Release date: March 11, 2004
Contact: Elaine Justice, Associate Director, University Media Relations,
at 404-727-0643 or ejustic@emory.edu

President James W. Wagner Inaugurated April 2

Emory University President James W. Wagner, who assumed the presidency at the beginning of the academic year, will be formally inaugurated Friday, April 2. The ceremony, scheduled at 2:30 p.m. on the Emory Quadrangle, will be preceded by a week of cultural events and celebration activities, including an Olympic-style torch run from Emory's historic campus in Oxford, Ga., to the main campus in Atlanta--some 38 miles away.

Inauguration week events will begin Monday, March 29 with a celebration of Emory's history to be held at its Oxford College campus, where Emory College was founded in 1836 prior to being moved to Atlanta and established as a university in 1914. Following a ceremony and reception, Dana Green, dean and CEO of Oxford College, will light the torch that volunteers will carry in the torch relay. For more information on the torch relay, click here.

Tuesday's events feature a public symposium on "Emerging Challenges for Ethics and Leadership in the Professions" scheduled 4-6 p.m. March 30 in the Woodruff Health Sciences Center Administration Building auditorium, 1440 Clifton Rd. Featured speakers and topics include medical, science, business and legal ethicists across the university. Parking is available at Peavine and Michael Street parking decks. For information, call 404-727-1208.

The torch run is becoming something of a tradition at Emory; a similar run was held during the school's 150th anniversary celebration in 1986. Set to begin at 10 a.m. Thursday, April 1 at Oxford, the relay-style run will involve some 40 runners and other volunteers and is estimated to take five to six hours.

The torch route will take runners around the Oxford campus and to parts of Newton and Rockdale counties, following Old Atlanta Highway, past Conyers and Flat Shoals, up Covington Highway and through the greater Atlanta neighborhoods of Avondale Estates, the City of Decatur and Druid Hills.

Runners are expected to arrive at Emory Village adjacent to the campus at approximately 4 p.m. for a small ceremony at the Haygood-Hopkins Gate at the campus entrance, followed by a winding relay through the campus involving another 30 to 40 torch-carriers of all ages, abilities and positions at the university. The torch then will be used to light a caldron on the Emory quad that will remain in place through the inauguration ceremony the next day.

An inaugural arts festival will begin on campus Thursday, April 1 with poetry readings, theater performances and the first Emory A Capella Fest, featuring student a capella groups, the University Chorus and Concert Choir at 8:30 p.m. in the Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts, 1700 N. Decatur Rd. For tickets, call 404-727-5050. For more information on the inaugural arts festival, click here.

For a complete schedule and updates on inauguration week at Emory, go to www.emory.edu/INAUGURATION.

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