Dixie State University Presidential Inauguration

Dixie State University invites the entire St. George community to attend the Inauguration of Dr. Richard B. Williams as the institution’s 18th President on Thursday, October 23.  Join DSU in celebrating the beginning of a new era as we unite under the banner “We Are DIXIE!” 

“We Are Dixie” is the chosen theme for DSU’s inauguration, as President Williams hopes that the celebration of both the installation and Homecoming will serve as a way to unite the university and community. Williams has said publically that DSU is currently in the early planning stages of creating a new strategic plan, and he is eager to involve all institutional stakeholders in the process of shaping the future of Dixie State University.

“I invite the community to attend and to hear that we need their help, that ‘We’ are going to chart the course, and that ‘We’ have to pull together to make Dixie better – this is ‘our’ mission,” President Williams said. “We are the community’s university and I would love to see St. George go from a great college town to a phenomenal university town.”

DSU Vice President of Institutional Advancement Christina Schultz, who chairs the inauguration planning committee, noted that the inauguration ceremony promises to be a hallmark event in DSU’s storied history. Schultz also announced that DSU will unveil a new university mace, explaining that in academia, the mace symbolizes a university’s governing authority and signifies that all university proceedings have official sanction.

“We look forward to this great day for Dixie State University,” Schultz said. “For only the 18^th time in our 103 history, we have the opportunity to inaugurate a new president. We invite the campus and community to join with us to celebrate.”


Williams was announced as the 18^th President of Dixie State University on July 17, 2014. Prior to his arrival to DSU, Williams served as Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs at Indiana State University. Previous to his appointment as provost, Williams was the founding Dean of ISU’s College of Nursing, Health and Human Services, for which he led the development of six new degree programs designed to address the state's critical shortage of healthcare workers.

Dr. Williams had also served as an associate dean of the College of Education at the University of Northern Iowa, where he was a faculty member, executive associate director of the School of Health, Physical Education, and Leisure Services, and chair of the Division of Athletic Training. At UNI, he helped create a private-public partnership between the local hospital, medical community, and university that resulted in the construction of a two-story human performance center that served the surrounding rural communities.