Presidents are usually inaugurated before they move into their offices, make decisions or get to know their colleagues, but Robert Brown did not want his presidency to begin by being publicly welcomed into a community where he knew very few people and almost no students.

So Brown pushed his inauguration back from October to April and made the week of inaugural activities a community event, involving faculty, staff and, most importantly, students.

“The point of the inauguration is to celebrate not just Dr. Brown joining us and leading us, but also to celebrate the BU community,” Inauguration Honorary Advisory Committee co-chair and Faculty Council president Roscoe Giles said in a BU Today press release.

The week of events included a Ballyhoo, a musical event for students Saturday afternoon, an alumni concert at Carnegie Hall in New York last week, the actual inauguration ceremonies today and four symposia about Boston University Friday all interested to encourage community.

Brown entered the university last fall publicly touting an agenda aimed at community-building throughout the university, regardless of undergraduate colleges or academic affiliation.

Beginning with Brown’s move to Sherborn Street, he showed the importance of physical unity.

“What I wanted to do when we sat down last summer to put people together was get the right density of people around me in the right places,” he said. “The right place for the president to be is on the floor with the provost and to have the academic leadership together.”

He has also surrounded himself with the Board of Trustees headquarters as well as some of the public relations offices.

Dean of Students Kenneth Elmore has worked closely with Brown since his arrival and has seen him “acknowledge the importance of student life and community building.”

“He has invited students to talk to him and he has a level of accessibility that I haven’t seen before. I see students stopping to talk to him on the streets,” Elmore said. “And I see him maintaining that accessibility in the future.”

Brown has gotten to know some of the 31,000 students at BU through brunches and focus groups with a wide variety of students.

“What we’ve been doing is bringing together people,” he said. Now the challenge, he said, is finding the apathetic students on campus and figuring out what drives them.

This input has helped Brown to see what issues are important and what students really care about.

“I think anyone wants to be at a place where they feel a connection with people that know then and care about them,” Elmore said. “We want people to know who we are and to be able to comment on that. Faculty and staff want that too.”

Brown has been visible while making this connection, attending events when he can at BU Central, student group events and sporting events.

Brown’s wife, Beverly, has also been involved in this effort. She said she and her husband attend events on campus, as well as around the country, meeting with students, parents and alumni.

“Last week, we went to a poetry reading, to the concert at Carnegie Hall and then to the Pakistan benefit concert,” she said.

She said they have attended hockey games, something the couple particularly enjoys after spending four year at the college hockey Mecca at the University of Minnesota.

“I am very interested in college hockey,” she said. “I really like watching the women’s hockey because they cannot check, so their skating is amazing.”

Elmore said Brown has a solid vision for the university for the long term.

“In my conversations with Dr. Brown, I have seen that he really gets it,” he said. “He sees the importance of good spaces, like BU Central, and of ways to bring us together … He is engaged with students and our campus.”