Former President Carter to speak at '98 Commencement

The noted statesman and his wife will receive honorary degrees at the ceremony Monday. and Margie Fishman It has been more than two decades since a United States president has given a Penn Commencement address, but peanut politics will take center stage this year as former President Jimmy Carter addresses graduates and their families Monday. The second time proved to be the charm for Carter, who turned down an offer to speak at last year's ceremony. He will again succeed former President Gerald Ford, his predecessor, who addressed the 1975 senior class while still in office. Both Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, will receive honorary degrees at the ceremony, which begins at 10:15 a.m. Other honorary degree recipients include Federal Reserve Board Chairperson Alan Greenspan; author Maurice Sendak; opera singer Jessye Norman and Nobel Prize-winning researcher Stanley Prusiner, a College of Arts and Sciences and Medical School alumnus. Harvard Professor Frank Cross; Francis Collins, director of the National Human Genome Research Institute at the National Institutes of Health and Penn Law School alumnus and emeritus trustee Arlin Adams round out the list of honorary degree recipients. In announcing the speaker, University President Judith Rodin praised Carter for having a "particularly unique and productive" career since leaving office. After losing to Ronald Reagan in the 1980 election, Carter founded the non-profit 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. Carter has also worked to monitor elections around the world, including the first-ever Palestinian elections in the West Bank and Gaza. Additionally, he has played a key role in a series of community service projects through his involvement with Habitat for Humanity, a non-profit organization committed to building homes in underprivileged areas. During his presidency, Carter championed human rights around the world and helped mediate the Camp David peace accords between Israel and Egypt in 1978. But his popularity plummeted after he was unable to free the 52 American hostages held by Iran at the end of his term, as well as an energy crisis which in turn spurred massive inflation. Many historians, however, say Carter has been a much more effective statesman since he left office. This year's Commencement speaker was lined up earlier than any in recent memory, largely to improve on last year's experience. Comedian Bill Cosby wasn't announced as last year's speaker until April 14, barely a month before Commencement, after several other possible candidates turned down offers. Carter's post-Oval Office profile makes him the most famous of the recent Commencement speakers. NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw spoke in 1996, National Endowment for the Arts Chairperson Jane Alexander gave the address in 1995 and then-federal Housing and Urban Development Secretary Henry Cisneros appeared in 1994.

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