After a week of events honoring Willamette’s heritage — and looking toward the future — the Board of Trustees installed Stephen E. Thorsett as the university’s 25th president on Feb. 10. The ceremony in Smith Auditorium was marked by music and speeches of welcome from representatives of Oregon’s Native American tribes, state and local government, other higher education institutions and various Willamette constituencies.

Many national college rankings featured Willamette’s College of Liberal Arts. In “Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change the Way You Think About Colleges,” Willamette is touted for its dedicated professors, small class sizes and commitment to service. Kiplinger’s Personal Finance ranked Willamette 72nd for best value among the nation’s private liberal arts colleges. The Princeton Review named Willamette one of the Best in the West, and U.S. News & World Report ranked it as one of the nation’s leading liberal arts colleges. Forbes’ “America’s Top Colleges” also ranked Willamette 90th in the top 100 overall.

More than 200 Willamette University students, faculty and staff joined flood-abatement efforts throughout Salem in January when rainstorms caused the Willamette River to crest at 30 feet — two feet below a major flood stage. Volunteers visited such sites as South Salem High School and Bush Park.

Gloria Rodriguez, a crusader for education in at-risk communities, delivered the College of Liberal Arts commencement address in May to 427 undergraduates who earned their bachelor’s degrees. At other ceremonies, the Atkinson Graduate School of Management awarded 91 Master of Business Administration degrees to early career and career change students, as well as 29 MBA degrees to graduates of the MBA for Professionals program; the College of Law awarded 133 Juris Doctor and Master of Laws degrees; and the Graduate School of Education awarded 86 Master of Arts in Teaching and Master of Education degrees.

Willamette continued to draw national accolades for civic engagement. Washington Monthly’s 2012 liberal arts college rankings placed Willamette 23rd based on its contribution to the public good and seventh for community service participation. Willamette was ranked 20th in the country for its number of Peace Corps volunteers, 17 of whom served overseas, and it was named to the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll with Distinction for exemplary service to America’s communities.

In August, Willamette welcomed one of its most diverse College of Liberal Arts classes in university history. The 530 students in the class of 2016 came from 23 states and four countries, and one third came from traditionally under-represented groups. Willamette University’s graduate schools of education, law and management also welcomed more than 300 new students for the 2012-13 academic year. With 106 new students, the Atkinson Graduate School of Management's Early Career and Career Change MBA welcomed its largest class to date.

Creating open dialogue and civic engagement among college students in China are goals of the new and evolving Chinese Debate Association, led by Willamette University through a three-year grant. The new association — with help from several universities in the Pacific Northwest —is extending debate throughout China by creating seven regional centers and hiring Chinese-certified debate trainers to coach at least 1,200 Chinese college students.

Willamette attracted several major gifts in 2012 to enhance learning opportunities for students. They included $500,000 from the Dempsey Foundation to establish a scholarship fund for environmental and earth science students, $513,000 from the National Science Foundation to continue funding undergraduate math research among a consortium of regional universities, and $700,000 from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to create the “Learning by Creating” initiative, which will enable Willamette faculty to explore, develop and implement new curricula and scholarly pursuits in the arts and humanities.

A new center, the Student Center for Equity and Empowerment, opened in Matthews Hall this fall. Championed by several students, the center is aimed at creating dialogue and engagement on such topics as gender, ability, sexual identity and religion.

Willamette University President Stephen E. Thorsett named Curtis Bridgeman dean of the university’s College of Law. Bridgeman, the James and Margaret Elizabeth Hennessey Corry Professor of Law and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at Florida State University, will begin at Willamette in July 2013. Bridgeman’s appointment is the culmination of a seven-month national search.