South African Archbishop and Nobel Peace Prize winner Desmond Tutu - a champion of civil rights and the anti-Apartheid movement - will address Tufts students in Goddard Chapel next week as part of the Chaplaincy's 150th anniversary celebration of spirituality at Tufts.
All 300 seats for the March 12 event - sponsored by the revived James Russell Lecture Series - sold out within 20 minutes, as eager students lined up on the windy quad yesterday for tickets.
Calling the theme of the speech "very broad," Interim University Chaplain Patricia Kepler said she is "excited and honored" about Tutu's arrival next week, since he has not accepted many speaking engagements in the area. "He knows we're celebrating 150 years of history at Tufts, and looking to the way a university like Tufts can contribute to the future," she said.
"We're asking him to speak on sources of hope for the global future," said Protestant Chaplain Rev. Steven Bonsey, who initiated plans for the event. "He's been a strong advocate for reconciliation as a way of peace and global justice." The Chaplaincy hopes students will "see that this man's religious faith and his religious life has been the source of sustaining a vision of hope that has made him a highly effective peace maker and a beacon of hope for people all over the world."
Education for Public Inquiry and International Citizenship (EPIIC) also plans to honor Tutu with its Dr. Jean Mayer Global Citizenship Award at the event.
EPIIC Director Sherman Teichman said that Tutu's arrival is part of a four year effort to have the Archbishop speak on the hill. Through EPIIC Tufts students have been working in South Africa over the last ten years, including work with Tutu's commission.
Citing the lineage of other workers for social justice that have received the award, Teichman said that Tutu's visit will be a great opportunity for students. "What we're proud about is that Tufts students have the opportunity to meet and be inspired by these people, and to think about these people's lives and the choices these people made," he said.
Students said they found Tutu's visit particularly relevant in light of the University's focus on global issues. "He's a giant in the world of reconciliation," junior Randi Wiggins said. "Reconciliation is one of the biggest issues we as a global society face today."
Currently in residence at the Episcopalian Divinity School in Cambridge for the semester, Tutu served as chairperson of then-President Nelson Mandela's Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa. The University secured the Archbishop's visit with help from Bonsey, also an Episcopalian. This is the first time that Tufts has invited Tutu to campus. Administrators invited him this semester because he was "in the neighborhood," according to Bonsey.
Citing other prominent speakers to appear on the Hill this semester, including Al Gore, Bill Clinton, and PJ O'Rourke, junior Valentino Caruso said the event is a "continuation of a great speaker series."
"It's just another example of Tufts bringing world-class speakers in," Caruso said. "This mostly appeals to me because it's a once-in-a-lifetime experience, especially in Goddard, because it's such a small setting."
While some students speculated that the speaker would prefer a smaller audience, Kepler said the Chaplaincy had hoped to find a larger room. "We wish that we could have found a venue that could have seated more than 300 people," Kepler said. "We hope to have video tapes and transcripts of the event so that more students can participate."
Other students lauded the Chaplaincy's ability to bring such a prominent speaker to the University. "I'm very impressed that the Chaplaincy was able to get him," sophomore Rachel Hoff said. Wiggins said she was interested in "the way he used his faith to make [the reconciliation] happen."
Bonsey, who has seen the Archbishop speak before, called Tutu "one of the most moving speakers I've ever had the privilege to hear," and added that the event would be a wonderful occasion for the students and the University.
Teichman said that Tutu was "very excited to come [to Tufts.]"
Born in 1931, Tutu was the former General Secretary of the South African Council of Churches and the Former Bishop of Johannesburg. Tutu received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 for his work on behalf of civil rights and his belief in educational opportunity.
The James Russell Lecture Series is the oldest series at Tufts, Kepler said, but went underused after the 1970s. Kepler hopes Tutu's visit will revive the annual series once again.
