ITHACA - David Skorton said his first job as Cornell University's new president will be to listen.

“It's important that we develop interaction on issues. Presidents need to be in a listening mode when they are starting a new task ... and I will be in a listening mode,” Skorton said Saturday after being introduced as the Ivy League school's 12th president.

“I will have open meetings, open forums, an open-door policy and calling bingo in the dorms at night, trying to get the students to talk to me and tell me what's really on their minds,” said Skorton, addressing an audience of more than 100 faculty, staff, students and reporters.

Skorton said he would similarly engage faculty and staff.

Skorton, 56, currently president of the University of Iowa, was chosen Saturday as Cornell's new president by a unanimous vote by the school's board of trustees, said Peter Meinig, the board's chairman.

Skorton will officially take office at Cornell on July 1, succeeding Jeffrey Lehman.

Lehman - the first alumnus to guide the school - stunned the campus community in June 2005 when he announced that he was stepping down after less than two years in office.

Lehman cited differences in strategic vision with the college's trustees.

Former Cornell President Hunter Rawlings III, who also is a past president at Iowa, has served as Cornell's interim president while the search for a new president was conducted. Skorton said Rawlings gave him his start as a university administrator. Rawlings appointed Skorton as vice president of research at Iowa in 1992.

Skorton said he had no immediate grand plans for change at Cornell.

“I wouldn't be so presumptuous as to walk in here with approximately 90 seconds of experience and start telling the people who have made their careers here what the important issues are,” Skorton said during a 40-minute question-and-answer session.

His emphasis, he said, would be to to make sure he continues Cornell's ongoing traditions.

“First and foremost, this is an institution of education and discovery, and everything we do must flow from those traditions,” he said.

Skorton also said he would continue Cornell's legacy as “a good global citizen” and seek to strengthen the school's ties with the various communities that it serves.

Skorton became Iowa's 19th president in March 2003 after serving there for more than 20 years as a faculty member, doctor and administrator.

At Iowa, Skorton has focused on the university's commitments to diversity, economic development, the health sciences, intercollegiate athletics and public service.

A cardiologist and national leader in research ethics, Skorton holds both a bachelor's degree in psychology (1970) and an M.D. (1974) from Northwestern University.

He also is a skilled saxophonist who once worked as a professional jazz and R&B musician in the Chicago area and hosted a weekly jazz show on the Iowa campus radio station.

Skorton said he was drawn to Cornell because of the school's worldwide reputation of educational excellence and its balance and variety of academic disciplines.

He also was attracted by the school's land-grant mission and its intellectual and ethnic diversity, he said.

Additionally, Skorton's wife, Robin Davisson, was appointed to faculty positions in the Cornell College of Veterinary Medicine in Ithaca and at Weill-Cornell Medical College in New York City.