Beginning with a trip to the Tompkins County Public Library, Cornell President Jeffrey Lehman's Inauguration Day Oct. 16 in Ithaca will be a community affair that will feature distinguished speakers, including U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and a live phone call from the International Space Station.

The public is invited to attend the formal installation ceremony in Barton Hall at 2 p.m., which will feature Lehman's formal inaugural address and a speech by Ginsburg, a 1954 Cornell graduate.

"Ezra and Andy's Excellent BIG RED Adventure," a showcase of student talent, will be presented at 7 p.m. in Barton Hall. A highlight will be an expected live telephone call from NASA astronaut Ed Lu, Cornell Class of 1984, who has been aboard the International Space Station since April 28. He will be calling as the space station orbits 240 miles above Earth.

People are encouraged to pick up free tickets for both events in advance during business hours at The Ithaca Journa l, 123 W. State St.; The Ithaca Times, 109 N. Cayuga St.; Eagle Broadcasting, 1751 Hanshaw Road; the Clinton House ticket center; the Tompkins County Chamber of Commerce/Visitors' Bureau; and the Willard Straight Hall ticket office on campus.

TCAT will allow passengers with inauguration tickets to ride its buses to campus at no charge from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Oct. 16. People who do not have tickets can ride to campus free if they tell drivers they are going to the inauguration.

Three distinguished inaugural lectures will be held concurrently at 10 a.m. on campus. Tickets are not needed. Richard Meier, one of the world's most influential architects, will speak on "The New Architecture of Optimism," in the Statler Hotel Auditorium. N.R. Narayana Murthy, the chairman of Infosys Technologies Ltd., will speak on "Cornell – The Unfinished Agenda: The Musings of a Corporate Person," in the Large Conference Room of the Biotechnology Building. Nationally acclaimed poet Alice Fulton and prize-winning poet and essayist Kenneth McClane, both professors in Cornell's Department of English, will read from their work at "Subversive Pleasures: A Poetry Reading," in Sage Chapel. People not able to get to campus for the Oct. 16 events will be able to watch them on Time Warner Cable Channel 16. The installation ceremony at 2 p.m. and the "Excellent BIG RED Adventure" at 7 p.m. will be broadcast live. Inauguration information and coverage will be presented on Channel 16 from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. throughout the day.

Time Warner also will broadcast live the inauguration ceremony that will take place Wednesday, Oct. 15, at 9 a.m. at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City. Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, will speak on "Emerging and Re-emerging Diseases of the 21st Century," and Lehman will present an inaugural address. Fauci received his M.D. from Cornell Medical College in 1966.

Live webstreaming of events also will be available from the official inauguration Web site at http://inauguration.cornell.edu/.

Lehman's trip to Tompkins County Library at the beginning of his inauguration day in Ithaca will highlight the historical and continuing connection between the university and the Ithaca community. Founder Ezra Cornell incorporated Ithaca's first free public library in 1864. Lehman will have a conversation with community leaders, and with Janet Steiner, executive director of the library, he will unveil a library exhibit commemorating the interrelationship between Ithaca's town and gown.