Literary power pair to address graduates

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn will deliver a joint commencement address to the Class of 2010 on May 23. At an event with an expected audience of 5,000, the couple will receive honorary degrees from the College.

Throughout their 25-year careers, which have spanned the globe, the couple has focused on entrenched problems like gender inequality, global poverty, health and climate change. They became the first couple to win a Pulitzer Prize for their reporting on the Tiananmen Square democracy movement in China in 1990. Kristof later won a second Prize in 2006 for his columns on Darfur.

In September Kristof and WuDunn published “Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide,” a book that calls the brutality inflicted upon women and girls across the world the 21st century’s “paramount moral challenge.” Kristof writes a column for The New York Times.

Director of the “Meet the Press” lecture series at the College and Scholar-In-Residence Sue Halpern said the couple had agreed to speak on campus in April before President of the College Ronald D. Liebowitz independently approached them about coming as commencement speakers. The Honorary Degree Committee unanimously and enthusiastically approved their nomination.

Liebowitz said the couple will ask this generation to tackle the issue of gender inequality in all its future endeavors.

“Kristof’s and WuDunn’s exceptional journalistic talents offer us a remarkably clear picture of a major scourge of the 21 century,” he said.  “By putting the problem in such a stark context, this year’s commencement speakers will challenge students, [in] whatever professions they pursue … to become more cognizant of the conditions faced by such a large portion of humanity.”

Kristof said the couple eagerly accepted the offer from the College to deliver the address.

“We’ve got huge respect for Middlebury,” he said.  “We’re flattered and looking forward to it.”

The couple appreciates the College’s commitment to engaging in the international community and its encouragement of independent activism.

“Middlebury has been pretty successful at cultivating an international response ethos where students learn from the world and engage it,” Kristof said. “That’s something I admire and encourage.”

WuDunn said this generation works toward making a difference in the world around it rather than waiting for change to happen.

“Students are much more service oriented,” she said. “They really feel they want to be proactive about [making a difference]. We’re seeing that and we’re extremely excited about it.”

President of the Honorary Degree Committee David Salem said the couple fights for the citizens of the world using many of the same skills the College teaches.

“This remarkable couple has done much to make life better for many millions of the world’s citizens, unborn as well as born,” Salem said. “That they’ve done so by exercising energetically their conspicuous gifts for oral and written communications makes them especially fitting choices as commencement speakers at Middlebury.”

Halpern said the couple tackle problems that many others see as unsolvable.

“The fact that the [oppression of women] is an entrenched problem makes them move toward it instead of away from it,” she said. “They turned it on its head. The entrenched problems are exactly what need to be written about.”

Kristof uses his column to tackle important issues that few other journalists address because they are complex and do not have easy solutions.

“[He] gives voice to the disenfranchised, whether that’s domestic or in some developing country,” Halpern said. “He does it very consistently and in a way that actually changes lives. That’s a power that a lot of journalists have but very few actually use.”

Halpern said the couple will show students where to make their mark on the world and what they can do with their education from the College.

“As a college, we are committed to making our way in the global world,” she said. “This couple should be our mentors. They can tell us what you can do with a liberal arts education.”

Kristof began his career at the Times in 1984 and began his column in 2001. After graduating from Harvard University, he studied law at Oxford under a Rhodes scholarship. He uses his column to discuss issues like global poverty, health and gender issues. In addition to his Pulitzer Prizes, Kristof has earned the George Polk award, the Overseas Press Club award, the Michael Kelly award, the Online News Association award and the American Society of Newspaper Editors award.

WuDunn serves as president of the Medley Group, which provides intelligence services to fund managers and leads the development of multimedia relating to the couple’s book. She previously worked as a corporate executive at the Times and was a vice president in the investment management division of Goldman, Sachs & Co. She was the first Asian American to win a Pulitzer Prize. Other journalism awards include the George Polk award and Overseas Press Club award. She graduated from Cornell University, Harvard Business School and Princeton University, where she earned a Masters of Public Administration.

Liebowitz said the College will announce the remaining Honorary Degree recipients in the coming months.