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[MUSIC - "POMP AND CIRCUMSTANCE"] KEVIN HARRIS: Good morning, everyone. Please be seated if you have not done so already. Welcome again to the ILR School's 76th Commencement Recognition Ceremony.
[APPLAUSE]
My name is Kevin Harris. I'm the Frank B. Miller Director of the ILR Office of Student Services. I'm joined on stage by many ILR faculty, and joining us throughout the arena are a number of ILR staff members. We're pleased to see that many family members, friends, and other guests in attendance are here to honor our degree candidates. Thank you for taking the time to be with us today.
[APPLAUSE]
On behalf of my faculty and staff colleagues, I can speak for all of us in saying we're excited to spend this morning celebrating our amazing students and recognizing their accomplishments at Cornell and within the ILR school. It is now my pleasure to introduce Alex Colvin, Kenneth F. Kahn Dean and Martin F. Scheinman Professor of Conflict Resolution.
[APPLAUSE]
ALEX COLVIN: Good morning. Thank you all for coming today, and welcome to the graduation ceremony for students in ILR. I want to thank the many family and friends who've trekked from far and wide to come here to recognize the students they have supported on their journeys at ILR. I want to thank our faculty and staff who have helped our students throughout their ILR education. But most important of all, I want to thank and congratulate our graduating students today.
[APPLAUSE]
We are here today to celebrate their accomplishments, to recognize the degrees that they have earned. Now, what is a degree? It's an achievement, certainly, one that's the product of a lot of hard work. And when my colleagues and I look at the grades, the resumes, and the personal statements of our incoming students, we're often amazed at how impressive a group of students that we're going to have the privilege of teaching.
We often wonder if we would have been admitted to ILR if we had to compete with you. But then you arrive here on campus, and you remove all doubt. There's no question that I and my Gen X compatriots really were a bunch of slackers compared to you. You're prepped by mastering great piles of AP courses. You proceed to terrify your advisors with your credit-laden schedules.
Being ILRees, you come here and you run for and then win campus leadership positions. You don't just join clubs, you lead them and create new ones. You start entrepreneurial businesses. You launch social justice movements. You make us proud and a little weary watching all of the things that you do.
And you work hard in class. You read. You write. You learn statistics. You master supply demand diagrams. You learn to research and analyze legal problems. You show the amazing all around achievements that ILRees are known for.
And let's recognize the wonderful achievements of our graduate students. We have master's students who've developed expertise across the broad range of Human Resource Management and Labor Relations. We have doctoral students who are the emerging scholars providing new research insights on topics we've only begun to think about. Whatever the degree you earn today, you're an ILRee whose accomplishments we are immensely proud of.
But also remember this is not an achievement that you could have done on your own. One of my favorite assignments I give to new students in my colloquium sections is to write something I call the three people paper. In it, I asked the students to describe the work experiences of three members of their family-- if possible, from three different generations-- a grandparent, a parent, a sibling. I asked the students to reflect on how work has changed over time.
How did education make a difference? What was the impact of immigrating to a new country? How have careers changed and the type of workplaces we work in? But the most striking thing to read in these essays is how each generation stands on the shoulders of the one that came before it. The grandparents who moved to a new country to provide opportunities for their families, the parents working long hours, their daughter or son could be the first in their family to go to college.
You've achieved much through your hard work, but honor the hard work of those who helped you get here. Graduating students, please join me in giving a round of applause to the family, friends, caregivers, supporters, and mentors who helped you get where you are today.
[APPLAUSE]
Now, earning a degree from Cornell takes an enormous amount of hard work whenever you do it, but I want to recognize the extra challenges that you, the Class of 2022, faced. Back in February 2020 when we started to read news of a new virus called COVID-19, we didn't realize that within a month we would have evacuated campus, sending our students home and beginning an unprecedented venture into remote learning.
As the country and the world struggled with the human toll of the pandemic and the challenging measures, we needed to keep people as safe as possible. You began the process of taking classes over a Zoom screen from a childhood bedroom, a basement, or wherever you could get a decent Wi-Fi connection.
Then that fall, we all wondered if we could be back on campus again. After a lot of preparation, some amazing testing work by a colleagues up at the Vet School, we did return. Classes were a bit different-- hybrid formats, some online, some in-person, a lot of masks. It was hard, but you made it work. You should be proud of your efforts. You continued your studies under challenging circumstances. It required discipline, flexibility, and a lot of goodwill, but you made it work.
And then this year, we've managed to move farther along the path out of the depths of the pandemic. Classes were more normal. Social activities returning on campus still taking precautions, but living college life more fully. I know it's been a challenge, but I also think that your ability to persevere through it will set you up well for whatever you have to face in the years to come.
You've known adversity. You faced up to it and recognize that it is part of life. You are the Class of '22, and you'll be stronger for what you've gone through. I hope you'll also recognize that the challenges of the pandemic have reinforced the importance of so much of what we study at ILR. Think about the phenomenon of remote work. A couple of years ago, this was a niche topic studied by a few HR experts-- among them, our own professor Brad Bell, who's one of the world's leading experts in this area.
[APPLAUSE]
But today, it is central to the national conversation. The home office, the Zoom meeting, the balance between work and family life all are part of our daily conversation. Workplace health and safety and essential workers-- again, topics that are central issues of our time and that we think about very differently now.
These last two years have reinforced the importance of understanding the complex and changing world of work, whether it's mask mandates in the office, how to advance racial justice, inclusion, and diversity in the workplace, or whether it's the question of if your local Starbucks baristas are going to be represented by a union. The issues we study at ILR--
[APPLAUSE]
--are central to the world we live in today. Now as we move forward, I hope that you'll continue to see the value of this education that you've had here at ILR. When I talk with our alumni whose ranks you are joining, I'm always struck by how often they mentioned the value of what they learn at ILR for their careers and their lives-- how to think analytically, how to deal with people, how to negotiate. Regardless of the fields that they go into, they find the skills and knowledge they acquired here incredibly valuable, and I'm confident you will do so too.
Having earned a degree from Cornell will open doors for you. You'll have opportunities that are rare and valuable, and you should cherish that. But know that once you walk through those doors, you'll have to continue to show that you can realize that promise. This is where you'll have the chance to show that the entire education you've worked so hard for is valuable. Show that you can analyze the complex situations. Bring together and analyze your reading, writing, and analytical skills. Navigate organizations. Negotiate deals. Resolve conflicts. Stand up for what is right. Be a leader. Do the things that ILRees do well.
There's a quote that I use when I gave this same address three years ago to the Class of 2019. After two years of being unable to have an ILR commencement recognition ceremony as we struggle through the pandemic, that quote seems even more fitting today. Now, I was a very nerdy teenager in the 1980s who played way too much Dungeons and Dragons in high school. So naturally, I'm using a JRR Tolkien Lord of the Rings quote.
In response to young Frodo's fears about living in a time of turmoil and uncertainty, Frodo says, "I wish it need not have happened in my time." The wise wizard Gandalf replies, "so do I, and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us."
Now, that's a line written by a writer who, after graduating from Oxford University in 1915, served his country in the trenches, the horrors of the First World War. But he survived that experience and went on to write one of the most beloved books of the 20th century. Now a century later, that spirit of persevering through adversity and valuing the time that is given to you continues to echo today.
So I want to call on you to go out there and be brave. Be purposeful. Be kind. Be honorable. Build a career. Build something worthwhile. Take advantage of the opportunities that your education has given you. Be proud of who you are as we congratulate you, the Cornell ILR Class of 2022. Congratulations.
[APPLAUSE]
KEVIN HARRIS: Thank you, Dean Colvin. It's now my pleasure to introduce Professor Chris Collins to recognize the Class of 2022 graduate degree candidates.
[APPLAUSE]
CHRIS COLLINS: Dean Colvin, it is my pleasure to present the Class of 2022 Doctor of Philosophy degree candidates.
[READING NAMES]
Congratulations to the Class of 2022 Doctor of Philosophy degree candidates.
[APPLAUSE]
Dean Colvin, I now present the Class of 2022 Master of Industrial and Labor Relations degree candidates.
[READING NAMES]
Congratulations to the Class of 2022 Master of Industrial and Labor Relations degree candidates.
[APPLAUSE]
Dean Colvin, it is my pleasure to present the Class of 2022 Master of Professional Studies degree candidates.
[APPLAUSE]
[READING NAMES]
Congratulations to the Class of 2022 Master of Professional Degree candidates.
[APPLAUSE]
Dean Colvin, this concludes the presentation of the Class of 2022 graduate degree candidates.
[APPLAUSE]
KEVIN HARRIS: Thank you, Professor Collins, and congratulations to our graduate degree candidates.
[APPLAUSE]
It is now my pleasure to introduce Senior Associate Dean George Boyer to present the Class of 2022 Bachelor of Science degree candidates.
[APPLAUSE]
GEORGE BOYER: Dean Colvin, it is my honor to present the Class of 2022 Bachelor of Science degree candidates.
[READING NAMES]
I would now like to introduce Kevin Harris, Frank B. Miller Director of Student Services, to continue presenting the Class of 2022 Bachelor of Science degree candidates.
[APPLAUSE]
KEVIN HARRIS: [READING NAMES]
This concludes the presentation of the Class of 2022 undergraduate degree candidates.
[APPLAUSE]
Congratulations once again. This concludes the ILR School's 76th Commencement Recognition Ceremony. We ask that all guests remain seated as faculty, staff, and students recess from the area and move into the reception area. We encourage all of you to join your students at the ILR reception, which will begin momentarily on the other side of the curtain. Congratulations to the Class of 2022.
[APPLAUSE]
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Livestream recording of the 2022 ILR Commencement Recognition Ceremony for graduate and undergraduate ILR students.
