Harrison toasts Garrett: 'good health, judgment, bold vision'
By Blaine Friedlander
On the eve of Cornell President Elizabeth Garrett’s inauguration, about 550 people gathered to honor her at a dinner Sept. 17 in Barton Hall amid airy and uplifting campus videos projected on large screens, straight-from-the-heart toasts, musical and dance salutations, and applause.
Before the audience of Cornell faculty, students, alumni, staff and community members, as well as Garrett’s family, friends and former colleagues, Robert Harrison ’76, chair of the Cornell Board of Trustees, offered a toast: “President Garrett, we wish you good health, good judgment and bold vision. Go Big Red and welcome to Cornell!”
“We are all very fortunate that Elizabeth Garrett brings together the perfect blend of academic accomplishment, public service and the experience of running a institution as incredibly complex as Cornell,” Harrison said. “We are also fortunate that she had a very long study break – almost like a ‘gap year’ – from her election of last September until now to learn about this exceptional place on the Hill. The result is the very deep, pervasive sense on campus that Beth Garrett has hit the ground running. Her energy is irresistible.”
Garrett’s mentors former Sen. David Boren, D-Okla. and current president of the University of Oklahoma, and C.L. Max Nikias, president of the University of Southern California, described her attributes. Former Cornell President David Skorton, now secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, returned to campus to offer his congratulations.
Boren said he has known Garrett since she was a student at the University of Oklahoma, where she earned her B.A. in history with special distinction. “She is a scholar – she is one of the greatest scholars of the law and the legislative process in our country … and as a scholar, she is thorough and fearless, ready to follow the truth wherever it takes her,” he said. “And as president, Beth Garrett will guard Cornell’s reputation for academic integrity.”
Boren told the crowd how she worked on his senatorial staff. “She is effective. … I watched her bargain with great success on behalf of our points of view with other members of the Senate Finance Committee staff. No one was ever her match in staff debates,” he said.
The University of Southern California – where Garrett had been provost – sent a large delegation to Ithaca. Nikias told the audience: “Many of you have already seen that Beth Garrett is – indeed – a force of nature. Her energy never runs low. She can jump off a 12-hour transcontinental flight at seven in the morning, drive through L.A. rush-hour traffic, join a meeting and still be the most energetic person in the room.”
Nikias continued: “Most of you have already witnessed her extraordinary intellect, which flashes with lightning speed and precision across the vast landscape of a complex research university. But there are other equally meaningful traits, which one only sees over time … over months and years. These include integrity and trustworthiness. Her character principles do not bend or compromise. And you can always take her at her word.”
Skorton, who worked with Garrett for several months during the presidential transition, emphasized its seamless nature. “A voracious reader, with the inquisitiveness and diligence of the history major she once was and the analytical skills and perceptiveness of the lawyer and legal scholar she continues to be, she immersed herself in Cornell history – its people, its achievements, its enduring values,” he said.
Later Skorton said, “As we celebrate Cornell’s new president and all she has already brought and will bring to this university, let us also recommit ourselves – each one of us – to Cornell’s enduring values and join with Beth Garrett in reshaping them as our students and our world require. That is the promise of Beth Garrett’s presidency and also the tradition and promise of Cornell.”
Garrett thanked her mentors and Skorton, and emphasized the importance and foundation of family. Referencing the 2010 poem “Haunted” by Dana Gioia, Garrett said the narrator spells out the life decisions he made because, “‘This is the life that I didn’t want to waste.’” Garrett continued, “Cornell now stands in a crucial point in its history and in the history of higher education. If we have particular strengths that can propel us to greater heights and we have the history of boldness that can sustain us in a fast-changing world, we cannot let this moment pass through inaction or timidity.
“… We have to seize it and reach greater academic excellence, by ensuring that our research and outreach and creative work and our teaching are consequential,” she said. “And we must educate the next generation of leaders – not just for the state and the country – but for the world. In short, this is a moment in the life of our university that none of us wants to waste, and I look forward to the future – working with all of you.”
Gretchen Ritter, the Harold Tanner Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, and Joel Malina, vice president for university relations, who co-chaired the Inauguration Steering Committee, hosted the festive evening’s events, which featured performances from student groups Cornell Bhangra, the Bissett Jazz Quintet and the Chordials.
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