"Favorite Day of the Year"

More than 225 ILR undergraduates and graduate students will participate in Sunday’s commencement, what Cornell President David Skorton calls “my favorite day of the year.”

The joyous, university-wide commencement draws families and friends from around the world. Details are available at http://commencement.cornell.edu/.

Schoellkopf Stadium will fill with cheering well-wishers starting at 9 a.m. Sunday.

At 10 a.m., schools and colleges march one by one from the Arts Quad onto the football field. The ceremony begins at 11 a.m.

Pride, relief, tradition and Big Red fever reign for the next hour in the stadium, the kickoff location for ILR students. By noon, they are walking to the ILR Conference Center courtyard for refreshments with faculty, family and friends.

At 1 p.m., graduates and guests begin filling Lynah Rink for the ILR Recognition Ceremony Tickets are not required for the event, coordinated by the ILR Office of Student Services.

Whether students have traveled abroad as part of the Global Service Learning initiative, conducted research, run track, played in the band or taken part in any one of the university’s hundreds of opportunities, they come together at Lynah Rink as the ILR Class of 2014.

ILR’s Kenneth F. Kahn Dean Harry Katz will deliver the commencement speech. Then, students will walk – one by one – across the stage to shake hands with school leaders and to carry on ILR’s mission of preparing leaders, informing national and international employment and labor policy, and improving working lives.

When graduates walk out of Lynah later in the afternoon, they begin a new era -- as Cornell ILR Class of 2014 alums.