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[MUSIC PLAYING] SPEAKER 1: Ladies and gentlemen, the first of the academic procession has arrived. Leading the procession is the University Marshall, Professor Charles Walcott. Following the University Marshal is the banner for the class of 2015. The class banner bearers are Veronica Esther Dagostino, and Sydney Reade, class officers.
First to arrive behind the class banner are the Ph.D. candidates of the graduate school. The symbol banner bearer is Jillian Spivey Caddell. Candidates are led by senior Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School, Barbara A. Knuth, and faculty marshalls Professor Theresa Nerissa Russell and Professor Alfonso Torres. The Ph.D. banner bearers are Catherine Marie Koehler and Rebecca Robbins. The degree marshalls are Eric Gladstone and Christian David Guzman.
Ladies and gentlemen, once again, the Ph.D. degree candidates from the graduate school. Next are the master degree candidates of the graduate school. The master banner bearers are William Charles Higgins and Anthony Johnson. The degree marshalls are catherine atherine Theresa Rogers and Bonnie Eaton Sanborn.
For your information, degree candidates from Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar participated in a separate commencement ceremony, and degree candidates from Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City will also participate in a separate commencement ceremony later this month.
Ladies and gentlemen, once again, the master degree candidates from the graduate school. Next are the candidates from the College of Veterinary Medicine, led by Dean Michael Kotlikoff and college banner bearers Katharine Andres and Katherine Ann Backel. The degree marshals are Laura Bork and Rachel Ann Hatch. The symbol banner bearer is Kristin Gill.
Next, the law school candidates are led by Dean Eduardo M. Penalver and college banner bearers Zachary Daniel Dugan and Joshua Michael Robinson. Degree marshalls are Gabriella Elizabeth Bensur and Ville Petteri Johannes Rauhala. The symbol banner bearer is Fatmata Saidua Kabia.
Next, MBA degree candidates from the Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management. They are led into the stadium by Dean Soumitra Dutta. The college banner bearers are Dhruv Jain and Takeshi Schmidt Abe. The degree marshals are Safiya Miller had Kate Wright. The symbol banner bearer is Raymond Kadji Touomou.
Ladies and gentlemen, once again, the MBA candidates from the Johnson Graduate School of Management. Now entering the stadium are the first of the college degree candidates. The Senior Class Council banner is being carried by Lena Gao Liu and Brandon Greene Pierotti. The class marshals are Donald Edward Muir and Rachel Danielle Price, also members of the Senior Class Council.
The first undergraduate group is the school of Industrial and Labor Relations. Led by Dean Kevin Hallock, the college banner bearers are Laura Beth Bakst and Thaddeus Anthony Talbot. Degree marshals are Amy Beth Frieder and Rachel Harmon. The symbol banner bearer is Ross Harel Gitlin.
Ladies and gentlemen, once again, the degree candidates from the School of Industrial and Labor Relations.
The College of Architecture, Art and Planning is now entering the stadium, led by Dean Kent Kleinman and college banner bearers Cora Lee Visnick and Olivia Haymee Woo. Representing the three degree programs are Vincent Neal Parlatore, Justin Michael Wadge, Danny Shen, Hyun Jung Monica Suh, Michael Joseph Loffredo, and Bicheng Nie. The symbol banner bearer is Maya Lucy Tellman.
Ladies and gentlemen, once again, the degree candidates from the College of Architecture, Art and Planning. The School of Hotel Administration is now led into the stadium by Dean Michael Johnson and college banner bearers Maxwell Joshua Bernstein and Alexis Paige Sicklick. Degree marshals are Brittney Lauren Ackerman and Alexander Goldklank Fulmer. The symbol banner bearer is Kathleen Davin. Ladies and gentlemen, once again, the degree candidates from the School of Hotel Administration
Now entering the stadium are the degree candidates from the College of Human Ecology, led by Dean Alan Mathios and college banner bearers Rebecca Paige Liebenthal and Reid Jasmin Mergler. Degree marshals are Jeanie Lauren Gribben and Stephen Creig Marcot. The symbol banner is Logan Rue Kenney. Ladies and gentlemen, once again, the degree candidates from the College of Human Ecology.
The College of Engineering is now led into the stadium by Dean Lance R. Collins and college banner bearers Thalia Grace Aoki and Benjamin Morris Dreier. The degree marshals are Eric Jishuan Ching and Alexa Nicole Wnorowski. The symbol banner bearer is Li Wang.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Ladies and gentlemen, once again, the degree candidates from the College of Engineering.
The College of Agriculture and Life Sciences is now led into the stadium by Dean Kathryn J. Boor and college banner bearers Karolyne Kaye DeBriyn and Nenad Tomic. Degree marshals are Alice Ruth Renegar and Shelby Paige [? Rokito. ?] The symbol banner bearer is Margaret Marie Henderson.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Ladies and gentlemen, once again, the degree candidates from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.
The degree candidates from the College of Arts and Sciences are now led into the stadium by Dean Gretchen Ritter and college banner bearers Andrew Alexander Demaio and Joseph Antonio Matragrano. Degree marshals are Shengmao Cao and Diana Jorda. The symbol banner bearer is Amy Delano Frankhouser.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
How you doing? You too.
Ladies and gentlemen, in order to provide seating for everyone, we ask you at this time to please move toward the center section in each row. Thank you.
Ladies and gentlemen, once again, the degree candidates from the College of Arts and Sciences. Will all candidates for degrees please stand at this time? Thank you.
Now entering the stadium is the administrative staff of the university, led by Interim Provost Harry Katz and two faculty marshals, Professor Rachel Dunifon and Professor David Gries.
The members of the faculty are now entering the stadium. They are led by the Dean of the University Faculty, Joe Burns. The faculty marshals are Professor Steve Carvell, Professor John Hermanson, Professor Lisa Nishii and Professor Drew Noden.
Following the faculty marshals, and now entering the stadium, are this year's Stephen H. Weiss presidential fellows. This prestigious award is given each year to distinguished scholars among the tenured faculty who have sustained a career of important contributions to undergraduate education, including effective and inspiring teaching of undergraduate students. This year's Weiss fellows are Nina Bassuk, Professor of horticulture, Marie Caudill, professor in the Division of Nutritional Sciences, and Rajit Manohar, professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
Our Weiss fellows are joined now by their colleagues on the Cornell University faculty, who are now entering the stadium
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Ladies and gentlemen, at this time we acknowledge and thank the Cornell University faculty. Next in the procession are members of the university's board of trustees. The trustees are led by Chairman Robert S. Harrison. The trustee marshals are Professor Fred Schneider and Professor Donald Viands.
University marshal Charles Walcott will now escort the mace bearer, Judith Appleton, and Cornell University's 12th president, David J. Skorton, to their places on the platform.
PROFESSOR CHARLES WALCOTT: Mr. President, for the 147th time, candidates for degrees from Cornell University have gathered for conferral of degrees and to celebrate this commencement. 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, remain standing.
Please, join the Cornell University Glee Club and Chorus, accompanied by the Cornell University Wind Symphony, in singing "The Star Spangled Banner."
[SINGING]
Everyone, please be seated. Will the Chairman of Board of Trustees of Cornell University, Robert S. Harrison, Cornell class of 1976, please come to the platform.
ROBERT S. HARRISON: Good morning, and welcome to Cornell University's 147th commencement. On behalf of the Board of Trustees, I offer our congratulations to all Cornell graduates and to your families and friends on this spectacular day. We are very, very proud of you.
It is rare for anyone, except the president of the university, to speak at commencement. But this is an extraordinary occasion. The final commencement in the presidency of David J. Skorton, one of the great presidents in Cornell University's 150 year history.
[APPLAUSE]
As chairman of the board, I feel that we owe him a moment of thanks, and it is my honor to do so for a deeply grateful university community. From his inauguration nine years ago, which I will never forget, President Skorton set the tone for his presidency in the only way he felt comfortable-- approachable, accessible, and inclusive. His inauguration was informal and welcoming, held outside on the Arts Quad, open to everyone with music and poetry front and center. There was minimal pageantry and maximal sincerity, because that was who David Skorton was and is.
In the nine years since that inaugural ceremony, President Skorton has maintained his commitment to accessibility. Each year he and his wife, Professor Robin Davison, have spent a week during freshman orientation welcoming and living with first year students in Mary Donlon Hall. And as thousands of you know, President Skorton freely gives out his personal email address and actually responds to everyone who sends him a message. David Skorton personifies approachability.
He also epitomizes, in one human being, our founders' vision, any person, any study. He is accomplished as a biomedical engineer, and a physician whose scientific achievements have been recognized by the Institute of Medicine and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is also a humanist and an artist, with a passion for composing haiku and playing jazz on his flute or saxophone, with the likes of Winton Marcellus.
While I love President Skorton's musical riffs, I am very grateful to his father for refusing to allow his son to become a professional musician, instead of going to college. Cornell would not be where we are today if David Skorton were playing sax in clubs on Bourbon Street in New Orleans.
His tenure at Cornell has truly been extraordinary, and he leaves a very rich legacy that touches every aspect of this university. Under President Skorton, we prioritized financial aid, especially during the recent recession, to preserve and enhance economic diversity of our student body. Under President Skorton, we made game changing investments in New York City, which have led to the creation of Cornell Tech on Roosevelt Island and the most exciting research enterprise in personalized medicine in the world at Weill Cornell Medical College.
Under President Skorton, we have elevated student health safety and well-being to the core of the university's mission, and our campus culture is changing for the better as a result. Under President Skorton, the university has raised over $6 billion to fund faculty hiring and academic priorities that will keep Cornell in a leadership position in so many disciplines. And President Skorton has, himself, become a national spokesperson from the Cornell bully pulpit for many issues facing higher education today.
Professor Robin Davison leaves her own exceptional legacy at Cornell. She is an esteemed scientist, the Andrew D. White Professor of Molecular Physiology, with laboratories on the Ithaca campus and also at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City. She's also an incredible ambassador for the university, whether through her relationships with alumni and parents, or her volunteer work in the local community. It is truly a privilege to thank both President Skorton and Professor Davison for everything they have done and continue to do for Cornell.
For today's graduates, I offer one line from a poetic tribute to Cornell that President Skorton delivered at his inauguration nine years ago. He spoke of the rhythm of first year students pulled into the heart of the campus of the family. As someone who was definitely pulled into the heart of the campus, I can tell you that you will always be part of the Cornell family, and this extraordinary campus will always be part of you. Graduates, families, and friends, I am honored to introduce the 12th president of Cornell University, Doctor David J. Skorton.
DAVID J. SKORTON: Thanks, Chairman Harrison, for those very, very kind words, and thank all of you for the partnerships and friendships that we formed with Robin and me over the years that we have been graced to be part of this campus. This was an extraordinary opportunity to serve as Cornell's 12th president, and I owe it to today's graduates to get this thing moving, so that you can get your degrees and move on with your lives. And I will do so.
Yes, today is a commencement day, not only for all of you, but also for my wife, Robin, and me. Like many of today's graduates, we are excited about the opportunities ahead, but sad to be leaving this beautiful campus, this distinguished university, and the friends and colleagues who have made the last nine years unforgettable.
Today, for my last time as President of Cornell University, and in this, the university's sesquicentennial year, I am privileged to offer congratulations to all of our degree candidates, undergraduate, graduate, and professional, and to the faculty and staff and other students and family and friends and mentors and loved ones here and back home, who helped in so many ways. To all, congratulations.
I extend a special welcome to the degree candidates who have traveled to Ithaca for this ceremony, including those who completed degree programs at Cornell Tech, our new graduate campus in New York City. Today marks the first time we are formally recognizing Cornell Tech graduates at the Ithaca commencement ceremony, and I asked Dan Huttenlocker, Vice Provost and Dean of Cornell Tech, and all graduates of Cornell Tech, to stand so that we may give you a round of applause.
This year, as Cornell celebrates its 150th anniversary of the founding, I've been asked many times, what, for me, most clearly reflects the values that have sustained Cornell for a century and a half? And truthfully, it is this ceremony, year after year, that represents the best of Cornell. It joins individuals of many interests and many backgrounds, graduates and guests alike, in celebration of the high achievement of the graduates, and an optimism about their future and our collective future.
Some of today's graduates come from a long line of Cornellions. For example, Kate Morris, who's earning her DVM today. She has been to four Cornell commencements in the past six years, two of her own and two for her brothers. But that's not all. Kate traces her Cornell routes through father, aunts, siblings and cousins, back to her grandparents. Her grandfather and his identical twin graduated number one and number two in the vet school class in 1938.
And let's welcome her grandmother, Iris, class of 1945, who's here today, 70 years after earning her own Cornell degree. Calvin Graziano, bachelor's degree 1953 and MBA 1954, marched into the stadium with his granddaughter, Lisa Graziano, bachelor degree 13, who is earning today are MILR degree. Cal missed his own Cornell commencement in 1954 because he was getting married that day to Diane Johnston Graziano, class of '53, before heading off to Marine Officer Candidate School. Cal, I am so pleased that you could participate in today's ceremony. We are delighted with this opportunity to honor you.
I also welcome those families whose graduates are the first in the family to earn a college degree. I too, was a first generation college graduate many years ago. And I know what a proud day this is for all of you. And I extend greetings to those families far away who may be watching this ceremony via live stream.
Among them, I hope, is the family of Olya [? Hamonshuk, ?] who is completing her degree in the ILR School on a Jack Kent Cooke scholarship, and is heading to Oxford University for a highly competitive masters program in comparative social policy. Olya is from Western Ukraine, and because of the situation there, her family was unable to leave the country. But I know they are proud of her achievements, as are we.
Graduates, your families and all their distinctive and beautiful variations have been there for you, sharing your disappointments and your triumphs, and providing advice, encouragement, and support. Graduates, let's thank those families.
And let's also take a moment to remember those whose commencement this would have been. We do this every year by keeping an empty chair in the front row to honor classmates lost during your time here, and whose loved ones are in our thoughts today. And this year, several members of the senior class, spearheaded by Laura [? Keskankia ?] and Sam Coleman, raised funds to endow a tribute tree that has been planted on the pathway between the engineering quad and college town, in memory of the seven members of the class of 2015 who were lost during this classes four years here.
While Quill and Dagger, a senior honor society, in partnership with Cornell plantations, has planted a grove of young trees along Cascadilla Creek in their honor. Please everyone, join me in a moment of silence in memory of them and of all of those whose commencement this would have been. Thank you.
On this joyful day, as we celebrate your success as graduates of Cornell University, I believe it is worth reflecting on why higher education, across the many fields that you have studied, is so very important, not only to each of you, but to society at large. And I believe that there are at least three such reasons.
First, the value of higher education is demonstrated in the nurturing of personal characteristics that are likely to benefit you as individuals, and also contribute to society. College graduates, according to a recent College Board report, tend to be happier in their jobs, and believe that they need to keep learning to do their jobs well. They are healthier than those without a college degree, exercising more and smoking less.
As parents, they spend more time talking to and reading to their children. By one estimate, children from families where parents are college educated will hear 30 million more words in their home environment by age three. And that translates into better school performance and a higher measured IQ.
College graduates themselves also report having a greater understanding of political issues, and are more likely to vote. And they are more likely to volunteer and to spend more time volunteering than those without college degrees. Those of you graduating from Cornell today have already demonstrated your deep commitment to public service during your time at Cornell, by volunteering on campus, by volunteering in the greater Ithaca community and elsewhere, by supporting a wide variety of organizations and causes, including your fund raising for the people of Nepal in the aftermath of the devastating earthquakes there.
For members of our community displaced by the chapter house fire in college town, and through the class of 2015's senior gift, thank you. I hope you will continue your public engagement as Cornell alums, as so many of your predecessors sitting in front of you have done and continue to do.
The second reason that I believe higher education is so important, is vocational. As college graduates, you'll likely earn more throughout your life than your contemporaries with less education, and also be far less likely to be unemployed. During a 40 year full-time working life, according to the College Board study I mentioned earlier, the median lifetime earnings of bachelor degree recipients were 65% higher than the median earnings of high school graduates, and these earnings continue to climb for those with masters and doctoral and professional degrees, and by the way in that order.
Meanwhile, the unemployment rate for those with only high school diplomas last month was 6% in our country, while for those with bachelor's degrees it was 3.5%, and for those with doctoral degrees it was 2%. As my colleague, Richard Levin, former president of Yale and now CEO of Coursera has noted in his book, The Worth of the University, our colleges and universities are the nation's principal avenue of upward social mobility, delivering more than any other institution on the promise of making America the land of opportunity.
And as graduates of Cornell, one of the nation's best universities, that will be especially true for you. But although personal gain and societal contributions are obviously both valuable outcomes of higher education, and I have no doubt that they will be part of your lives as Cornell graduates, there is a third value to be gained from higher education which I believe to be the most valuable of all. It has to do with what Harvard president Drew Gilpin Faust said when she was on campus last month for Charter Day weekend. Something she described as habits of mind, that come from broad-based liberal arts education, an education that includes good helpings of the arts and humanities, the sciences, and the social sciences, no matter the destination of the study.
These habits of mind include inventiveness, imagination, critical capacities to evaluate information, and make informed judgments, and curiosity-- curiosity for a lifetime. They endure long after the specific knowledge gained in the course of a college career becomes obsolete. And they enable those who possess these habits of mind to continue learning and creating and contributing throughout their lives.
My friend and colleague, Norm Augustine, former undersecretary of the Army and retired CEO of Lockheed Martin says, the common thread among his best engineers is that they come from an education that balanced a technical background with the social sciences. The factor that most distinguished those who advanced in the organization, he said, was the ability to think broadly and to read and to write clearly. Such habits of mind are not just instrumental, though. They go far beyond their usefulness in the marketplace. They help us all appreciate other perspectives, other cultures, other ways of looking at the world, and encourage us to all develop a degree of empathy for, or at least a better understanding of, others, even those, and perhaps especially those with whom we may disagree.
A broad liberal arts education is not just education for a first job or a second job, it is education for a lifetime of significance and contribution. Speaking personally for a moment, I'm about to conclude a long career in higher education that has included time as a biomedical researcher, a physician in academic medical centers, and a university bureaucrat. And I will soon embark on a completely new enterprise at the Smithsonian.
But looking back on the last 40 years, I am very aware that my dad's insistence that I continue my education beyond high school changed my prospects and those of my family. I'm extraordinarily grateful to have had the opportunity to experience a broad liberal arts education as an undergraduate, in ways large and in ways small, both professionally and personally, that liberal arts education has changed and vastly improved my life.
David Brooks, the New York Times columnist, has been much in the news lately for his reflections in his columns and in a new book on two sets of virtues. Resume virtues, which he defines as skills that bring you to the marketplace, and eulogy virtues, which are the qualities of character that might be talked about at your funeral. Brooks observes that even though most people would agree that eulogy virtues are more important, our culture and our educational systems spend much more time teaching the skills and strategies you need to build an external career, than to build inner character.
He contends that people on the road to inner light do not find their vocations by asking, what do I want from life? They ask, what is life asking of me? How can I match my intrinsic talent with one of the world's deep needs? It is an interesting dichotomy, but ultimately, these virtues are not mutually exclusive. It is possible to have strong resume virtues that will, as I've suggested, add security in the world of work and still be guided by an inner light that directs your talents toward the needs of the world.
Having spent time with so many of you over the past years, and seeing so many of you again recently at recent events across our campus, including Charter Day weekend, I have no doubt that you are well equipped and well motivated to lead lives of consequence and contribution, where both your resume virtues and your eulogy virtues will shine.
And that brings us back to the 147th Cornell commencement in the university's sesquicentennial year, and the ideals of our founder and first president, which have endured to this minute. The practicality of Ezra Cornell, an inventor and entrepreneur, who saw the university as giving talented students from all backgrounds a pathway to a better life, combined with A.D. White's sophisticated view of what courses of study a truly great university should include, White and Cornell shared a commitment to the idea that ability-- not color or sex or religion or social status-- would be uppermost in choosing students so that their university would be open to people of talent from all backgrounds and from all walks of life.
And by securing funds for the university under the Federal Moral Act of 1862, which created the nation's great land grant universities, they committed Cornell to a mission of public service and public engagement that endures to this minute. And now members of the class of 2015 and candidates for advanced degrees, it's your turn. You will leave this stadium today with the most advanced and up to date knowledge that your teachers and mentors on the faculty and staff have been able to impart, and with the critical capacities and inventiveness and imagination and curiosity for a lifetime that come from a broad and deep liberal arts education.
I hope that you will also leave with a renewed commitment to direct your talents toward the world's deep needs, and generosity of spirit will guide your activities and your interactions with others wherever in the world you go next. Class of 2015, candidates for advanced degrees, you've earned our congratulations and our good wishes, and you carry with you 150 years of Cornell history and our hopes for a better future for all of us that you can help to create. We're counting on you. Congratulations, and thank you.
[SINGING]
CHARLES WALCOTT: We will now proceed to the conferring of degrees, granted in course. The first groups to be presented to the President for the conferral of degrees are the graduate candidates who have completed work in the graduate school or in one of the professional schools. Will Senior Vice Provost and Dean of the graduate school, Barbara A. Knuth, please step forward. Will the candidates for the doctoral degree from the graduate school please rise, and the degree marshals come up onto the platform.
BARBARA A. KNUTH: Mr. President, I have the honor to present these outstanding candidates who have fulfilled the requirements and are duly recommended by the faculty of the graduate school for the appropriate degree of doctor of musical arts, doctor of philosophy, doctor of the science of law.
CHARLES WALCOTT: Thank you, Senior Vice Provost and Dean Knuth. 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. Congratulations, doctors.
DAVID A. WALCOTT: Cornell University welcomes the new doctors of philosophy of musical arts and of the science of law to the ancient and universal company of scholars. Will the doctors please be seated.
Will the Dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine, Michael Kotlikoff, please step forward? Will the candidates for the degree of Doctor of Veterinary Medicine please rise, and the degree marshals come up onto the platform.
MICHAEL KOTLIKOFF: Mr. President, I have the honor to present these candidates, who have fulfilled the requirements and who are duly recommended by the faculty of the College of Veterinary Medicine for the degree Doctor of Veterinary Medicine.
DAVID A. WALCOTT: Thank you, Dean Kotlikoff. 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 Veterinary Medicine, with all the rights, privileges, honors and responsibilities pertaining thereto. Congratulations.
DAVID A. WALCOTT: Will the doctors of veterinary medicine please be seated. Will the Dean of the Law School, Eduardo M. Penalver, please step forward? And will the candidates for the degrees of doctor of law or master of laws please rise, and the degree marshals come up onto the platform.
EDUARDO M. PENALVER: Mr. President, I have the honor to present these candidates who have fulfill the requirements and are duly recommended by the faculty of the law school for the degrees of doctor of law and master of laws.
ROBERT J. SKORTON: Thank you, Dean Penalver. 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 Master of Laws, with all the rights, privileges, honors and responsibilities pertaining thereto. Congratulations.
DAVID A. WALCOTT: Will the doctors of law and master of laws graduates please be seated. Will the Senior Vice Provost and Dean of the graduate school, Barbara A. Knuth, please return to the microphone. Will the candidates for the master degree in studies that have been directed by the graduate school please rise, and will the degree marshals come up onto the platform.
BARBARA A. KNUTH: Mr. President, I have the honor to present these candidates, who have fulfilled the requirements and are duly recommended by the faculty of the graduate school for the master degree, be it Master of Architecture, Master of Arts, Master of Engineering, Master of Fine Arts, Master of Health Administration, Master of industrial and Labor Relations, Master of Landscape Architecture, Master of Professional Studies, Master of Public Administration, Master of Regional Science, Master of Science.
ROBERT J. SKORTON: Thank you, Senior Vice Provost and Dean Knuth. 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 degree to which you are entitled, with all the rights, privileges, honors and responsibilities pertaining thereto. Well done.
DAVID A. WALCOTT: Will the master graduates please be seated. Will the Dean of the Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management, Soumitra Dutta, please step forward, and will the candidates for the degree of Master of Business Administration from the Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management please rise, and will the degree marshals please come up onto the platform.
SOUMITRA DUTTA: Mr. President, I have the honor to present these outstanding candidates, who have fulfilled the requirements and are duly recommended by the faculty of the Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management for the degree of Master of Business Administration.
ROBERT J. SKORTON: Thank you, Dean Dutta. 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 of Business Administration degree with all the rights, privileges, honors, and responsibilities pertaining thereto. Congratulations.
DAVID A. WALCOTT: Will the master graduate please be seated. The next groups to be admitted to the fellowship of educated men and women are the candidates for college degrees. Will the two class marshals representing the entire Cornell University senior class please come up onto the platform.
In a moment, each college group will be called to rise for presentation to the president, and then asked to 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 the degrees. The degree marshals for the college degree groups will come forward onto the base of the platform as each group is called.
Will the Dean of the School of Industrial and Labor Relations, Kevin Hallock, please come forward. Will the candidates for the degree of Bachelor of Science from the School of Industrial and Labor Relations please rise, and will the degree marshals please come to the front of the platform.
KEVIN HALLOCK: Mr. President, I have the honor to present these candidates, who have fulfilled the requirements, and who are duly recommended by the faculty of the School of Industrial and Labor Relations for the degree of Bachelor of Science.
ROBERT J. SKORTON: Thank you, Dean Hallock.
DAVID A. WALCOTT: Will the candidates please be seated. Will the Dean of the College of Architecture, Art, and Planning, Kent Kleinman, please come forward, and will the candidates for the degree of Master of Architecture, Bachelor of Architecture, Bachelor of Fine Arts, and Bachelor of Science, from the College of Architecture, Art, and Planning, please rise, and will the degree marshals please come to the front of the platform.
KENT KLEINMAN: Mr President, I have the honor to present these candidates, who have fulfilled the requirements and who are duly recommended by the faculty of the College of Architecture, Art, and Planning, for the degrees of Master of Architecture, Bachelor of Architecture, Bachelor of Fine Art, and Bachelor of Science.
ROBERT J. SKORTON: Thank you, Dean Kleinman.
DAVID A. WALCOTT: Will the candidates please be seated. Will the Dean of the School of Hotel Administration, Dean Michael Johnson, please come forward, and will the candidates for the degree of Master of Management in Hospitality and Bachelor of Science from the School of Hotel Administration please rise, and will the degree of marshals please come to the front of the platform.
MICHAEL JOHNSON: Mr. President, I have the honor to present these candidates, who have fulfilled the requirements and are duly recommended by the faculty of the School of Hotel Administration for the degrees of Masters of Management and Hospitality and Bachelor of Science.
ROBERT J. SKORTON: Thank you, Dean Johnson.
DAVID A. WALCOTT: Will the candidates please be seated. Will the Dean of the College of Human Ecology, Alan Mathios, please come forward, and will the candidates for the degree of Bachelor of Science from the College of Human Ecology please rise, and will the degree marshals please come to the front of the platform.
ALAN MATHIOS: Mr. President, I have the honor to present these candidates, who have fulfilled the requirements and who are duly recommended by the faculty of the College of Human Ecology for the degree of Bachelor of Science.
ROBERT J. SKORTON: Thank you, Dean Mathios.
DAVID A. WALCOTT: Will the candidates please be seated. Will the Dean of the College of Engineering, Lance R. Collins, please come forward, and will the candidates for the degree of Bachelor of Science from the College of Engineering please rise, and will the degree marshals please come to the front of the platform.
LANCE R. COLLINS: Mr. President, I have the honor to present these candidates, who have fulfilled the requirements, and who are duly recommended by the faculty of the College of Engineering for the degree of Bachelor of Science.
ROBERT J. SKORTON: Thank you, Dean Collins.
DAVID A. WALCOTT: Will the candidates please be seated, and will the Dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Science, Kathryn J. Boor, please come forward, and will all the candidates for the degree of Bachelor of Science from the College of Agriculture and Life Science please rise, and will the degree marshals please come to the front of the platform.
KATHRYN J. BOOR: Mr. President, I have the honor to present these candidates, who have fulfilled the requirements, and are duly recommended by the faculty of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences for the degree of Bachelor of Science.
ROBERT J. SKORTON: Thank you, Dean Boor.
DAVID A. WALCOTT: Will the candidates please be seated. Well the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, Gretchen Ritter, please come forward, and will the candidates for the degree of Bachelor of Arts from the College of Arts and Sciences please rise, and will the degree marshals please come to the front of the platform.
GRETCHEN RITTER: Mr. President, I have the honor to present these superb candidates, who have fulfilled the requirements, and who are duly recommended by the faculty of the College of Arts and Sciences for the degree of Bachelor of Arts.
ROBERT J. SKORTON: Thank you, Dean Ritter.
DAVID A. WALCOTT: Will all college degree candidates please rise at this time.
ROBERT J. SKORTON: It is my privilege to recognize the candidates recommended by the deans and the faculties of these 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. Congratulations, college graduates!
DAVID A. WALCOTT: Will all college degree marshals please come up onto the stage to shake hands with President Skorton.
Will the assembly please stand for the singing of the evening song and the Alma Mater.
[SINGING]
(SINGING) 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 them 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!
DAVID A. WALCOTT: This concludes the 147th Cornell University Commencement. We thank you for being with us and congratulate our new graduates. Please, remain standing until the recessional, until the faculty have left the field. Thank you.
[SINGING]
Commencement procession and ceremony for Class of 2015 undergraduate and graduate students on Sunday, May 24, 2015.
