A crowd filled Cordiner Hall on Friday, Sep. 18 for the Presidential Installation of Dr. Kathleen Murray, which officially welcomed Murray as the 14th president of Whitman College.

The installation was attended by a wide range of members of the Whitman and Walla Walla communities, and included individuals representing 30 different academic institutions across the country. A variety of speakers spent time praising Murray’s credentials and expressed eagerness to work with her in the coming years, while Murray herself spoke about her eagerness to help students succeed as the college moves forward under her leadership.

“I pledge to pay attention to every aspect of our students’ lives, to focus on what is best for student learning, to help each student develop a personal narrative that makes sense of that learning and carries them into a lifetime of continued learning,” said Murray in her speech.

A number of the speakers at the event had worked on the Presidential Search Committee which eventually selected Murray as the ideal candidate, and some spoke to the qualities highlighted by the search process.

“It was clear early and throughout the search process that Kathy understands the liberal arts intimately. She is deeply committed to students and…to a collaborative partnership among administration, faculty and staff in order to provide [an] exception educational opportunity,” said Chair of the Faculty and Professor of Psychology Melissa Clearfield in her speech.

Other speeches highlighted shared goals regarding education and building a community with the new president in charge.

“[W]e dedicate ourselves to the business of student learning at Whitman. We further dedicate ourselves to an inclusive, equitable and diverse community that reflects the beauty and the promise of Whitman. Under your leadership we will together build on the past while being attentive to the present and anticipating the future of Whitman that you will lead us to and is still yet unfolding,” said Kazi Joshua, Dean for Intercultural Affairs and Chief Diversity Officer, in his speech.

Perhaps the most personal insight at the event came from the introduction given by Dr. Brian Rosenberg, the President of Macalester College. Rosenberg worked with Murray at both Lawrence University where she rose through the ranks to become Dean of the Faculty and then again at Macalester College where she was Provost and Dean of the Faculty.

“[S]he will be a great president: not simply because she is smart and hard-working, but because she is civil and empathetic and stubborn in the way that transformational leaders have to be stubborn – tireless and even impatient in the pursuit of excellence. Because her gift for grasping the measures of deep patterns of music is matched by a gift perhaps more rare: for taking the measure of people and listening to the heart that beats at the core of every tightly-knit small college,” said Rosenberg in his speech.

When it was her time to speak , Murray addressed a theme of being at a frontier of liberal arts as she comes into the Presidential Office at Whitman.

“The frontier that I am imagining inspires a spirit of exploration and discovery, intellectual stimulation and growth, with a focus on those areas that could help to distinguish Whitman from the other fine liberal arts colleges across the country,” said Murray in her speech. “There are risks on the frontier… but we can minimize those risks by remaining true to our core, our fundamental culture and ethos…I firmly believe that if our discussions and our decisions always center on what is best for student learning, we are going to be amazing together.”