President Michael Kotlikoff was formally inaugurated as Cornell’s 15th president during a ceremony in Barton Hall on Oct. 24. Following his appointment as interim president on May 9, 2024, Kotlikoff was named President in March 2025, eight months into his two-year interim term.
The inauguration, which took place during the Trustee-Council Annual Meeting, followed a dinner for trustees, council members and guests.
In his presidential inauguration speech, Kotlikoff shared that “being named Cornell’s 15th president has been a humbling experience, as it adds my own to a list of names that have shaped and defined Cornell for the past 160 years.”
He added that “It's a different thing 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.”
Anne Meinig Smalling ’87, chair of the Board of Trustees, opened the event. She was assisted by life trustee Ezra Cornell ’70, the great-great-great grandson of the University’s founder, who presented the University charter to Kotlikoff, employee-elected trustee Hei Hei Depew, who bore the University seal and faculty-elected trustee Durba Ghosh, who bore the University mace.
“Over his quarter-century at Cornell, Mike [Kotlikoff] has experienced every facet of the University. As a professor, lab director, teacher and mentor, researcher, department chair, dean and then as the longest serving provost in Cornell history,” Smalling said. “It's no surprise that Mike brings to the office and to the role of the presidency both an unrivaled institutional knowledge and an unwavering commitment to academic freedom and Cornell's core values.”
Following remarks from friends of Kotlikoff, including Prof. Rick Cerione, molecular medicine, and Prof. Emeritus Glenn Altschuler, Ph.D. ’76, American studies, Smalling invited Kotlikoff to the stage for the official investiture ceremony.
“The college presidency is one of the most influential of all positions because the future leaders of the world sit in our classrooms,” Smalling said.
As Cornell displayed the University charter on stage, Smalling emphasized its weighty significance.
“Let it be for your constant reminder of our mission of service to the people of the state, the nation and the world,” Smalling said.
Following the funding freeze and stop work orders, Kotlikoff said in an interview with The Sun that around $80 million is owed to Cornell by the federal government for programs the University has made expenditures and hasn't been reimbursed, in addition to the $250 million cut by the Trump administration from ongoing and continued stop-work orders. In his inaugural speech, he discussed how being a leader during a “challenging juncture in our history” is both a privilege and a responsibility he cannot shoulder alone.
“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, are in doubt,” Kotlikoff 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 and any study possible is under threat.”
Going forward, Kotlikoff’s vision for Cornell includes a commitment to open inquiry, valuing democracy and the protection of its independent governance.
“Every Cornell president, from Andrew D. White on down the years, has used the opportunity of their inauguration to share their vision for Cornell — for this great and truly American university,” Kotlikoff said. “And at this point in our history — one that echoes the divisions and uncertainties of White’s own, where the needs of our nation echo the needs at our founding — my vision for our future is no different from his.”
Isabella Hanson is a member of the Class of 2027 in the College of Arts and Sciences. She is a news editor for the 143rd Editorial Board and can be reached at ihanson@cornellsun.com.
