Nobel Peace Prize recipient and former South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu will speak in Goddard Chapel at 7 p.m. tonight.
Tutu will also receive the Dr. Jean Mayer Global Citizenship Award from Tufts' Education for Public Inquiry and International Citizenship (EPIIC) program. EPIIC Director Sherman Teichman, whose organization has been working for four years to bring the archbishop to the Hill, partially credited Tutu's arrival to an arrangement with the Chaplaincy. Tufts students have been working in South Africa over the last ten years, including work with Tutu's commission, through the EPIIC program.
Tutu is in residence at the Episcopalian Divinity School in Cambridge for the semester. He served as chairperson of then-South African President Nelson Mandela's Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
University Protestant Chaplain Steven Bonsey secured Tutu's visit. Tutu was invited since he was "in the neighborhood," according to Bonsey.
While some students speculated that the speaker would prefer a smaller audience, Interim University Chaplain Patricia 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."
Tutu is one of a myriad of prominent speakers to visit Tufts this year. Vice-President Al Gore and author P.J. O'Rourke visited recently, and President Bill Clinton will be visiting this Wednesday.
Bonsey said he does not think that Clinton's visit will detract from Tutu. "They are two very different events," he said. He hopes that the Archbishop's appearance "will be one that focuses on the vitality of the faith communities."
"It's a historic event for him to be coming here to Tufts and a great honor for Tufts," Bonsey said.
