Yale University inaugurated Richard C. Levin as its 22nd president this weekend, in a ceremony dedicated to expressing support for cooperation between the university, its faculty and the city of New Haven, where Yale is located.

Faced with a university fighting financial difficulties and an urban community battling impoverishment, the 46-year-old former dean of Yale's graduate school of arts and sciences said the university and the community around it share a common fate.

"Pragmatism alone compels this conclusion," Levin said. "If we are to continue to recruit students and faculty of the highest quality, New Haven must remain an attractive place in which to study, to live and to work."

Levin succeeds Benno C. Schmidt Jr., who resigned last year to participate in an effort by entrepreneur Christopher Whittle to create a national chain of private schools. Interim president Howard R. Lamar served for one year before Levin took office in July.

Levin's inaugural speech concentrated on unity and Yale's commitment to New Haven, an issue which appears to hold personal resonance for the newpresident.

Levin and his wife have served on the Yalefaculty and lived in New Haven for nearly 20years.

"Our responsibility to our city transcendspragmatism," Levin said. "The conditions of ourcities threaten the health of the republic."

Presenting himself as the champion of Yale'sresearch community, Levin said he was stronglycommitted to "increasing human knowledge."

"Today the scientific capability of theAmerican university is the envy of the world,"Levin said. "We neglect its support at our peril."

No Science Cuts

At Yale, however, financial commitment toresearch has waned. Schmidt, Levin's predecessor,alienated faculty and students by making sweepingcuts in the programs, departments and numbers offaculty in an effort to close the university'sbudget deficit.

During the search for a new president, Levinindicated to interviewers that he would not makecuts as deep as those Schmidt proposed