Lynne Murray was formally sworn in today as the 29th president of Baker University in a small, by-invitation-only ceremony on the Baldwin City campus.

About 20 Baker administrators, faculty, students and board of trustees members attended the 25-minute ceremony.

Pat Long, who retired as Baker president in June, was on hand to present her successor with the school’s presidential medallion before Board of Trustees Chairman Richard Howell swore in Murray.

Before draping the medallion around Murray’s shoulders, Long said that Baker presidents have worn the medallion on happy occasions over the past 50 years, and the symbolic transfer of presidential authority was an example of one such occasion.

In brief remarks, Murray said she accepted the medallion with the commitment to carry on the legacy of Long and other past Baker presidents, saying it was her honor to formally take the reins of the first and top-ranked private university in Kansas.

“Chairman Howell, I accept this board’s charges and vow to honor Baker’s service by creating a powerful, special and sustainable vision for the future,” she said.

Today’s swearing in came just two weeks shy of the one-year anniversary of the Baker search committee’s introduction of Murray on Dec. 5, 2013, as Long’s successor. Murray came to Baker from Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C., where she was vice president of development and international and alumni relations.

Murray, who as been on the job since July 1, was to be inaugurated Oct. 30, but that event was canceled after the suicide of a Baker student the day before. Murray requested she be sworn in before she addresses her first graduating class at next month’s fall commencement.

Baker University Public Relations Director Steve Rottinghaus said the university will have a more formal and open inaugural event for Murray on April 16, 2015. It will be a “convocation” type event that will focus on her vision for the future, he said.

Among those attending will be her mentor, Dr. I King Jordan, president of Gallaudet from 1988 to 2006 and the first deaf president of the school, whose undergraduate admissions are limited to the deaf and hearing impaired.