WestConn’s Presidential Inauguration Set For April 15

DANBURY — On Friday, April 15, Western Connecticut State University will do something it has done only seven times in its 100-year history: install a new president.

The university will officially install Dr James W. Schmotter as its eighth president at a ceremony in the William A. O’Neill Athletic and Convocation Center on WestConn’s Westside campus, Lake Avenue Extension, at 1:30 pm. The public is invited to attend.

Many of the Inaugural Week events celebrated the impact WestConn has had on its students and the greater Danbury community. The theme is “Changing Lives,” and a full schedule of activities can be found at www.wcsu.edu/inauguration.

Shortly after Dr Schmotter’s arrival on campus last August, the planning for the inauguration began. WestConn’s last inauguration took place in 1992, when Dr James R. Roach was installed as WestConn’s seventh leader.

Dr Schmotter was dean of the Haworth College of Business and a professor of management at Western Michigan University. Haworth is one of the largest business colleges in the United States, with about 5,600 undergraduate students and about 600 MBA students. He became a member of the WMU faculty in 1997 after serving for five years as the dean of the College of Business and Economics at Lehigh University.

Dr Schmotter began his career at SUNY at Binghamton, before moving to the Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell, where he served as both assistant and associate dean from 1979 through 1992, responsible for admissions, external relations, and international programs.

Dr Schmotter received a BA in history from Muskingum College in 1969. Four years later, he received a PhD in history from Northwestern University, where his dissertation focused on colonial ministers in New England. He subsequently did graduate coursework in higher education administration at Columbia University.