UTSA celebrates Inauguration of President Eighmy

(March 20, 2018) -- Taylor Eighmy will be formally inducted as the sixth president of The University of Texas at San Antonio during an inauguration ceremony this afternoon in the Convocation Center on the UTSA Main Campus. The university community is encouraged to attend this special event. A webcast of the inauguration is also available.

Inauguration festivities will begin today at 2:30 p.m. with a prelude and processional. The inauguration ceremony will feature the Spirit of San Antonio marching band as well as UTSA student music and dance performances.

A series of speakers will join President Eighmy at today’s event. Jaciel Castro, the UT System’s Student Regent, will welcome guests and serve as the event’s Master of Ceremonies. City Councilwoman Shirley Gonzales, who represents District 5, where the Downtown Campus is located, will offer President Eighmy congratulations on behalf of the City of San Antonio. UTSA Student Government Association President Marcus Thomas will offer opening remarks. UT System Chancellor William H. McRaven will deliver special remarks. Following the ceremony, all attendees are invited to a reception on the Convocation Center Plaza.

Notably, Carmen Tafolla, a professor in the UTSA Department of Bicultural-Bilingual Studies and 2015-2016 Texas Poet Laureate, will read Estrellas of Possibility, the poem she wrote for the Presidential Inauguration. Her poem celebrates Eighmy’s vision to make UTSA a flourishing community that drives prosperity.

Eighmy began his service as the sixth president of UTSA on September 1, 2017, after serving as the chief research officer at the University of New Hampshire, Texas Tech University and, more recently, the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. In those roles, he developed a strong track record of advancing urban serving research institutions through strategic government collaborations, public-private partnerships and community engagement.

Shortly after beginning his role as UTSA President, Eighmy unveiled a long-term strategy to make UTSA San Antonio’s university of the future and to help it earn National Research University Fund (NRUF) eligibility and R1 (highest research activity) classification from the Carnegie Commission. The vision leverages UTSA’s strengths as a great multicultural discovery enterprise, an exemplary urban serving university of the future, a world-engaged institution, a university that fosters exceptional student experiences, and an institution with exceptional people and operational and infrastructure excellence.

To celebrate President Eighmy’s inauguration, UTSA students, faculty and staff will participate in UTSA's Day of Service on Saturday, March 24. In honor of President Eighmy's vision of UTSA as an urban serving university, the day will provide an opportunity for the university to give back to San Antonio. The Day of Service kicks off at 8:30 a.m. in Bill Miller Plaza at the UTSA Downtown Campus. Service projects benefitting a variety of community partners will continue throughout the day.

- Christi Fish

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Learn more about the inauguration of UTSA President Taylor Eighmy or watch the webcast.

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Learn more and register for UTSA's Day of Service.

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