By the time Scott was formally inaugurated as president of Northwestern, on June 14, 1921, he had already been holding that office for eight and a half months.  During this period he had not only set forth his aspirations, but had managed to carry some of them through.  As a result, Scott stood on solid ground with sights set high.

His mother and Louise were among those present when the inaugural ceremonies began in the University gymnasium.  His father was ill and could not attend.  Following the organ processional by Edwin Stanley Seder, the invocation by Dr. George Craig Stewart, and the response by the university's a cappella choir,    Dr. Scott was inducted by Oliver T. Wilson, president of the board of trustees.

After this came four speeches of praise and welcome and then President Scott's inaugural address.
    "You, the authorities of Northwestern University," the new president said, "have conferred a peculiar honor on me by electing me president of this great institution.  In making this selection you did not do so because you were deceived and supposed me to possess unusual powers in finance, in administration or in beaming.  You have selected me because you have faith in Northwestern, and you know that I am a son of Northwestern who believes in her traditions, her plans and ambitions.
    "You have selected me because you trust me to do my part to sustain the emphasis you feel should be given to human culture, to natural science, to religion, to professional skill and to social science.  You have selected me because you trust me to do my part to make harmony in the combination of the curriculum activities and the extra-curriculum activities.  You have selected me because you trust me to do my part to make the university an increasingly helpful factor in organizing and ennobling the periods of development of our students into harmoniously consistent and useful lives."

Scott's induction marked two important milestones in the university's history—he was the first president to be selected from its own alumni and the first non-Methodist to hold that office.

When he assumed the presidency, the university consisted of colleges of liberal arts and engineering; a graduate school; and schools of music, commerce, and speech, and offered courses in law and engineering.  In addition to the campus in Evanston there was a campus in-the-making along the lake on Chicago's Near North Side.  Northwestern's Chicago classes were meeting in inadequate quarters on Lake and Dearborn Streets and at 2421-37 South Dearborn Street.

The first new school to be added under Scott's administration was the joseph Medill School of journalism.  Provision for its establishment was obtained in November, 1920, a little more than a month after Scott began his official tenure.  Whether Dean Ralph E. Heilman of the School of Commerce or Joseph Medill Patterson first suggested the idea is a matter of conjecture, but it appealed to Scott immediately.  He and Heilman took the matter up with Col.  Robert R. McCormick and Joseph Medill Patterson, editors of the Chicago Tribune, who quickly agreed to supply the needed funds to found a school in honor of Joseph Medill, " builder of the Tribune," and one of America's great editors.

At dedication exercises February 8, 1921, telegrams of congratulations were read from Warren G. Harding, President-elect of the United States; Lord Northcliffe,
editor of the London Times; Stephane Lauzanne, editor of the Paris Le Matin; Paul Dupay, director of Le Petit Parisien, Countess Bathurst of the London Morning Post; the Hon. Joseph G. Cannon, former speaker of the U. S. House of Representatives, and numerous other Americans prominent in public life and journalism.

Edward T. Cutter, head of the central division of the Associated Press, read messages from Frank B. Noyes and other officials of the world wide news agency.  Talks were given by S. J. Duncan-Clark, chief editorial writer of the Chicago Evening Post, by President Henry Pratt Judson of the University of Chicago, and President David-Kinley of the University of Illinois.  Arthur Brisbane, who represented the Hearst newspapers, traveled all the way from New York to participate in the ceremonies.

Joseph Medill's three grandsons, Col.  Robert R. McCormick, Capt. Joseph Medill Patterson, and U. S. Senator Medill McCormick, all took part in the exercises, either by speech or letter.
    "Under a lowered ceiling of green foliage," said a newspaper account of the event, "sat the 1,200 friends of the school who came to see its dedication.  To the playing of the School of Music symphony orchestra entered the presidents of three universities, the deans of the schools, the speakers of the evening, the instructional staff and honored guests."



In pronouncing the invocation, the Rev.  George Craig Stewart spoke of the occasion as "the wedding of the university and the press."

The first money raised for Northwestern during Scott's presidency was obtained not through his efforts but, interestingly enough, through Mrs. Scott's.  This gift was made by a bedridden, childless widow—Mrs. Imogene Parkhurst, an acquaintance of Mrs. Scott.  Mrs. Parkhurst, the president's wife had learned, was unable to pay for needed medical care.  When Mrs. Scott paid her a visit to see if she could help, Mrs. Parkhurst revealed that while she owned property of some value she was completely out of ready cash.

As a result the matter was taken up with George Tomlinson, Mrs. Parkhurst's banker, and it developed that she owned property worth $125,000.  After consultation with her it was decided that this property should be turned over to Northwestern, and that in return the university would provide her with an adequate annuity for the rest of her life.

The Chicago building at Lake and Dearborn streets was no longer adequate.  The need for better facilities had been recognized by trustees and faculty members for years.  But it was not until after Scott became president that establishing a real Chicago campus was started.

George A. McKinlock, a trustee, offered Northwestern $250,000 with which to purchase the land for the downtown or Chicago campus, provided it would be named after his only son, Alexander, who was killed in Flanders in World War I. The land was bought and the Alexander McKinlock Memorial Campus established.

Though the gift was eventually returned to the family when the McKinlock fortune was wiped out by the Great Depression, announcement of plans for the new campus opened the way, in 1923, for the first big endowment during Scott's regime.  The total amount received from this donor was to reach almost $9,000,000.

The gift came from a shy and unassuming widow in her 70s, under the influence of her nephew, Charles Thome.  For years, Thome, a former president of Montgomery Ward & Company, had advised his aunt on financial and philanthropic matters.  He studied numerous beneficiaries and finally came to the conclusion that the best service she could render was to help build Northwestern's Chicago campus.  Thome's long friendship with Dr. Scott may have been a major factor in bringing this about.

Thome studied a brochure setting forth plans for the new campus, presented to him by Dr. Scott.  Carefully prepared to arouse interest among prospective donors, it impressed Thome greatly.

Some time later he informed Scott he knew a wealthy widow who was interested in endowing, a new medical building.  He did not tell Scott who it was, however, until she had been completely sold on the idea.  Then he brought the two of them together.

The shy, little woman was Mrs. A. Montgomery Ward, whose husband had made the name a household word by his pioneer methods in merchandising.  Northwestern University was no stranger to her.  For years she had observed the schools services to the needy through its medical centers in Chicago's Loop and Near South Side.  Scott told Mrs. Ward in detail about the plans for the medical school on the Chicago campus, stressing its clinics and its research departments.

A few days afterward, Thorne telephoned Scott that Mrs. Ward was ready to turn the money over to him.  When Scott arrived at Thome's office, Thorne handed him a bundle of stock certificates valued at $4,223,000.  Scott was uneasy carrying more than four million dollars in securities as he rushed directly to a meeting of the trustees, waiting to hear the outcome of the Scott-Ward conference.  He startled the trustees by placing the certificates on the table before them.  It was agreed to announce the receipt of a gift of three million dollars at once and of another $1,223,000 later.

The university gave a banquet for Mrs. Ward.  She bought new clothes for the occasion, and, though a very modest and retiring person, gave a pleasing talk.  She took an active and steadily increasing interest in the project, visiting the outmoded medical building frequently to observe the work in its clinics and laboratories.

She continued her visits until failing health sent her to California.  When she began to feel that her days were numbered, she returned home to Chicago.  But, ill as she was, she retained her vital interest in the project so close to her heart.  Unable to walk, she asked to be driven around the imposing medical building under construction on Northwestern's Chicago Campus as a memorial to her husband.  It was one of the last things she did before she died.