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KEVIN HARRIS: Good morning. Good morning and welcome to the ILR School's 78th Commencement Recognition Ceremony. We have a few important announcements to share before we welcome our graduates. Please note the emergency exits around you. And in the event of an emergency, please proceed calmly out the nearest exit. It's also important to stay out of the aisles throughout the ceremony.
There is a professional photographer taking pictures of graduates as they depart the stage. So we ask that all guests remain seated throughout the ceremony to keep the aisles clear. Information about accessing and purchasing photos was emailed to the graduates and it's also available on the back of your program.
Cornell University is located on the traditional homelands of the Gayogohono, the Cayuga Nation. The Gayogohono 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 the Gayogohono disposition and honor the ongoing connection of the Gayogohono people, past and present, to these lands and waters. This land acknowledgment has been reviewed and approved by the traditional Gayogohono leadership. With that in mind, we ask that you silence your cell phones and rise if you are able, as we welcome the graduating class of 2024.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Please be seated. Good morning and welcome again to the ILR School's 78th commencement recognition ceremony.
[CHEERING]
My name is Kevin Harris, and I'm the Frank B. Miller, Director of the ILR Office of Student Services, and 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 the many family members, friends, and other guests in attendance to help us honor our degree candidates. Thank you for taking the time to be here with us today.
On behalf of my faculty and staff colleagues, I can speak for all of us in saying that we're excited to spend the morning celebrating our amazing students and recognizing their accomplishments at Cornell and within the ILR School. It's now my pleasure to introduce Alex Colvin, the Kenneth F. Conn Dean, and Martin F. Scheinman Professor of Conflict Resolution.
[CHEERING]
ALEX COLVIN: Welcome and thank you all for coming today. Welcome to the graduation ceremony for students in ILR. I want to thank the many family and friends who've trekked from far and near to recognize the graduating students. I want to thank our faculty and staff who've helped our students throughout their ILR education. But most important of all, I want to thank and congratulate our graduating students.
[APPLAUSE]
We are here to celebrate over 200 students earning their BS in ILR, who've shown they can master subjects from history to economics, law to labor relations, organizational behavior to human resource management. Our curriculum challenges students to demonstrate both breadth of studies and depth of analysis. You've shown both and earned the degrees that you will now hold. And let's recognize the wonderful achievements of our graduate students.
[APPLAUSE]
Master students who developed expertise across the broad range of labor relations and human resource management and are ready to become the next leaders in the profession. 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 are an ILRie, whose accomplishments we are enormously proud of.
Something that has always bothered me is when people ascribe academic success just to natural talent, that you could succeed at a place like Cornell just by being really smart. And you are really smart.
[CHEERING]
But being smart is not enough to succeed in college, and you'll find it isn't enough to get what you really want out of life. So now when you've gotten to the end of your college degree, don't forget about all those hours in the libraries, the puzzling over economics problem sets, reading dense history books and legal cases. Don't forget the nervous studying before tests, the panic of the last minute hustling to get an assignment done, the slogging through a term paper. As you graduate, know that you've earned this achievement through your hard work and be proud of it.
But also, remember, this is not an achievement you could have done on your own. One of my favorite assignments I give to new students is to write something I call the three people paper. In it, I ask the student to describe the work experiences of three members of their family. If possible, three different generations. A grandparent, a parent, a sibling. I ask the students to reflect on how work has changed over time. How did education make a difference? What was the impact of emigrating to a new country? How have careers changed and the type of work places we work in?
But the most striking thing to read in the essays is how each generation stands on the shoulders of the generations before it. The grandparents who moved to a new country where they didn't speak the language to provide new opportunities for their children. The parents working long hours so their daughter or son could be the first in the family to go to college.
You've achieved much through your hard work, but honor the hard work of those who helped get you here. Graduating students, please stand up for a moment and join me in giving round of applause to the family and friends and mentors who helped you get where you are today.
[APPLAUSE]
Now, the class of 2024 had its college years affected by profoundly disruptive events that forced you to adapt, to respond, and to push forward in new directions. You are the class that, as many have noted, had no high school graduation, as the COVID pandemic swept the country. In the fall of 2020, you started college in a campus transformed. Social distancing, the last thing you want in college. Hybrid classes, remote office hours, biweekly COVID tests. Through this all, you persevered and made sure that your education continued.
Over your time at Cornell, things gradually returned to normal. Cases went down. We got vaccinated. Classes filled up again in person, and masks eventually came off. Parties may even have resumed, I understand. But want to remember and salute your efforts to continue your educational journey through some of the hardest parts of it. You're the class of 2024. You went through that and you were the stronger for it.
Now, graduation is a time to reflect on your studies. As ILR students, you've taken a broad range of classes. You've learned a variety of ways to think about issues and solve problems. You've examined important trends and challenges confronting our economy and our society.
Recent years have reinforced the importance of understanding the complex and changing nature of the world of work, labor, and employment. The issues we study at ILR are central to the world we live in today. Think about the phenomenon of remote work. A couple of years ago, this was a niche topic studied by a few HR experts, but today it's central to the national conversation. The home office, the Zoom meeting, the balance between work and family life all part of our daily conversation today.
Consider one of the great issues of today, the explosion of generative AI. On campus, ChatGPT has certainly become a dangerous temptation for a student looking for a shortcut on an assignment. But put on your ILR hats. Think about what it means for the workplace. A tool that has the potential to enhance productivity? Absolutely.
But also think about the law firm that can automate repetitive tasks with AI and therefore needs to hire fewer associates. Greater office productivity enhanced by AI can mean fewer office workers and a labor market once again roiled by technological change. That's something we've studied at ILR before and will continue to do so in the future.
Consider the way the surge of union organizing by baristas has changed the way we think about our daily cup of coffee, latte, or frappuccino. What do we owe those who provide the services that we rely on? What are the obligations of our great corporations to their employees and to the rule of law that protects the right to organize and to bargain collectively? Why were all three Starbucks stores in Ithaca shut down after they unionized? Starbucks has been controversial on campus for this reason, and Cornell made a decision not to renew its contract with Starbucks. But remember--
[APPLAUSE]
Remember also, though, the field of labor relations, a field of change and reconciliation, and that productive relations means reaching agreement with those who have opposing interests and views. After strongly opposing the organizing of some 400 of its stores over the past couple of years, striking that this year, Starbucks and Workers United have announced that they are negotiating a framework agreement that will allow workers to organize and to engage in collective bargaining.
[APPLAUSE]
One of the core insights of our field of labor relations is that resolving conflict productively requires reconciliation of interests and willingness to work respectfully with those we may have been previously vociferously opposed to. Although last year we did take the step of removing Starbucks from our faculty coffee machine, if Starbucks is able to engage in fair and productive collective bargaining and conclude agreements with their workers unions, I'd welcome their coffee back into the new cafe that we're planning to open in the next couple of years at ILR.
[APPLAUSE]
Request for soup and donuts too. I'll try and deliver on that one as well. Now, our students got a first secondhand exposure to labor relations activity this year at Cornell as graduate assistants here voted for union representation by over a 90% margin.
[APPLAUSE]
Graduate student unionization is a phenomenon that has spread rapidly across Cornell and our peers, now encompassing most of the Ivy League, apart from Princeton. It can be challenging to think about the duality of being both students and employees with the rights and obligations of both, albeit perhaps less strange for those of us who are familiar with the long history of union apprenticeship programs that combine both training and work.
For University faculty, there is the challenge of realizing that they are actually managers of graduate assistants with obligations to them, both under labor law and the terms of collective agreements that are negotiated. But even in this new terrain for labor relations, we can go back to the core insights and wisdom of our field. Collective bargaining is a robust process for reconciling opposing interests and finding ways to work together productively.
As in any collective bargaining relationship, we University management will not get all we want. Neither will the union representing our graduate assistants. But with goodwill on both sides, I am confident through the bargaining process we can come to a fair agreement that will meet the key interests of both sides and set a foundation for good relations moving forward.
Now, as you move forward in your own careers, I hope that you will continue to see the value of the education you've had here at ILR. When I talk to our alumni whose ranks you're about to join, I'm always struck by how often they mention the value of what they've learned at ILR for their careers and lives. And this is true whether they've gone into a career of law, labor relations, finance, even a weatherman who's an ILR alumnus talks about this.
How to think analytically, how to deal with people, how to negotiate. Regardless of what fields you go into and what fields they are working in, our alumni 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, valuable, and you should cherish that.
But also know that once you walk through those doors, you'll have to continue to show that you can realize your promise. This is where you'll have the chance to employ that ILR education you've worked so hard for. Show that you can analyze the complex situations, bring together and apply 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 ILRies do well. Be proud of who you are as we congratulate you and wish you well, the ILR class of 2024. Congratulations.
[APPLAUSE]
KEVIN HARRIS: Thank you, Dean Colvin. It's now my pleasure to introduce Professor Chris Collins to recognize the class of 2024 graduate degree candidates.
[APPLAUSE]
CHRIS COLLINS: Dean Colvin, it is my pleasure to present the class of 2024 Doctor of Philosophy degree candidates.
[READING NAMES]
Congratulations to the class of 2024 Doctor of Philosophy degree candidates.
[APPLAUSE]
Dean Colvin is now my pleasure to honor-- or my honor to present the class of 2024 Master of Science degree candidates.
[READING NAMES]
Congratulations to the class of 2024 Master of Science degree candidates.
[APPLAUSE]
Dean Colvin. I now present the class of 2024 Master of Industrial and Labor Relations degree candidates.
[READING NAMES]
Congratulations to the class of 2024 Master of Industrial and Labor degree relations candidates.
[APPLAUSE]
KEVIN HARRIS: Thank you, Professor Collins. And congratulations to our graduate degree candidates. It's now my pleasure to introduce Kate Griffith, Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, Diversity, and Faculty Development, to present the class of 2024 Bachelor of Science degree candidates.
KATE GRIFFITH: Dean Colvin, it is my honor to present the class of 2024 Bachelor of Science degree candidates.
[READING NAMES]
I would now like to introduce Angela Herrera-Canfield, Director of Undergraduate Admissions, to continue presenting the class of 2024 Bachelor of Science degree candidates.
ANGELA HERRERA-CANFIELD: OK.
[READING NAMES]
Dean Colvin, this concludes the presentation of the class of 2024 undergraduate degree candidates.
[APPLAUSE]
KEVIN HARRIS: Congratulations again to all the degree candidates. This concludes the ILR School's 78th Commencement Recognition Ceremony.
[APPLAUSE]
We ask that all guests remain seated as faculty, staff, and students recess from the area and move into the reception. 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, class of 2024.
[APPLAUSE]
(SINGING) Let a swelling chorus rise before us
Strike up a song to Cornell
And set the campus ringing with our singing
Fill the glasses with a song
[CHANTING]
(SINGING) We will sound the joy of life intense
In a rousing toast to Cornell
Strike up a song to Cornell
Let the swelling chorus rise before us
Strike up a song to Cornell
And set the campus ringing with our singing
Fill the glasses with a song
And drink the magic music spell
We will sound the joy of life intense
In a rousing toast to Cornell
Strike up a song to Cornell
Come let us strike up a song to Cornell
Strike up a song to Cornell
Strike up a song to Cornell
And let the swelling chorus rise before us
Strike up a song to Cornell
And set the campus ringing with our singing
Fill the glasses with a song
And drink the magic music spell
We will sound the joy of life intense
In a rousing toast to Cornell
Strike up a song to Cornell
And let the swelling chorus rise before us
Strike up a song to Cornell
And set the campus ringing with our singing
Fill the glasses with a song
And drink the magic music spell
We will sound the joy of life intense
In a rousing toast to Cornell
Strike up a song to Cornell
Come let us strike up a song to Cornell
Strike up a song to Cornell
Strike up a song to Cornell
And let the swelling chorus rise before us
Strike up a song to Cornell
And set the campus ringing with our singing
Fill the glasses with a song
And drink the magic music spell
We will sound the joy of life intense
In a rousing toast to Cornell
Strike up a song to Cornell
And let the swelling chorus rise before us
Strike up a song to Cornell
And set the campus ringing with our singing
Fill the glasses with a song
And drink the magic music spell
We will sound the joy of life intense
In a rousing toast to Cornell
Strike up a song to Cornell
Come let us strike up a song to Cornell
Strike up a song to Cornell
[MUSIC PLAYING]
