Ex-Pres. Carter to address '98 grads

Jimmy Carter had opted not to speak at last year's Commencement. and Margie Fishman It has been more than two decades since a United States president has ventured to Franklin Field to give a Commencement address -- but this year, peanut politics will take center stage. Former President Jimmy Carter will speak at the next Commencement on May 18, 1998, University officials said yesterday. He will once again succeed former President Gerald Ford -- Carter's predecessor, who addressed the 1975 senior class while still in office. Both Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, will receive honorary degrees at the ceremony. "We are just so pleased that Mr. Carter has agreed to share his insights with our graduates," University President Judith Rodin said in a prepared statement, adding that Carter has had "a particularly unique and productive" post-presidency. After leaving the White House in 1981, Carter founded the nonprofit Carter Center in Atlanta to promote worldwide peace and human rights. The center has initiated projects in more than 65 countries to improve health and urban areas. He also played a key role in community service through his involvement with Habitat for Humanity, another not-for-profit organization committed to building homes in underprivileged areas. During his presidency, Carter championed human rights throughout the world and mediated peace negotiations between Israel and Egypt leading up to the Camp David Accords of 1978. Yet he was also blamed for his inability to free 52 American hostages held by Iran at the end of his administration. And though a massive energy crisis during the Carter era spurred rising inflation, the nation did see an increase of nearly 8 million jobs and a decrease in the budget deficit. But most historians say Carter has been a much more effective statesman since he left office. "This is a great opportunity to hear a speaker with so much influence in the political world," Senior Class President Andy Kline said. He added that the University is "lucky" that Carter agreed to speak this year, after the former president repeatedly declined invitations from the search committee in previous years. This year, the Commencement speaker was lined up earlier than any in recent memory, as the University sought to improve on last year's timetable. Bill Cosby was announced as last year's speaker April 14 -- barely a month before Commencement -- after several other possible candidates, including Carter, turned down offers. Student Activities Council Chairperson Steven Schorr, a Wharton senior, noted that Carter is the first "big name" speaker to come to the University in recent years. Broadcast journalist Tom Brokaw spoke in 1996, National Endowment for the Arts Chairperson Jane Alexander gave the address in 1995 and U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Henry Cisneros appeared in 1994. Carter's post-Oval Office profile makes him potentially the most famous of that group. Even so, Undergraduate Assembly member and College senior Mike Steib did not share Kline and Schorr's enthusiasm. "Last year we had a Commencement speaker people were more inclined to laugh with, and this year we have a Commencement speaker people are more inclined to laugh at," he said, comparing Carter to Cosby. But Cosby, too, may have not been the most appropriate speaker, Steib said. "You spend four years at this school busting your hump for a good education, and then you get a speaker like Bill Cosby feeding you words of wisdom," Steib added.

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