School Bells Ringing at Cornell, New RED Talk Sept. 16
Those bells you are hearing are certainly school bells; summer is nearly over around the country and definitely over at Cornell. Our Class of 1974 is gearing up for another busy year, starting with a RED Talk webinar by classmate Julie Kane on Sept 16 at 8pm ET. Details below.
This is the first week of classes on the Hill. Cornell President Mike Kotlikoff recently sent out a communique:
Welcome to the beginning of the academic year, and welcome to Cornell! I’m glad to be setting out with you on another year of learning, exploration, and discovery, and particularly glad to welcome so many new students from across the country and around the world.
The Cornell Class of 2029 is one of the largest in our history, with 3,862 undergraduates from all 50 U.S. states and 97 countries. Nearly 20% of our first-year students will also be from the first generation in their families to earn a college degree. Together with our thousands of new graduate and professional students, they join a community that has, for 160 years, embodied Ezra Cornell’s vision of “an institution where any person can find instruction in any study”: a world-class university with a land-grant commitment, embracing diversity as a driver of our excellence, and seeking always “to do the greatest good.”
Cornell has succeeded, and achieved the stature it has today, because of our rock-solid commitment to our shared values, and to the community that makes our ambitions possible — celebrating our differences and respecting the diversity of opinions, backgrounds, and ideas that make up Cornell.
With uncharacteristically sunny and warm weather in Ithaca the past few weeks, Cornell students have enjoyed a very promising start to the new academic year. Check out many of Cornell’s social media sites for photos of happy students and parents on campus! (Instagram, Facebook, X)
In Class of 1974 news, we hope you will join the next installment of our Class of 1974 RED Talk webinars on Tuesday, September 16th at 8pm ET, featuring our classmate Julie Kane who was recently named the 2025 Louisiana Writer Award winner. Julie was the Louisiana Poet Laureate from 2011-2013 and is professor emerita of English at Northwestern State University. Please register for this free virtual talk here.
Bring on the Fall,
