Recessions tend to temper ambitions, and it appears that even inaugural ceremonies may be on the chopping block at some colleges. The galas can be lavish, sometimes running up tabs of more than $200,000. But the University of North Carolina at Greensboro is getting creative to keep the cost of its coming inauguration down to just $22,000.

Linda P. Brady, the university’s chancellor, will be formally installed tomorrow morning. Citing the economy and systemwide budget cuts, Ms. Brady asked Erskine B. Bowles, the system’s president, if the university could do without the festivities, according the Greensboro News & Record. Mr. Bowles decided the ceremony was important for the university, so they opted to let the show go on, but with an eye toward thrift.

According to the newspaper, those cost-cutting measures include:

The campus cafeteria is making the cake.

The student government is handing out daisy seeds, the school’s flower, rather than commemorative tchotchkes like mugs.

The buffet lunch was nixed in favor of punch and light desserts.

The Greensboro campus is not the first to take a pass on a big-spending inauguration. For example, Jo Ann M. Gora marked her 2004 arrival at Ball State University by taking money the university would have spent on an inauguration and using it instead for scholarships for 25 high-school students.

Another cost-conscious college chief is Joe Gow, who ponied up the entire $8,000 price tag for his 2007 inauguration as chancellor of the University of Wisconsin at La Crosse. Mr. Gow also pitched in with the entertainment, singing Frank Sinatra’s “Luck Be a Lady” at the ceremony. —Paul Fain