President Elizabeth Garrett sat down with Cornell Chronicle editors last month to share her thoughts on her inauguration and priorities for the coming year. Garrett will be installed as the university’s 13th president Friday, Sept. 18, at 10 a.m. on the Arts Quad. The ceremony will be live streamed on CornellCast. For more information, visit the inauguration website.

How will your inauguration events reflect what’s important to you?

Inaugurations celebrate what’s special about an institution. They allow us to reflect on where we’ve been and what our aspirations are. There’s a lot about this inauguration that allows us to celebrate Cornell’s history and our future.

Credit: Robert Barker/University Photography

I’m the first woman president of Cornell, and I think that’s a very concrete representation of our commitment to diversity and inclusion, a commitment that has not always been perfectly realized and that we’re always striving to reach more effectively.

I think the diversity of disciplinary focus in our colleges and schools is another defining characteristic, so we are going to have some of the events on the Arts Quad, some on the Ag Quad. We’re also going to have an event following the inauguration in New York City, because we are a university that has significant footprints in both New York City and Ithaca.

The inauguration represents some of the sheer joy that I think typifies Cornell. We will celebrate with performances and artists and a picnic and a new ice cream flavor. The academic panel incorporates five leading faculty members from five colleges and schools to talk about inequality and democracy in the United States and abroad.

What is the most surprising thing you have learned about the university?

The real surprise is the depth of the affection for Cornell of our alumni, parents and students. It is clear that this is a very special place, because the connections with Cornell are deep and enduring and enthusiastic.

When you hear from Cornell alums, they inevitably mention a particular professor or particular class that influenced them. This is unique in my own experience; it is not usually a faculty member who is among the first things mentioned by alums at other institutions. The core of who we are is a deep and enduring commitment to fundamental academic values, and those are best expressed by the faculty.

You have said your four focus areas are faculty, the value of education for students, Cornell’s global presence and our footprint in New York City. What are your goals for your first year?

The inaugural address is about setting up some of this vision and these values; I’ll provide some specificity on first-year initiatives in those areas in this speech and the state of the university. In addition we are embarking on an 18-month strategic planning process, and there will be an opportunity for all of Cornell – students, staff, faculty and alumni – to play a role.

I think it is time for us to make some choices as an institution. Our lodestar in everything is excellence; we don’t settle for anything less. But no institution can be excellent in everything. We have unique strengths, where we have excellence or we can be excellent. As a university, we must invest our resources in those areas.

The faculty are the foundation of any great university; they are the engines of discovery and teaching. We must continue to focus on our faculty and support them in their careers, and we absolutely must bring more stellar faculty to the campus in areas of excellence.

We are training the next generation of leaders – students are our partners in this enterprise of discovery and creation. A student’s life will be changed forever by having this experience at Cornell. But I’m not sure we have articulated sufficiently to some forces outside of Cornell what the value of that education is and how that explains the cost of attendance. Students come here for one-on-one interactions with our faculty and graduate students, and that is not an inexpensive proposition.

We have to defend the value of that experience, and we would do a disservice to our students and the country to try to do it on the cheap. It is a valuable experience that will change a student’s life in ways that are measurable and immeasurable. A graduate from a great research university will be repaid his or her investment in education through greater earnings over a lifetime. But a Cornell graduate also has a more fulfilling, joyful life, and one that allows her or him to be a citizen of a country and the world in a way that other people can’t.

We have to look at our undergraduate experience to make sure it is constantly being updated to new ways of learning and interacting. We have to focus on career and other services we offer our students so that when they graduate, they are on a trajectory for a future that they want.

We’re in a global environment; our professors come from all over the world, and their work affects the world. Our students come from all over the world. We have to think of ways to expand that global reach.

Finally, our university has two substantial footprints – in a lovely college town, Ithaca, which will always be the wellspring of our Cornell experience, and in New York City. We are going to have our own campus on Roosevelt Island with Cornell Tech, but our other colleges are involved in the city, and many of our students intern there. Weill Cornell is a spectacular medical institution, and we have a terrific extension service in New York City. No other great research university in the United States, and perhaps the world, has a footprint in a great international city and a quintessential college town. That is a unique advantage that nobody else has. It defines us to the same extent as being a land-grant university defines us.

How do you build consensus at a multi-campus university?

I think having a certain level of transparency is very important. I think it is very important to consult broadly as we make important decisions. You allow people to be heard. As you implement policies and new strategies, support has to be there at the ground level.

Having said that, decisions have to be made. I hope that when people feel that they are heard, they will acknowledge that a decision is legitimate even if they disagree. I also believe decisions can be revisited in light of experience. I’m open to learning from those decisions and modifying them as we get new information.

Cornell has a strong tradition of shared governance; how do you see this input contributing to your administration on campus issues?

I intend to meet with the assemblies and faculty senate frequently. We’ll also meet with them when issues come up; we need their perspectives, their input, their participation. Cornell does not seem to suffer from a lack of avenues for constituency groups to make their voices heard. Looking at any other private institution I am familiar with, Cornell has an unprecedented level of participation, transparency and consultation.

What is the state of Ithaca town-gown relations?

I’ve been meeting a lot of the local government, business and community leaders. It’s clear Cornell plays a substantial role in the success and well-being of this city and this region. We partner with a number of organizations and governmental units so that we move together in investing in our community in ways that make sense for Cornell and for the communities.

One of the most inspiring meetings I had was with the superintendent of the Ithaca City School District. We can attract great faculty because we have excellent schools for their children and because Ithaca and Tompkins County and the surrounding villages and towns are good places to live. It’s the same with some of our investments in transportation, infrastructure, affordable housing – these are all good for us.

What role do alumni play in the life of the university, and what can the university do to stay engaged with alumni?

A private institution like Cornell relies on its alumni for its success. And that comes in lots of different forms. Cornell is one of the leading universities in terms of the philanthropic support from its alums.

Support of a faculty member through an endowed chair, or a Ph.D. fellowship or discretionary money for research can make all the difference in our ability to recruit a top faculty member. Support for our students in terms of endowment for undergraduate and graduate scholarships can make this a place any student can attend. We need to celebrate giving at all levels, because it all makes a difference.

But that’s not the only way our alums support us. They hire and mentor our students. They celebrate and brag about Cornell. They talk to their elected officials about the importance of federal and state funding for research and for student support.

Cornell alumni tend to be the face of Cornell in parts of the world that students, staff and faculty are not. I think a big part of a successful private research university is visibility and prominence. Cornell should be one of the first universities mentioned when problems of climate change, inequality, education, health care are discussed. We’re really going to be getting the word out in the next few years.

How do Cornell staff contribute to the university’s mission?

I resist describing parts of our university as nonacademic. Everything we do is academic. So one of the messages staff will hear from me is that without them, faculty and students – the more visible elements of our academic mission – cannot succeed. Staff are important to our academic enterprise, but their role is often under the radar screen or taken for granted.

A student learns as much, in my experience, from extracurricular activities she or he engages in as in the classroom. When I think back to my time as an undergraduate, I think of particular history and English professors I had who made a difference, and I think about professionals in student affairs with whom I am still in touch.

What is a typical day like for you?

I get in to the office early to catch up with things. I’ll have a day full of meetings, and they run the gamut. There often is something really fun – like a recent meeting with one of our emeritus professors who said I was the 10th president to shake his hand.

I like having meetings where everybody who’s involved is part of the discussion, where we all throw out ideas, test those ideas rigorously and figure out the right solution – or at least the right solution for the time.

The one thing I think that is important is to make sure that I have time for myself as part of the schedule. It is important to exercise regularly, which I do; to take time out to go to the movies, go to museums, take a hike.

Control is sometimes illusory, and if you demand control, these jobs can be very difficult. You have to be resilient, comfortable with uncertainty, with some element of randomness and lack of control. But you do need time away from the pressures and the rush so that you are not always reacting but actually thinking strategically.