Utica University to Mark 80th Anniversary with Recreation of 1946 Opening Ceremony

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Utica University to Mark 80th Anniversary with Recreation of 1946 Opening Ceremony

Eight decades after University’s founding, local leaders and community members will gather at the site where Utica University’s enduring partnership with the community began.

UTICA, N.Y. (Aug. 17, 2026) – In September 1946, just two weeks before Utica University’s inaugural Convocation ceremony, local leaders and hundreds of community members gathered at the Hotel Utica for a Community Dinner celebrating the founding of the city’s first institution of higher learning.

This fall, 80 years later, Utica University will return to that same iconic downtown venue to commemorate that historic moment, celebrate eight decades of impact and look ahead to the next chapter in the University’s story.

Utica University will hold its 80th Anniversary Community Dinner on Wednesday, Sept. 30, from 6 to 9 p.m. at the DoubleTree by Hilton Historic Hotel Utica. The date holds special significance: Sept. 30 marks exactly 80 years since Utica University’s opening Convocation ceremony was held at Plymouth Church in 1946.

The evening will celebrate the University’s rich legacy, its enduring partnership with the Utica community and the opportunities that lie ahead, says event chair John Calabrese ’90.

“The Community Dinner is both a tribute to the people and vision that helped shape the University’s first 80 years and a celebration of the exciting possibilities that await in the years to come,” says Calabrese, president and CEO of First Source Federal Credit Union.

The event will pay homage to that first gathering of Pioneers eight decades ago. As the late Professor Emeritus of Economics Virgil Crisafulli recalled in his 1997 book, Reflections: The Early Years of Utica College, the evening brought together many of the community and University leaders who helped launch the institution.

…Seated at the dais were Mayor Boyd Golder; Henry Dorrance, president of the Utica Chamber of Commerce; Francis McGinty, head of the First Bank of Utica; Dean Winton Tolles; Syracuse University Vice Chancellor Finla Crawford; and Chancellor William P. Tolley. Each of the dignitaries made brief remarks with the main speech given by Chancellor Tolley. He was a spellbinding speaker who almost always left his audience with some climaxing expression that summed up the theme of his remarks. On the occasion of the kickoff dinner celebrating the opening of UC, after pointing out that the Utica area was below average in the percentage of its high school graduates who attended college – five percent as compared with a state average of more than fifteen percent – he stated: "A college can get along without a city, but a city cannot get along without a college." It was a brilliant, unforgettable remark made to the right audience in the right place at the right time. This was the big bang that signaled the creation of Utica College.

That sentiment – that a university and the community it serves are inextricably connected – has remained central to Utica University throughout its history. Founded by and for the people of Utica and the surrounding Mohawk Valley, the University has spent the past 80 years preparing generations of students to contribute to the region and beyond.

Tickets for the Community Dinner are $250 and may be purchased online at utica.edu/community-dinner or by calling (315) 792-3053. All proceeds from the event will support student programming and co-curricular experiences, including student activities, conference participation and other opportunities that enhance the student experience.

The Community Dinner is made possible with the support of presenting sponsor The Hayner Hoyt Corporation as well as sponsors First Source Federal Credit Union, the Utica University Board of Trustees, GPO Federal Credit Union, and the Bank of Utica.