July marks the one year anniversary of Selma Botman taking over as President of USM. And just two months before that, the university will finally get around to inaugurating her.
Citing a desire to beat the cold, the Presidential Inaugural Committee announced Saturday, April 25 as the day that students, faculty, and administration can join former USM president and UMS chancellor Richard Pattenaude to welcome Botman to the job she has held – some might say weathered, since last summer.
While the university is in no fiscal condition to throw a party, the Committee has raised private funds for a minimalist event slated to celebrate the financially-struggling university as much as its new figurehead.
“Dr. Botman would really love this to be a celebration of USM and our students and faculty,” says Rosa Redonnett, who has led the planning committee. “What we’re really trying to do is fill out the event with different things people can see or experience to get a taste for what we do here.”
Planners are currently working with heads of the music and art departments, as well as organizers of the annual Thinking Matters festival, to decide which students and projects to showcase.
The ceremony will also feature remarks from some of Botman’s old colleagues from CUNY, Tufts University and UMASS Lowell. On the eve of the inauguration, she and her special guests plan to attend the theater department’s opening night performance of Sylvia, directed by senior Joelle Clingerman.
Pattenaude, who served as USM’s President from 1991 until 2005, recalls his own inauguration ceremony as a vital part of his acclimation to the school. His was held at the Sullivan Gym in Gorham. Though his parents were too old to attend, organizers managed to provide a live audio feed to their home in Seattle.
“It was a wonderful and meaningful celebration,” says Pattenaude, who will lead Botman’s at Hannaford Lecture Hall in Portland.
The facility is already outfitted for sound and video to be fed into overflow rooms, something Redonnett expects to utilize.
While Botman has plenty of time to prepare her remarks, she’s quick to note that she won’t be taking the responsibility lightly.
“Inaugurations are signature events in a university’s history,” she writes. “It’s also a way for a new president to affirm her commitment to the community and the university, to its faculty, students and staff.”