Gustavus faculty, staff, students, alumni, and friends, the Board of Trustees, delegates from peer institutions of higher education, and several special guests, including Governor Mark Dayton and U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar, filled Christ Chapel on Friday afternoon as Gustavus officially inaugurated Rebecca M. Bergman as the College’s 17th President.
Governor Dayton spoke highly about the education that Gustavus students receive and then proclaimed Friday, Oct. 3, 2014, as “Rebecca M. Bergman Day” in the State of Minnesota. Senator Klobuchar also praised Gustavus for its academic excellence, shared with the audience that seven Gustavus graduates have worked in her office, and spoke about what it means to be the first woman to hold a certain job.
President Bergman’s Inaugural Address was titled “Celebrating the Value of Community”.
“And so, with great fanfare, we start a new chapter of Gustavus history,” Bergman stated near the beginning of her address. “We stand on a strong foundation and a history of great achievements, and, at the same time, we look forward with determination and renewed commitment to our mission and our purpose as an institution of higher learning.”
President Bergman then went on to share her vision of what a healthy community looks like and why community is so important at Gustavus.
“A healthy community is a group of people who have a deep and abiding commitment to each other, who communicate with authenticity, who celebrate together, who mourn together, who support and care for each other, who labor together, and who commit to a shared purpose,” she said. “So here is the bottom line – organizations with a strong sense of community are high energy organizations, and that energy is channeled toward greatness. They drive for achievement of organizational goals. They are innovative and are always trying something new. They set high standards of excellence in performance. They have a can-do attitude. They are willing to enter into constructive debate and are always looking to stay on the leading edge. They exude optimism and are resilient when things go wrong. They embrace change and boldly go where no one has ever gone before.”
After addressing several challenges facing higher education today, Bergman closed by saying, “I commit to tackling these challenges with you, to encourage and support innovation in every aspect of our work and every corner of our organization, to honor our past and push us toward an even better future, to listen to your ideas and look for creative solutions, to find ways to open up new possibilities, to foster a dynamic unity here that embraces diversity and encourages constructive debate, to inspire new levels of excellence in everything we do. But most of all, I promise that every day I will strive to commit my gifts to the collective work of this great learning community, to engage with all those who care about the Gustavus mission to make this organization a model for the future of the liberal arts.”
You can read the entire text of President Bergman’s Inaugural Address here.
You can watch an archived video of the entire Inauguration Ceremony by accessing the Gustavus Live Streaming Portal.
You can view pictures from the Inauguration Ceremony by accessing the Gustavus Flickr page.
Read the Mankato Free Press article about Inauguration day.
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