So for those of you who didn’t know and have not figured it out yet, I work for The College of William & Mary (Wikipedia entry for the college). This past Friday, the college celebrated the Investiture of the self-proclaimed cowgirl from Arizona, Sandra Day O’Connor, as Chancellor and the Inaguration of Gene R. Nichol (”Big Nick” to the student body) as President (heretofore referred to as the I & I for the sake of brevity). Only essential personnel were required to work (I am only essential if something I take care of is broken or I need to break it) and classes were canceled until 1PM so that faculty, staff and students could attend the event. So I donned my suit and headed to campus Friday morning.

After arriving on campus and seeing what was going on around my office building, I headed over to the Wren Building where the I & I was taking place despite the overcast skies. Like a good geek, I had to check out the AV setup of the camera crew and the folks in charge of the outgoing video feed. Since I was there, I took a shot of the 18th century organ that the college has on loan from Colonial Williamsburg. Besides the weather, the talk of the day was the “tree cam” which the camera crew setup for crowd shots. This is what the tree cam looked like and this was the shot it produced.

I got to talking with a few co-workers and lost track of time. Before I knew it, I was trapped without a seat by lots of people in robes. Since I had my camera I figured I would pass the time taking pictures. First some of the graduating seniors filed in on one side while a good portion of the William & Mary faculty body came in on the other side. Next led in by what appeared to be two students bearing sceptres where President Gene Nichol wearing the seal of the college and Sandra Day O’Connor. Once everybody else had taken their place, I found a seat in the back.

Here was my view with my camera zoomed in all the way. WARNING: cheap scanner scans ahead. This was the program for the event which included a bio for Sandra Day O’Connor and Gene Nichol as well as the order of events. Also included were a list of all the college’s chancellors and OCR’ed as a test and out of interest.

I felt the cermony went very well. As our rector, Susan Magill, got things under way, the sun came out making for quite a beautiful, cool spring day for the ceremony. After the ceremony was over, there was a reception on the other side of the Wren where sparkling cider and cookies with the seal of the college were served.

College prepares for historic investiture and inauguration
College’s new leaders poised to shape a new century
Transcribed remarks of Chancellor Sandra Day O’Connor
Prepared remarks of President Gene R. Nichol
William and Mary Investiture and Inauguration Event Site