{"id":162477,"date":"2024-05-04T13:17:51","date_gmt":"2024-05-04T17:17:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/?p=162477"},"modified":"2025-06-27T11:55:27","modified_gmt":"2025-06-27T15:55:27","slug":"bates-college-installs-garry-w-jenkins-as-ninth-president","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/2024\/05\/04\/bates-college-installs-garry-w-jenkins-as-ninth-president\/","title":{"rendered":"Bates College installs Garry W. Jenkins as ninth president"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As Garry W. Jenkins, Bates College\u2019s ninth president, received the figurative, and literal, keys to Bates\u2019 future as its new leader today, he did so with gratitude, compassion, and determination. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before the roughly 1,200 guests in Merrill Gymnasium, Jenkins promised he would lead Bates \u201cwith humility and transparency, with tenacity and enthusiasm, and, of course, with ardor and devotion.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Offering four cornerstones that \u201cwill guide our work and propel us forward\u201d and asking the Bates community to \u201cembrace the challenges that await us,\u201d Jenkins emphasized how now more than ever Bates needs to promote teamwork, to remove barriers to students, to become more inclusive, and to cultivate and prepare leaders for tomorrow\u2019s challenges. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

By doing so, he said, Bates will become stronger while serving society and democracy. “They rise together.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cI am moved beyond words by the warm welcome that you have offered me \u2014 here on this stage, on this day, but even from the very first moments that my joining this community became even a remote possibility,\u201d said Jenkins in his inaugural address. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College) <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Jenkins, who was appointed the college’s first Black president on Feb. 27, 2023<\/a>, and began his tenure on July 1 of last year, was formally installed in a transformed Merrill Gymnasium adorned in elegant, dark drapery. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The proceedings played out on a brilliantly illuminated stage, greenery along the perimeter and the Bates seal above it all. As the academic procession arrived and took its place, the Bates College Orchestra performed Festive Overture<\/em>, composed in 1944 by William Grant Still, a 1954 honorary degree recipient from Bates<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am moved beyond words by the warm welcome that you have offered me \u2014 here on this stage, on this day, but even from the very first moments that my joining this community became even a remote possibility,\u201d said Jenkins. \u201cThis place \u2014 our college \u2014 is a place of warmth and welcome, and you have made that abundantly and beautifully clear.\u201d <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Watch the complete inauguration of Garry W. Jenkins as Bates’ ninth president below.<\/em> (Note<\/strong>: If the video begins with the inauguration slideshow, please advance the video to minute 29 for the beginning of the processional.)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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