Pledging greater attention to the environment, academic excellence, international learning, and the pockets of alumni donors, Ann Weaver Hart was officially installed yesterday as Temple University's first female president.

Alternately beaming and choking with emotion in a pageantry-filled ceremony, Hart also reaffirmed Temple's commitment to its North Philadelphia surroundings and the educational opportunities it long has offered the underprivileged.



"Temple will change," Hart, 58, said in her inaugural speech. "...ss Our fundamental values will not."



Hart also stole a bit of her own thunder by announcing the selection of a new provost, Lisa Staiano-Coico, currently the dean of Cornell University's College of Human Ecology. Staiano-Coico officially starts as the university's chief academic officer on July 1, exactly one year after Hart took the helm.



Temple officials said Staiano-Coico's hiring marks the first time women have held the president's and provost's positions at a Philadelphia university.



Hart, former president of the University of New Hampshire, was selected by Temple trustees last May to replace David Adamany as president.