Dominican University Hosts Inauguration Ceremony for New President

River Forest, IL  – An inauguration ceremony for Dominican University’s 11th president, Glena G. Temple, Ph.D., will take place Thursday, April 7 on the school’s campus, 7900 W. Division St. in River Forest.

The ceremony will begin at 2 p.m. with a formal procession of university faculty and staff from Power Hall to the Lund Auditorium. The inauguration will begin at 2:30 p.m. in the Lund Auditorium and include the Candle and Rose ceremony, one of the university’s oldest commencement traditions, which will symbolize the continuity of leadership. Dr. Temple will give the Inaugural Address.

Temple joined Dominican University in August 2021 after she was selected by a search committee consisting of 15 university board members, faculty, alumni, students and Dominican sisters. She is the Catholic university’s 11th president since 1922 and only its second lay president in an unbroken line of female leaders. She previously served as president of Viterbo University, a Catholic Franciscan university in La Crosse, Wisconsin. Temple joined Viterbo as a member of the biology faculty in 2001 and was named president in 2017.

A native of the Rochester, New York, area, Temple earned a Bachelor of Science in Biology from Allegheny College in Meadville, Pennsylvania; a doctorate in botany and plant sciences from the University of California, Riverside; and a Master of Arts in Educational Policy and Administration from the University of Minnesota.

As a first-generation university graduate, Temple represents a large number of Dominican University students who are the first in their families to pursue a higher education.

“What motivates me to do the work to reduce barriers for student access and success is based in part on my own lived experiences, and also based on the stories of students today,” she said.

Among Temple’s goals as Dominican’s new president is “engaging in the growing anti-racism agenda and the diversity, equity and inclusion work that I know the campus is very passionate about,” she said.

For more background on Dr. Temple, visit www.dom.edu/about-dominican/office-president.

*Dr. Temple will be available for brief interviews between 9 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. on Thursday, April 7. To arrange an interview or coverage of the inauguration ceremony, please email jjohnson4@dom.edu.

About Dominican University 

Founded in 1901, Dominican University is a comprehensive, coeducational Catholic institution offering bachelor’s and master’s degrees through the Rosary College of Arts and Sciences, the Borra College of Health Sciences, the Brennan School of Business and the College of Applied Social Sciences. The university also offers a doctoral degree in information studies. U.S. News & World Report ranks Dominican University #10 of all Midwest regional master’s level universities, the best value in the Chicago area and #1 in Illinois for ensuring the social mobility of its graduates.