Nicholas Kristof, an award-winning reporter and columnist for The New York Times, will deliver the 2013 commencement address at Syracuse University, senior class marshals announced Sunday evening.

“He embraces what Scholarship in Action is, and because of that, I think he’ll connect to us and do a great job,” said Stephanie Kranz, a mathematics and policy studies major involved in the selection process as one of two marshals representing the senior class.

Kristof will speak at the joint graduation ceremony for SU and the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry on Sunday, May 12, in the Carrier Dome.

Kristof came to SU in November 2010 for the University Lectures series.

Since joining The New York Times as an economics reporter in 1984, Kristof has won two Pulitzer Prizes: one in 1990 for his joint coverage of China’s Tiananmen Square democracy movement with his wife Sheryl WuDunn, and one in 2006 for his columns on the genocide in Darfur.

He has worked as a correspondent for The New York Times in Los Angeles, Hong Kong, Beijing and Tokyo, in addition to serving as associate managing editor of the paper, responsible for Sunday editions. His work has allowed him to report on six continents and live in four, as well as visit more than 150 countries, all 50 states, every province in China and every main island in Japan.

“I think he’ll be a great speaker,” said Jenna Maldiner, a marketing and advertising senior and marshal for the Martin J. Whitman School of Management. “Obviously, he’s got a lot of outer-world experience to bring in and tell us about.”

A career as a writer makes Kristof an especially good choice as a speaker, said Emily Deshaies, a senior accounting major and Whitman class marshal. She said she thinks Kristof is well-spoken and thus should convey a good message.

Kristof should appeal to students at SU, said Maggie McCabe, a senior elementary and special education major and class marshal for the School of Education.

“I think he’ll be relatable,” she said. “I think he really writes about powerful issues that people need to care about, in a way that makes people care.”

The selection process for SU’s commencement speaker begins a year in advance, said Susan Germain, executive director of the Office of Special Events, when all students have the opportunity to submit suggestions for commencement speakers through a website, starting in March.

This list of more than 1,000 names is then given to a student selection committee, which comprises the two senior class marshals and student marshals from each college. These students then research each candidate, often looking up YouTube videos of a potential speaker’s past presentations, and ultimately submit a list of 30 suggestions to Chancellor Nancy Cantor, Germain said.

Cost and availability of the speakers factor into Cantor’s final decision, Germain said, as well as a desire to have a variety of different people.

This year marked the first time a small reception was held for student marshals at the Goldstein Faculty and Alumni Center to announce the speaker, an idea Kranz and fellow senior class marshal Kishauna Soljour came up with. Usually, an email is sent to class marshals to announce the speaker before the formal announcement.

“We put a lot of effort in this,” Soljour said, “so an email seemed anticlimactic.”

Published on March 4, 2013 at 8:30 am