2009 Commencement speaker announced

By Sarah Rutledge     12/4/08 6:00pm

The commencement speaker this May for the class of 2009 will be Zainab Salbi, the founder and CEO of Women for Women International, the Commencement Speaker Committee announced this week. The organization provides women in war-stricken areas of the world, many of whom have lost their husbands, with financial assistance, education and job training to regain their pre-war status. Salbi is also the author of Between Two Worlds: Escape from Tyranny: Growing Up in the Shadow of Saddam, a memoir about growing up in Iraq during Saddam Hussein's regime, and The Other Side of War: Women's Stories of Survival & Hope.

This year's announcement is four months ahead of last year's, which was made in March.

According to Assistant to the President Mark Davis, Salbi will speak without payment. The university will donate an as-now undetermined amount of money directly to her charity Women for Women International, he said. Committee chair and Biochemistry and Cell Biology Professor Mike Gustin said the committee had discussed establishing a tradition of donating money to the speaker's cause.

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The committee met in April, before last year's commencement, to brainstorm ideas for speakers. Gustin said Salbi's name was brought up at the committee's first meeting.

Sid Richardson College senior and committee member Ian Feldman said he ran across Salbi's name while looking at speakers for the Clinton Global Initiative. Members of the committee watched clips of network interviews with Salbi and found her well-spoken and articulate, he said.

Gustin said Salbi's humanitarian efforts, which began in Bosnia in the early 1990s, concentrated on rebuilding communities in war-torn areas of the world. Women for Women International, since its founding in 1993, has provided aid to women in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Rwanda, Kosovo, Nigeria, Colombia, Afghanistan, Iraq, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Sudan.

"Her message is more international than Iraq or the United States," he said.

Jones College senior Teddy Bucher said Salbi might not be a household name, but students will be interested in hearing about her humanitarian efforts. He acknowledged that not everyone would be pleased with any decision made.

"Some people might be like, 'Who's that?'" he said. "On campus, there are different views of what commencement speakers should be. We wanted someone who could deliver a message, who made a difference."

He said the large amounts of money needed to secure a celebrity speaker would not guarantee a meaningful message.

"There are other ways to impact the university than through a 15-minute speech," Bucher said.

Student Association President Matt Youn, who also serves on the committee, said the decision had little to do with Salbi's name-recognition.

"One thing we wanted to make sure was that whoever it was, we wanted to judge how good a speech they'd give rather than how pumped people would be about the announcement," Youn, a Brown College senior, said.

Gustin said students would be impressed by Salbi's credentials.

"She's not well known, but as people find out more about her, they'll see she's truly inspirational," he said.

During planning, the committee discussed possible changes for future years. Gustin said the committee was looking for a general philosophy when discussing potential candidates for the committee to follow in future years.

"Why should we value one over another?" he said. "We wanted a sustaining idea about commencement speakers."

He said the committee also focused on connecting the speaker to the Rice community beyond the brief speech. Though Rice does not award honorary degrees to speakers, the committee sent a motion to President David Leebron's office about an award given to a graduating student who exemplified the ideals of the speaker and had made a difference in the community. The President's office approved this motion and Salbi will present an award in her name at May's Commencement ceremony. The specifics about the award, including the exact name of the award, have not been finalized.

Feldman said this award will connect speakers to students in a way that the traditional commencement speech does not allow, given its limited time frame.

"Not only will we be able to give something with meaning to the speaker, it'll recognize the student and tie it in to the community," he said. "It brings the focus back to students as well."

Gustin said the committee also discussed matters of timing. Many speaker candidates must be booked months or even years in advance to accommodate busy schedules, and meeting in April might not be early enough. He suggested forming committees as early as a class' sophomore year to begin contacting the candidates.

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