TULANE TALK

December 10, 2010

Good Morning:

Best-selling author, reporter, New York Times columnist and three-time Pulitzer Prize winner Thomas Friedman will deliver the keynote address and receive an honorary doctorate from Tulane at Commencement 2011.

Tom has occupied a front row seat for many of the major events that have shaped our world – Lebanon’s civil war in the 1970s, the fall of the Berlin Wall in the 1980s, the Clinton White House of the 1990s, the attacks of 9/11 and the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. He has also written eloquently about the world and its current position at the intersection of the new (technology, the Internet and the resulting globalization) and the old (“passions of nationalism, ethnicity, religion, geography and cultureî).

Tom’s most recent book Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution and How It Can Renew America is his fifth consecutive bestseller and was read by President Barack Obama on his 2009 summer vacation. Conversely, his columns have also supported President George W. Bush’s decision to invade Iraq and his 1989 book From Beirut to Jerusalem is still used as a high school and university textbook on the Middle East.

We are fortunate to have such an influential, respected and independent thinker for this year’s Commencement speaker. This will only add to the excitement that is building around our salute to the extraordinary class of 2011. For more information on this year’s special Commencement, visit http://tulane.edu/grads/.

Have a great weekend,