The last note has sounded and the applause has died down from the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra’s appearance on campus last night. With that, the events celebrating my inauguration as the 24th president of Canisius College are over, and some may hasten to add, thankfully so.
I wanted to take this opportunity to thank the entire campus community for a most wonderful set of events over the past eight days. Beginning with Pizza with the President organized by the Undergraduate Student Association and its President, Katie Eldredge, and concluding with last night’s concert featuring the world premiere of the Golden Griffin Overture by our composer-in-residence, Persis Vehar, I could not have imagined a better way to celebrate the people, the history, the mission, the identity and the intellectual life of Canisius College. So let me begin to roll the credits for the past eight days:
First, to our Inauguration Committee, led by chair Debra Park, and including Fr. John Bucki, Rose Marie Castner, Dianna Civello, Andalyn Courtney, Eileen Herbert, Dr. Terri Mangione, Marion Mittler and Dr. Jerry Neuner, thank you for your careful planning and terrific execution.
To the students from USA who made me feel so welcome at our pizza party last week, and also to Katie Eldredge for her kind words of greeting at Saturday’s inauguration.
To the faculty and students who gave generously of their time to prepare first rate presentations for the celebration of scholarship, including Dr. Ji-Hee Kim, Dr. Melissa Wanzer, Dr. David Sheets, Dr. Jamie O’Neil, Dr. Tanya Loughead, Dr. Marcus Thomeer, Dr. Chris Lopata, and Dr. Bruce Dierenfield.
To all those who participated in Saturday’s inauguration ceremony and who helped make it possible with set-up, marshalling, traffic control, food, music, etc. A special thanks to Frank Scinta and the Canisius College Chorale for the beautiful live performance of our alma mater. Our guests were all marveling at how well we do formal ceremonies of this type.
To all those in Campus Ministry who made Bishop Kmiec’s visit for the Mass of Thanksgiving on Sunday so memorable, including Fr. Bucki and his entire team, Scott Papelow and Cantio Sacra.
To all those who worked so tirelessly on the myriad logistical details surrounding the visit of the Chief Justice of the United States John Roberts to Canisius, especially Deb Park, Gary Everett, Prof. Bob Klump and our trustee, Joe Hassett.
To those who made the BPO’s annual visit to campus a great celebration of our commitment to the fine arts, especially Jane Cary, Ellen Barnum, and of course, Persis Vehar.
Throughout all of these events, people in the Institutional Advancement Office attended to the details of our receptions, mailing invitations, coordinating responses, printing endless batches of name tags, working with Chartwells, manning the greeting tables, etc. and so I thank first and foremost, our Director of Stewardship, Marion Mittler and her team of Lainey Pate and Terry Nusstein, but also Craig Chindemi, Dianna Civello, Laura Marek, Mary Ellen Carver, Wendy Kirkby, Sally Guerin, Carol Lower, Betsy Bohen, Fran Mergl and the rest of the staff for a great job.
The people in our Public Relations/Creative Services/Web Services made sure we had beautiful programs, signs, prompt web updates and great media attention, so thanks go to Deb Park and her team, Eileen Herbert, Andalyn Courtney, Chuck Pustelnik, Audrey Browka, Kristin Etu, Rose Twardowski, Shawn Maciejewski and Sean Flynn.
The people in our Events Management Office, Mike Odojewski and Mark Dzielski and their graduate assistants, Gordon Anthony and Jon Lyons at the KAC, Dan Drew, Bob Grabowski and the people in our Media Center, John Tychinski and Roger Herle and all the great staff of Chartwells for their outstanding food and presentation, Gary Everett and the entire Public Safety Staff, and finally Ed Cogan, Kevin Kwitzer and all of the Facilities Management staff who made the campus look so terrific – outside and inside.
I am also grateful to the teams (especially the men’s and women’s basketball teams) who vacated the KAC while our stage was in the main gym and I appreciate all those who use KAC regularly for working around this inconvenience.
I am personally very grateful for all of your efforts, your kindnesses and your great work during the Inauguration Week, a week that has clearly been one of the highlights of my life. Thank you very much.
Submitted by: John J. Hurley, president
