(MIDDLETOWN, CT)— During Wesleyan University's 172nd commencement ceremonies today, distinguished poet, activist and vice chancellor of the University of Cape Town, South Africa, Njabulo S. Ndebele told graduates that his experiences in South Africa show that conflict does not have to end in armed action, and that change can occur peacefully if both sides are willing to take that path.
Ndebele said that this year, the 10th anniversary of the end of South African apartheid and the country's independence, the lesson of how this revolution occurred remains a lesson for the rest of the world.
"Both sides resisted the attractive habit to be 'tough'," Ndebele said. "Thankfully our leaders realized that being tough in this kind of way has caused much misery in human history. … They discovered that being tough was not so much about going to war, but about choosing to avoid it."
Ndebele is widely recognized as one of the most distinctive voices in South African literature. His body of work has chronicled South African Life during the apartheid era and since its demise 10 years ago. His most recent publication, The Cry of Winnie Mandela, weaves fact and fiction together to chronicle the struggles of black South African women.
In addition to Ndebele, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) William H. Donaldson, noted philanthropist and businessman Robert Schumann (Wesleyan Class of 1944), and civil rights activist Yuri Kochiyama were honored at the ceremony.
Wesleyan awarded 704 bachelor of arts degrees, 86 master of arts in liberal studies degrees, 29 master of arts degrees, two certificates of advanced study and 13 doctorate degrees. The graduating class included 76 inductees into the national honor society, Phi Beta Kappa; two Watson Fellowship winners, who will spend the next year abroad completing independent study; and four students who completed the academic requirements to graduate with university honors—Wesleyan's highest academic distinction for undergraduates.
During the ceremonies, distinguished attorney and judge Joseph G. Lynch (Wesleyan class of 1947) was presented with the Baldwin Medal, the highest alumni honor bestowed by the university. An air combat veteran from World War II, Lynch joined the firm of Halloran & Sage in 1951. From then until the early 1990s, he tried hundreds of cases in state and federal courts. He served as probate judge from 1963 until 1983, and has been listed in The Best Lawyers in America since 1982.
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 Donaldson and Kochiyama.
Along with serving as chair of the SEC, Donaldson severed as chairman and CEO of the New York Stock Exchange from 1991 to 1995. He left that position to become chairman, CEO and president of Aetna Inc. He also spent 15 years on the board for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and served as an undersecretary of state in the Nixon Administration and counsel and special advisor to Vice President Nelson Rockefeller during the Ford Administration.
Kochiyama was interned with 120,000 other Japanese Americans during World War II. The experience convinced her to dedicate her life to social justice. After the war, she and her husband US Army veteran Bill Kochiyama moved their family to Harlem where she began organizing sit-ins to protest community conditions. In 1963 she became a supporter of Malcolm X and is probably best known as the woman cradling his head in a photograph taken moments after his assassination in 1965. Over the last four decades she has worked tirelessly for social justice causes ranging from apartheid and Puerto Rican independence to nuclear disarmament.
In his remarks during the ceremony, Wesleyan President Douglas J. Bennet emphasized the importance of providing equal access to education, citing the landmark Brown vs. Board of Education decision.
"The question of access to education in our country is by no means settled," Bennet said. "And now the economic divide is growing… Economic barriers discourage many qualified high school students from seeking higher education."
Bennet went on to exhort the graduating seniors to help break down these barriers and "use your access to create access for others."
The commencement ceremonies were held on Wesleyan's campus in Middletown
Full text of Doug Bennet's speech.
Full text of Njabulo S. Ndebele's speech.
Commencement Photos 2004
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