Czech mate

Czech president receives honorary law degree

By Kelly O'Connor

Daily Staff Reporter

MARJORIE MARSHALL/Daily

Czech Republic President Vaclav Havel receives an honorary degree from University President Lee Bollinger yesterday during a ceremony at Hill Auditorium.

In a celebration of free speech, First Amendment scholar and University President Lee Bollinger presented an honorary doctor of laws degree to Czech Republic President Vaclav Havel yesterday, a man who has devoted his life to promoting democratic ideals.

The University chose to honor Havel for his devotion to human rights activism and active opposition to communism, as well as his critically acclaimed plays that have garnered many literary awards.

At the Hill Auditorium ceremony, Bollinger announced a new graduate fellowship to honor a man whose life exemplifies the triumph of "humanist and humanity."

The Havel Fellows program will offer assistance to graduate students of Czech studies, students from the Czech Republic who choose to study at the University and students who decide to research Czech issues for their dissertations, Bollinger said.

Thanking the University for recognizing his work, Havel discussed the difficulties of staying committed to finding the truth, in both political and personal life.

"We now live in the age of an information revolution when hundreds of thousands or even millions of pieces of information criss-cross the globe every second at a frantic speed, spanning our planet with an all-embracing coat of communication," Havel said.

"However, it seems to me that it is of paramount importance to understand the fine difference between information and truth."

After his speech, Havel led a panel discussion called "Globalization's Intellectual Challenge" with Bollinger, theater and drama Prof. Glenda Dickerson and Business School Prof. Jan Svejnar.

Havel's comments focused on the dangers globalization poses to national identity, while Bollinger talked about the role of a university in encouraging independent, critical thought with a "moral grounding."

Svejnar added that universities in other countries must

reform their systems to make higher education available to all people. This, he said, "will help societies to achieve globalization's fundamental challenge - getting the rewards to everyone."

Without this education reform, many countries will not be involved in decision-making processes, "and will not be able to channel results of globalization in moral and ethical ways," Svejnar said.

Dickerson then read excerpts from the letters Havel wrote to his wife Olga while he was in prison for speaking out against the communist regime. In 1982, Havel wrote to her about his decision to do things he knew would land him in jail: "I had to act as I acted. It was simply not possible to act in any other way."

Bollinger said Havel's life offers important lessons to students who because of their age will live most of their lives in a world without the presence of communism. "I think that one great question of a time of such widespread peace and growing prosperity is, How do we make sure that what had to be resisted in order to achieve it is not forgotten?" Bollinger said.

Havel was born into a prominent family in 1936. His father's influence in business and politics caused the family to be singled out as a threat to the communist regime, limiting Havel's access to education. He was able to study at the Czech Technical University before joining Prague's Theater on the Balustrade.

After Warsaw Pact members invaded Czechoslovakia in 1968, Havel began speaking out against communist policies of restricting speech and publications. He co-founded the Chapter 77 human rights initiative and the Committee for the Defense of the Unjustly Oppressed, both of which worked to ensure the rights of Czechoslovakian people.

Havel is also well-known for numerous plays about life in his country. Many were banned by the government, and the writings earned him a five-year prison sentence for political dissent.

Havel became president of Czechoslovakia when communism fell in 1989, and was elected president of the Czech Republic in 1993 after the country divided.