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[MUSIC PLAYING] SPEAKER 1: The first of the academic procession has arrived.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Leading the procession is the university marshal, Professor Poppy McLeod. [INAUDIBLE] is the banner for the class of 2021.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
This year's banner bearers are Zila Ake and Jayla Frith, class officers. The class marshals are Asma Khan and Eitan Wolf.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
First to arrive behind the class banner are the degree candidates from the College of Engineering.
[CHEERING]
Led by Dean Lynden Archer and college banner bearers Angela Jin and Anders Wikum. The degree marshals are John Montani and Hannah Doyle. The symbol banner bearer is William Xu.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
The three candidates from the Cornell Law School attended a convocation event last week. We wish them best of luck as they study for their bar examinations. The Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar and Cornell Medical College in New York City are participating in separate ceremonies. Including among the graduates who will be conferred today are those who carried out their studies at Cornell Tech in New York City.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Once again, the degree candidates from the College of Engineering.
[CHEERING]
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Now entering are the degree candidates from the School of Industrial and Labor Relations. Led by Dean Alexander Colvin, the college banner bearers are Henessy Pineda and Juliette Raymond. Degree marshals are Terrill Malone and Catherine Huang. The symbol banner bearer is Glenn Asuo-Asante.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
[INDISTINCT CHATTER]
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Once again, the degree candidates from the School of Industrial and Labor Relations.
[CHEERING]
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Now joining the procession are members of the university faculty, led by the dean of the university faculty, Charles Van Loan.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
At this time, we acknowledge and thank the Cornell University faculty.
[CHEERING]
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Now joining the procession, the university leadership, led by Provost Michael Kotlikoff, and the trustees of the university, led by Chairman Robert S. Harrison.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
At this time, the university marshal, Professor Poppy McLeod, will escort the mace bearer, Professor Bruce Lewenstein, and Cornell University's president, Martha E. Pollack, to their places on the platform.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Cornell University is located on the traditional homelands of the [? Gayogohono, ?] the Cayuga nation. The [? Gayogohono ?] are members of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, an alliance of six sovereign nations with a historic and contemporary presence on this land. The confederacy precedes the establishment of Cornell University, New York state, and the United States of America. We acknowledge the painful history of [? Gayogohono ?] dispossession, and honor the ongoing connection of [? Gayogohono ?] people, past and present, to these lands and waters.
POPPY MCLEOD: President Pollack, candidates for degrees from Cornell University have gathered for the conferral of degrees and to celebrate the commencement of the 153rd graduating class of Cornell University.
[CHEERING AND APPLAUSE]
Members of the Board of Trustees, the faculty, administrative staff, degree candidates and guests are in their places. The assembly is hereby called to order. Please rise and join us in the singing of The Star-Spangled Banner.
(SINGING) Oh say, can you see by the dawn's early light what so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming, whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous fight, over the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming? And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air gave proof through the night that our flag was still there. Oh say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave over the land of the free and the home of the brave?
[CHEERING AND APPLAUSE]
Please be seated. It is my privilege to introduce Michael Kotlikoff, university provost.
[CLAPPING]
MICHAEL KOTLIKOFF: Last but certainly not least, welcome parents, family, supporters, and friends. And most of all, welcome to the outstanding members of the class of 2021.
[APPLAUSE]
Graduates, this has been an incredible year, and you have distinguished yourselves through your resiliency and your community spirit, as well as through your scholarship. On behalf of the Cornell faculty and all of Cornell University, I want to thank you for your actions in keeping us all safe during the pandemic. You have set the standard for the nation. Give yourselves a hand.
[CLAPPING]
Wherever you go, and whatever you do, I hope you'll remember this year. We at Cornell will certainly never forget it. Now, it is my great honor to introduce the fourth president of Cornell University, professor of computer sciences, information science, and linguistics, Martha E. Pollack.
[CHEERING AND APPLAUSE]
MARTHA POLLACK: Class of 2021, how's everybody feeling this afternoon?
[CHEERING]
This lovely afternoon, because this is Ithaca, and in Ithaca, this counts as a sunny day. And you know what that means? I've got to put on my shades.
[CHEERING]
Now, every time I stand up here in a Cornell cap and gown, I tell a new class of graduates how great it is to be here, how happy I am to see them, how proud I am of everything that they've accomplished. But this year, being with you in person, it's better than great. I am really, really, really happy to see you, and saying that I'm proud doesn't even begin to express how it feels to stand here looking out at the extraordinary class of 2021, and at the parents, the family and the friends who have supported you through so much.
So graduates, before I say anything else, this is what I want you to do. This is a football stadium, and it's a football stadium that hasn't seen nearly enough noises here. In fact, it's seen essentially no noise. So we're going to start to make up for that. And I want you to follow my steps one at a time. I want all the graduates to stand up. And if you know where your family and friends are sitting, turn towards them. Otherwise, just turn in the general direction.
OK, now, don't do anything else yet. Wait, wait. Wait for the instructions. This is the fourth time we've done this weekend, and most of the other graduations were pretty loud, right? Yeah, they were loud. But you guys are engineers and ILREs, and you're going to be louder than anyone. So when I say three, in whatever languages you speak at home, whether it's English or Spanish or Hindi or Cayuga or Chinese, whatever language, I want you to yell thank you, OK? Loud as you can. One, two, three.
[SHOUTING]
[CHEERING AND APPLAUSE]
OK. That was pretty good, but we're not done yet. Turn around. Those are you standing on chairs, step down carefully first, please. Turn around and face me. I know it's really great, we're all thrilled that we were, at the last minute, able to let people invite two guests each, but I know that there were many families that couldn't get here, or many of you have other guests beyond the two who are here, but can't be here themselves. And I want to thank them, too.
So if you look to my right, you'll see Paul. Paul is going to wave, so you see who Paul is. OK. Paul is operating camera number two, which is one of the cameras that's live streaming this out. And right behind Paul are all those family and friends who can't be here now. So again, on the count of three, thank you to them. One, two, three.
[SHOUTING]
All right, [INAUDIBLE] sit down.
Before we go any further, I do want to pause for this next moment to acknowledge the people who are with us today only in our hearts, the students whose graduation this would have been, and everyone we've lost over the last year to COVID-19.
Thank you. So I spent a lot of time over the past few months thinking about what I would say when-- and sometimes it felt like if-- we finally got to this moment. This moment when you all put on your caps and gowns to celebrate your extraordinary achievements at Cornell, especially through this extraordinary last year. Because a commencement is an important milestone. It marks the moment that you cross between student and alum, between one phase of your lives and the next.
And this hour here in [INAUDIBLE] is that liminal space. It's where we stand together on that line between what lies behind and what lies ahead, between the familiar past and the unknown future. But this isn't the first time that we stood there together. 447 days ago, I wrote you an email that I had never imagined writing. Like all of you, I'd follow the news reports as the coronavirus spread through Asia and Europe into the West coast into New York City.
On the advice of public health experts and epidemiologists, we had already brought home our study abroad students, and we had already limited the size of our campus gatherings, but we soon came to realize that this would not be enough. And yet, Cornell in its 155 year history through two world wars, and civil unrest, and actually, more than one previous pandemic, through it all, Cornell had never closed before. And so the decision that in retrospect seems inevitable in that moment felt unthinkable.
Making that decision, sending that email meant crossing a line between the past we had known and the future we had planned for and a present that was changing every hour and a future that had no map. 447 days ago, you each opened an email that you never imagined you would receive. Maybe you were sitting in Mann library or in the Duffield atrium, or you were getting a snack or heading to your study group meeting.
You pulled out your phone to check your email or maybe you got a text from a friend. And in that moment, the world stood still. Campus is shutting down. Classes are going online. They're sending all of us home.
It seems for a moment like it might be the end of everything, but the next moment when you looked around you, you saw that Cornell was still there, and you were too. So you figured out what you needed to do next. What to pack, what to store, where you were going and how to get there, and then when you did get there, what you did was you finished your semester. On Zoom and on Canvas, by text message and by FaceTime call, somehow you finished it all.
You found new ways to be together, to learn, and to grow. When you found yourself in an unmapped future, you adapted your course and adapted it again and again. But every day you move forward, and today, here you are in caps and gowns are commencement where you were meant to be all along. The world has become a different place since that moment when-- as the song from Hamilton goes-- the world turned upside down.
But if the song, you also know that the world has turned upside down before. Now, I very much hope that this is the last time in your lives that your world will be turned upside down by a pandemic, but I can almost promise you that it will be turned upside down by other things. The email will come or the text message or the conversation or the news report that will draw a line-- a new line-- between what was and what will be a past you knew and a future with no map.
Or you'll face a decision that, whatever path you take, will change everything for you, for the people closest to you, or for the people that you will be there to lead. And when that happens the next time the world turns upside down, I want you to remember something. Remember that you've been there before. Remember that you got through it, and remember how.
You are here today, because for 447 days, you held each other close, even when it was impossible to do that physically. You held on to the kindness and support of one another and you kept moving forward. You are here today because of your commitment and hard work and because all of the people, your family, your friends, your chosen family, your community, your Cornell faculty and staff, all of the people who help you keep going.
And you made it to where you are right now because all of you chose hour after hour and day after day to do the things that helped keep Cornell going. As hard as it was, you did what you needed to do. You kept your masks on and you kept your distance. You met your friends outside, even in the cold difficult months of January and February and March and April, and May.
You got your vaccines as soon as you possibly could. You showed up for your surveillance tests, and some of you spent some time in the Statler. You did your daily check, and you checked in on one another. You chose day after day and hour after hour day for community first, and of all of the countless decisions that have kept Cornell safe and healthy and moving forward, of all of the data and the expertise that went into these last 447 days, your decisions were the ones that mattered the most.
Nothing I did in Day Hall, no decision, no policy, no investment, nothing could have taken the place of a community willing to work together for its shared well-being. Of everything that you've learned in your time at Cornell and everything that you will take from here, that may well be the most important lesson of all, and it's a lesson that is in every way entirely consonant with the ethos and the values of Cornell. The Cornell education has always been designed to do more than teach the students the knowledge they need to succeed in their careers.
It's designed to teach you how to live and how to thrive in a changing world. And today, perhaps more than ever, our changing world demands more than any specific set of knowledge. It demands the ability to communicate across difference and to appreciate different points of view. The willingness to tackle big thorny problems and to find answers to questions that were never in a textbook. To learn, not just what's on the next test, but to learn how to learn throughout a lifetime as the world and what there is to know about it evolves.
The world we live in now is different than what it was when you arrived at Cornell and it will change much more in the years ahead. And the biggest challenges that we face now as a society and a planet will demand of you everything you've learned here and especially everything you've learned in this last year. They'll demand, not just knowledge, but a commitment to truth, not just science, but the ability to listen to others and to communicate what you know.
The world that lies ahead will demand everything you learned inside your classroom and outside of them, both the expertise you came here for, and the creativity and the courage and the ability to work together that you gained along the way. And it will demand of all of us the commitment to do exactly what we've done here at Cornell. Make the hard decisions that enable all of us to move forward.
Make the personal sacrifices that enable your community to thrive. And above all, be kind. Be kind, knowing that doing so could make all the difference in the world to someone else. This past year has taught you the hardest, most important thing, how to stand back up when the world turns upside down. You do that by reaching out to help each other.
I am so inexpressibly proud of every single one of you. Of what you've accomplished here as individuals and together, of the way you've brought the ethos and the values of Cornell to life and of the way you've come together to bring us to this point today. Graduates, congratulations. When the pandemic is over, come back. Come back soon and visit often.
I look forward to seeing you at reunions in the future, and remember, Cornell will always be a part of you, just as you will always be a part of Cornell. Congratulations, class of 2021.
[APPLAUSE]
POPPY MCLEOD: We will now proceed to the conferral of degrees. The first group to be presented to the president for conferral of degrees are the candidates for degrees in the College of Engineering.
[CHEERING]
Will the two class marshals representing the senior class please come to the front of the platform? I call on Kavita Bala, dean of the Cornell S Bowers College of Computing and Information Science to address Bowers CIS graduates.
KAVITA BALA: On behalf of the newly named Cornell Ann S Bowers College of Computing and Information Science, the first college at Cornell named for a woman.
[CHEERING]
I congratulate the Bowers CIS graduates whose degrees are going to be conferred today by the College of Engineering. Congratulations.
[APPLAUSE]
POPPY MCLEOD: Will the dean of the College of Engineering, Lyndon Archer, please come forward?
[APPLAUSE]
Will the candidates for the degrees of Master of Engineering and Bachelor of Science from the College of Engineering please rise, and will the degree marshals please come to the front of the platform?
LYNDEN ARCHER: President Pollack, it is my honor to present these candidates-- duly recommended by the faculty in the College of Engineering-- having fulfilled the requirements for the degree of Master of Engineering and Bachelor of Science.
[APPLAUSE]
MARTHA POLLACK: Thank you to dean Archer. Upon the recommendation of the faculty and by the authority vested in me by the trustees of Cornell University, I hereby confer upon each of you the degrees of Master of Engineering or Bachelor of Science with all the rights, privileges, honors, and responsibilities pertaining thereto.
[APPLAUSE]
Will the graduates please be seated and the degree marshals return to their seats. Will the Dean of the School of Industrial and Labor Relations, Alexander Colvin, please come forward.
[CHEERING]
Will the candidates for the degree of Bachelor of Science from the School of Industrial and Labor Relations, please rise, and the degree marshals please come to the front of the platform.
[CHEERING]
ALEXANDER COLVIN: President Pollack, I have the honor of presenting these magnificent spirited candidates, who--
[CHEERING]
--who are duly recommended by the faculty of the School of Industrial Labor Relations having fulfilled the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Science.
MARTHA POLLACK: Thank you.
[CHEERING]
Thank you, dean Colvin. Upon the recommendation of the faculty, and by the authority vested in me by the trustees of Cornell University, I hereby confer upon each of you the degree of Bachelor of Science with all the rights, privileges, honors, and responsibilities-- including yelling loudly-- pertaining to.
POPPY MCLEOD: Will the graduates please be seated and the degree marshalls return to their seats.
[CHEERING]
Will the assembly please rise and join us in the singing of the Cornell Alma mater?
[MUSIC - CORNELL ALMA MATER]
(SINGING) Far above the Cayuga's waters, with its waves of blue, stands our noble Alma Mater, glorious to view. Lift the choris, speed it onward, loud her praises tell. Hail to thee, our Alma Mater! Hail, all hail, Cornell!
Far above the busy humming of the bustling town, Reared against the arch of heaven, looks she proudly down. Lift the chorus, speed it onward, loud her praises tell. Hail to thee, our Alma Mater, hail, all hail, Cornell.
[CHEERING]
POPPY MCLEOD: This concludes the commencement ceremony for these degree candidates of the 153rd graduating class of Cornell University. We thank you for joining us today and congratulate our new graduates.
[CHEERING]
Please remain standing during the recessional, and then exit the crescent as directed by the ushers. Thank you.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
[MUSIC - "NEW CORNELL FIGHT SONG"]
(SINGING) C-O-R-N-E double L, win the game and then ring a bell. Hey! What's the big intrigue? We're the best in the Ivy League. Rah! Rah! Rah! Score the point that puts us ahead. Knock 'em dead, Big Red! 1, 2, 3, 4, who are we for? Can't you tell? Old Cornell! Go Red!
[CHEERING]
[MUSIC - "(GIVE MY REGARDS TO) DAVY"]
(SINGING) Give my regards to Davy. Remember me to Tee Fee Crane. Tell all the Pikers on the Hill that I'll be back a, I'll be back again. Tell them just how I busted for lapping up the high, high ball.
[MUSIC - "NEW CORNELL FIGHT SONG"]
(SINGING) C-O-R-N-E double L, win the game and then ring a bell. Hey! What's the big intrigue? We're the best in the Ivy League. Rah! Rah! Rah! Score the point that puts us ahead. Knock 'em dead, Big Red! 1, 2, 3, 4, who are we for? Can't you tell? Old Cornell! Go Red!
[MUSIC - "(GIVE MY REGARDS TO) DAVY"]
(SINGING) Give my regards to Davy. Remember me to Tee Fee Crane. Tell all the Pikers on the Hill that I'll be back a, I'll be back again. Tell them just how I busted for lapping up the high, high ball. We'll all have drinks at Theodore Zincks when I get back fall!
[MUSIC - "MY OLD CORNELL"]
(SINGING) Oh, I want to go back to the old days, those good old days on the Hill. Back to my Cornell, for that's where they all yell Cornell. I yell Cornell! Cornell! Far above Cayuga's waters I hear those chiming bells. Ding dong! For I'm longing and yearning and always returning to my old Cornell!
[MUSIC - "THE STARS AND STRIPES FOREVER"]
[MUSIC - "CORNELL ALMA MATER"]
2021 Commencement for the College of Engineering and School of Industrial and Labor Relations.
