Board of Trustees Chair Anne Meinig Smalling ’87 (center) presides over the inauguration of Mike Kotlikoff (left) as Life Trustee Ezra Cornell ’70, BA ’71, displays the University Charter. In the background are faculty-elected trustee Durba Ghosh (far left), holding the mace, and employee-elected trustee Hei Hei Depew, MBA ’25, who presented the seal. (Ryan Young / Cornell University) Campus & Beyond Kotlikoff Is Inaugurated as the 15th President of Cornell Stories You May Like How Cornell’s First President Transformed Higher Education Test Your Knowledge of Big Red Presidential Trivia Meet the Interim President, a ‘Citizen of the University’ The ceremony was held in Barton Hall during Trustee-Council Annual Meeting, with two of his predecessors in attendance Editor’s note: This story was adapted from a feature in the Cornell Chronicle. By Joe Wilensky As he was officially installed as Cornell University’s 15th president on October 24 during a ceremony in Barton Hall, Mike Kotlikoff echoed the words of the late Dale Corson—another provost turned president—in 1969. Corson said that “he felt no need to be installed, having been doing the job already for a while, in a place where he had spent so many years as a faculty member, an administrator, and a parent,” Kotlikoff said. Kotlikoff takes in the laudatory remarks of other speakers. “I know how he felt … to be inaugurated as president of the university where you’ve spent most of your career, when you’ve been asked to help shape the future of an institution that is already your home—and to which you owe a debt of gratitude impossible ever to repay.” The event followed a dinner for trustees, council members, and guests in Barton as part of the Trustee-Council Annual Meeting schedule. The festivities brought former presidents Lehman (left) and Pollack (right) back to Ithaca. Unlike most presidential inaugurations, the ceremony wasn’t preceded by a formal academic procession, but included all the official symbols of the University: Life trustee Ezra Cornell ’70, BS ’71, presented the charter, employee-elected trustee Hei Hei Depew, MBA ’25, presented the University seal, and faculty-elected trustee Durba Ghosh presented the mace. The ceremony wasn’t preceded by a formal academic procession, but included all the official symbols of the University. Anne Meinig Smalling ’87, chair of the Board of Trustees, presided over the event, welcoming Kotlikoff’s family members and the two former Cornell presidents in attendance, Martha Pollack and Jeffrey Lehman ’77. A celebratory video was screened during the event. “It has been through multiple generations of loving service by our presidents, leadership, faculty, staff, students, and alumni that Cornell has become the world-renowned research university it is today,” Smalling said, noting that the year 2025 marks the University’s 160th birthday. “In fact, my father, Peter Meinig [’61, BME ’62]—who served as this board’s chairman from 2002–11—summed it up perfectly when he spoke at the inauguration of President Lehman, right here in Barton Hall in 2003, and described Cornell as ‘a university whose soul is as beautiful as its campus.’” It has been through multiple generations of loving service by our presidents, leadership, faculty, staff, students, and alumni that Cornell has become the world-renowned research university it is today. Anne Meinig Smalling ’87, chair of the Board of Trustees Bob Harrison ’76, the board’s emeritus chair, offered a toast, lauding Kotlikoff for his 25 years on the Hill as a professor, department chair, dean, and then the longest-serving provost in Cornell’s history (2015–24) before stepping into the role of interim president in 2024. Provosts rarely go on to become presidents of the same university, Harrison noted, because they typically have to make a multitude of unpopular administrative decisions and balance competing academic interests and priorities. Delivering his inauguration speech. “Remarkably, while Mike has done all of these things, every dean with whom I have spoken during his tenure has told me how fair, straightforward, and decent Mike has been as their boss,” Harrison said, thanking Kotlikoff for his “truly extraordinary leadership.” Rick Cerione, professor in the colleges of Veterinary Medicine and Arts & Sciences, spoke about the evolution of the life sciences and genomic initiatives on the Hill after Kotlikoff came on board in 2000 to lead the veterinary college’s then-new Department of Biomedical Sciences. Stories You May Like How Cornell’s First President Transformed Higher Education Test Your Knowledge of Big Red Presidential Trivia Every dean with whom I have spoken during his tenure has told me how fair, straightforward, and decent Mike has been as their boss. Bob Harrison ’76, emeritus chair of the Board of Trustees Cerione recounted Kotlikoff’s initiatives as provost on radical collaboration and the recruitment of additional top-tier scientists to the University, as well as how he inspired the creation of the new Cornell Center for Immunology to bridge research at the Ithaca and Weill Cornell Medicine campuses. Professor Emeritus Glenn Altschuler, PhD ’76, who served with Kotlikoff as a fellow dean and later reported to him as provost, praised him “for his intelligence, integrity, candor, compassion, decisiveness, and decency,” but also offered a slew of humorous quotes on leadership to guide Kotlikoff as president. The scene in Barton Hall. For example: “The secret of managing is to keep the guys who hate you away from the guys who are undecided.” But Altschuler also gave serious advice, including philosopher Immanuel Kant’s “It is absolutely essential that faculty members be free to evaluate everything,” and the proverb “If you want to go quickly, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” Professor Emeritus Glenn Altschuler, PhD ’76, praised Kotlikoff “for his intelligence, integrity, candor, compassion, decisiveness, and decency.” Smalling, beginning the official investiture ceremony, called Kotlikoff to the podium and praised his “vibrant outreach to the University community,” his work as a researcher, his initiatives for teaching and learning, and his expertise and leadership through the pandemic. “Mike, you have already proven to be the exceptional and visionary president Cornell needs at this moment: a leader to guide faculty, staff, students, and alumni through what are exceptionally turbulent times—together,” she said. The entire ceremony is available for viewing online. In his inauguration remarks, Kotlikoff said that “being asked to lead Cornell at this challenging juncture in our history is both a privilege and a responsibility I cannot hope to shoulder alone. It’s one I am glad to take on, in the hope of repaying, in some small measure, what Cornell has given to me.” His speech echoed the multitude of challenges he had outlined in his State of the University Address earlier that morning as part of the Trustee-Council Annual Meeting. Being asked to lead Cornell at this challenging juncture in our history is both a privilege and a responsibility I cannot hope to shoulder alone. President Mike Kotlikoff “We’re at a critical point in America—a point where our national commitment to higher education, and to the democratic values of open inquiry and equal opportunity that Cornell was built on, is in doubt,” he said. “Where the partnership of generations between our government and our most promising students and scientists is at risk. Where much of what has made this community of ‘any person … any study’ possible is under threat.” Answering these challenges will “have an impact far beyond our own institution,” Kotlikoff said, and he would ask the Cornell community—as Corson did more than 55 years ago—“to respond to these problems out of a deep sense of our common destiny, and develop out of these responses a new sense of our common purpose.” Kotlikoff (second from right) sings the "Alma Mater" with (from left) son Emmett Kotlikoff ’16, daughter-in-law Nora Abramov, daughter Phoebe Kotlikoff, wife Carolyn McDaniel, and board chair Anne Meinig Smalling ’87. Kotlikoff pledged that Cornell will serve as a model for others to follow: “A university committed to open inquiry, and the values of our democracy; that prizes access and diversity, rewards merit, and protects everyone from discrimination and bias; a source of knowledge, creativity, and innovation; a place of personal transformation and intellectual awakening; a contributor to our country’s strength and well-being—now and for generations to come.” Top: Board of Trustees Chair Anne Meinig Smalling ’87 (center) presides over the inauguration of Mike Kotlikoff (left) as Life Trustee Ezra Cornell ’70, BA ’71, displays the University Charter. In the background are faculty-elected trustee Durba Ghosh (far left), holding the mace, and employee-elected trustee Hei Hei Depew, MBA ’25, who presented the seal. (All photos in this story by Ryan Young / Cornell University) Published October 28, 2025 Leave a Comment Cancel replyOnce your comment is approved, your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *Comment * Name * Class Year Email * Save my name, email, and class year in this browser for the next time I comment. Δ Other stories You may like Alumni Meet the Alum Behind Some of Music’s Biggest Rights Deals Campus & Beyond ‘Dump & Run’ Prep: Four Months, 3,000 Hours, and 10,000 Items Alumni David Hackney ’87 Traces His Career in Public Service Back to Lessons Learned on the Hill