Robert Barker/University Photography

Graduate School Dean Barbara Knuth places a hood on a newly minted Ph.D.

Robert Barker/University Photography

Graduates wait to cross the stage in Barton Hall May 25.

Robert Barker/University Photography

Freeha Fatima, center, celebrates with her family and friends.

The saying “what goes around, comes around” proved true for 300 freshly minted Ph.D.s who gathered with friends and family in Barton Hall for the 21st annual Ph.D. recognition and hooding ceremony May 25.

“You began your journey here in Barton Hall as new graduate students, with all the promise and uncertainty of starting something challenging and new,” said Cornell President David Skorton, the event’s main speaker. “And today, we complete the circle, returning to Barton. And you will be hooded, not as students, but … as peers,” he added, referring to the academic hoods that Provost Kent Fuchs and Barbara Knuth, vice provost and dean of the Graduate School, placed over each graduate’s shoulders after Skorton’s remarks.

In his speech, Skorton looked back on his own career, commenting that he “never would have imagined” as a new M.D. graduate (from Northwestern University in 1974) that his path would take him from clinical practice, to research to eventually university administration, he said. Skorton was president of the University of Iowa for three years before becoming Cornell’s 12th president in 2006.

“I wish I could say it was all part of a well-conceived plan, but it was more a matter of changing circumstances and good fortune,” he said. Along the way, as a medical doctor, he learned from his patients “to listen first” before making decisions “under conditions of uncertainty,” he said. “You too will make decisions under conditions of uncertainty,” he added.

As a researcher, he learned “skepticism and tenacity, a willingness to gather evidence, to devise new ways of developing and testing hypotheses, and to pursue observations, in spite of obstacles, to reach a conclusion,” Skorton said. Similarly, “these skills will inform all that you do going forward,” he said to the graduates.

“I have no doubt that you now have the breadth and flexibility to recognize and embrace opportunities as they arise, and to make significant contributions no matter where your journey leads after Barton Hall,” he said.

Cecily Swanson, who earned her doctorate in the field of English literature, said the next phase of her journey will take her to the Big Apple, where a lectureship awaits at New York University. Her dissertation was the biggest challenge of her degree, taking “two years for the first half and nine months for the last half,” but with her degree officially completed, she felt “huge amounts of relief and satisfaction,” she said.

Freeha Fatima, who received her degree in the field of economics, will soon start a job as a consultant with the World Bank. She was cheered on by a large group of family and friends who traveled from such far-flung places as her native Pakistan, India and South Africa. Of her graduation, Fatima said, “I miss my mother,” who could not attend, “but other than that, it feels awesome.”

To start the event, the Cornell Wind Ensemble accompanied a procession headed by University Marshal Charles Walcott, who was trailed by Skorton, Fuchs, Knuth, college deans, members of the board of trustees, administrators, faculty and the graduates.

After the hooding ceremony, the assembly sang along with the Wind Ensemble’s rendition of the university’s alma mater, “Far Above Cayuga’s Waters.” Knuth then gave her closing remarks, before the recessional led straight to a buffet reception to one side of Barton Hall.