With family, friends, colleagues and community members in the audience and others watching via livestream, Rev. Dr. Eric Albert Zimmer was inaugurated as the 10th President of the University of Saint Francis on Saturday afternoon in the USF Robert Goldstine Performing Arts Center.
Ron Turpin, the senior advisor to the president, presided over the event. Mass took place Saturday morning at the Cathedral of Immaculate Conception, with Most Reverend Kevin C. Rhoades, Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend, as the celebrant for the Eucharistic liturgy. He received Fr. Zimmer’s Profession of Faith and Oath of Fidelity.
USF Board of Trustees Chairman Bill Niezer completed the formal installation of Fr. Zimmer in the inauguration ceremony.
“We are confident that you, along with faculty, staff and administration, will be ever more deeply rooted in the Catholic and Franciscan traditions of faith and reason, and that you will lead the University of Saint Francis to engage its diverse community in learning, leadership and service so that God’s kingdom may continue to be realized in our world,” Niezer said to Fr. Zimmer.
In his inauguration speech, Fr. Zimmer spoke of the importance of USF emphasizing its Catholic faith. It is vital, he said, to demonstrate the ways that USF is a unique university, “a place where it is possible and exalted to be a person of faith.”
Fr. Zimmer stressed that administration, faculty and staff must focus on the mission of the university on a daily basis in order to continue to make USF stand out as a Catholic institution of higher education. The Sisters of St. Francis of Perpetual Adoration have asked him to strengthen the university’s Catholic and Franciscan identity.
“This is a much different place than it was in 1944 or 1956 or 1993,” Fr. Zimmer said. “Where do we want to be in another 130 years? What will we look like?”
Among the immediate plans Fr. Zimmer shared with the audience is the intent to hire a full-time campus priest, update the curriculum to be “better or more focused on our Catholic identity,” and promote a Catholic Foundation scholarship to attract more Catholic high school graduates.
“Day in and day out, we must work on our mission,” he said. “If we don’t, someone else will.”
Fr. Zimmer emphasized he has high expectations for USF, but also that he has faith in the ability to reach them.
“We will go from strength to strength,” he said. “We will be what we are, only much more.”
The ceremony included messages from Bishop Rhoades; Sister Clare Reuille, Provincial Treasurer of the Sisters of St. Francis of Perpetual Adoration; Dr. David Wantz, President of the Independent Colleges of Indiana; Dr. Dan Torlone, Chair of USF Faculty Senate; Benjamin Mauch, USF Alumni Association President; and Elizabeth Laker, USF Student Government Association President.
The Invocation was offered by Rev. Dr. David T. Tyson, President of Holy Cross College. USF student Angela Bougher performed the National Anthem. The University Singers, USF’s a cappella mixed student choir under the direction of Elizabeth Piercy, performed via video.
The Inauguration Day events also included a luncheon at Brookside Mansion and tours of campus for visitors. The evening concluded with a formal dinner in the USF Robert Goldstine Performing Arts Center Ballroom.
Fr. Zimmer began his term as USF president on July 1, 2020, upon the retirement of Sister M. Elise Kriss, OSF.
More information about Fr. Zimmer can be found on the President’s Message page.