Timothy D. Sands to be installed as 16th president during afternoon ceremony Friday, Oct. 17
Timothy D. Sands, who was first introduced to the Virginia Tech community on Dec. 6, 2013, and who began his service to the university on June 1, will be formally installed as the university’s 16th president on Friday, Oct. 17 in Burruss Hall Auditorium.
The one-hour ceremony will begin at 2 p.m. The event is free and open to all members of the community; please preregister for events by visiting the presidential installation website.
A ceremonial academic procession, which will include presidents and representatives from other colleges and universities, members of the Virginia Tech faculty and staff, Virginia Tech student leaders, past Virginia Tech presidents, members of the board of visitors, and other university officials, will precede the ceremony at 1:30 p.m.
A live stream of the ceremony will be accessible from the university homepage shortly before 2 p.m.
Prior to accepting the Virginia Tech presidency, Sands had served since April 2010 as executive vice president for academic affairs and provost at Purdue University. During that time, he assumed the role of acting president, leading the West Lafayette and regional campuses from June 2012 to January 2013, until Mitchell E. Daniels Jr. was named Purdue’s 12th president.
A complete biography on Sands can be found online.
The installation ceremony will be emceed by Deborah Petrine, rector of the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors and will include greetings and remarks by representatives from the Student Government Association, the Graduate Student Assembly, Faculty Senate, Staff Senate, and the Virginia Tech Alumni Association.
Faculty, board, and university officials will formally install the president. The highlight of the program is expected to be the presidential address where Sands shares his priorities for future directions at Virginia Tech with the greater university community.
The complete installation ceremony program can be found online.
Immediately following the installation ceremony, the community is invited to watch the Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets present a pass in review for the new president, which starts at 3:15 p.m. on the Drillfield.
At 3:30 p.m., an ice cream social and several performances by student organizations will be held on the Drillfield until 6:30 p.m.
To mark the presidential installation, universities across the country are submitting resolutions to congratulate Sands and Virginia Tech. The resolutions can be viewed online.
Alumni chapters, student organizations, and friends of the university are encouraged to send video greetings, photos wishing the president well, or tweets or posts using the hashtag #enterVTsandsman. Submissions will be curated on the university’s Storify page.
The most current information on the two-day presidential installation celebration can be found on the presidential installation website. All events listed on the website are free and open to the public; preregistration is requested at the presidential installation website.
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