Activities marking the investiture of the eighth president of Tennessee State University are in full swing on campus and in Nashville.
With a procession on Wednesday from the president’s residence along John A. Merritt Boulevard through campus to the Amphitheater, Dr. Glenda Baskin Glover, the university’s first female president, kicked off her inaugural ceremonies to the cheers of hundreds of onlooker, students, staff and faculty.
“I truly believe Dr. Glover will make a great president,” said Dijiana Davis, a senior Agribusiness major from Nashville, as she stood along the procession route beaming with apparent satisfaction for her new president. “As a TSU graduate she has roots here and she is very friendly and involved with the students, and those are good indications of what we can expect.”
With the Aristocrat of Band playing some of their favorite marching tunes, Dr. Glover, accompanied by her family, yet-to-be-crowned Mr. and Miss TSU, the SGA leadership, cabinet members, and students carrying congratulatory banners, walked the nearly one-mile distance to the Amphitheater where another large crowd was waiting.
Also joining Dr. Glover in the procession were friends of the president, including gospel great and TSU graduate, Dr. Bobby Jones (’59).
Beulah Oldham (’87, M.A.), who identified herself as a sorority sister of the president, said Dr. Glover is going be a great asset not only to TSU but the whole of Tennessee, as the first African American female university president in the TBR.
“She is all about business and students,” Oldham said. “She has a vested interested in this institution and she will do whatever it takes to ensure that it grows to its full potential.”
Cassandra Griggs called the presidential procession “a great way” to start the week of activities. “It highlights the many great things planned for the week and many more to come,” said Griggs, director of Alumni Relations and Annual Giving.
In a brief ceremony organized by the Office of Student Affairs at the Amphitheater, preschoolers from the TSU Early Learning Center, who also marched in the procession, touted their global knowledge by identifying different flags of the word through songs, and presented President Glover with a framed collage of flags.
Dr. Glover was also presented with well wishes, congratulatory statements and gifts from various student organizations.
The president thanked the organizers, students, faculty, staff and visitors for a “well planned” event and all the gifts and sentiments, and welcome them to the investiture on Friday and all other activities marking her inauguration.
“Thank you all for your gifts, thoughts and well wishes and I look forward to seeing you at the inauguration,” Dr. Glover said.
The procession highlights a weeklong series of engagements across the University that embraced everyone at TSU, as well as leaders from higher education in the United States and around the world, the extended alumni family, and friends and neighbors in Nashville and beyond. It culminated with an inaugural gala, and the Homecoming football game at LP Field between TSU and Eastern Illinois on Saturday.
