Cornell University Presidents: A Historical Overview
The president of Cornell University serves as the chief administrator of this prestigious Ivy League institution located in Ithaca, New York. From its co-founder, Andrew Dickson White, to the current president, Michael Kotlikoff, this role has been pivotal in shaping the university's direction and upholding its mission. Cornell University, New York's only land-grant university, was founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White. Its main campus is in Ithaca, New York. Its medical school, Weill Cornell Medicine, is located in Manhattan, New York City, and it also maintains a facility in the Education City section Qatar.
Andrew Dickson White: Founding President (1866-1885)
Andrew Dickson White, co-founder of Cornell University alongside Ezra Cornell, holds the distinction of being the university's first president. White played a crucial role in establishing the institution, even introducing the bill in the New York State Senate that led to its creation. Born in 1832 in Homer, New York, White attended Geneva (later to become Hobart) College and then graduated from Yale University.
A radical idea in American education was born when Andrew Dickson White and Ezra Cornell crossed paths in the New York State Senate. White was a worldly intellectual whose dream was to create a “truly great University” that would “afford an asylum for Science-where truth shall be taught for truth’s sake …” He and Cornell, a farmer and inventor who made his fortune developing the telegraph system with Samuel F. B. White and Cornell successfully politicked to obtain the benefits of the Morrill Land Grant Act of 1862 for their new university. On February 7, 1865, White introduced into the state senate a bill that established Cornell University as an institution for “the cultivation of the arts and sciences and of literature, and the instruction in agriculture, the mechanic arts and military tactics, and in all knowledge.” Governor Reuben E.
White was largely responsible for recruiting faculty to come to the new institution, and as president, he was instrumental in the development of the university’s library and its other collections by his own purchases and through encouraging the gifts of others. He traveled in Europe to purchase collections and to learn about the newest innovations in technical education. He initiated other educational developments. He suggested the establishment of mechanical laboratories and workshops for the Department of Mechanical Engineering and bought the first piece of equipment, a power lathe. White was a distinguished scholar, lecturer, and writer. His major work, A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom, was published in at least six languages during his lifetime. After White resigned the presidency in 1885, he continued to live in Ithaca until his death in 1918. His influence on the development of the university he helped establish continued throughout his life and the university’s history.
In 1868, Cornell University celebrated its first Inauguration Day. A few hundred people attended the ceremonies at Library Hall, which stood on the corner of Tioga and Seneca Streets. Because the new university’s nonsectarian foundation was extremely controversial at the time, Governor Reuben E. Fenton did not attend the ceremonies but was represented by Lieutenant Governor Stewart L. Ezra Cornell delivered a brief address, in which he said: “I hope we have laid the foundation of an institution which shall combine practical with liberal education, which shall fit the youth of our country for the professions, the farms, the mines, the manufactories, for the investigations of science and for mastering all the practical questions of life with success and honor. Woodford administered the oath of office to Andrew Dickson White and presented him with the charter, seal, and keys of the university. Later that day, the crowd climbed up East Hill to the site of the university, where they gathered around a rough wooden structure from which hung a chime of nine bells presented by Miss Jennie McGraw of Ithaca.
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Charles Kendall Adams: Building on a Legacy (1885-1892)
When White announced his intention to retire, the Trustees selected Charles Kendall Adams to succeed him. Adams continued to build upon White’s legacy. His achievements included major changes in the organization of the university. Requirements for admission and for degrees were strengthened, courses of study were improved, and faculty research and publications were encouraged. In 1886, a College of Law was created whose professors met separately. Adams lobbied actively in Washington for the Hatch Act, which provided for the establishment of agricultural experiment stations in connection with land-grant colleges. The Summer School became official in 1892.
Charles Kendall Adams was born in Derby, Vermont in 1835. His family moved to Denmark, Iowa in 1856. He had only an elementary school education until he was twenty-one years old. He worked his way through the University of Michigan, where he studied with Andrew Dickson White. He taught history at the University of Michigan, until his appointment in 1885 as President of Cornell.
New buildings constructed included Barnes, Lincoln, Boardman, and Morse Halls and, perhaps the most important structure built during this period, the University Library. William Henry Miller, a noted Ithaca architect, was selected to build the University Library. Buildings for which he was responsible include the Andrew Dickson White House, Barnes Hall, Stimson Hall, and Risley Hall, as well as a number of churches and homes in Ithaca. He prepared plans for improving the south entrance to the University at Cascadilla Gorge, designing a new roadway closer to the gorge bank, an entrance gate at the end of Eddy Street, and a new stone-arched bridge across the gorge. During Adams’ administration, student enrollment increased from 573 to 1537; tuition rose from $75 to $100; and the income of the University grew from about $300,000 to about $400,000. As a result of major conflicts over honorary degrees and control of faculty appointments, Adams was forced to resign in 1892. He subsequently became President of the University of Wisconsin, a position he held until his death in 1902.
Cornell’s second inauguration took place November 19, 1885, in the Old Armory, a building that stood on the approximate site of the quadrangle of the College of Engineering. After a procession from the Arts Quad, participants attended formal ceremonies that lasted several hours, with three and one-half hours of speeches alone. The new president, Charles Kendall Adams, spoke for more than an hour about the development of higher education in America and his plans for a new form of education. Trustee Henry W. Sage formally presented the new president with the charter and seal.
Jacob Gould Schurman: A Lengthy Tenure (1892-1920)
Jacob Gould Schurman, who was inaugurated in the Old Armory on November 11, 1892, used the occasion to retell the story of the Morrill Act and to excoriate the state of New York for not having given one cent of support to its fledgling land-grant university.
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Livingston Farrand: Addressing International Responsibility (1921-1937)
Livingston Farrand was inaugurated at the dawn of the “Roaring Twenties” on a day of drizzling rain. In his inaugural address on October 20, 1921, in Bailey Hall, he spoke about the crisis in Europe, with special regard for the plight of Poland and the need for the university to recognize its “international responsibility.” The cornerstone of the Baker Laboratory of Chemistry was laid as the climax of the day’s ceremonies, attended by Gov. Nathan L. Miller. An inaugural dinner for 700 guests was held at the Old Armory, with Professor Emeritus Thomas E.
Edmund Ezra Day: Ideals of Cornell University (1937-1949)
In his inaugural address presented on October 8, 1937, Edmund Ezra Day detailed the ideals on which Cornell University had been established, quoting extensively from Andrew Dickson White’s autobiography and noting that it was almost 68 years to the day since White’s inauguration. On the eve of World War II, he declared: “The time has passed when it can be assumed that social well-being will flow automatically from self-interested individual enterprise.
Deane Waldo Malott: An Informal Ceremony (1951-1963)
In keeping with the pattern of events that took place at the university during and just after the war years, Deane Waldo Malott was inaugurated in an informal hour-long program held “within the Cornell family” on September 19, 1951. ceremony on the Library Slope, after which Governor Thomas E.
James Alfred Perkins: Symbols of Authority (1963-1969)
The inauguration of James A. Perkins as president of Cornell was signified by the first presentation of the university mace and baton as symbols of authority by the chairman of the Cornell Board of Trustees. Previously, the symbols of authority presented to the new president were the university charter and seal. The formal ceremony was held in Bailey Hall on the morning of October 4, 1963, with remarks presented by Dr. John W. Gardner, president of the Carnegie Corp.
Dale Raymond Corson: Navigating Critical Times (1969-1977)
Dale R. Corson had been at Cornell for 23 years, rising from assistant professor of physics to provost, before he was chosen to be the university’s president. His naming as president was marked with a dinner at the time of the announcement, and his formal investiture took place at commencement ceremonies in Barton Hall on June 8, 1970. In keeping with the tenor of the times, student demonstrators briefly disrupted the ceremonies. In his formal address, Corson said: “The last several years have been increasingly critical and traumatic for the country as a whole and for the universities. Cornell has been no exception.
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Frank Howard Trevor Rhodes: A Gathering of Presidents (1977-1995)
Three presidents emeriti (Deane W. Malott, James A. Perkins, and Dale R. Corson) were among more than 6,000 guests gathered in Barton Hall on November 10, 1977, for Frank H.T. Rhodes’s inauguration.
Hunter Ripley Rawlings III: Reinvigorating the Campus Community (1995-2003)
In his inaugural address in Barton Hall, October 19, 1995, Hunter R. Rawlings III sounded a clarion call to members of the Cornell community, inviting them to join him in composing a new Cornell, “a Cornell we can now only imagine,” he said. Rawlings charged Cornellians with the task of helping to reinvigorate the campus community by focusing on the university’s central mission: “The cultivation of the human mind for the sake of the individual, together with its moral improvement for the sake of society, remains the university’s fundamental reason for being,” he told the audience of more than 5,000. And he emphasized that students are the soul of that enterprise. “In the future,” he said, “I hope we will use our ingenuity to find new ways of drawing all students closer to the heart of our intellectual enterprise, and thus closer to the community as a whole.” Rawlings was joined on the platform by four past presidents of the university: Deane W. Malott, James A. Perkins, Dale R. Corson, and Frank H.T. Rhodes - a circumstance that Cornell Board of Trustees Chairman Stephen H.
The only alumnus in Cornell’s history to become its president gave his first inauguration speech on October 12, 2003, at the Weill Cornell Medical Center in Doha, Qatar, declaring that Ezra Cornell’s American university had “matured into the transnational university of the future.” His second inauguration speech, delivered at Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York City three days later, focused on the need for cross-disciplinary research and collaboration to further the life sciences. Inauguration Day began for Lehman with a visit downtown, to the Tompkins County Public Library, where he spoke with community leaders and unveiled a library exhibit commemorating the interrelationship between Ithaca’s “town and gown.” Back on the hill, ceremonies included speeches by Indian entrepreneur N.R. Narayana Murthy and world-renowned architect Richard Meier.
David J. Skorton: Strengthening the University (2006)
In a ceremony incorporating poetry, instrumental music and song, David J. Skorton was inaugurated on September 7, 2006, as president of “that most improbable and most magnificent of compounds: Cornell University.” During his address, Skorton announced five propositions that outlined his vision for the university: strengthening the undergraduate experience; optimizing the employee environment; consolidating relationships among Cornell’s disparate campuses; promoting the arts, humanities and social sciences; and using Cornell’s land-grant and outreach missions to better serve global needs. At the dinner following the inauguration ceremony, Board of Trustees chair Peter Meinig surprised the new president by handing him his own flute and asking him to perform.
Elizabeth Garrett: Focusing on Faculty and Community
On a warm and sunny September day, the Arts Quad was bright with red carpet and red robes for the installation of Elizabeth Garrett, who gave her inaugural address in front of the iconic statue of Ezra Cornell. “The recruitment, development and retention of the best faculty remain our paramount priorities,” Garrett said. She also spoke of focusing on the residential undergraduate experience, defining as a community the shared intellectual experience all Cornell students should encounter. Following the ceremony, the university hosted a picnic on the Ag Quad, inviting Ithaca citizens as well as the campus community.
Michael I. Kotlikoff: Inauguration and Vision (2025-Present)
President Michael Kotlikoff was formally inaugurated as Cornell’s 15th president during a ceremony in Barton Hall on Oct. 24. Anne Meinig Smalling ’87, chair of the Board of Trustees, opened the event. “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. Following remarks from friends of Kotlikoff, including Prof. Rick Cerione, molecular medicine, and Prof. Emeritus Glenn Altschuler, Ph.D.
During a ceremony in Barton Hall on October 24, 2025, Michael I. Kotlikoff was officially inaugurated as Cornell University’s 15th president. The inauguration, held as part of the Trustee-Council Annual Meeting, was filled with tributes to Cornell’s rich history. This included the university charter, seal, and mace, presented by trustees representing the breadth of Cornell’s community. Board of Trustees Chair Anne Meinig Smalling ’87 welcomed Kotlikoff’s family and two former Cornell presidents in attendance: Martha E. Pollack and Jeffrey S. Colleagues lauded Kotlikoff for his 25 years of service to Cornell as professor, department chair, dean, and provost, and reflected on his steady leadership and commitment to the institution.
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. “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. “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.
Martha E. Pollack: Maintaining Humane and Rational Values
Quoting a speech given by Cornell historian Carl Becker in 1940, Pollack called on universities to “maintain and promote the humane and rational values” that preserve democratic society. The ceremony on the Arts Quad began with a speech of thanksgiving in the Cayuga language, with English translation, and included remarks by Dartmouth College President Philip Hanlon, President Pollack’s longtime mentor and colleague. All four of Cornell’s living former presidents (Frank H. T. Rhodes, Hunter R. Rawlings III, Jeffrey S. Lehman, and David J. That evening an academic symposium spoke to a concern that President Pollack would express in her address the next day: identifying and defending reliable knowledge.
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