University plans event, Webcast of presidential inauguration

A campus-wide event marking the historic presidential inauguration of Barack Obama is planned for January 20.

“America United: A Grand Valley Celebration” will begin at 11:30 a.m. in the Kirkhof Center, Grand River and Pere Marquette rooms. President Thomas J. Haas, Gleaves Whitney, director of the Hauenstein Center for Presidential Studies, and others will speak before the noon start of the inauguration in Washington, D.C. A live Webcast of Grand Valley speakers and a link to the inauguration will be available at www.gvsu.edu.

Locations will be set up for students, faculty and staff members to watch the day’s events. Along with the Kirkhof Center, sites are as follows:
• Eberhard Center, Grand Rapids Press Teleconference Auditorium;
• Cook-DeVos Center for Health Sciences, Hager Auditorium;
• Holland Meijer Campus, room 104;
• Muskegon Regional Center, room 1100;
• Traverse City University Center, rooms 215 and 217.

Provost Gayle R. Davis said she is pleased that the university is providing an opportunity for the campus community to watch the inauguration together. “Our students, faculty and staff were extraordinarily involved in this presidential election, before the election through programming of the Hauenstein Center and other entities, and on Election Day itself,” she said. “Now the Grand Valley community can share in witnessing this transition in national leadership that also marks significant social change. With this election, the country’s voters have destroyed one more racial barrier that has historically divided us.”

Grand Valley’s Inauguration Day event was planned with students in mind and to support their continued interest in the election and politics. The Student Senate sponsored bus transportation to the Allendale precinct on Election Day for those registered there. More than 500 students cast votes that day, comprising one-fourth of all votes cast at that precinct.

Jeanne Arnold, vice president for Inclusion and Equity, said the program also will provide opportunities for students and faculty members to share their perspectives on being involved in the election that put the country’s first African American in office.

Tom Butcher, university counsel and member of the planning committee for the event, said the inauguration will rival other historic occasions like the 1969 moon landing.

For more information about the January 20 event, contact the Office of Inclusion and Equity at x13296.