Solar Flashback

Reflections of Commencements Past

By SHRUTI JUNEJA and BREANNE FLEER

Sun Senior Editors

Solar Flashbacks was a special project of the 137th Editorial Board connecting The Sun’s — and Cornell’s — past to the present to understand how this rich history has shaped the campus today. This edition was originally published in the 2020 Graduation Issue.

Cornell’s very first Commencement was held in 1869, one year after the University’s opening, to honor eight graduates who had transferred in from other universities, according to the Cornell Alumni Magazine.

“Let your course be true. So rule and direct yourself that you may well requite the bounty of the Republic, of this commonwealth, of Founder, and of all our Benefactors,” these first diplomas read. Ezra Cornell himself mailed the invitations, and President Andrew Dickson White wrote the wording.

Furthermore, The Sun reported that “as was custom of the time, each of the graduates gave a commencement speech. Among the topics of the day were a plea for female suffrage, a demand that the liberal arts college stimulate the American artist, and a compliment to the genius of the German mind.” Over a century and a half later, the class of 2020 has over 3,000 graduates, so it’s a good thing this tradition was discontinued or else Commencement would have to last much longer than a weekend.

The day before commencement, local businesses closed their doors so that the “townspeople, accompanied by their own Knights Templar band,” could “flock up the hill to witness the laying of the cornerstone at McGraw Hall.”

The ceremony itself was held downtown at the Cornell Library, which had been donated to the people of Tompkins County by Ezra Cornell, and where “a huge crowd awaited the arrival of the procession, ‘not the least prominent among whom were the fairest ladies ever assembled for a college commencement.’”

Commencement moved from downtown to campus in 1883, when it was held at the campus armory. In 1912, the first outdoors commencement was held on Libe Slope, which was utilized as “a natural amphitheater.” Over the years, Commencement also took place in Bailey Hall, Barton Hall and Schoellkopf Field, and has been permanently held in Schoellkopf since 1975.

FIRST FESTIVITIES

Ezra’s 1866 - 1960 downtown Ithaca Cornell Library

CENTENNIAL CEREMONY

The 1968 centennial graduation proved to be an event to remember. It was scheduled for a Saturday evening on the Arts Quad instead of in Barton Hall, and John W. Gardner, the former secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, was scheduled to speak in addition to the University president.

“At the 8 p.m. ceremonies, University President James Perkins will confer 1,891 bachelor’s degrees, 477 master’s degrees and 335 doctoral degrees, totalling approximately 20 more than last year,” The Sun reported that May.

Planned festivities included a musical “sing,” a Glee Club concert and banquet and a Senior Party on Alumni Field.

MISHAP MEMORIES

“C ommencement weekend comprises more than 100 events all around campus—from the major ceremonies viewed by thousands to gatherings in the individual schools, colleges, and departments,” according to the Cornell Alumni Magazine. “Given the scale of Commencement, the number of things that have gone wrong over the years is surprisingly low—a tribute to the staff’s meticulous behind-the-scenes organization.”

Banning Champagne bottles on Schoellkopf helped eliminate the “occasional injuries from careening corks.” However, recent grads “inexplicably carted a toilet all the way from the Arts Quad and into the stadium,” and “one incurable romantic caused a minor hubbub when he proposed to his girlfriend on the field in the middle of the ceremony.”

Behind the scenes, “a staffer was running to retrieve a ceremonial donation check from backstage during President Bill Clinton’s Convocation speech and nearly got tackled by the Secret Service” in 2004.

Ithaca’s weather can also be unpredictable, providing an additional challenge. In 2016, “a now-legendary downpour took organizers unawares, unleashing nearly a quarter of an inch of water in about half an hour … The whole ceremony was dispatched in half an hour, likely making it the shortest Commencement in University history,” according to the Cornell Alumni Magazine.

Provost Michael Kotlikoff was still able to deliver his address, sending the graduates off with a message about diversity.“As you leave Schoellkopf today … continue to widen your horizons and take a step or two outside of your comfort zones — build on the diverse and respectful experience of Cornell,” he said, according to The Sun.

SPECIAL SPEAKERS

Traditionally, Cornell University Presidents have usually delivered the Commencement speech, with outside speakers being brought in for the Convocation address by a senior class committee since 1985, according to the Cornell Alumni Magazine.

Prominent speakers have included alumni such as astronaut Mae Jemison, M.D. ’81 and Bill Nye “The Science Guy” ’77, as well as non-alumni including former President Bill Clinton, former Vice President Joe Biden, poet Maya Angelou, former New York City mayors Rudy Giuliani and Michael Bloomberg and movie star James Franco.

Biden, who is now the presumptive Democratic Party nominee for president in the 2020 election, received a scoop of Cornell Dairy’s “Big Red, White and Biden” ice cream and told the Class of 2017 about the need for dignity and

CAMERON POLLACK / SUN FILE PHOTO His own flavor | Joe Biden,

now a Democratic candidate for president, holds up an ice cream cone flavor named in his honor at C.U. on May 27, 2017. inclusion, according to The Sun.

“I’m so optimistic about your generation that I’m optimistic about this country,” he said, later adding: “It’s time for the country to wake up and ladies and gentlemen of the graduating class of 2017, go out and wake us up.”

In 2014, actor Ed Helms, who played fictional

Cornellian Andy Bernard on the popular sitcom The Office, delivered the address, asking the crowd, “You do realize I’m not actually Andy Bernard, right? He isn’t a real person. He is a character from a TV show, and I am the actor who played him. Or did you actually invite a fictional person to give this speech?” Helms also offered some apt advice for the outgoing seniors. “As you look ahead and ponder your lives after four years of extensive learning — having been taught by some of the greatest minds on the planet, studying late nights for endless exams and essays — please remember to be a fool,” Helms said.