MIDDLETOWN, CT, March 30, 2004 -- Wesleyan University recently announced that it will confer four honorary degrees during its 172nd commencement exercises on Sunday, May 23rd to the following recipients:

Njabulo S. Ndebele (Doctor of Letters) - Njabulo Ndebele, Wesleyan University's commencement speaker, has made significant contributions to achieving social justice and democracy in South Africa. He became vice-chancellor of the University of Cape Town in 2000. Previously, he had been a Resident Scholar at the Ford Foundation's headquarters in New York, following a lengthy career of administrative and teaching positions in South African universities. He is a poet and the author of fictional works including Bonolo and the Peach Tree and Fools and Other Stories, a chronicle of life in a black township under apartheid.

William H. Donaldson (Doctor of Humane Letters) - President Bush appointed Donaldson in December 2002 and he became chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in February of 2003. In his long career, Donaldson has held numerous positions in academia, business, and government. Among them: CEO of a private investment firm that he founded; chairman and CEO of the New York Stock Exchange; a founder and dean of Yale's Graduate School of Management; U.S. Undersecretary of State under Henry Kissinger; and special assistant to Vice President Nelson Rockefeller. Donaldson also has served as chairman of the board of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Yuri Kochiyama (Doctor of Humane Letters) - Ms. Kochiyama has been a strong voice for the importance of ethnic studies, workers' rights and reparations for the Japanese-Americans incarcerated during WWII. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, she and her family, along with 120,000 others of Japanese ancestry – 70 percent of whom were American born citizens, were removed from their home and imprisoned in internment camps. As a result of this experience, Kochiyama has spoken out on issues such as nuclear disarmament, reparations to Japanese Americans, international prisoner's rights, South African apartheid, and the war in Vietnam. At age 80, having suffered a stroke, she is still active in struggles against oppression and serves as a model for young activists.

Robert Schumann '44 (Doctor of Humane Letters) - Schumann's gift established the Robert Schumann Professor of Environmental Studies at Wesleyan, and he has pledged substantially to the Robert Schumann endowed Program Fund. A longtime supporter of Wesleyan, his gifts over the years also established a Schumann Scholarship, contributed to the Olin Library renovation, assisted in the construction of the Freeman Athletic Center, and helped advance the Fred B. Millet Memorial Fund. He has been an ardent supporter of environmental causes, having served as a director of the National Audubon Society and the Cornell University Laboratory of Ornithology. Through the foundation, he has supported many environmental organizations.

> Back to Press Releases