University News

In a Weekend Ceremony, UVA Alum Takes the Helm at Yale

Yale University ceremonially installed University of Virginia alumna and former UVA faculty member Maurie McInnis as its 24th president Sunday, eight months after she was officially named to the position.

UVA President Jim Ryan, himself a Yale graduate, participated in the pageantry.

Ryan’s speech, as Yale News noted Monday, “drew laughter from the crowd as he recalled what former Yale President A. Bartlett Giamatti once said of the role of university president: It is, he said, ‘no way for an adult to make a living.’”

Portrait of the audience during the ceremony of Yale University’s presidential installation.

McInnis addresses the crowd as Yale University's first female president. At UVA, she was a Jefferson Scholar who graduated in 1988 with a degree in art history. (Photo by Dan Renzetti, Yale University)

Ryan said it can’t be about making a living because it “has to be a labor of love.” He added that it “also has to be the right kind of love. It can’t be a crush or an infatuation. The love has to be sober, it has to be tough at times, and it has to be courageous.”

“Maurie McInnis,” Ryan continued, “loves Yale, and she loves it the right way.”

McInnis, a Jefferson Scholar, graduated UVA in 1988 with a bachelor’s degree in art history. She received three advanced degrees from Yale, culminating with a doctorate in art history. McInnis moved to Virginia for a faculty position at James Madison University, but eventually returned to Charlottesville, where she served UVA for nearly two decades in a host of academic and leadership positions, including vice provost for academic affairs.

In 2016, McInnis became the provost at the University of Texas at Austin and, four years later, assumed the presidency at Stony Brook University in New York.

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Last summer, McInnis became the first female president at Yale.

McInnis spoke of the importance of recognizing Yale’s history and also its duty to meet the new challenges facing colleges and universities across the country.

McInnis quoted former Yale President Noah Porter, who recognized, in 1871, the “breeze of public criticism … blowing freshly through the halls of ancient learning.”

“Today, it’s fair to say that breeze feels like a gale-force wind,” McInnis said. “Universities are grappling with an unprecedented swirl of criticism and calls for change. Trust in institutions is waning. And for many Americans, the shine of higher education has grown dim.”

McInnis continued: “We have weathered the storms of every moment, the ‘breeze of public criticism’ and the winds of change. We have learned to acknowledge the weak points in our foundation, and we have become stronger for that knowledge.”

Candid portrait of UVA President Jim Ryan speaking during the ceremony of Yale University’s presidential installation.

UVA President Jim Ryan, a Yale graduate who worked with McInnis when they served on the UVA faculty, speaks at her inauguration. He said of McInnis: “She has always focused on the best interests of the institution she is serving, which is more important now than ever,” Ryan said. (Photo by Dan Renzetti, Yale University)

Ryan told the crowd he has witnessed firsthand how McInnis has been dedicated to the institutions she serves.

“I have seen Maurie take courageous steps, time and again, in her career,” Ryan said. “She has always focused on the best interests of the institution she is serving, which is more important now than ever.

“All of which is to say that Maurie possesses the indispensable trait of a successful president,” Ryan continued. “She loves this place. In fact,” Ryan said, tongue in cheek, “I’m quite sure she loves Yale almost as much as she loves UVA, which is saying a lot.”