Kristof To Give KSG Farewell Address

Nicholas D. Kristof ’82, the crusading New York Times columnist, will speak at the Kennedy School of Government’s June 6 graduation ceremony, the school announced this week.

“I feel way too young to be a speaker at any Harvard event,” Kristof said in a phone interview yesterday. “I’m flattered, and I’ll try to walk with a stoop and a few wrinkles for that day.”

Kristof has been a Times op-ed columnist since 2001. Before that, he was an economics correspondent and the Times’ bureau chief in Beijing, Hong Kong, and Tokyo.

He has won two Pulitzer Prizes, the first in 1990 for reporting on the Tiananmen Square movement, and the second in 2006 for his work as a columnist. His Times columns shined a spotlight on the genocide in Darfur and “gave voice to the voiceless in other parts of the world,” according to a statement on the Pulitzer Web site.

Judy F. Kugel, assistant dean and deputy director of degree programs at the Kennedy School, said that Kristof’s focus on human rights made him an attractive choice for the school’s graduation speaker.

“He’s international in outlook, he was a Rhodes Scholar, and he went to Harvard,” she said.

“He’s just one of my heroes,” she added. “He’s not afraid to see it how it is and tell it how it is.”

Jonathan S. Lachman, a second-year student at the Kennedy School, said he was pleased to hear the news.

“He’s a writer who clearly has an interest in exposing some of the more socially important and under-reported atrocities,” Lachman said in an interview at the Institute of Politics. “I think his mission dovetails well with that of the Kennedy School.”

Sri S. Mani, also a student at the Kennedy School, said he did not have a strong reaction to the decision.

“Overall he’ll be entertaining and thoughtful and probably a good cultural fit, given the direction students want to go,” Mani said.

Kristof said he enjoyed public speaking engagements, but noted that he had one reservation.

“In general I think that as a journalist my comparative advantage is a skill at asking questions rather than providing ringing answers,” he said.

Kristof said that he had yet to decide what to discuss in his address, adding that his interests match those of the Kennedy School.

“In general I think that there is a renewed interest in public service and public policy issues,” he said.

“There tends to be a much more rigorous attempt to attack these problems.”

Kennedy School spokeswoman Melodie L. Jackson said that any affiliate of the school can nominate a candidate to speak at graduation. Dean of the Kennedy School David T. Ellwood ’75, who was not available for an interview, made the final decision.

Kristof said he did not know how he was chosen.

“I don’t know how it came to pass,” he said. “I don’t know how my name percolated up.”