MIDDLETOWN, CT, May 25, 2003—Nobel Peace Prize winner Jody Williams challenged graduates at Wesleyan University's 171st commencement today to maintain their idealism in the face of challenging times.

"The ideals, the idealism that you have learned here will be challenged every day of your life as you become an adult, as you find the work that you will do in your life," Williams said. "And how you meld the work you do in your life and the challenge of maintaining idealism, hope and belief that we can make this planet a better place for everybody is a critical thing for you as you move through life."

Williams, who won the Nobel in 1997 for leading a worldwide campaign to eliminate landmines, added: "Remember that no matter how different we are around the world, we are united in a common humanity that wants the same thing: a decent life, justice, economic justice—and you have to work every single day to make that happen, no matter what job you have. No matter what choices you make in your life for work, you can find ways to contribute to making this planet the best planet it can be."

[The full text of Williams' speech is available here.]

In addition to Williams, noted civil rights activist Theodore Shaw, renowned philanthropist Doreen Freeman, and Pulitzer-Prize-winning poet Yusef Komunyakaa were honored at the ceremony.

Wesleyan awarded 717 bachelor of arts degrees, 75 master of arts in liberal studies degrees, 20 master of arts degrees, one certificate of advanced study and 12 doctorates. The graduating class included 78 inductees into the national honor society, Phi Beta Kappa; one Watson Fellowship winner, who will spend the next year abroad completing independent study; two winners of Fulbright awards to study abroad (one graduate student also won a Fulbright); and two students who completed the academic requirements to graduate with university honors—Wesleyan's highest academic distinction for undergraduates.

Williams, founder of International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL), received an honorary doctorate in humane letters. Under Williams, the ICBL grew from a single office to having representatives in 85 nations and established formal liaisons with the United Nations and the International Red Cross.

During the ceremonies, civil rights activist Shaw received Wesleyan's Baldwin Medal, which is the highest alumni honor bestowed by the university. Shaw, a 1976 graduate of Wesleyan and a member of the university's board of trustees, is the associate director and counsel for the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund Inc. He has helped lead the current national discussion in legal and public arenas on the issue of affirmative action in higher education, and recently filed an amicus brief to the U.S. Supreme Court regarding the affirmative action case currently being considered by the court.

The Baldwin Medal pays tribute to the late Judge Raymond E. Baldwin of Wesleyan's Class of 1916. Baldwin was the only man to have held the offices of Connecticut governor, U.S. senator and chief justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court.

Wesleyan also awarded honorary doctorates in humane letters to Freeman and in arts to Komunyakaa.

Freeman is co-administrator of the Freeman Foundation, a non-profit organization with a long history of increasing, strengthening and popularizing Asian Studies programs in the United States. The Freeman Foundation funds Wesleyan's Freeman Asian Scholar Program, which provides full four-year scholarships to 22 students per class from 11 Asian nations.

Komunyakaa won the 1994 Pulitzer Prize and Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award for his collection Neon Vernacular: New & Selected Poems and was a National Book Critics Award finalist for Thieves of Paradise. He also was awarded the Bronze Star for his service in Vietnam and is currently a professor in the Council of the Humanities and Creative Writing Program at Princeton University.

In his remarks during the ceremony, Wesleyan President Douglas J. Bennet urged the graduating seniors to draw inspiration from the work of Jody Williams and the other honorees: "Whatever challenges you undertake, you have the opportunity and the capacity to effect real change. Your vision, your passion, your strategic sense—your persistence—will make it happen."

[The full text of Bennet's speech is available here.]

The commencement ceremonies were held on Wesleyan's campus in Middletown.