The Ithaca Journal, May 26, 2008, Monday

The Ithaca Journal

May 26, 2008, Monday

The Ithaca Journal

Cornell gives 6,000 sunny sendoff;
Skorton reminds students of social responsibility

By Tim Ashmore

ITHACA — Cornell University President David Skorton's message to some 6,000 graduates — undergrad and graduate students — was social responsibility at the 140th commencement ceremony Sunday.

Schoellkopf Field was filled with approximately 40,000 family members and friends there to see the culmination of years of work and the mark of a new path for former students.

Skorton asked graduates to remember the importance of their education and urged them to promote learning and remember the “very small” difference between the powerful and powerless.

Pointing out Nicholas Kristof, who spoke last month at Cornell thoughts on social entrepreneurship, Skorton said, “... today's most remarkable young people (Kristof) noted, ‘are the social entrepreneurs — those who see a problem in society and roll up their sleeves to address it in new ways.'”

Skorton used Jessica Houle, a graduate from Freeville who grew up in Conger's mobile home park, as an example of a social entrepreneur. Houle created a program to provide mentoring and recreation and leadership opportunities in mobile home parks. Houle has been recognized for her work to bring equality to the social strata as the recipient of the Maribel Garcia Community Spirit Award.

“The tangible results of social entrepreneurship can be breathtaking and inspirational,” Skorton said. Later in his speech he added, “Cornell and its alumni have taken their responsibility for public service very seriously for 150 years. We seek to apply knowledge and creativity for the public good and to lighten the burdens of the world.”

Graduates' achievements, while great, stand in “sharp contrast to the state of our world,” Skorton said, pointing war in Iraq and violence throughout the Middle East and parts of Africa and Latin America and disaster in China and Myanmar.

Skorton linked the need for social responsibility to worldwide unrest, and noted 15 graduates of the Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar who were the first American medical students to get degrees abroad.

He also mentioned the work of the Institute for Women and Work in the Industrial and Labor Relations school that documented that while women make up half of New York state's workforce, they make up less than 15 percent of boards of directors or executive officer positions in the 100 largest public companies headquartered in the state.

Roughly 20 percent of Cornell's Board of Trustees are women.

Those graduating from Cornell are taking their lives in a new direction, but that doesn't mean a new setting for everyone. Sarah Snider, an engineering graduate, and Elena Abarinov, an arts and sciences graduate, will both spend another year in Ithaca — Snider, to continue school, and Abarinov to continue her research.

Both women said the struggle will be creating a life in Ithaca without the friendships they made during school.

Abarinov called graduation a “bittersweet” moment because of the lost relationships.

Following Skorton's speech, deans of Cornell's schools took the podium and declared their students graduates before the crowd tossed caps in the air and released balloons.

tashmore@ithacajournal.com