By JAYCIE DOERR, NEWS Reporter
MACOMB, Illinois (NEWS3) — Western Illinois University held an inauguration ceremony for President Guiyou Huang.
Huang has been in office since January of 2021, but his inauguration was postponed due to the pandemic.
Speaking at the event was Doug Shaw, chairman of the Board of Trustees at WIU, Kenneth Hawkinson, president of Kuztown University, Leslie Wong, president of San Francisco State University, and George Huang, the president’s own son. Each spoke about Huang’s characteristics.
Shaw spoke first about the process of choosing a president. He told the attendees that the board was impressed with how Huang spoke about WIU and his goals for the university’s future.
Friends of colleagues, Hawkinson and Wong both spoke about Huang’s personality.
“When a campus secures a leader, whose values, attitudes, and social skills match those of students, their families, their communities, the faculty, and the staff, there arrives that special moment where everyone senses that good things are about to happen,” Wong said.
In his inaugural address, Huang thanked his family and friends for all their support. He also spoke about five priorities he has for bettering the future of WIU: enrollment, retention of students, inclusion and diversity, institutional distinctiveness, and internationalization.
Huang is the 12th president in the university’s history.
