{"id":61155,"date":"2025-10-28T09:22:05","date_gmt":"2025-10-28T13:22:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/?p=61155"},"modified":"2025-11-03T14:26:27","modified_gmt":"2025-11-03T19:26:27","slug":"kotlikoff-inauguration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/kotlikoff-inauguration\/","title":{"rendered":"Kotlikoff Is Inaugurated as the 15th President of Cornell"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The ceremony was held in Barton Hall during Trustee-Council Annual Meeting, with two of his predecessors in attendance<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Editor\u2019s note: This story was adapted from <\/em>a feature<\/em><\/a> in the <\/em>Cornell Chronicle.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Joe Wilensky<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As he was officially installed as Cornell University\u2019s 15th president on October 24 during a ceremony in Barton Hall, Mike Kotlikoff echoed the words of the late Dale Corson\u2014another provost turned president\u2014in 1969.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Corson said that \u201che 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,\u201d Kotlikoff said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"President
Kotlikoff takes in the laudatory remarks of other speakers.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI know how he felt \u2026 to be inaugurated as president of the university where you\u2019ve spent most of your career, when you\u2019ve been asked to help shape the future of an institution that is already your home\u2014and to which you owe a debt of gratitude impossible ever to repay.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The event followed a dinner for trustees, council members, and guests in Barton as part of the Trustee-Council Annual Meeting schedule.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"President
The festivities brought former presidents Lehman (left) and Pollack (right) back to Ithaca.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Unlike most presidential inaugurations, the ceremony wasn\u2019t preceded by a formal academic procession, but included all the official symbols of the University: Life trustee Ezra Cornell \u201970, BS \u201971, presented the charter, employee-elected trustee Hei Hei Depew, MBA \u201925, presented the University seal, and faculty-elected trustee Durba Ghosh presented the mace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ceremony wasn\u2019t preceded by a formal academic procession, but included all the official symbols of the University.<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Anne Meinig Smalling \u201987, chair of the Board of Trustees, presided over the event, welcoming Kotlikoff\u2019s family members and the two former Cornell presidents in attendance, Martha Pollack and Jeffrey Lehman \u201977.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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