CSUMB celebrates the installation of its fourth president in a traditional ceremony with an informal twist.

A university investiture is typically a solemn ceremony conferring the authority and responsibility of leadership upon a new president. It's one of the oldest traditions in the world of academia, believed to have started in the Middle Ages. Think academic leaders in full regalia giving formal speeches.

Not so for the investiture of CSU Monterey Bay’s fourth president, Vanya Quiñones. A ceremony as quirky as her personality was held Friday, Feb. 10, in the CSUMB World Theater, six months after she formally took over the position.

The leaders, including presidents from other California State University campuses, Monterey Peninsula and Hartnell colleges, and CSUMB academic leaders and staff, processed into the auditorium in their caps and gowns not to the famed “Pomp and Circumstance March,” used in graduations and other academic ceremonies, but to “One Love” by Bob Marley and The Wailers.

“Let’s get together and feel all right,” the CSUMB Student Choir sang, accompanied by the John Wineglass Jazz Trio, led by John Wineglass, an assistant professor of Music and Performing Arts, and joined by the chair of that department, Jeff Jones, on a steel drum. Quiñones, brought up the rear, walking arm in arm with Monte Rey, the university’s costumed mascot.

Quiñones says she chose most of the songs and performers to reflect the diverse nature of the university and the land it sits on. The ceremony began with a “Native American Welcome” given by Kanyon CoyoteWoman Sayers-Roods, chair of the Indian Canyon Chualar Tribe of Costanoan-Ohlone People.

After a presentation of the U.S. flag by the Seaside High Junior ROTC, the National Anthem was performed by Rosa Azul, a Mariachi Band. Each line of the anthem was punctuated by the melodic blare of the trumpeter. There was a hula performance by the Marina cultural group Nā Haumāna, made up of dancers from young children to teens. The ceremony ended with the 1985 song for Africa, “We are the World.”

The only song Quiñones didn’t choose was “This Girl is on Fire,” by Alicia Keys, performed by three women from the student choir. It was picked by a member of the presidential search committee that selected her for the job last year, Quiñones says.

In a moment of pop culture meets academia, Wenda Fong, chair of the CSU Board of Trustees who in 2002 produced American Idol, and who presided over the investiture ceremony, commented that she worked with Alicia Keys and said of Quiñones, “This girl is on fire. And she’s ours.”

Speakers included campus representatives from all ranks, students, staff, faculty and alumni. Damian Flores, who described himself as a laborer at CSUMB, helping to move students into housing, set up events and other tasks—he’s also a steward for the CSU Employees Union—said employees were watching to see what she was like when she moved in last summer. He noted she gave an appreciation lunch in her home on campus for everyone who helped her transition, and appeared at numerous campus and sporting events.

“Right away she showed me what she was about and what she represents and what she wanted to accomplish here, to make an imprint to make this campus a success,” Flores said. “Even though our titles are different, me being a staff member and her being a university president, our vision and work ethics are the same.”

Quiñones’ former boss, Pace University President Marvin Krislov, was the special guest speaker, who congratulated CSUMB for hiring her. He said she had a passion for helping students, especially those “who might need someone to look out for them. Vanya knows how support is because she did not have an easy path.” The further up the academic ladder she climbed, the more no one around her looked like her.

Krislov commended her for her leadership capabilities (she served as provost at Pace during the Covid-19 pandemic) but also noted her lighter side. “Vanya can be goofy,” he said. “If you don’t know that already you soon will. She loves a joke and a laugh.” The goofiness serves a strategic purpose, he said. “She makes people comfortable, she disarms people, she brings them together.”

After being formally announced by CSU Interim Chancellor Jolene Koester as CSUMB’s new president—Koester placed the CSUMB Presidential Medallion around Quiñones’ neck as part of the formal ceremony—Quiñones shared her story and her goals for the university’s future.

“The journey to this moment has been long coming,” Quiñones said, charting her path beginning with her grandmother in Puerto Rico who as a young woman bucked tradition and did “something crazy” by going to college. “She wanted her children to have a different life,” Quiñones said. It was from that launching point that all of her grandmother’s children and their children graduated from college and have secondary degrees.

Quiñones said she shared the story because so many of CSUMB’s students come from backgrounds that are not that different from her grandmother’s, as first generation college students.

“One single member can change the trajectory of generations to come,” she said. Her goal was that CSUMB guide and invest in every student to help them maximize their potential and realize their families’ dreams for a better future.

“Today I am here because of my grandmother, and my beautiful mother. That dream was facilitated by so many people who believed in me. Many people opened the doors for me and I walked through them.”

Her journey was not easy, she said, sometimes as the only woman or person of color in particular academic settings. “I have faced silent, and not so silent, racism, sexism and so many other ‘isms’ along my way,” she said, adding that she worked extra hard to show she belonged in those settings.

The experiences made her commit early in her life to be a role model for others and help them to advance. Her grandmother’s modeling led her to dedicate her life to helping students, making their paths easier and eliminating obstacles. Her goals as president, she said, is to increase access for students and find new ways to partner with the community.

She referenced something her grandmother would always say: “’Lo unico que puedo darles para un buen futuro es una buena educacion!’ So that is our mission! To ensure that our students have a strong future, through education.”