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ANNOUNCER: The first of the academic procession has arrived. Leading the procession is the university marshal, Professor Poppy McLeod. Following the university marshal is the banner for the class of 2022. The class year banner bearers are Akugbe Imudia and Maximilian Trauring. The class marshals are La'Treil Allen and Tenzin Saldon.
CHORUS: (SINGING) And to the old days [INAUDIBLE].
ANNOUNCER: First to arrive behind the class banner are the PhD candidates of the graduate school. The symbol banner is carried by Jessica Zarkin Notni. Candidates are led by the dean of the graduate school, Kathryn J. Boor. The PhD banner bearers are Meghan O'Leary and Amanda Purington Drake. The PhD degree marshals are Casey Ching and Jenna Marie Golan.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Once again, the PhD degree candidates from the graduate school.
[CHEERING]
Next are the master degree candidates of the graduate school. The banner bearers are Shonak Bhattacharya and Jaylen Christopher Perkins. The master degree marshals are Francesca DiGiorgio and Nyaradzo Sirewu.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
For your information, the Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar and Cornell Medical College in New York City are participating in separate commencement ceremonies. Once again, the master degree candidates from the graduate school.
Next are the candidates from the college of veterinary medicine, led by Dean Lorin D. Warnick, and college banner bearers Maria Johnson and Jayden Robert. The degree marshals are Allison Bichoupan and Aden Lessiak. The symbol banner bearer is Zacharie Wund.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Once again, the candidates from the college of veterinary medicine.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Next is the law school, led by Dean Jens D. Ohlin. The college banner bearers are Emily Van Dyne and Manuel Francisco Sanchez. Degree marshals are Emily Harwell and Ayesha Umana Dajud. The symbol banner bearer is Nola Booth.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Once again, the degree candidates from the law school.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
The degree candidates from the college of arts and sciences are now entering the stadium, led by Dean Ray Jayawardhana and college banner bearers Zachary James Crispino and Anna Effenberger. Degree marshals are Anna McDougall and Arthur Maximilian Tanjaya. The symbol banner bearer is Amy Louise Crouch.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
SPEAKER 1: Let's pick up "Davy" while percussion's getting ready. "Davy," and then [INAUDIBLE].
All we need for "Davy" is [INAUDIBLE].
CHORUS: (SINGING) Give my regards to Davy. Remember me to Tee Fee Crane.
[CHEERING]
Tell all the pikers on the Hill that I'll be back again. Tell them just how I busted, lapping up the high highball. We'll all have drinks at Theodore Zinck's when I get back next fall!
[MUSIC PLAYING]
SPEAKER 2: [INAUDIBLE]
[MUSIC PLAYING]
ANNOUNCER: Once again, the degree candidates from the college of arts and sciences.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Next, the Cornell Ann S. Bowers College of Computing and Information Science is led by Dean Kavita Bala and college banner bearers Praveen Kumar and Michaela Lin Bettez. The degree marshals are Miah Sanchez and Steven Yang. The symbol banner bearer is William Jacob Bekerman.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Once again, the degree candidates from the Cornell Ann S. Bowers College of Computing and Information Science.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Now entering the stadium, led by Dean Lynden Archer, are the candidates from the college of engineering. The college banner bearers are Kaitlyn MacGillis and Jade Picarra Pinkenburg. The degree marshals are Aditya Ravi and Maria Lucia Martucci. The symbol banner bearer is Sarah Huang.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
SPEAKER 3: Yeah. I'm going to need one. What's happening is [INAUDIBLE].
[MUSIC PLAYING]
SPEAKER 4: Take the first ending, and then the second ending. First ending, second ending.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
ANNOUNCER: Once again, the degree candidates from the college of engineering.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Now joining the procession are members of the university faculty, led by the Dean of the University Faculty Eve DeRosa. The faculty marshals are Professors Steve Carvell and Professor Drew Noden.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
At this time we acknowledge and thank the Cornell University faculty.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Now joining the procession are members of the university leadership, led by Provost Michael I. Kotlikoff, and members of the board of trustees, led by Chairman Robert S. Harrison. The faculty marshals are Professor Fred Schneider and Professor John Hermanson.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
At this time, the university marshal, Professor Poppy McCleod, will escort the mace bearer, Professor Melissa A. Hines, and Cornell University's president, Martha E. Pollack, to their places on the platform.
SPEAKER 5: [INAUDIBLE]
POPPY MCLEOD: Good afternoon. I am Professor Poppy McLeod, the university marshal. As part of today's ceremony, I would like to take a moment to acknowledge that Cornell University is located on the traditional homelands of the Gayogoho:no', the Cayuga Nation. The Gayogoho:no' 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, of New York State, and the United States of America. We acknowledge the painful history of Gayogoho:no' dispossession and honor the ongoing connection of Gayogoho:no people, past and present, to these lands and waters.
President Pollack, candidates for degrees from Cornell University have gathered for the conferral of degrees and to celebrate the commencement of the 154th graduating class of Cornell University. Members of the board of trustees, the faculty, university leadership, degree candidates, and guests are in their places. The assembly is hereby called to order.
[APPLAUSE]
Please rise and join the Cornell University Chorus and Glee Club, accompanied by the Barbara and Richard T. Silver Wind Symphony, in singing "The Star-Spangled Banner."
[MUSIC - CORNELL UNIVERSITY CHORUS AND GLEE CLUB, ACCOMPANIED BY THE BARBARA AND RICHARD T. SILVER WIND SYMPHONY, "THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER"]
CHORUS: O say, can you see by the dawn's early light what so proudly we hail'd at the twilight's last gleaming? Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight o'er the ramparts we watch'd 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. O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave o'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
[APPLAUSE]
POPPY MCLEOD: Please be seated. It is my privilege to introduce Michael I. Kotlikoff, university provost.
MICHAEL KOTLIKOFF: Welcome family, friends, supporters, and most of all, the remarkable graduates of the classes of 2022.
[APPLAUSE]
Graduates, congratulations. Congratulations for advancing your scholarship during an extraordinary time. Congratulations for coming together as a community and showing your resilience. I could not be more proud of what we have achieved together over the past two years. On behalf of the faculty of Cornell University, I offer my congratulations and my best wishes for your future success. And I look forward to hearing of all your accomplishments in the years to come.
And now I'm honored to introduce the 14th president of Cornell University, professor of computer science, information science, and linguistics, Martha E. Pollack.
[APPLAUSE]
MARTHA E. POLLACK: Good afternoon, everyone. You know, you're going to get congratulated for a lot of things today. But I want to start with one thing. This morning, when I got here along the route, someone had lost their shoe, and I had to return it. I want to congratulate you. As far as I can tell, none of you lost a shoe on your way to graduation. So congratulations.
And it is really, really great to be here, celebrating the remarkable achievements of the remarkable Cornell class of 2022. And my view is always that whatever the weather, graduation is always a sunny day. So let's get those shades on.
[APPLAUSE]
It's always great to have the vet students in the house.
[CHEERING]
Before I say anything else, I want to take a few moments to say something that all of you already know, which is that none of the achievements that we're here to celebrate today are solo achievements. Everyone who is here graduating this afternoon, whatever degree they're receiving, is graduating because of the care and the help and the support of others-- the parents, the grandparents, the siblings, the family by birth, the family by choice, the classmates, and friends, the faculty and staff, who together made your Cornell education possible. And I know that many of those people are in the stands today.
So I want you to follow my instructions right now. I want everyone to stand up. If you know where your family and friends are standing, turn towards them. If not, just turn towards the back. Don't do anything else yet.
OK. Wait. Wait. Wait. Wait. Wait. Wait. Here's what I need you to do. Here's what I need you to do. In whatever language you speak at home, English, or Spanish, or Yoruba, Hindi, whatever it is, when I say three, I want you to shout thank you so loudly that your family and friends hear you over the voices of everyone else. You ready? 1, 2, 3.
[SHOUTING]
[APPLAUSE]
OK. You can turn around and sit down.
Before we go any further, I do want to pause for a moment to acknowledge the people who are here with us today only in our hearts, the students whose graduation this would have been, and everyone we've lost over the past year to COVID-19. Thank you.
This year marks Cornell's 154th commencement and our third since the start of the COVID pandemic. There's a lot I could say about the challenges that the class of 2022 has faced together since the pandemic began. But frankly, I think you've had enough COVID-related communications from me to last a lifetime.
So I'm going to make the same promise to you that I made to the class of 2020 when they returned for their rescheduled and their re-rescheduled commencement last fall, and that is that the rest of my comments today will not contain any of the following words or phrases-- unprecedented, uncertain, new normal, physical distancing, public health, mask wearing, Zoom meeting, virtual event, superspreader event, surveillance testing, contact tracing, quarantine, transmission, isolation, vaccination, or pandemic.
[CHEERING]
And I'm not going to say, you're muted. As the Cornell class of 2022, you're the first graduating class in which almost everyone was born in the 21st century. And that means that almost all of you are digital natives. You've grown up in a world of ubiquitous technology, and your lives have been shaped in countless ways by the communication and services and entertainment and careers that modern technology, including the internet, has made possible. And whatever degree you're graduating with today, whatever your future plans, nearly all of you are looking ahead to careers that will be enabled in some way by technology.
But there's one tech-enabled career that we don't have a course of study for, and it's a job that took me as a non-digital native a while to get my head around. That's the career of influencer. When I first realized that this was a new profession, being a university president, I, of course, wanted to know what kind of training or education do you need to qualify for it. It didn't take me long to discover that there is no major for this. Although, there are a surprising number of websites that explain how to become an influencer in 5, or 7, or 12 easy steps.
But none of those websites answered a key question. And that is, what makes influencers influential? I decided I needed some examples. So even though I'm not a big fan of rankings or top 10 lists, I googled "top 10 influencers." I didn't look at all of the 17 million hits I got, but on the first page I found on a site I'd never heard of, there was a list that claimed to rank the real top 10 influencers.
And helpfully for me, it also offered a definition of a real influencer. This definition excluded, among other categories, politicians, musicians, athletes, actors, public figures, and celebrities. Basically, anyone who had become famous for doing something off the internet. A real influencer, according to this particular list, was someone who had become famous only through their use of social media, by making videos about the clothes they wear, or the food they eat, or the makeup they put on, and getting people to pay attention to everything from their home renovation to their dinner.
And as far as I can tell, the goal of all this is to create a public version of your life that will make other people want their lives to be not like your actual life, but like this curated version of your life. And if they like that version of your life enough, then maybe you'll influence them to buy some things. Now, at this point, let me go out on a limb and make a bold assertion, that your influence should be measured not by how you present your life, but by what you actually do with it. And if that disqualifies you from someone's top 10 real influencer list, that's probably just fine.
Each of you, as Cornell students who are soon to be Cornell graduates, has an extraordinary potential to be a true influencer in the real world. Between all the graduates on the field today, those that were here this morning, and those who graduated from Weill Cornell Medicine and Cornell Tech, the campuses in New York City last week, the Cornell class of 2022 represents knowledge, and expertise, and skill, and potential across nearly every field and discipline and realm of human creativity. You will become artists, and engineers, lawyers, and physicians, and veterinarians.
[CHEERING]
And musicians, and bankers, and business owners, and scientists, and community activists. In the years to come, you will teach, and learn, invent, and innovate, write, and create, build, and lead. And together, you'll make contributions that Ezra Cornell could never have imagined when he imagined this institution for any person and any study. And together, as the 154th graduating class of Cornell, you will change the world in ways that none of us yet know, sharing the fruits of your Cornell education, as have generations of Cornellians before you since our very beginnings.
Wherever you go from here, know that the work and innovations and, yes, the influence of Cornellians will be all around you, in every glass of pasteurized milk, every air conditioned room, every implemented pacemaker. If you've ever eaten an apple, or a blueberry, or a grape in the state of New York, you probably have a Cornellian to thank for that. And the next time you sit down to a Thanksgiving turkey dinner or a chicken Nugget, yep, also Cornell.
If you watched the Perseverance Rover land on Mars, or if you loved "Charlotte's Web" as a kid, or if you had your life changed in the past year or two by two or three doses of a certain vaccine preventing substance that I promised not to mention, all of those contributions to our world were brought to you in some part by Cornellians.
In the years ahead, Cornellians will bring the world more resilient varieties of fruits, and vegetables, and grains, better ways to grow and preserve food, and farming practices that preserve our soil and our water. Because of Cornellians, we'll have more efficient batteries and solar panels, packaging that will keep plastics out of the ecosystem, and better ways to create and store renewable energy.
We'll find new and pathbreaking applications for artificial intelligence developed with an understanding of the human dimensions of technology. We'll have more livable cities, more equitable societies, and a more sustainable planet. We'll have art, and music, and literature, and poetry to enrich our lives and fuel our souls, created by Cornellians like you.
Each of you came to Cornell not just for a degree, but for an education, and not just for any education, but for the uniquely Cornellian education you knew you would find here, one that would prepare you not only with the skills and knowledge, but also with the competence, and the ethos, and the habits of mind to add your own contribution to the world in the same way that this university has influenced the world through every one of its 154 graduating classes.
So what I ask of each of you today is something simple. Use your Cornell educations to have an influence that will matter. Build both on the specific knowledge you gained in your classes and the habits of mind and the Cornell ethos you developed here-- the courage to question and to explore, a commitment to science and to truth, an appreciation for literature and the arts, a love for the natural world, respect for the value of diversity and of different perspectives, the importance of good friends and of being one, and the resilience to keep moving forward when the paths you lay out and the landscape you thought you knew shifts and bends before you.
My wish for all of you is that each of you will become in your own unique way a true influencer, someone whose influence on the world, whatever it may be, is real, and lasting, and good, and that the friends you made here will always share your journey, and that Cornell will always be a part of you, just as you will always be a part of Cornell. Class of 2022, congratulations.
[APPLAUSE]
POPPY MCLEOD: The Cornell University Chorus and Glee Club will now perform "Let Beauty Be Our Memorial" by JAC Redford.
[MUSIC - CORNELL UNIVERSITY CHORUS AND GLEE CLUB, "LET BEAUTY BE OUR MEMORIAL"]
CHORUS: (SINGING) Let beauty be our memorial. Let love be our last, best word. Let our dissonant counterpoint finally resolve in a graceful, consonant chord.
Let goodness hallow the holy ground, where under the mercy we rest. Let beauty be our memorial and let all the earth be blest. Let beauty be our memorial and let all the earth be blest.
[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 those who have fulfilled the requirements for degrees in the Cornell Graduate School. Will the dean of the graduate school, Kathryn J. Boor, please come forward. Will the candidates for the doctoral degree please rise, and the degree marshals come to the front of the platform?
KATHRYN J. BOOR: President Pollack, I have the honor of presenting these peerless candidates, who are duly recommended by the faculty of the graduate school, having fulfilled the requirements for the degrees of doctor of philosophy, doctor of science of law, or doctor of musical arts.
MARTHA E. POLLACK: Thank you Dean Boor. 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 doctoral degree appropriate to your field of advanced study and research, with all the rights, privileges, honors, and responsibilities pertaining thereto.
[APPLAUSE]
POPPY MCLEOD: Cornell University welcomes the new doctoral graduates to the ancient and universal company of scholars. Will the doctors please be seated and the degree marshals return to their seats?
Will the candidates for the master's degree in studies that have been directed by the graduate school please rise and the degree marshals come to the front of the platform?
KATHRYN J. BOOR: President Pollack, I have the honor of presenting these incomparable candidates who are duly recommended by the faculty of the graduate school, having fulfilled the requirements for the master's degree, be it master of arts, master of fine arts, master of industrial and labor relations, master of landscape architecture, master of professional studies, master of public health, master of regional planning, or master of science.
MARTHA E. POLLACK: Thank you, Dean Boor. 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 master's degree to which you are entitled, with all the rights, privileges, honors, and responsibilities pertaining thereto.
[APPLAUSE]
POPPY MCLEOD: Will the Masters graduates please be seated and the degree marshals return to their seats?
I'm a bit nervous to call the next group, but here goes. Will the dean of the college of veterinary medicine, Lorin Warnick, please step forward? Will the candidates for the degree of doctor of veterinary medicine, please rise and the degree marshals come to the front of the platform?
[CHEERING]
LORIN WARNICK: President Pollack, I have the honor to present these enthusiastic candidates, who are duly recommended by the faculty of the college of veterinary medicine, having fulfilled the requirements for the degree of doctor of veterinary medicine.
MARTHA E. POLLACK: Thank you.
[CHEERING]
I haven't conferred your degrees yet. Thank you, Dean Warnick. 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 doctor of veterinary medicine, with all the rights, privileges, honors, and responsibilities pertaining thereto.
[CHEERING]
POPPY MCLEOD: Will the doctors of veterinary medicine please be seated and the degree marshals return to their seats?
Will the dean of the Cornell Law School, Jens D. Ohlin, please come forward? Will the candidates for the degrees of doctor of law, doctor of law, and masters of law in international and comparative law, master of laws, and master of laws in law, technology, and entrepreneurship, from the Cornell Law School, please rise and the degree marshals please come to the front of the platform?
[CHEERING]
JENS D. OHLIN: President Pollack, I have the honor of presenting these fair, impartial, and righteous candidates, who are duly recommended by the faculty of the Cornell Law School, having fulfilled the requirements for the degree of doctor of law, doctor of law and master of laws in international and comparative law, master of laws, and master of laws in law, technology, and entrepreneurship.
MARTHA E. POLLACK: Thank you, Dean Ohlin. 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 doctor of law or doctor of law and master of laws in international and comparative law, or master of laws, or master of laws in law, technology, and entrepreneurship, with all the rights, privileges, honors, and responsibilities pertaining thereto.
[APPLAUSE]
POPPY MCLEOD: Will the graduates please be seated and the degree marshals return to their seats?
Next are the candidates for the college degrees. Will the two class marshals representing the senior class please come to the front of the platform? In a moment, each college group will be called to rise for presentation to the president, and then be seated. After all the college degree groups have been presented to the president, all the groups will be asked to rise again for the awarding of degrees. The degree martials for the college degree groups will come forward as each group is called.
Will the dean of the college of arts and sciences, Ray Jayawardhana, please come forward?
[CHEERING]
Will the candidates for the degree of bachelor of arts from the college of arts and sciences please rise and the degree marshals please come to the front of the platform?
[CHEERING]
RAY JAYAWARDHANA: President Pollack, with my shades on, I have the honor of presenting these glorious candidates, who are duly recommended by the very eminent faculty of the college of arts and sciences, having fulfilled the requirements of the degree of bachelor of arts.
MARTHA E. POLLACK: Thank you, Dean Jayawardhana.
POPPY MCLEOD: Will the candidates please be seated?
[APPLAUSE]
Will the dean of the Cornell Ann S. Bowers College of Computing and Information Science, Kavita Bala, please come forward? Will the candidates for the degree of master of engineering, bachelor of science, and bachelor of arts from the Cornell Ann S. Bowers College of Computing and Information Science, please rise and the degree marshals please come to the front of the platform?
[CHEERING]
KAVITA BALA: President Pollack, I have the honor of presenting these innovative, cutting edge, and enterprising candidates, who are duly recommended by the brilliant faculty of the Cornell Ann S. Bowers College of Computing and Information Science, having fulfilled the requirements of the degrees of master of engineering, bachelor of science, and bachelor of arts.
MARTHA E. POLLACK: Thank you, Dean Bala.
[CHEERING]
POPPY MCLEOD: Will the candidates please be seated?
Will the dean of the college of engineering, Lynden Archer, please come forward? 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?
[CHEERING]
LYNDEN ARCHER: President Pollack, I have the honor of presenting these candidates, duly recommended by the faculty in the college of engineering, having completed the extremely rigorous requirements for the degrees of master of engineering or bachelor of science.
MARTHA E. POLLACK: Thank you, Dean Archer.
[CHEERING]
POPPY MCLEOD: Will all the candidates please rise at this time?
MARTHA E. POLLACK: It is my privilege to recognize the candidates recommended by the deans and faculties of the several schools and colleges for the appropriate college degrees. By the authority vested in me by the trustees of Cornell University, I hereby confer upon each of you the college degree appropriate to your field of study, with all the rights, privileges, honors, and responsibilities pertaining thereto.
[APPLAUSE]
POPPY MCLEOD: Will the class marshals and the college degree marshals please be seated? And will everyone please be seated while the glee club and chorus sing "The Evening Song"?
[MUSIC - CORNELL UNIVERSITY CHORUS AND GLEE CLUB, "THE EVENING SONG"]
CHORUS: (SINGING) When the sun fades far away in the crimson of the West and the voices of the day murmur low and sink to rest, music with the twilight falls o'er the dreaming lake and dell. 'Tis an echo from the walls of our own, our fair Cornell.
Welcome night and welcome rest, fading music fare thee well. Joy to all we love the best. Love to thee, our fair Cornell.
Music with the twilight falls o'er the dreaming lake and dell. 'Tis an echo from the walls of our own, our fair Cornell.
[APPLAUSE]
POPPY MCLEOD: And now will the assembly please stand for the singing of the "Alma Mater" with the Cornell University Chorus and Glee Club, and accompanied by the Barbara and Richard T. Silver Wind Symphony?
[MUSIC - CORNELL UNIVERSITY CHORUS AND GLEE CLUB, ACCOMPANIED BY THE BARBARA AND RICHARD T. SILVER WIND SYMPHONY, "ALMA MATER"]
CHORUS: Far above Cayuga's waters, with its waves of blue, Stands our noble Alma Mater, Glorious to view. Lift the chorus, 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 154th graduating class of Cornell University. We thank you for joining us today and congratulate our new graduates.
[APPLAUSE]
Please remain standing during the recessional, and then exit the Crescent as directed by the ushers. Thank you.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
CHORUS: (SINGING) C-O-R-N-E-L-L, win the game and then ring the bell. 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!
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Go Red!
Give my regards to Davy. Remember me to Tee Fee Crane. Tell all the pikers on the Hill that I'll be back again. Tell them just how I busted, for lapping up the high highball. We'll all have drinks at Theodore Zinck's when I get back next fall!
[MUSIC PLAYING]
2022 Commencement for the College of Arts and Sciences, College of Engineering, College of Veterinary Medicine, Cornell Ann S. Bowers College of Computing and Information Science, Cornell Graduate School (Review list of Fields to attend ), Cornell Law School.
