On March 3, 2005, Marye
Anne Fox was formally installed as UCSD’s
seventh, and first woman, chancellor.
Colorful student-designed banners rippled and billowed along campus
walkways, proclaiming the day’s theme, Together We Achieve
the Extraordinary. Meanwhile inside the Recreational Intramural
Athletic Center (RIMAC) arena Gerald Parsky, chairman of the UC
Board of Regents, welcomed the 70 platform guests and more than
900 students, faculty and staff to the inauguration. The La Jolla Symphony and Chorus, led by Harvey Sollberger, and
the UCSD Gospel Choir, led by Kenneth Anderson, provided prelude,
processional, mid-ceremony and recessional music and song, and
Marines from Miramar Air Station presented the colors. The crowd,
many dressed in blue and gold, watched in respectful silence as
the academic dignitaries in multihued caps and gowns filed solemnly
to the stage, and all stood to sing America the Beautiful.
Jenn Pae, ’05, and Kristopher Kohler, ’04, spoke on
behalf of undergraduate and graduate students, respectively, and
Henry DeVries, ’79, offered the greetings of the UCSD Alumni
Association. Jerome Katzin, chair emeritus of the UCSD Foundation
Board; Jacque Fowler, chair of the Staff Association; Donald Tuzin,
chair of the campus chapter of the Academic Senate; and Steven
Weber, president of San Diego State University, also offered welcomes
and praise for Fox. Ralph Cicerone, chancellor of UC Irvine and
president-elect of the National Academy of Sciences, delivered
the inaugural address. Robert Dynes, president of the UC system, presented the chancellor’s
medal and spoke the traditional words of appointment: “Be
it known that I...acting for the Regents of the University of California,
do hereby install Marye Anne Fox as Chancellor at the University
of California, San Diego, and vest in her all the authority and
rights appertaining thereto.” Fox was visibly moved by the
standing ovation that followed, and in her address spoke of the “pride
and humility” she felt in following Revelle, York, Galbraith,
McGill, McElroy, Atkinson, Dynes and other “giants of higher
education” at UCSD—“the youngest of the best.” She
also expressed the hope that she might be regarded as a role model
for young women and members of under-represented groups.
“I challenge our faculty to work with staff and asdministrators
so that every major discipline at UCSD will be recognized as
a top-10
program among American peers,” she said. “Ambitious?
Yes, of course. That is the UCSD tradition.” 
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