The multi-day lineup of festivities honoring University President Amy Gutmann is a testament to the evolution that Penn's inaugural planning has undergone since the position of University president was first created in 1930.
Though Gutmann is the eighth Penn president, this week marks only the third presidential inaugural celebration in the University's history.
"Instead of doing an inauguration, Penn celebrated an incoming president in a different way in early administrations," University Archives Director Mark Frazier Lloyd said, noting that inaugurations were simply not in fashion during that time period.
"It was typical for the University to welcome an incoming president by awarding him or her with an honorary doctorate at a special convocation," Lloyd said of the widely accepted tradition in the first half of the 20th century. Harold Stassen and Gaylord Harnwell, Penn's fourth and fifth presidents, respectively, both partook in a ceremony like the one described by Lloyd.
As time progressed, the customs of universities across the nation began to shift.
"I suspect that [Penn] looked around and saw that this was a form of celebration that was taking hold and kind of becoming the standard," Lloyd said.
Thus, in 1981, Sheldon Hackney's initiation as president represented the first official inaugural ceremony at Penn.
Though Gutmann was confronted with rain clouds similar to the ones that dotted the sky on the gray October day that Hackney was welcomed to the University community, the similarities between the ceremonies seem to end there.
Hackney was met with a group of about 100 protesters surrounding Irvine Auditorium on his inauguration day. The crowd of students and employees were marching against the racism they felt his administration was promoting in recruiting faculty.
Former University President Judith Rodin managed to avoid the protests that plagued the inauguration of her predecessor, but experienced an inauguration of a lesser scale than Gutmann's, with no symposium to continue the festivities throughout the afternoon.
"I do think that the Gutmann inauguration has a more scholarly content than previous inaugurations," Lloyd said.
The programming in honor of Gutmann is also the first to incorporate a concert and a volunteer day into the celebration.
"I think that the effort that the Gutmann administration is making to create a thematic inauguration -- her theme of 'Rising to the Challenge of a Diverse Democracy' -- is invigorating and exciting," Lloyd said. "I don't remember the same emphasis on theme in the previous two inaugurations."
Some classic threads seem to have been embedded in each of the three inaugurations, though, including the location of Irvine Auditorium, the timing of Homecoming Weekend and the role of music and food.
"You effectively gather all of the constituencies of the University on this particular occasion," Lloyd said of the strategic overlap between inauguration, Homecoming and the fall University Board of Trustees meeting.
The University Choir performed classical music at all three ceremonies, and a College Green luncheon is a mainstay at the celebrations.
The incoming president's former boss consistently plays a "father of the bride" role in the ceremony as well, as Yale University President Richard Levin was on hand in 1994 to effectively bestow Judith Rodin, Yale's former provost, to Penn, just as Princeton President Shirley Tilghman did for Gutmann, who was Princeton's provost.
Though some things remain constant over the years, Lloyd noted that Penn is making a better effort to include the entire University community with each inauguration.
"I think this one is going to be a lot more fun for a lot more people," he said. "There's a much broader inclusive aim on the part of the organization of this inauguration."
