OT - New CU Prez

[Tub(a)]

[quote Trotsky][quote Tub(a)]What a shocker, another Middle Aged White Male[/quote]
You wanted a pre-teen?[/quote]

That took you a week? :-P

[Trotsky]

[quote Tub(a)][quote Trotsky][quote Tub(a)]What a shocker, another Middle Aged White Male[/quote]
You wanted a pre-teen?[/quote]

That took you a week? :-P[/quote]
Hey, I forgot this forum even existed...

[Chris \'03]

Suddenly I feel really old:
[q]You can learn a lot about a university from e-mail traffic, and about students from Facebook. Facebook has become an interesting mechanism for me to stay in touch with students. I have over 4,000 Facebook friends at Iowa, and I already have 50 or 60 at Cornell. I don't take the stuff off the wall so that other people can see what other people are saying to me.[/q]

That was future Pres. Skorton in today's Sun. http://www.cornellsun.com/media/paper866/news/2006/02/27/News/David.J.Skorton.Talks.To.The.Sun-1638994.shtml?norewrite&sourcedomain=www.cornellsun.com

[Josh '99]

[quote Chris '03]Suddenly I feel really old:
[q]You can learn a lot about a university from e-mail traffic, and about students from Facebook. Facebook has become an interesting mechanism for me to stay in touch with students. I have over 4,000 Facebook friends at Iowa, and I already have 50 or 60 at Cornell. I don't take the stuff off the wall so that other people can see what other people are saying to me.[/q]

That was future Pres. Skorton in today's Sun. http://www.cornellsun.com/media/paper866/news/2006/02/27/News/David.J.Skorton.Talks.To.The.Sun-1638994.shtml?norewrite&sourcedomain=www.cornellsun.com[/quote]For what it's worth, I looked at Pres. Skorton's Facebook wall and there are a number of Iowa students expressing regret at seeing him go.  A President who makes a connection with the student body seems like it'd be a wonderful thing to have.  (I'm told Rhodes was like that, but I wouldn't know - my first year was also Hunter's.)

[Beeeej]

[quote jmh30]A President who makes a connection with the student body seems like it'd be a wonderful thing to have.  (I'm told Rhodes was like that, but I wouldn't know - my first year was also Hunter's.)[/quote]

Rhodes was, and still is, very much like that.  I lingered at Schoellkopf long enough after my commencement ceremonies ended that, as I walked past Day Hall, Rhodes was coming out, and he stopped me and asked what my post-graduation plans were.  Within a few years I was working with him at occasional development events, but I left in 2000 - yet to this day, twelve years after I graduated, he continues to greet me by name and ask me if I've ever gotten around to finishing the book I was writing.

It's almost enough to make me go back to working on it.  ;-)

Beeeej

[cth95]

I never had quite that detailed of an experience,  but the few times I ran into Rhodes he was always interested in finding out a little about me and my interests.  He seemed geniunely interested in what I thought of the school and how things were going for me.  I feel very lucky, as did my classmates, that his last year was also my last year.  We had him as the speaker at graduation, and he was excellent.  I thought that was a fitting close after I had first been so impressed with him during freshman orientation.

[Chris \'03]

[quote cth95] We had him as the speaker at graduation, and he was excellent.  I thought that was a fitting close after I had first been so impressed with him during freshman orientation.[/quote]

Doesn't everyone have the president as the speaker at commencement?

[cth95]

I mean he was the keynote speaker.  I don't think that is normal.  For example, I think Hillary Clinton spoke a few years ago.  Feel free, anyone, to correct me if I am wrong.

[Jerseygirl]

Cornell doesn't give out honorary degrees, therefore, the keynote commencement speaker is always the president. The fancy/famous person traditionally given the honorary degree at most other colleges and universities gives Cornell's convocation speech. That's the one of which you're thinking.

[Rita]

[quote Jerseygirl]Cornell doesn't give out honorary degrees, therefore, the keynote commencement speaker is always the president. The fancy/famous person traditionally given the honorary degree at most other colleges and universities gives Cornell's convocation speech. That's the one of which you're thinking.[/quote]

I really like that Cornell does NOT give out honorary degrees (you have to earn it with your blood, sweat, and tears) and I hope this never changes. I also think Cornell's commencement exercises are the best. The pagentry as the professors and graduates march in to Schoellkopf field is second to none and the fact that the only speaker is the University President is very cool and the graduation ceremony itself is short and sweet.  I remember my graduation weekend (1999) quite well. It was also the 2nd or 3rd year of the PhD recognition ceremony which is held on Saturday afternoon and allows each graduate to have his/her name and the area of their research announces and receive a presidential handshake. There were several of us who did our PhD research in the same building and we, my dog included, all marched together on Sunday morning. Yes, that is the other very cool thing about Cornell's graduation ceremony, you can march with your pet. My brother thought I was nuts, and afterwards informed me that there were ~ 20 others who also marched with their dog (I had told him I wouldn't be the only one!). My dog had a graduation cap and tassel, after all she had earned her C.G.C (Canine Good Citizen) degree while at Cornell :-). We also had a fabulous weekend, unlike the class of 1992 (or was it 1993) that graduated on a cold (low 50's) rainy day. It had been in the 80's on Saturday and then a cold front came through. I lived behind Schoellkopf that year and remember watching on it on TV while bundled in blankets.

[Beeeej]

1992 was the commencement where it was rainy and nearly freezing, though it started to rain toward the end of 1996's too.

Beeeej

[Rita]

Thank you for confirming that is was 1992 as I originally thought. I felt sorry for all the people in the stands in their nice spring-summer clothes. What a miserable day.

[Jerseygirl]

It's funny. When I entered as a freshman, I was somewhat disappointed that I wasn't going to have a celebrity speak at my commencement. I also thought I was a big jock-hating/anti-corporate hippie (now I have several athletically inclined friends, am doing a sprint triathlon in June, and work on Wall Street), so, uh, things obviously changed. By the time I earned my degree 4 years later, I was really proud that I went to a school that doesn't give a doctorate to someone just for showing up. Having the president give the commencement address made me feel like the administration and faculty were really proud of the degree candidates. I especially liked Lehman's addresses; his seemed like they took a lot of thought to craft and didn't employ platitudes.

[RichH]

[quote Rita]Thank you for confirming that is was 1992 as I originally thought. I felt sorry for all the people in the stands in their nice spring-summer clothes. What a miserable day.[/quote]

I was up near the top of the crescent when it started sleeting.  Also, many of the graduates had the black from the robes run all over their clothes.  I don't remember it raining hard in 1996.  There might have been one cloudburst.

Bit of trivia: The only two honorary degrees Cornell has given: Andrew Dickson White, and David Starr Jordan, the first president of Stanford.  Jordan, who already had an M.S. from CU in 1872 (he skipped the bachelor level), apparently signed a petition against having honorary degrees, and it's well known that White himself instituted the policy during his presidency.

[Beeeej]

[quote RichH]Bit of trivia: The only two honorary degrees Cornell has given: Andrew Dickson White, and David Starr Jordan, the first president of Stanford.  Jordan, who already had an M.S. from CU in 1872 (he skipped the bachelor level), apparently signed a petition against having honorary degrees, and it's well known that White himself instituted the policy during his presidency.[/quote]

Cornell also conferred a posthumous degree on my '94 classmate who died in a stupid accident (trying to enter a house through the kitchen chimney, if I'm remembering correctly) only a couple of months before he would have graduated.  There was a bit of stink when they were originally going to stick to their "no degree shall be awarded that has not actually been earned to completion" policy rather than help comfort a grieving family, but they finally wised up, and I don't think anybody really disagreed with the decision.

Beeeej