President Elizabeth J. McCormack Papers: Inauguration

1966 Inauguration Invitation

Inauguration Addresses

The Christian College in the American Tradition

• Board of Trustee member Bernard Bailyn, Winthrop Professor of History at Harvard University, and President Elizabeth McCormack gave addresses at Inauguration.
• Both are contained in this PDF

President McCormack and Bernard Bailyn at Inauguration, December 9, 1966.

"A college committed to inquiry and social concern cannot be static, finished, closed. Let us rather think of a college, let us think of Manhattanville as a vicinity. A vicinity is not a completed entity, rather it is openness; it is process. Yet in the midst of that change something remains...Students want to know about the past and the future, about their inheritance and their responsibility, about the meaning of meaning. They do not come to the liberal arts college for answers; they come rather to learn to ask the right questions. Manhattanville's student body is diversified; Manhattanville's faculty comes to the college from many lands, many universities. So questions are put from many viewpoints. No question is forbidden. No idea ruled out of court because it is recognized at Manhattanville that the only risk is to attempt to quarantine ideas."

-Elizabeth McCormack, "The College as Vicinity"

1966 Inauguration Program

Music

Sheet Music for No Man is an Island

• This song composed for inauguration was adapted from poem by John Donne with musical arrangement by Ralph Hunter. The song was performed by the Manhattanville College Glee Club.  

Inauguration Press Clippings

• The Daily Item Dec 6 1966
• Touchstone Dec 9 1966
• The New York Times Dec 10 1966
• The Reporter Dispatch Dec 10 1966
• Manhattanville Alumnae Review Winter 1966
• Manhattanville Newsletter Feb 1967
• President O'Byrne's Message
  • The letter sent to Alumnae announcing President O'Byrne's retirement and successor.
  • "You know that my love and prayers are with you alway. This note is 'au revoir' not 'goodbye.'"

 Elizabeth McCormack and Eleanor O'Byrne, RSCJ, 1963