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Campus, government and community leaders welcome UT’s 16th president |
| By
Tobin J. Klinger |
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Sep 13, 2006 |
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An event characterized by understated pomp and circumstance allowed representatives from around the world to formally welcome the new president of The University of Toledo, Dr. Lloyd Jacobs.
In a ceremony that marked the retirement of the medallions and maces of the once-separate UT and Medical University of Ohio, the approximately 750 students, faculty, staff, alumni and friends of the institution gathered in Nitschke Hall Auditorium were treated to histories of the two entities and thoughts on the future.
“Here begins a new era,” declared James Tuschman, former UT trustee and member of the Ohio Board of Regents. “Dr. Jacobs takes us down a new road. This is our highway to excellence.”
Toledo Mayor Carleton Finkbeiner joined the celebration, pledging to work alongside the new president and institution to “enhance community relations” and work toward a “balanced town-gown relationship.”
According to Dr. Lawrence Elmer, associate professor and medical director of the Center for Neurological Disorders, and chair of the Health Science Campus Faculty Senate, health science faculty are enthusiastic and are committed to “work side-by-side” with the new president “to improve the human condition [and] dramatically enhance the lives of those within our sphere of influence.”
“I think adding the line ‘improve the human condition’ [to the mission statement] takes The University of Toledo to a new level,” said Dr. Carter Wilson, professor of political science and chair of the Main Campus Faculty Senate.
“The products of his tenure are abundantly evident,” said Simas Laniauskas, president of Student Senate on the Health Science Campus, of Jacobs’ time as MUO president and expressing his optimism for the future.
Dr. David Adamany, who retired as president of Temple University earlier this year, provided the keynote address. He has known Jacobs since the UT president was a faculty member at Wayne State University and not only echoed other speakers in his support for the new president, but also called on the crowd to embrace the important role of an urban university.
“It’s in our public and our urban universities that the greatest opportunities have occurred,” Adamany said. “There should be joy and rejoicing about the merger.”
Jacobs himself closed the ceremony, thanking his family first and foremost, and noting that his youngest son chose instead to attend class at UT rather than attend the event.
To his wife, Jacobs said, “Ola, without you my life would be meaningless.”
In his remarks, Jacobs drew attention to the latest version of the UT seal, loosely translating its old Spanish inscription to read “Engage the present, create the future,” asking the crowd to interpret the meaning and apply it to their own life and work.
“Act in the present,” Jacobs said, “and in doing so you will create the future. That’s what The University of Toledo is all about. That’s an awesome responsibility for all of us.”
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