David Boxer, B.A. |
Jeffrey Lehman
and wife
Kathy Okun |
Jeffrey Lehman,
David Boxer
and mom Nina Boxer |
Bill Clinton
after his
convocation address |
COMMENCEMENT
Cornell’s Peace
Initiative
On Israel-Jordan Border
Story by Nina Boxer
Photos by Tim Boxer
 E
attended our son David’s graduation at Cornell and heard
the university’s first Jewish president talk about the
university’s initiative in strengthening peaceful ties between
Israel and Jordan.
At commencement exercises
on the magnificent rolling campus in Ithaca, New York, president Jeffrey
S. Lehman urged 5,200 graduates of the Class of 2004 to strive
for “common ground and shared progress across boundaries of
mistrust and suspicion that can sometimes be framed in moral
terms.”
He cited with pride the
lead of Cornell in working with the privately financed Bridging the
Rift Center, which will bring together Cornell and Stanford
universities in a joint effort with Israel and Jordan to research
the genetic code of all living things.
They already broke ground
in March for this pioneering life sciences research establishment,
on a desolate patch of 150 acres in the Arava desert 43 miles south
of the Dead Sea, straddling the border of the two countries.
When finished in four
years, the multimillion-dollar complex will consist of a molecular
biology laboratory, computer installations, a Library of the Desert,
and dormitory for 150 people who will work on their doctoral studies
on the ecology of the Dead Sea region.
Israeli and Jordanian
graduate students will train at the two American universities. They
will return to the Bridging the Rift Center to build a network of
databases of genetic and other information about the species of life
in the region, and ultimately the world.
Israeli and Jordanian
leaders, Lehman said, believe “there are additional benefits that
flow from engaging in a positive way with a former enemy.”
About 40,000 people in the
outdoor stadium applauded the president’s announcement.
A week after David received
his Bachelor’s degree in computer science, he started a summer job
with IBM in Raleigh, N.C.
By the way, we loved the
opening remarks of senior class president Esther Tang, who
said that when she first heard about Cornell “they said it was a
school where you walk up a 90 degree hill in 5 degree weather to
score a 20 on an exam.”
At the previous day’s
convocation, former President Bill Clinton urged the grads to
pursue cooperation, not unilateralism, in international affairs.
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