Archive for category: Welcome Letters

It’s Summertime!  While the livin’ might not be as easy as last year, things have opened up and the weather is allowing us a bit more freedom.  Enjoy these long days!

Cornell hosted a virtual reunion earlier this month, with more than 10,000 alumni participants.  Highlights included a panel on leading through a pandemic, a dialogue among alumni and staff about racial injustice, a tribute to Cornell’s late President Frank Rhodes, an interview with Kansas Congresswoman Sharice Davids, Cornell Law JD ’10, who is the first LGBTQ Native American elected to Congress, and Cornelliana night featuring 2000 alums singing the Alma Mater.  For more on Reunion, and links to recorded sessions, visit.

The Cornell community is awaiting a decision from President Pollack (expected in early July) about re-opening plans for the fall.  New York State is expected to issue guidance to colleges and universities and Cornell will incorporate those recommendations into its final re-start plan.  More and up to date information can be found here.

Although the campus remains closed for now, you can participate virtually in Cornell summer activities.  Take a tour of the Cornell Dairy Bar, explore the Waterfalls of Fall Creek or watch birds through the Lab of Ornithology’s live web cams.  Stroll the Botanic Gardens and empower yourself by Managing Your Wellbeing.  And,  CAU (Cornell Adult University) is virtual and free this summer–check out this summer’s offerings.

Cornell’s fiscal year ends on June 30^th.  You can make a gift to the university here.  And if you have not yet renewed or paid your Class of ’74 dues, you can do that online here.  Although you are forever a member of our [notable] class, we need and value your dues to support class communications, activities and Cornell Alumni Magazine.

Enjoy your summer, stay connected and please be well!

Many of us are attending virtual graduations this spring, celebrating high school and college students who are achieving a significant milestone in a less-than-traditional way.  What better time to reflect on our own Class of 1974 graduation and the job market into which we entered in summer 1974?

As you can see from the front page of the 1974 graduation issue of The Cornell Daily Sun, our class had 2,475 graduates on Monday, June 3, 1974.  In keeping with longstanding Cornell tradition, our commencement had no guest speaker or honorary degrees.  Cornell President Dale Corson delivered our commencement address—all Cornell presidents have done the same.  The topic of President Corson’s  address was Morality.  Does anyone remember that talk?!?

We gathered on the Arts Quad on that long-ago spring day and paraded past the Olin Library steps where faculty and administrators were gathered.  We marched up to Barton Hall for the graduation ceremony.  It was quite warm inside Barton and the crowd was in the thousands.  We were the last class to graduate in Barton Hall—since 1975, all Cornell graduation ceremonies have been held outdoors, rain or shine, in Schoellkopf Stadium

The Sun of May 31, 1974 reflects on the job market into which we graduated.  “Most of those who will graduate plan to continue their schooling, but many say they hope to start their careers. Among the more unusual jobs taken by seniors in this year’s class include a ranch hand in Wyoming, a zookeeper in Utica, and a co-manager of a Southern tobacco farm.  The jobs range from the banal to the extraordinary and include bank teller, toolmaker, engineer, computer programmer, researcher, teacher, salesperson, and employment in laboratories, farming, the military and the Peace Corps.”  The article also notes that Engineering grads have plenty of jobs to choose from and demand is booming.  The Cornell Career Center assistant director said he was optimistic about liberal arts graduates being persistent and ultimately finding jobs.

Here’s to celebrating all graduates—from 2020 and from 1974!

My guess is we are all trying to figure out how to make sense of this new reality in which we find ourselves.  Recently I read an interesting linguistic take on the word COVID. Co means together, something we do with others, like cooperate, cohabitate, coordinate.  Vid has different meanings in different languages.  In Spanish it means living.  In Latin it means seeing.  And in Sanskrit it means knowing.  So let’s think about ways that we are living together, seeing together and knowing together during these times of Covid.

I imagine we are all seeing things a bit, or maybe a lot, differently than we used to.  Perhaps we have more time to look at (and listen to) things, even if doing so remotely. Check these out:

• The Cornell Botanic Gardens is joyful!  Seeing is not just what your eyes see but how you think about what you are seeing.  Daily, we see the beauty of the human spirit with outpourings of love and care, the sharing of art and music and support for the vulnerable.  Together we see more than just ourselves and that is beautiful.
• Our classmate Julie Kane’s poem “Used Book” was featured this week on Garrison Keillor’s The Writer’s Almanac.
• The Cornell Hangovers–I Won’t Give Up (Alumni Quarantine Edition.

“Knowing together”, as schools and universities are closed, takes on a whole new meaning.  Interestingly, Cornell has been a pioneer in distance learning for the past 130 years.  Read this fascinating account of our history of remote learning. Pictured here is Martha Van Rensselaer.  She pioneered the study of home economics and distance learning in 1990 with a correspondence course she designed for famers’ wives.  This led to more courses, a department, a school and a college.

So even though we are apart, we are all in this together–living, seeing and knowing– and from that we can draw strength!  Please continue to keep in touch and share your joys or your sadness or your thoughts with each other and on our class Facebook group.

Please be well!