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[MUSIC PLAYING] DAVID BATEMAN: Hello and welcome. Hello and welcome. My name is David Bateman, and I'm the Associate Chair of the Cornell Government Department. Unfortunately, Jill Frank, the chair of the department, is unable to be here to welcome you, which she profoundly regrets. She has asked me to convey her happy congratulations to you, our graduating students, as well as to those of you who have supported you during your time at Cornell and, also, her very best wishes as you move on and forward.
It is my great privilege to welcome all of you to the Department of Government's commencement ceremony. Being here with you today is a gratifying experience. Over the last several years, we've had the joy of getting to know you, of teaching and advising you, and of learning with you and from you in turn. It is one of the most rewarding aspects of our work to share with you some small part of your intellectual curiosity and growth and then to see you go on and live lives of meaning and purpose.
The department's graduates have a long and distinguished history of achievement in their chosen careers and vocations, and we have no doubt that you will further extend that tradition. We know this because we have come to know you, because we have seen you in action, because we have seen combine careful scholarship and creativity with a commitment and hope to make the world a better place. It is evident in the research you have undertaken in your courses, independent studies, honors, theses, and other activities.
Friends and family, we are delighted to have you here to celebrate with us and our amazing students. We are honored, as I'm sure you all are, to have been and to continue to be part of their academic and intellectual journeys. We will begin with an address from one of our graduating seniors and another from one of my distinguished colleagues. Professor Bryn Rosenfeld and Elizabeth Rene were selected by the graduating honors class as the student and faculty they would most like to hear from on this occasion.
Elizabeth Rene is graduating magna cum laude, having written a fabulous thesis on "Originalism Unveiled," with a double major in Government and American Studies, with research interests in conservative judicial philosophy and constitutional law. A former student athlete, Elizabeth has balanced her time at Cornell between an ambitious curriculum, including graduate-level coursework, interning in local government and engaging in a range of student organizations, including service as chair of the Great Society caucus of the Cornell Political Union. Her thesis compares, contrasts, and critiques the jurisprudence of the two most prominent proponents of originalism on the Supreme Court, Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas.
Rene's analysis argues that originalism has not and cannot produce its promised jurisprudential stability but, rather, has produced the opposite and jeopardized the popular legitimacy of the court. The thesis was awarded the prestigious Sherman Bennett Prize for the best essay discussing the principles of free government. Please join me in welcoming Elizabeth Rene to the podium.
[APPLAUSE]
ELIZABETH RENE: Hello, everyone. OK. OK. Ladies and gentlemen, esteemed faculty, proud parents, and, of course, my fellow graduate class of 2024, it's an honor to address such a fine group of fine future world leaders, future policymakers, future scholars, and future negotiators. Whether you're going into an intellectually ambitious field or whether you're simply going into investment banking, we have all worked tremendously hard and should be grateful that we have made it this far. Class of 2024, you've studied the greatest political philosophers, dissected some of the most important landmark Supreme Court decisions, and have memorized more amendments than most people ever knew even existed.
You know the difference between a bill and a law, a filibuster and a piece of pork barrel. But most importantly, Government class of 2024, you successfully accomplished the daunting goal of creating normalcy after a pandemic. Congratulations.
[APPLAUSE]
Now, when I first came to Cornell, I'm going to be honest, I didn't really have support other than that which was provided to me by the Government Department. Most classes were online, and this meant that it was incredibly hard to find a community of like-minded individuals who I could become close to in my first year away from home. But little by little, I would recognize so-and-so's name on a Zoom meeting. And little by little, I would cultivate friendships with individuals who, like me, did not shy away from discussing politics at the dinner table.
And this gets to the real reason as to why I chose a government major in the first place. You see, politics are everywhere around us, whether we choose to acknowledge it or not. I distinctly remember taking the stance when my student-run political org, CPU, held a debate on whether everything is, by nature, inherently political. Spoiler alert, it is. And what I believe is key for any student truly interested in government is this recognition that being apolitical is a privilege and not necessarily a choice nor a desired outcome.
Notice how generations older than ours have the privilege of not necessarily taking climate change as seriously. Notice how race continues to dictate what quality of education you receive. And notice how gender continues to dictate what degree of respect you might attain in the workplace. In short, the demographic you fit into may continue to dictate the privileges that are afforded to you, even in countries supposedly classified by political science journals as democratic. Now, what role does studying government play in all of this?
Well, studying government allows students to understand that political systems are dynamic rather than static. Studying government allows students to understand how democracy is something you currently have to work on, improve, and defend rather than take for granted. As a government major, you need to not only be the utmost expert of varying presidencies, but also an expert in the most current of events. And for this reason, the official Washington Post slogan, "Democracy Dies in Darkness," has remained entrenched in my brain ever since the start of freshman year.
And I think it's truly telling that this slogan was created roughly three months after Trump won key battleground states in 2016. However, it is equally telling how the slogan continues to foreshadow the predicaments we are bound to face in November of 2024, my birthday month. Too many individuals think that politics are too messy or complicated for their vote or, let alone, their mere political opinion to matter. However, the truth is that democracy needs a continually committed community to work and a continually accountable political institutions to function. More than ever, democracy needs the quirky and pragmatic minds of Cornell's Government graduates to continue to probe its institutions when all else fails.
All my fellow graduates are bound to embark on something interesting after Cornell, whether in local or federal government and whether in the public or private sector. But whatever you choose to do, I urge you to do one thing, and that is to make a difference as informed citizenry. Whether you go on to draft legislation, advocate for social justice, run for office, or, again, go into investment banking, remember the lessons you've learned here-- persistence, critical thinking, and the importance of listening to all sides before making a decision, even if those sides include that one relative at Thanksgiving who thinks he's a constitutional expert simply because he's watched a single George Bush documentary.
Surely, congratulations, class of 2024. May your impact be significant, your inboxes be manageable, and your government shutdowns be brief. Now go out there and make some policies or, at the very least, ensure democracy is something to last and not something to presume. Thank you.
[APPLAUSE]
DAVID BATEMAN: Thank you, Elizabeth. That was great. Bryn Rosenfeld is Assistant Professor in the Department of Government. Her research interests include political behavior, development, and democratization, protests, postcommunist politics, and survey methodology. Her first book, The Autocratic Middle Class, explains how middle-class economic dependence on the state impedes democratization and contributes to authoritarian resilience. Her other research investigates the causes and consequences of participation in mass demonstrations, how economic performance affects the popularity of ruling parties in electoral autocracies, and how Russian media respond to government pressure.
She's also interested in statistical methods for studying protest participation and survey experiments for sensitive topics. Previously, Professor Rosenfeld was an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Southern California, a Postdoctoral Prize Research Fellow at Nuffield College, University of Oxford, and worked for the US State Department's Office of Global Opinion Research. She is the recipient of a Best Article Award honorable mention and the Juan Linz Best Dissertation Prize, as well as the US State Department's Meritorious and Superior Honor Awards for her analysis of Russian public opinion.
She holds a PhD from Princeton University. Please join me in welcoming Professor Bryn Rosenfeld to the podium.
[APPLAUSE]
BRYN ROSENFELD: Good evening, fellow members of the faculty, graduates, and parents, relatives, and friends. What a joy it is to recognize the achievements of our graduates here on our beautiful Cornell campus. Just a few short years ago, you were chosen for admission to the college from a pool of nearly 12,000 applicants all seeking the degree that you are being conferred today. You have worked hard to get to this moment. And today, we recognize your accomplishments.
On behalf of my colleagues in the Department of Government, I want to say that we have found pleasure and satisfaction in teaching and mentoring you, in collaborating with you on research, and in seeing your ideas take shape in course papers and honors theses. In the years that you have been at Cornell, your professors in Government have also been deeply engaged in research and writing. We have published, among others, new books on information, ideology, and authoritarianism in China, on aesthetics and popular assembly, on the myths of the imperial American presidency, on the founding of modern states, and, my own, on middle-class authoritarianism.
In your classes and seminars at Cornell, you've gotten a preview of other books and articles that are still being written, research that will make its mark on the field in coming years. Academics know books. Most of us write books. We certainly read books. And we've asked you to read many wonderful, foundational works of political science during your time at Cornell, some of them written by our faculty, on power and conflict, inequality and justice, on democracy and dictatorship.
Take a moment to think back to a book that you've read as a government major that really made an impact on you. My advice today as you graduate, as you end one chapter and start another, draws lessons from book writing-- lessons that book writing has taught me on finding your voice, the importance of a hummable tune, and celebrating the steps along the way. Some of you will go on to write books of your own and be colleagues in the political science profession. And some of you will write nonacademic books for a broad readership.
Some of you, in fact, are already authors. One of the things about writing a book-- and you can ask anyone on this stage-- is that it's a process with ups and downs, with moments of insight and moments of profound uncertainty, much like life itself. You will have moments when you question your own readiness or qualifications to do what you've set out to do or what has been asked of you. In my office in Whitehall, I have an award I was given by the US Department of State for my analysis of Russian public opinion and one of my first jobs after graduating with my BA.
There was a mistake in my name that I was too timid to have corrected. I felt like an imposter, so no matter that the name wasn't mine. Not long after, I was asked to give a presentation at the US military central command in Germany to a large audience that included decorated generals. It was exciting, and it was intimidating. I was tested, but I was ready, readier than I realized. Because, like you, I had gotten a great undergraduate education.
You may not realize it, but we've been training you, testing you, preparing you to meet the challenges in your next chapter. We were training you when we did in-class debates and simulation exercises, when we pushed you to address alternative perspectives, and when we challenged you in office hours to defend your view. We've taught you to think like a political scientist, to take a critical and analytical stance towards common assumptions, to look with curiosity for apparent contradictions, puzzles, and mysteries, to form expectations from general principles, evaluate evidence, and make logical, evidence-based arguments.
With these tools, you are prepared to do so much. Every good book needs a hummable tune. The more complicated the text, the more it benefits from some recurring motifs, some refrain to ground it. The repetition of a book's central ideas makes its meaning clearer. Make Cornell and the Department of Government part of your hummable tune as you write these next chapters of your life. Come back to campus to visit. Keep in touch with your faculty members.
Share your successes, and consider giving service back to the university and department so that future Cornellians have the same opportunities that you did. At the end of this month, I'm going to my 20th college reunion. I'm looking forward to getting together with my favorite professors, and I'll be going with some of the friends, now with their own careers and kids and remarkable accomplishments, that I lined up with for commencement 20 years ago this month. I hope your connections with the friends around you today, with your professors in Government, and with Cornell bring you some of the same, satisfying continuity of familiar refrain in the story of your lives.
Academic books take years to write. Even after a publisher shows interest, they take months more in peer review. Then there are frequently mountains of revisions to make in response to critiques that are fair and unfair, suggestions that are helpful, and suggestions that would take things in a direction that you don't want to go. Maybe some of this sounds familiar. Sometimes, you have to attend to reviewers' emotions, as well as their substantive feedback.
As in life, there is no one right way to navigate the challenges of this process. And ultimately, the outcome is uncertain. There are long stretches where all you can do is wait. Writing books teaches us to celebrate each step along the way. Sometimes, we need to celebrate just getting text on the page. And sometimes, we get to celebrate a chapter that we're finishing, reaching a goal that, at times past, seemed impossibly distant.
With your degrees in hand, you have tremendous opportunities to define the next chapter of your life. Today, we recognize your accomplishments. And today, we celebrate.
[APPLAUSE]
DAVID BATEMAN: Thank you very much. So we're going to move now to the announcement of the prize recipients. It's my great pleasure to announce the winners of the 2024 Government Department prizes and awards. I'm going to ask each of the students who is called upon to stand up and to stay standing so that we can celebrate your accomplishments together. The Lieutenant David Chrystall Prize, awarded for the best essay or treatise dealing with the diplomacy, international relations, or the preservation of peace. Lieutenant Chrystall was a Cornellian who died in military service during World War II. The award goes to Penelope Day, "Under the Guise of the Nation, Exposing the Coloniality of Modern Statehood."
[APPLAUSE]
The Kasdan-Montessori Prize, awarded for the best essay on the problems of securing peace in the world. This prize was first awarded at the behest of Mr. Hyman Yudewitz of New York City. Court Hyken, "From Embargoing to Targeting, Decoding the Political Logic of Counter-Terrorism Financing Sanctions."
[APPLAUSE]
The Sherman-Bennett Prize, awarded for the best essay discussing the principles of free government. Cornell was selected a century ago as one of two dozen colleges to administer this prize by former Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan. Elizabeth Rene, "Originalism Unveiled, A Conservative Arrangement of a Convenient Clock Rewind."
[APPLAUSE]
The Janice N. and Milton J. Esman Undergraduate Prize, awarded for outstanding undergraduate scholarship. Neva Peltz, "Mother Algeria, Reproducing the Nation through Anti-Colonial Eyes."
[APPLAUSE]
The Clyde A. Duniway Prize is awarded to the most outstanding student with a major in government, taking into consideration the student's academic record and scholarly approach. Richard Li, "Charging Ahead, Chinese Industrial Policy Analysis in the Electric Vehicle and Battery Sectors." Please join me in congratulating the prize winners of the 2024 Government graduating class.
[APPLAUSE]
You may sit down. We're now going to move on to the fun part. It's all been fun. But the funnest part. We're going to do the distribution of certificates. I will now read the names of our graduating class, inviting each student to come up and receive their certificates. Professor Rosenfeld will hand out the certificates. Professor Rosenfeld will greet and shake the hands of the graduating class. We will have photos taken of each student receiving the certificate and a final photo of the graduating class altogether.
All right, before we get going, a few directions. First, follow staff directions for lining up to walk. If somebody starts telling you what to do, you listen to them. Second, as students pass the lectern, as they pass by here, you shake Professor Rosenfeld's hand, go to the risers to stand for a final group photo. That will be taken after the last person has walked.
For the family, this part's for you. There will be a last group photo, so do not rush to take photos of your own. We will get that first. This is also for you. Hold applause until the end of the ceremony. And this is also for you as well. I mean, the students know exactly what they need to do. Be respectful. Remember to silence your cell phones, to remain quiet, to allow others to see and hear the ceremony, and remain in the room until the ceremony is over. All right.
Without further ado, we'll get started.
[READING NAMES]
Penelope Day, [APPLAUSE] magna cum laude and the winner of the Lieutenant David Chrystall Prize.
[READING NAMES]
Court Hyken, summa cum laude and winner of the Kasdan-Montessori Peace Prize.
[APPLAUSE]
[READING NAMES]
Richard Li, magna cum laude, Clyde A. Duniway Prize winner.
[READING NAMES]
Neva Peltz, summa cum laude and winner of the Janice N. and Milton J. Esman Prize.
[APPLAUSE]
[READING NAMES]
Elizabeth Rene, magna cum laude and the Sherman-Bennett Prize award winner.
[APPLAUSE]
[READING NAMES]
Our graduating class in the Government Department, 2024.
[APPLAUSE, CHEERING]
Please make way in the aisles so we can take a group photo.
