The potted daffodils and hydrangeas that lined the stage at the University of Michigan's presidential inauguration in March have been schlepped from ceremony to ceremony on the Ann Arbor campus this spring.
They were on display at the luncheon that followed Mary Sue Coleman's installation as the university's 13th president, and they were used at the open house at the end of the day. Since then, they've been used for donor events at the president's house and again at commencement.
"They've probably had it by now," says Chacona W. Johnson, associate vice president for development at Michigan and chairwoman of the inaugural committee. Members of the committee chose the potted gold-and-blue blooms (the institution's colors) because they were cheaper than cut flowers. But flowers were not the only thing that the committee had to skimp on.
A sluggish economy has forced many public institutions to scale back spending on presidential inaugurations this spring or cancel them altogether.
While Western Oregon University opted not to hold a formal inauguration for its new president out of fear of a negative public perception, most institutions decided that the appointment of a new leader was a milestone that required some celebration -- not the usual weeklong extravaganzas, but more spartan affairs packed into a single day.
"We looked at what was absolutely necessary," says Ms. Johnson, of planning Ms. Coleman's March 27 inauguration.
Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm has proposed a 10-percent cut at Michigan's public universities, which would mean that the university may have to trim $36-million from its budget next year. Ms. Johnson estimates that the inaugural committee spent $100,000 to $150,000 in unrestricted private funds on the day's festivities. The inaugural tab for Michigan's previous president, Lee C. Bollinger, now the president of Columbia University, is not available. The co-chairs of the committee who planned his inauguration (he came to Michigan in 1997) have since left the university, Ms. Johnson says, and there are no financial records left from the event.
One of the first things to go for Ms. Coleman's inauguration was a formal dinner, traditionally held in the week leading up to the ceremony. The university did hold a luncheon after the inauguration, because if you're "inviting people from other institutions, you do need to feed them," Ms. Johnson says. To cut costs, the lunch was buffet-style, with such items as chicken and rice. Rather than displaying flowers in the center of the buffet table, the committee saved money by displaying dessert. "It was an attractive setup," Ms. Johnson says, "but not the most expensive meal you could serve."
In the past, Michigan often invited a guest speaker to the inauguration and paid for that person's travel expenses. To save money this year, the university invited as the speaker James S. Jackson, a professor of psychology at Michigan and director of its Afro-American- and African-studies program. Harold T. Shapiro, the president of Michigan from 1980 to 1987, was the guest speaker for Mr. Bollinger's inauguration and was president of Princeton University at that time.
A host of other cost-cutting measures also helped rein in expenses:
- The inaugural program was printed with a lower-quality of paper on the inside pages than on the cover -- although Ms. Johnson doubts that "a soul" noticed the difference.
- No red carpet. Normally, to dress up the arena where the inauguration was held, the committee would have covered the procession aisle with red carpet. Instead, the floor was left bare.
- After the luncheon the university held an academic symposium, another inaugural tradition on many campuses. Usually, universities invite academics from other institutions to participate in one or more sessions. Michigan went with the cheaper option, holding only one symposium led by its own faculty members.
- The day's events culminated in an open house at the president's official residence on campus. Ms. Peterson recalls that cheese, crackers, cookies and punch were served, and she heard from a lot of people that the setup was "charming."
All in all, Ms. Peterson says, the festivities were "an appropriate balance, honoring tradition but not being extravagant." She calls the new president "a low-key individual" and says the inauguration was "befitting of her style and personality." The events, she added, showed that "our priorities are in the right place and that our resources go for things that really affect students and faculty the most directly."
At Rutgers University, the inauguration of Richard L. McCormick as its 19th president sent a similar message. Rutgers, too, is facing budget cuts: To help close a state budget deficit, New Jersey's Gov. James E. McGreevey has proposed cutting 12 percent, or nearly $39-million, from the university's state funds in the 2004 fiscal year. Like Michigan, Rutgers opted against holding a week's worth of events leading up to its April 13 inauguration. Its celebration ended up costing nearly $100,000 and was paid for with private donations, says Mark Maben, a university spokesman.
The university secretary's office, which planned the inauguration, did look at the $175,000 or $200,000 that other universities had spent on their festivities "to gauge where our spending stood and whether we were being frugal enough," Mr. Maben says.
In the week leading up to the inauguration, the university cut costs by holding only two panel discussions, led by Rutgers faculty members on the Camden and Newark campuses. "Not to in any way diminish the panel discussions, but they weren't like traditional symposia often associated with inaugurations," Mr. Maben says. "We weren't bringing in faculty from other schools, and we weren't paying a keynote person to come in to participate."
The ceremony itself, he says, was a "basic inauguration." After the academic procession, Norman Samuels, the university's executive vice president, welcomed everyone to the event and then the governor spoke. Heads of the university's two governing boards presented Mr. McCormick with a copy of the university's original charter from 1776, and "the president gave his impressions and everyone sang the alma mater and we went home," Mr. Maben says.
Well, not everyone. Mr. Maben says there was a reception for nearly 350 people, including members of the two governing boards, presidents of other colleges, and immediate family members and friends of the president.
Had it not been facing a budget crunch, Rutgers would have held an inaugural dinner, Mr. Maben says. There also would have been the traditional rounds of receptions and meals leading up to the ceremony, as well as symposia held over several days before the event.
Although the president "wanted a bare-bones inauguration," Mr. Maben says, "he also felt for Rutgers that it was very important to the institution to go ahead and have an inauguration ... to have that symbol of, We're stepping now into a new era."
Denise M. Trauth was ready to cancel hers. Invitations to an array of events went out about a month before her February 28 investiture as president of Southwest Texas State University. There was to be a formal dinner, a community reception, the inauguration itself, and a reception following it, says T. Cay Rowe, a university spokeswoman.
Then the money crunch came. The state told the university to cut $4.6-million from its budget this fiscal year. And even though private money had been set aside to pay for the inaugural events, "the president went to the Board of Regents and said she wanted to cancel the whole thing," Ms. Rowe says. The president, she says, didn't want the university "to look like it was spending a whole lot of money when you've asked faculty and staff to cut their budgets and the whole state is reeling from this thing." Still, Ms. Rowe says "the regents said, 'No, investiture is too big a milestone for a university. We want to hold it.'"
So the committee canceled the formal dinner and the community reception. The inauguration itself, though, still looked impressive, Ms. Rowe says, thanks to the colorful robes that faculty members wore during the academic procession and the gold and maroon flowers (the university's colors) displayed on the stage.
Ms. Rowe says that $9,300 came from the university's budget to pay for the programs and mailings for the investiture. Private money (she says she doesn't know how much exactly) paid for such things as the cookies, cake, and punch at the reception that followed the inauguration and the travel expenses of two guest speakers.
The more modest affair, Ms. Rowe acknowledges, could have been worse. "The last inauguration was in 1989, but we were having a budget crunch then too," she says. "I went back and looked at the programs from it. They must have Xeroxed them. It must have been really low-key."
