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‘No Shortcuts to a Capable Intellect’: Celebrating December’s Grads

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In a relatively recent tradition—established less than 25 years ago—new alumni are honored in a winter ceremony in Barton Hall

By Cornellians staff

The setting may be more intimate than that of the Commencement festivities held in Schoellkopf in late May—and the outdoor temperature decidedly chillier—but spirits were just as high at the event to honor the fall 2025 semester's crop of graduates. Held in Barton Hall, it celebrated the accomplishments of more than 500 new alumni.

The annual event, formally known as the December Recognition Ceremony, has been held for nearly a quarter-century as a way to honor grads who complete their degrees outside the traditional academic-year cycle.

“In 10 years, you may find yourselves in completely different fields, perhaps ones that do not yet exist, as the world evolves,” Provost Kavita Bala said in her remarks before the conferral of degrees. “You are the generation that will give shape and breath to what happens next.”

You are the generation that will give shape and breath to what happens next.
Provost Kavita Bala

As at the Commencement on Memorial Day Weekend, the festivities featured an address by President Mike Kotlikoff.

He opened by acknowledging not only the contributions of faculty, students, and family members, but of the University staff members who "perform the Herculean task of turning historic Barton Hall from a 900-seat exam hall where you could hear a pin drop" into the festive, red-curtained site of the celebration within just a few days.

"There are no shortcuts to a capable intellect," Kotlikoff told the graduates. "A Cornell education is rigorous, and it is demanding, for exactly that reason. Because it is designed to prepare you, not only for your careers, but for your lives, whatever paths they may take—to equip you with the capacity, and the resilience, and the flexibility of mind, to take on anything that lies ahead."