Kotlikoff to grads: You have the tools to build a better world

As the United States approaches its 250th anniversary, Cornell's Class of 2026 has the tenacity, talent and determination to advance the unfinished work of American democracy, President Michael I. Kotlikoff told graduates and their guests at Commencement ceremonies held May 23.

"Today we graduate our 158th graduating class with the most ambitious of goals and the most democratic of aspirations: to build a country and a world that is better for everyone who lives in it," Kotlikoff said.

Degrees were conferred on more than 8,000 new graduates at two lively but rainy ceremonies held in Schoellkopf Field. Wearing rain ponchos and carrying umbrellas, graduates cheered, danced and posed for photos as they processed into the field behind the banners of their colleges; a few intrepid graduates sported sunglasses. "Nothing dampens the spirit of the mighty Class of 2026," said University Marshal Kathryn Boor.

Provost Kavita Bala welcomed attendees with encouragement to embrace engagement and connection.

"You leave Cornell at a time of rapid and unpredictable change. It is also a time of extraordinary opportunity, a chance to shape an interconnected world in meaningful ways," Bala said. "Your path will almost certainly look different than what you envision today in a year, or 10, and you may find yourself in entirely different fields - perhaps ones that do not yet exist. What you have learned here at Cornell will serve you through all of these life changes. I wish you joy, purpose and adventure in your journey."

When Cornell received its charter, in 1865, as New York State's land-grant university, the U.S. was still reeling from the Civil War, and the nation's democracy was in its youth, Kotlikoff said in his remarks, which were presented in full in the first ceremony but shortened slightly because of the inclement weather in the second. (The full speech can be found online.) Cornell's founders, Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, sought to create not only "an institution where any person could find instruction in any study," but one whose graduates would advance democratic values - to build "better things in our beloved country," as White put it.

"Over time, the Cornell model became the American model, giving rise to an enterprise of teaching and research that has become the envy of the world: fueling our economy and our well-being, and attracting some of the world's most talented minds - including many of you who are here today," Kotlikoff said.

But democracy was a work in progress in 1865 and in 1776, he said - and it remains a work in progress today. "The only tools we have to continue to build a more perfect union are, as they have always been, the human minds taught and shaped in each generation - aka, you."

Perhaps the most important lesson Cornell strives to teach, he said, is how "to do the hard work of disagreeing successfully; to debate and discuss, with civility and respect, instead of shutting other voices down."

Universities, Kotlikoff said, are the training grounds for democracy - places where students learn to exercise free expression, are exposed to new ideas and encounter difference. But today, he said, some view the values and norms of universities - including a commitment to truth, intellectual integrity and free exploration - as threats.

"We again live in a time when some would say, 'not those people, and not those studies,'" he said. "A time when the values and ethos you have learned at Cornell are needed as much as the skills and knowledge you have acquired here."

Kotlikoff closed his speech by quoting author E.B. White, Class of 1921, who was asked during World War II for a statement by the Writers' War Board about "the meaning of democracy."

White wrote: "Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than half of the people are right more than half of the time. It is the feeling of privacy in the voting booths, the feeling of communion in the libraries, the feeling of vitality everywhere. Democracy is a letter to the editor. Democracy is the score at the beginning of the ninth."

"Democracy, I would add to this Class of 2026, graduating at the 250th birthday of this democracy, is the unfinished work that awaits," Kotlikoff concluded. "For better things, in our beloved country."

The livestream for the first ceremony can be viewed here. The livestream for the second ceremony can be viewed here.