Staff Editorial: A thoughtful selection

Following last year's Commencement address by one of the most distinguished journalists in the United States in Jim Lehrer, the University has chosen possibly the most well-respected human rights leader in the world to speak to the Class of 2003.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who gained fame for his battle against apartheid in South Africa during the 1970s and 1980s, is certainly a towering international figure and is an extremely apt choice for a time when the world is knocking on America's door.

Questions about human rights preoccupy much of the world's dialogue -- it is used by war hawks as justification for and attack on Iraq and by opponents of the regimes in Israel, Saudi Arabia, Russia and China, among others, to villify. As a combatant in one of the 20th century's most important and bruising battles against racism and human rights abuse, Tutu is in a unique position to interpret the complicated events plaguing the globe.

The selection of Tutu -- the winner of the 1984 Nobel Peace Prize and the third Nobel Prize winner to address Penn's graduates in the last six years, after former President Jimmy Carter in 1998, the 2002 Peace Prize winner, and Seamus Heaney in 2000, who won the Literature award in 1995 -- is certain to bring some controversy. He is a leading figure in the campaign to divest from certain companies doing business with and in Israel, an issue that has touched a nerve on campus.

Since the divestment petition's kickoff with Noam Chomsky's visit to campus, its supporters and opponents have traded angry words on this page and on the Walk. University President Judith Rodin's decision to not accept the petition's demands only highlights how important the issue has become at Penn and in higher education nationwide.

We hope that Tutu's selection will encourage more civil discussion of what is clearly an important issue. At the same time, we commend his selection, as he is a man of unquestionable moral and intellectual integrity. Few are as well-suited to meaningfully address this year's graduates.

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