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April 14, 2006 -- With an audience of more than 800 faculty,
staff, students, alumni and friends looking
on, David J. Prior was formally installed Tuesday
as the seventh chancellor of the University
of Virginia’s College at Wise.
“We at the College will continue to honor our
traditions as we chart a course for a prosperous
future,” Prior said. “We’ll continue
to celebrate
our history, our founders, our builders and all
members of the College family as we strive for
excellence.”
In his inaugural address, Prior, who began his
duties as chancellor on Sept. 1, 2005, set forth his
vision for further enhancing the student experience
through additional international and multicultural
study options, greater opportunities for
independent student research with faculty mentors
and a renewed emphasis on developing a
full range of communication skills.
“As a liberal arts college, ensuring a strong liberal
arts foundation for all students, regardless of
major, is more than academic rhetoric, it is a
compact we enter into with our students,” Prior
said.
U.Va. Rector Thomas F. Farrell II administered
the oath of office and presented Chancellor Prior,
a U.Va. alumnus, with the College medallion.
Chancellor Prior “brings to his office the spirit,
the strength of character and the dedication
required to lead the College into its next era of
expansion and achievement of new levels of
excellence,” Farrell said. “Thomas Jefferson
would have approved.”
U.Va. President John T. Casteen III delivered
the keynote address, comparing the College’s
founding 50 years ago to a “beacon that drew the
young people of Southwest Virginia to the light
and learning offered here.”
“What was true in 1954 is equally true today,” Casteen said. “This
College is a vehicle of hope
and opportunity. And in the future, the College
will continue its tradition of service to Southwest
Virginia while also looking toward broader horizons.
“Today, we install a new chancellor who will
guide this College into the second half of its first
century,” Casteen said. “David Prior is prepared
to meet the charge of those who recognize in him
the experience and abilities that will make the
College become one of the best public colleges
in the nation.”
In the last four years, the College’s
enrollment has increased by 34 percent to a record high
of 1,900. The campus has been transformed
during the last decade with the addition of several
new buildings, including the C. Bascom
Slemp Student Center, the Science Center and a picturesque
lake. The College’s
endowment has grown to more than $30 million, a total
expected to climb
with the launch of a major fundraising campaign
in the fall.
Prior succeeds Ernest H. Ern, who served
a one-year appointment as chancellor following
the resignation of former chancellor Steven H.
Kaplan, who left the post to become president of
the University of New Haven.
A native of Michigan, Prior earned an A.B. in
biology from Olivet College in 1965 and a master’s
degree in animal physiology and biochemistry
from Central Michigan University in 1968. He earned a
Ph.D. in biology (neurophysiology) from the University
of Virginia in 1972 and was
a post-doctoral fellow in neurobiology at Princeton
University from 1972 to 1973
Prior has a record of long and successful
experience as a scholar and administrator of liberal
arts colleges and regional public colleges.
Delegates representing 43 colleges and universities
across the nation participated in Tuesday’s
inauguration ceremony. Secretary of Education
Thomas Morris and five former chancellors of
the College also attended. Chancellor Emeritus
Joseph Smiddy was joined by former chancellors
Jim Knight, Jay Lemons, George Culbertson and
Ernest Ern. |
