CEREMONIAL DAY

University of Oregon President Richard Lariviere swapped his trademark Panama hat for a scholarly, albeit floppy, royal-blue tam Friday, as he was formally “invested” as the school’s 16th president during a ceremony on campus.

George Pernsteiner, chancellor of the Oregon University System, told about 250 shivering-cold, if dry, UO faculty and staff members and others during the investiture ceremony — a tradition that dates back to the UO’s first president in 1876, John Wesley Johnson — that Lariviere has the vision, experience and energy “to be a great president.”

“And he has shown that in his first 10 months,” said Pernsteiner, who even gave a nod to Lariviere’s recent proposal to “break away from the strictures” of state funding for the UO.

Lariviere, who took over from former UO President Dave Frohnmayer on July 1 after three years as executive vice chancellor and provost at the University of Kansas, has had one of the more challenging first years for a president in the UO’s history. It has included troubles with the UO football team that gained national attention, followed by controversy and embarrassment after the revelation that ex-athletic director Mike Bellotti never had a written employment contract, and the subsequent investigations by the state and the Oregon University System and the related reassignment of the UO’s top staff lawyer by Lariviere.

And all of that was followed by the new president’s proposal to change how the UO is funded — and governed — by establishing a $1 billion endowment using state bonds.

After receiving the UO’s centennial medallion and taking the school’s silver, copper, bronze and walnut mace during the ceremony under a large white tent in the UO’s Memorial Quad, an emotional Lariviere choked back tears as he talked about growing up in Iowa where his “parents had nothing. They were products of the Depression,” he said.

“They couldn’t attend college. I was first in my entire family to have that privilege. A public university opened the world for me,” Lariviere said of his days at the University of Iowa, where he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in the history of religions in 1972.

“Public universities offer that opportunity,” Lariviere said. “The University of Oregon offers that opportunity. It’s a place that brings out the best in young Oregonians, that enriches and shapes their lives forever.

“I came here because of you, each of you here today. And in many ways, this day, this celebration, is about each of you far more than it’s about me,” Lariviere said.

Toward the end of his talk that was broadcast on the Internet, Lariviere spoke about the $1.6 billion endowment plan he intends to present to the state Legislature next year as “a model that creates a change in the relationship between higher education and the state. A model that re-enables access and affordability for Oregonians. A model that preserves the University of Oregon’s mission as a public university.

“And first and foremost — and I want no misunderstanding around this, the University of Oregon will be a public university — a public university that finds new resources to help more Oregonians earn college degrees,” he said.

“We know that the old way of cajoling, begging, pleading with lawmakers for funds that they don’t have is useless,” Lariviere added.

He spoke about his love of the UO, “a masterpiece in the making … but an unfinished masterpiece.” He spoke about all the great reasons to celebrate the 134-year-old institution, from its reputation as a top research university, its growing reputation for diversity, its 47 Guggenheim fellows, 10 Pulitzer Prize winners and 133 Fulbright scholars. Even for those who climb out of bed while it’s still dark and cold to cut, trim, rake and plant its campus “of beauty and delight.”

And he spoke about the “22,000 other reasons to celebrate today,” the university’s students.

“We have some of the greatest students in the world,” Lariviere said. Although research and graduate studies play a vital role, “the foundation of our mission is the focus we place on undergraduate education,” he said.

The greatness of the UO depends on the excellence of its students, Lariviere said. “And it’s essential that we enable those excellent students to attend without the overbearing worry of cost,” he said.

As his talk come to a close, Lariviere’s eyes once again welled with tears.

“My story began with a siren call from a public university to my parents and through them to me,” he said. “They didn’t have the chance to attend college, but their children would. My parents understood that going to our state’s flagship university would change my life and, boy, were they right. Other families, other students in these times, must hear that same call and know that a world-class university, the University of Oregon, is within their reach. And when those students and those families reach out, this great university will be here for them and they, too, will celebrate.”