cut waste because of the budget crunch, warning that more cuts are coming in Stony Brook’s future besides the more than $28 million that the university has already seen cut from its state-allocated budget. He profusely thanked those who have donated resources to the university in the past, seemingly hoping to imply that they do not stop giving.

Addressing a constant concern of the faculty over the past few years, Stanley stressed the need to recruit and retain more elite professors. He proposed that over the next 8-10 years that 400 new faculty members be brought in to help ease the strain that the university’s expanding class sizes have had on professors. He also made a key statement for those who have worried that the new president, given his background as a molecular biologist, would focus exclusively on the sciences, saying that the professors would be dispersed throughout the university’s programs.

“It’s not just about the sciences,” he said to applause.

He also advocated for SUNY to allow for flex tuition, a policy under which Stony Brook, as a university center, could increase its tuition and be allowed to keep all the extra revenues on campus rather than sending the money into the state. Stanley argued that if Stony Brook is to grow under his watch, it must have a bigger pool of resources to allocate from and that the current tuition for the school is insufficient for its aims.

“Our tuition is too low to allow us to provide the best education for our students,” he stated. “And a plunge to mediocrity will only decrease the value of a Stony Brook degree.”

The Ceremony Begins

Following the ceremony’s opening festivities—a number by the Stony Brook wind ensemble, the National Anthem sung by Mariane Lemieux and an invocation delivered by Rabbi Joseph Topek—nearly a dozen speakers precluded Stanley, and they all seemed to espouse the same message - they thought that he was the right man for the job.

Local State Senator John J. Flanagan (R-East Northport) praised Stanley’s willingness to listen to different ideas and perspectives; Stony Brook Foundation Chair – and vice-chair of the presidential search committee - Richard Gelfond referenced “Jerry Maguire,” saying Stanley had “had us (the committee) from the word hello,” and that he was by far the best candidate they had reviewed; and State Assemblyman Steven Englebright (D-Setauket) remarked that the most important thing Stanley will bring to the university during these rough economic times is his optimistic vision.

Perhaps the most memorable greeting came from the president of the undergraduate student body, Jasper Wilson. Besides offering to switch offices with Stanley so that the new president could be at the heart of campus in the Student Activities Center, Wilson offered a special welcoming.

“From one president to another - welcome,” he said, resulting in widespread laughter and clapping from the audience.

Chancellor Zimpher Takes the Podium

Stony Brook is not the only institution in New York to have a new leader at the helm - Chancellor Nancy Zimpher is in her first year of running the SUNY system, and offered some words to the new president during her third visit to the campus.

While she did not give in and refer to Stony Brook as a flagship of the SUNY system, she praised the large role the university has and will continue to play within the state’s education system, as well as its economy. She remarked that SUNY and Stony Brook are a vital part of how to get New York’s economy back on the right track.

“We (SUNY) must do something, we must make a difference,” she said. In order to make a difference, Zimpher said that strong leadership is needed- something she thinks Stanley’s drive and foresightedness can provide.

“Leadership is a function of vision, and vision trumps everything,” she declared. She continued that only a leader who possesses this could lead Stony Brook during this time and conditions. “You have before you, Samuel L. Stanley Jr., that leader.”

With that, she presented the Medallion of Office to Stanley, fully anointing him as the president of the university, to thunderous applause. The standing ovation that ensued lasted for approximately 30 seconds.

The Man of the Hour

In a nearly hour-long speech that was interrupted several times with applause, Stanley thanked his family and members of the Stony Brook community for helping him achieve the school’s presidency, spent a considerable amount of time describing the importance of Stony Brook as a New York and world institution and outlined some of his major goals for the next few years.

He started out by thanking the many speakers who had come before him on his inauguration day... While he would go on to thank all of his family who attended the event—his pair of sisters and brother-in-laws, his parents and mother and father-in-law, and others—most memorable was his thanking of his wife, Ellen Li, and his four children, three of whom were in attendance.

“Ellen and I both worked in molecular biology, and together we performed the most successful recombinant DNA experiment of all time - our four children, Jim, Susie, Katie and Sam,” he deadpanned to laughter. “Each year they become more interesting, more accomplished and more expensive. I’m so glad they are here, and so proud of all that they do, and more importantly, the kind of young people they are.”

And, then, he offered the crowd its biggest surprise of the day.

After speaking about the importance of keeping yourself healthy and the dangers of H1N1, Stanley talked about how those who can get the new vaccine should, saying that it is an important way to protect yourself from the strain of flu that has gotten so much news attention in the past year. He said that he was impressed by the amount of Stony Brook students who turned out for the recent campus event administering the vaccine.

This is when Stanley may have made history as the first president to ever receive a medicinal shot during his inaugural address.

“Since I believe in actions more than words, I thought I would take this opportunity, as an infectious diseases physician, to receive the injectable form of the vaccine right now,” he announced to a loud applause from the crowd.

Aided by his daughter, Susie, who helped her father roll up the sleeves on his robes, a nurse injected Stanley with the vaccine in his right arm.

“Oh…it’s the real thing,” he said to the crowd, smiling.

Now safe from H1N1, Stanley dug in and used the next 40 minutes to explain how important a role Stony Brook will play in the future and his immediate goals to further the university’s ability to deliver a high-quality education.

http://www.sbindependent.org/node/3559