Please visit the following pages and sections below for information on campus location, parking, and lodging, or download the Inauguration Visitor Guide (pdf).

Getting to Campus

• Campus Map and driving directions
• Air Travel – The closest airport is Quad Cities International Airport, in Moline, Illinois, about 11 miles from campus.

Quad Cities Area Information

About the Quad Cities

Quad Cities Chamber of Commerce

University Mace
For centuries, the mace has served as the most sacred symbol of the presidential office. In 12th century Rome, the mace would have doubled as a club carried by a bodyguard, whose job it was to protect the clergy. According to Canon law, priests were forbidden from shedding blood, so maces were used, since only blunt objects could serve as weapons. Made of wood, metal, or gems, the mace of today functions simply as a symbol of authority.

The St. Ambrose mace was crafted in the early 1980s by John Morrissey Sr., superintendent of buildings and grounds for 42 years. Morrissey was a woodcarver and made the mace from Brazilian rosewood. It is inset with slate carvings of a cross, a chalice and host, an oak leaf and an acorn, and the university seal.

Although the first St. Ambrose president to use the mace was William Bakrow, Morrissey carried it first – at President Bakrow's insistence – during the 1984 spring commencement ceremony.

In a regular ceremony of the university, the mace is carried either directly behind or in front of the president as part of the processional. At Dr. Novak's installation ceremony, the mace leads the processional. During the recessional, it is carried in front of the new president.

Processional
The processional – first used at the Olympic games in ancient Greece – is the grand march into a formal ceremony that usually begins at the back of the seating area and ends near the front of the stage or dais.

The academic processional at an inauguration ceremony differs from commencement in that delegates from other colleges and representatives of academic societies are invited to march along with an institution's own faculty and staff.

Marshals usually will lead each division of the university and seat representatives in their appropriate order. Academic institutions and societies process in order of the year their institutions were founded.

The Presidential Medallion
The first St. Ambrose presidential medallion was worn by President William Bakrow (1973-1987) and followed a trend in higher education of university presidents wearing such symbols of their office.

Today, the president wears the medallion as part of his or her academic regalia. Dr. Novak will be invested with the medallion of St. Ambrose University at the moment of her installation.

Academic Regalia
In the cold castles of the Middle Ages, academics wore hoods and long robes to keep warm as they taught their students in the liberal arts.

Today, that tradition continues to have a symbolic role for those in academia. Their robes signify academic accomplishments – elongated sleeves for a master's degree and three velvet-striped sleeves for doctorates – as well as their position among the ranks of their colleagues.

In keeping with guidelines first established in the 1800s by the American Council on Education, university faculty and staff wear garb with colors and decorations that correspond to their field of study, while the presence and length of hoods are determined by one's degree. At four feet, doctoral hoods are the longest.

Robes, hoods, and caps are always worn at higher education institutions' matriculation and baccalaureate ceremonies. Cords draped around the neck representing academic or other honors may accompany a graduating student's regalia.

Due to the infrequency of such an event, an inauguration has its own special protocols for incorporating academic regalia into the ceremony. Often a university president will wear the robes of his or her alma mater.