Five Distinguished Individuals Receive Honorary Degrees
During New York University’s 176th
Commencement, President John Sexton will present honorary degrees to five distinguished individuals.
Following are the citations that will be read during the ceremony:
Thomas Buergenthal
Thomas Buergenthal—American judge on the International Court of Justice, you illuminate and enlarge the foundation of human rights for all humankind. As a survivor of the hell which was Auschwitz and Sachsenhausen concentration camps, you have devoted your life to developing law, institutions, and understanding among nations and peoples. These serve, and will continue to serve, as powerful obstructions against those who again seek to make genocide banal and ordinary.
Miraculously, your experiences in the abyss of inhumanity have burnished your faith in humanity’s potential for transcending evil and achieving justice. That faith has brightly illumined the roles you have played as president of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, as American judge of the International Court of Justice and as member of the United Nations Human Rights Committee. A Root-Tilden Scholar and J.D. graduate of our School of Law with LL.M. and S.J.D. degrees from Harvard Law School, you have brought honor to the profession that you have helped shape.
Eminent scholar,
professor, and prolific author, your former colleagues and students of the law
schools of George Washington University; American University, where you served
as dean; the University of Texas and Emory University revere you.
Thomas Buergenthal—you are a mighty exemplar of magnificent
intelligence in support of the highest aspirations of humanity as you lead us
to a world in which individual freedom and human dignity are fully protected.
By virtue of the authority vested in me by New York University, I am pleased to
confer upon you the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris
causa.
Michael J. Fox
Michael J. Fox—a professional actor in your native Canada by the age of 15, you moved to Los Angeles three years later and at the ripe old age of 21 began your spectacular TV run as Alex P. Keaton on NBC’s Family Ties, earning three Emmy Awards, a Golden Globe, and the distinction of being one of the nation’s most prominent young actors.
Returning to series television in 1996, as New York’s deputy mayor Michael Flaherty with ABC’s Spin City, you were showered with three more Golden Globes, another Emmy, a GQ Man-of-the-Year Award, a People’s Choice Award, and two Screen Actors Guild Awards. Easily moving between television and film and comedy and drama, you are an international film star, appearing in over a dozen features, including the Back to the Future trilogy, Casualties of War, The Hard Way, and The American President.
A fierce and eloquent
force in fighting Parkinson’s Disease, from which you suffer, you are its major
and magnificent philanthropist. Through the Michael J. Fox Foundation for
Parkinson’s Research, which you launched in 2000, you have funded over $115 million
for research and significantly raised national awareness of the disease. You
continue to turn in stellar performances even as your memoir, Lucky Man, is a national bestseller.
Michael J. Fox—acclaimed actor and revered humanitarian, you are
a grand inspiration on the screen and in our lives. By virtue of the authority
vested in me by New York University, I am pleased to confer upon you the degree
of Doctor of Fine Arts, honoris causa.
Indra Krishnamurthy Nooyi
Indra Krishnamurthy Nooyi—chairman and chief executive officer of PepsiCo, you lead one of the world’s largest convenient food and beverage companies with annual revenues of nearly $35 billion, operating in nearly 200 countries, and employing more than 168,000 people worldwide. Named president and CEO in October 2006, and chairman seven months later, you had already served PepsiCo in senior management positions for over a decade, directing your company’s global strategy with intelligence and energy, discipline, and vision.
You have promoted the concept of “performance with purpose,” leading to growth in revenues, responsible environmental initiatives, and a diverse and inclusive company filled with world-class talent. You have been named one of the most powerful women in business by Fortune magazine and by Time as among the 100 Most Influential People in the World. You have described the job you love as an obsession yet are known to sing around the corporate offices and insist that as one works hard, one should also have fun.
A wise counselor and
exemplary citizen, you serve on the boards of the Federal Reserve Bank of New
York, the International Rescue Committee, and Lincoln Center for the Performing
Arts. Moreover, in recognition of this day and its historic significance, we
proudly salute you as “a wild fan of the New York Yankees!”
Indra Krishnamurthy Nooyi—extraordinary executive and brilliant strategist, you rank among the world’s most accomplished women. By virtue of the authority vested in me by New York University, I am pleased to confer upon you the degree of Doctor of Commercial Science, honoris causa.
Ngugi wa Thiong’o
Ngugi wa Thiong’o—as one of the world’s foremost writers and most significant political, social, and cultural thinkers, your role in the development of Gikuyu written culture is foundational, your place in modern Kenyan culture and politics unique, your stature in African culture at large nonpareil.
Your highly acclaimed series of novels about Kenya pre-and post-independence mix lyricism, a deep sense of place, and careful characterization with hard-nosed political and social commentary and polemic and often parodic humor. Your most recent and masterful novel, Wizard of the Crow, explores the fraught relations of artistic and linguistic creation against the exigencies of neocolonial governments.
Your powerful plays explore the idea of a genuinely translinguistic national culture and sparked a government’s wrath and subsequent imprisonment and exile.
A cultural and
political critic of immense power, you have shown us what it means to create
cultures, to reinstate cultures, and how one may take back one’s culture. We
proudly claim you as our cherished former colleague and Erich Maria Remarque
Professor of Languages at New York University and salute you as Distinguished
Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of
California, Irvine.
Ngugi wa Thiong’o—novelist, essayist, playwright, journalist, editor, academic, and social activist, for nearly half a century you have raised your eloquent voice with utmost courage in the cause of democratic and human rights. By virtue of the authority vested in me by New York University, I am pleased to confer upon you the degree of Doctor of Letters, honoris causa.
Laurence Henry Tribe
Laurence Henry Tribe—eminent professor of constitutional law and Carl M. Loeb University Professor of Harvard Law School, one of the nation’s foremost authorities on constitutional law and Supreme Court practitioners, you entered Harvard College at age 16 and graduated summa cum laude in mathematics and magna cum laude from Harvard Law School.
National champion and teacher of debate, inventor of the modern “flow” system of recording arguments, celebrated scholar and professor, you have given us the masterful treatise on constitutional law, American Constitutional Law—a work stunning in its sweep and substance. Fiercely independent, marching to no other drum but your own, you have been in the vanguard of the nation’s struggle for civil liberties—bridging the practical and legal worlds.
The late Erwin Griswold, former dean of Harvard Law School and former solicitor general of the United States, said, “Professor Tribe has had a greater impact on constitutional law than anyone in the country’s history who has not been a member of the U.S. Supreme Court.” Lauded also as poet, painter, philosopher, and pragmatist, you have used your formidable intelligence and exquisite eloquence in the deep and devoted service of law and learning.
Laurence Henry Tribe—a principal influence on American constitutional law, you have helped shape a society grounded in democracy, freedom, equality, and the rule of law. By virtue of the authority vested in me by New York University, I am pleased to confer upon you the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa.
