{"id":36428,"date":"2015-04-24T13:24:58","date_gmt":"2015-04-24T20:24:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stage.headlessnauedu-b6hgdzckfdgxgzhe.westus-01.azurewebsites.net\/?p=36428"},"modified":"2015-04-24T15:41:17","modified_gmt":"2015-04-24T22:41:17","slug":"nau-celebrates-installation-of-rita-cheng-as-16th-president","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/nau-celebrates-installation-of-rita-cheng-as-16th-president\/","title":{"rendered":"NAU celebrates installation of Rita Cheng as 16th president"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nearly 600 guests including elected officials, faculty, staff, students and friends of the university gathered in Ardrey Memorial Auditorium on Thursday to celebrate as the Arizona Board of Regents officially installed\u00a0Rita Hartung Cheng<\/strong>\u00a0as the 16th president of Northern Arizona University.<\/p>\n

\u201cNAU serves and belongs to all of Arizona,\u201d Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey<\/strong> said during the ceremony. \u201cI am confident it will continue to thrive for years to come under its 16th president. She is collaborative and energetic; she\u2019s a problem solver and she\u2019s fully devoted to the mission and goals of NAU and its impact on our state as a whole.\u201d<\/p>\n

The installation ceremony was a celebration of academic excellence at Northern Arizona University and featured speeches by Ducey<\/strong>, ABOR chair\u00a0Mark Killian<\/strong>, Flagstaff Mayor\u00a0Jerry Nabours<\/strong>, NAU Faculty Senate President\u00a0Astrid Klocke<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong>and student leaders. It also featured several\u00a0musical performances by students and faculty and a formal investiture of President Cheng.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Three former NAU presidents,\u00a0Eugene Hughes<\/strong>, Clara Lovett<\/strong> and John Haeger<\/strong>,\u00a0<\/strong>also attended and joined in the celebration.<\/p>\n

Since arriving at NAU in August, Cheng has spent time listening and learning, meeting with faculty, staff and student leaders, and traveling across the state to meet various partners and stakeholders.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur momentum has carried us to this place and time\u2014to a period in which stewardship has passed to me. I am well aware of the responsibility of this role, and I accept as my personal mission the commitment to extend NAU\u2019s success,\u201d Cheng said.<\/p>\n

\u201cMake no mistake: NAU is an outstanding university with an enviable future,\u201d the president continued. \u201cWe enjoy this position because staying true to ourselves has always been a priority. Our values are reflected in our approach to producing skilled graduates who will join the workforce as assets to the state and national economy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Killian performed the formal investiture and expressed gratitude on behalf of the Arizona Board of Regents for Cheng\u2019s willingness to take on this role.<\/p>\n

Killian recalled during Cheng\u2019s interview last summer when he asked how she would teach ethics to the students of Northern Arizona University. \u201cShe said \u2018I will be ethical, I will walk the walk\u2019 and to me, that was what it was all about,\u201d Killian said. \u201cI wanted a president who would set a great example, who would walk the walk and be everything we want a president to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Watch the recorded ceremony\u00a0online<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0and view a photo album from the event here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Contribute your congratulations and well wishes for the president in the comment section below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nearly 600 guests including elected officials, faculty, staff, students and friends of the university gathered in Ardrey Memorial Auditorium on Thursday to celebrate as the Arizona Board of Regents officially installed\u00a0Rita Hartung Cheng\u00a0as the 16th president of Northern Arizona University. \u201cNAU serves and belongs to all of Arizona,\u201d Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey said during the…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":36433,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-community"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36428","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/46"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36428"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36428\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}