Georgetown University will formally inaugurate Eduardo M. Peñalver as its 49th president on Friday, October 9. The university lists a morning Mass followed by a 3 p.m. installation ceremony in Washington. Peñalver began the job July 1, so today marks his formal installation—not the start of his tenure. He is Georgetown’s first Latino president and its second lay leader; his father immigrated to the United States from Cuba in 1962.
The milestone places Latino leadership at the top of a prominent Jesuit institution during a difficult period for higher education. Peñalver has begun planning around artificial intelligence, declining graduate enrollment, university finances and Georgetown’s Capitol Campus, while continuing reconciliation work tied to the 1838 sale of 272 enslaved people by Maryland Jesuits. Representation is an opening, not the completed work: students told The Washington Post they also expect attention to affordability, campus workers and economic inequality.