Newswise For just the seventh time in its 90-year history, Rowan University is welcoming a new president.

Ali A. Houshmand will officially become Rowans seventh president during a formal inauguration ceremony on Friday, Sept. 20, at 10 a.m. in Pfleeger Concert Hall, Wilson Hall, on the University's Glassboro, N.J. campus.

New Jersey Secretary of Higher Education Rochelle Hendricks and State Senate President Steve Sweeney will lead a host of state and local dignitaries to celebrate Houshmands inauguration.

Rowan benefactor Henry Rowan, former University President Mark Chamberlain, and delegates from more than 25 colleges and universities in the regionand from as far away as Tennesseeare expected to join with University trustees, Rowan Foundation board members, faculty, professional staff, students and alumni to honor Houshmand and mark the historic day.

The inauguration ceremony will include faculty in full academic regalia.

Sweeney, Hendricks, Board of Trustees Chairman Linda Rohrer, Alumni Association President David Burgin, Student Government Association President Surbhi Pathak, and University Senate President Bill Friend all will speak before Houshmand accepts the presidency and delivers his inaugural address.

Houshmand, who joined the University in 2006 as its provost, was named interim president in 2011. In June of 2012, he was named president.

He takes the helm at Rowan during an unprecedented period of transformation, much of that growth a direct result of his ambition and vision.

Under Houshmands leadership, Rowan this year became only the second institution in the nation to have both M.D.- and D.O.-granting medical schools. Rowan opened Cooper Medical School of Rowan University (CMSRU)-the first new medical school in the state in more than 35 years-in Camden in 2012 and integrated the School of Osteopathic Medicine (formerly the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey)of Stratford on July 1 to form RowanSOM. Rowan also integrated Stratfords Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences.

Additionally, this summer, Rowan became the second comprehensive research university in the state through the New Jersey Medical and Health Sciences Education Act. Under the act, Rowan also is partnering with Rutgers-Camden to develop a new College of Health Sciences in Camden.

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Ali A. Houshmand to Be Inaugurated as Rowan University's Seventh President