Dear Seniors,
I should know better than to write to you as a monolith. Each of you will remember the Cornell experience differently from your peers — some, maybe, with a blinding enthusiasm, and others with a sour taste left in their mouth. I still can’t help but see the appeal of a general address — a message that personifies community, treats it as one body with thoughts and feelings of its own. Being part of a campus culture taught me to see community as something more like a collective memory or spirit, one whole rather than many parts.
Faced with an abrupt end to a four-year journey, you might find relief in the persevering presence of this community in your recollection. You were a privileged witness to a fleeting snapshot of sunset picnics and bar nights, political protests and union strikes. It’s a privilege you get to share only with your classmates, the people who at the same time were able to witness you. Reciprocity is the cornerstone of community; for all of the changes you underwent because of your peers, you left an equally indelible mark on them. Together, you make up one convoluted web of reciprocal impact, a unity defined by the way that you each influenced each other.
It’s not a harmonious union, admittedly. I read every opinion that comes across The Sun’s desk, and I would be negligent to understate the ideological tension on our campus. For many students, these past couple of years have been an especially alienating time. The community is teeming, almost boiling over with political dissatisfaction. But I have found that this sense of alienation is a driving force for an equal and opposite reaction: community members come together to find agency, to express what they felt alone in thinking. Intimidation only affirms the old platitude that we’re stronger together.
Many of you will start your career in a turbulent job market or a university system that is under attack. No one could blame you for resenting that. But I hope you have observed this community closely enough through these few years of turmoil to see that these sorts of challenges propel collective action. Find the people with whom you share a common cause and resign yourself to something bigger — a community in which you can impart the Cornellian spirit as you understand it. You will not be carrying just one piece of this culture with you but extending the reach of a greater whole.
— Eric Han
Eric Han is a member of the Class of 2026 in the College of Arts and Sciences. He is the associate editor of the 143rd Editorial Board and was the arts and culture editor of the 142nd Editorial Board. He can be reached at ehan@cornellsun.com.