Black South African Activist Will Receive Honorary Degree

Rev. Desmond Tutu, black South African leader and opponent of U.S. investment in that country, will receive an honorary degree at Thursday's Commencement ceremonies, The Boston Globe reported Saturday.

President Bok, who said in an open letter this spring that divestiture of University stock in companies doing business in South Africa is unjustified, will award Tutu the degree.

President Bok would not confirm the Globe report but said he knew Tutu as "someone of very deep convictions and great personal courage."

Bok said he would not consider it contradictory for a University officially opposing divestiture to award a degree to one who believes that U.S. investments support apartheid. There is "no moral or intellectual orthodoxy that governs" a university's actions, Bok said.

Maxwell's Hammer

"A university is designed to respect differences of opinion," Bok added.

The Globe quotes Tutu as saying in a speech last month in Boston that Americans have "a fundamental moral decision to make" in regard to their in- vestments in South Africa. Tutu is the general secretary of the South African Council of Churches. He will return to South Africa after Commencement, concluding a month-long tour of the United States