John B. King Jr., chancellor of the SUNY system, bestowed the presidential medallion onto Peter Nwosu, officially inaugurating him as the 11th president of SUNY Oswego.

“As I inaugurate Peter Nwosu today, I also inaugurate you all,” King said. “We are confident in his utmost dedication to education.”

Nwosu had served as president for a year before his inauguration. He followed the term of Mary Toale, now provost of SUNY Geneseo who acted as officer-in-charge and lost a bid for university president surrounding concerns of ineligibility and lack of transparency.

In his inaugural address, Nwosu promised to elevate the university through partnerships with Micron, investing research into Lake Ontario, opening the renovated Hewitt Union next year as a hub for media studies and a five-year program to integrate regulated use of artificial intelligence into the curriculum and turn the university into an “AI campus.”

Nwosu called the integration of AI “essential,” a mention that sparked both interest and shock from some students.

Victoria Evanchick, a student who sang in the ceremony’s choir, felt impressed by Nwosu’s address and “swagger.” As an art student, however, the unexpected mention of embracing AI felt jarring.

“That was a little scary to hear,” Evanchick said. “In one light it’s good to keep up with the times, but don’t take away human creativity.”

Still, Evanchick said Nwosu’s interest in the students stood out to her.

“There is just something about him; I have never immediately liked a person without knowing them at least a little bit and about their policies,” Evanchick said, “Something I respect about him is he is willing to make time to listen to students. He prioritizes them.”

Nwosu’s friends and former colleagues sang praises of him throughout the ceremony.

Donald Taylor, a California State professor who Nwosu considers a mentor, spoke for almost a half-hour on his friendship with the new president, calling him “a bastion of excellence in everything he does.”

Taylor praised him for his work ending race riots at California State and promoting diversity in education. He reminisced on humorous stories of their friendship, including one time Nwosu called Taylor from Brazil advising Taylor to learn Portuguese before arriving.

Why? Not knowing the language well, Nwosu had accepted vodka from a waiter thinking it was water.

But the stories were not all irreverent. Taylor also told of a time Nwosu convinced a judge not to incriminate immigrant suspects based on whether they gave eye contact to the judge. The judge had assumed eye contact was a universal sign of disrespect, while Nwosu explained that in other cultures eye contact is a sign of intense respect.

The promises from the address were elements of Vision 4040, Nwosu’s plan to increase enrollment and graduation rates to reach 40,000 graduates per decade by 2040.

Nwosu’s address also evoked the image of the shoes he wore when arriving in the U.S. from Nigeria in 1985. He keeps the shoes in a glass case by the window in his office at Culkin Hall.

“Those shoes serve as a powerful reminder,” Nwosu said, “of our shared purpose and a profound moral responsibility we have to ensure that every student, every student that comes to us completes their education and goes on to serve our region, our nation and the world.”

The shoe metaphor appeared as well in “A Step of Hope,” the inaugural poem Emma Deloff, creative writing student and managing editor of The Oswegonian, wrote and spoke at the ceremony.

“They cannot imagine you here, but should they see you, they would see the stars they’ve been told to reach for and become supernovas of hope. So tie them once again and take a step,” Deloff wrote.

The ceremony also featured musical performances by The Oswego State singers of “Baba Yetu” and “Shine,” two songs specially chosen by Nwosu for the occasion.

Joining the ceremony were members of the SUNY board, presidents from 17 SUNY schools, distinguished alumni and faculty and former colleagues of Nwosu. The procession in the Deborah F. Stanley Arena, named for the previous university president, was led by Gwen Kay, a professor who acted as mace-bearer, followed by distinguished members of various universities, including former officer-in-charge Toale and Stanley herself.

Nwosu’s parting words were an African proverb: “If you want to go fast, you go alone. If you want to go far, you go together.”

Photo from SUNY Oswego