"They’ll say you’re too short or too thin or too slow. They’ll tell you a thousand times until the nos become meaningless. They will tell you no, and you will tell them yes."

--- Gail Sheehy

The ceremony also marked a passage for Herman E. Muller Jr. ’51, who for the eighth and final time delivered the traditional welcoming remarks as board of trustees chair. "As I retire from my role as chairman of the board," Muller said, "I know I will look back on many fine memories. This is truly a great institution, and I have considered it an honor to help provide leadership over the years."

The graduates also heard from one of their own --- senior class president Margaret Booze --- who joined with her fellow class officers to present President Williams with the class gift of $13,793.

"Today, and every day, we are given gifts," said Booze. "These gifts can be large and obvious, like the fact that each person sitting here was given the opportunity to go to college. It is easy to take for granted the fact that we have had the freedom and the resources to attend Ithaca and earn our degree, but the opportunity is not open to every person. We also receive small gifts that often go unnoticed. A kindness shown to us by someone we don’t know. People who work all day to keep our school clean and beautiful. A professor who stays late to talk to us about the paper we need an extension on."

Booze said that it is fine to have big plans for the future, but making the world a better place doesn’t require big plans. "Achieving fame or great wealth or accomplishing something huge often defines success. But . . . the most important thing that we can do . . . may not be the biggest. But the most important thing that we can do is make the lives of those around us better . . . by seeing the gifts that we are given every day and passing them on."