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Graduates Stage Pro-Palestine Commencement Walkouts
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Pro-Palestine graduates walked out of President Martha Pollack’s final commencement speeches.
The Cornell Daily Sun (https://cornellsun.com/tag/class-of-2024/)
Pro-Palestine graduates walked out of President Martha Pollack’s final commencement speeches.
This is an especially pivotal time for this column to be returning — graduation looms on the horizon and I’m faced with the same conundrum that graduating seniors have faced for centuries: How do I cope with leaving? I’m asked the very sweet yet wholly unoriginal question of how I feel about graduating on what seems like a daily basis, so I figured I’d compile my thoughts here for easy access. For some, the idea of coping with graduating may not even be a thought. If your vision of Cornell is an incubator for pre-professional juggernauts with more LinkedIn experiences than fulfilling hobbies, then graduation probably feels like it couldn’t come sooner. If you’re like me, though, LinkedIn gives you indigestion and graduation means leaving behind four precious years of your life.
Perhaps I should say two precious years — my freshman and sophomore years were valuable in their own ways, but I can’t promise I’ll be looking back on pandemic-era dorm life on a construction site all that fondly.
Following an academic year filled with Zoom classes, virtual social events and intense COVID restrictions, the Class of 2024 and the Class of 2025 have gotten a taste of their first relatively-normal collegiate year –– an experience that has posed some unexpected challenges.
RPCC Sunday brunches, Lynah Rink hockey games and Slope Day are just a few of the events that Cornell’s Class of 2024 has yet to experience, after spending their freshman year under the shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic.
$147 and a big shopping cart were basically my Saturday afternoon in a nutshell. Five large, packed grocery bags wobbled back and forth inside the cart as I meandered my way to the bus stop. The bus came before I was there, so I had to run uphill and unload my cargo onto the decently occupied vehicle. I left the cart on the road; if you found one stranded around the Ithaca Mall, it could have been me. I apologize.
Although typically in-person, “Black Life on the Hill” turned out to be an “amazing success” virtually, joining students both new and returning together to learn about campus organizations.
Cornell saw an increase in applicants and a decrease in acceptance rate for the Class of 2024.
Despite enrollment uncertainty, Cornell received acceptances from 3,344 first-year students after May 1, a number that is higher than the University’s target.
“I don’t have any close relatives who have moved into college or had a roommate, so I was definitely looking forward to that,” said Angelica Estevez ’24
Cornell’s Class of 2024 includes at least one growing TikTok star, who rose to social media fame through sharing her college admissions journey.