CORRECTIONS APPENDEDThe Class of 2010, which in its first year at Brandeis lined up to hear President Jimmy Carter and Harvard professor Alan Dershowitz discuss their divergent opinions about Middle East policy, will have Israeli Ambassador to the United States Michael Oren as the keynote speaker at its commencement ceremony.

While the announcement of Oren's selection as commencement speaker prompted mixed reactions from the graduating class, two seniors began an effort to encourage honorary degree recipient Paul Simon, the Grammy award-winning singer and songwriter, to sing at the ceremony. The other honorary degree recipients are Judith S. Kaye, the first female chief judge in New York State; award-winning Spanish author Antonio Muñoz Molina; Dennis B. Ross, a member of the National Security Council; and Paul Farmer, a founder of Partners in Health.

University President Jehuda Reinharz told the Justice that anyone could submit a suggestion letter for an honorary degree to the Honorary Degree Committee of the Board of Trustees. Once the Committee decides whether to put a name forward, the suggestion goes before the entire Board of Trustees for consideration. The name then stays on a list of approved names for five years, during which the University president can select the honorary degree recipients and the commencement speaker. Reinharz said he usually makes his selections a year in advance.

"The decision to select any honorary degree recipient is whether this particular person is someone that reflects the values, the mission, the scholarship of the Brandeis community," he said. "I see this honorary degree ceremony as the last opportunity for students to learn something from these honorees, and so that's the guiding principle in every selection."

Reinharz stated that in Oren, students "can see somebody whose job it is to represent an important country in the Middle East and who also is a great historian, and I mean a great historian, . speak about an issue that is constantly in the press, constantly part of American/Israel relations."

Union Vice President Amanda Hecker '10 and Senator for the Class of 2010 Michael Weil formed the Facebook group "Paul Simon should sing at Graduation 2010," which has over 700 members as of press time. Additionally, Hecker and Weil formed another Facebook group for seniors and their families and friends outside of Brandeis, which has 188 members as of press time.

Director of the Office of the Arts Scott Edmiston wrote in an e-mail to the Justice that he was "thrilled that so many students are excited about Paul Simon receiving an honorary degree. It's not customary for arts honorees to be asked to perform, but I shared news of the student interest and Facebook Group with Mr. Simon's management. He will be on tour through May, so we may not have a response for a while."

Reinharz said he responded to the students' inquiry saying, "This is a great idea, and we will ask Mr. Simon whether he is willing to sing. That's really up to him, it's not something I can mandate."

Members of the senior class offered both positive and negative reactions to the selection of Oren, culminating in the creation of three different Facebook groups joined by seniors, other current students and alumni.

Weil said that as an Israel supporter he is happy to hear Oren speak, but he understands the concern about hearing a Middle East speaker given that many speakers address this topic at Brandeis. He added that he wouldn't be surprised to see protesters at commencement, "but I would be a little disappointed if people chose to protest, because it's supposed to be a celebratory day." Praising the caliber of the honorary degree recipients overall, Weil said he was glad "we are graduating, in a sense, with them."

Senator for the Class of 2010 Jackie Saffir said she was disappointed because she felt that the purpose of graduation speakers was to encourage graduates to think "outside the box," which she doubted Oren would be able to do, "given that he is essentially paid to espouse a particular opinion."

She added that his perspective "is not a fresh one; it's almost unavoidable to be at Brandeis for four years and to have not heard the pro-Israel perspective." She went on say that she was concerned that Oren's speech would feed into an impression among outsiders that Brandeis is a Jewish school.

Manny Halberstam '10, the executive advisor to the Brandeis Israel Public Affairs Committee for the Brandeis Zionist Alliance, said he had read some of Oren's work and that Oren "refuses to let [his biases] steer him away from the idea of objectivity, and that's something that I really respected."

"I didn't expect for the commencement speaker to be such a divisive figure," said Mariel Gruszko '10, a member of Students for a Democratic Society. She said she felt commencement speakers should be "uncontroversial figures that people on campus can unite behind." She added that students feel that the speaker choice is already disruptive to the commencement ceremony and that they did not wish to disrupt the ceremony through protests. Gruszko said she felt "a little bit excluded by the selection of Oren as a commencement speaker because I feel like he represents a side of Jewish and Israeli policy that I don't necessarily agree with." Praising the other honorary degree recipients, she added that she hoped graduates could hear from Farmer about what Partners in Health had been doing in Haiti.

"I was actually really thrilled to hear that Brandeis invited Michael Oren," said Rebecca Schlangel '10, president of BZA, who added that she had heard him speak before at a Harvard event. "He was really concise and clear; he got all the points across that he was trying to talk about, and the audience responded really well to him," Schlangel recalled. "I think that there is this stereotype on the Brandeis campus that the second anyone says 'Israel,' everyone freaks out and has this overreaction; I really don't feel that his politics are overly controversial," she said. "I don't feel like what he's going to be saying is going to be overly political. ... He's going to be talking to us about graduating and our future lives."

In February, there were several arrests after students protested a speech Oren delivered at the University of California at Irvine.

In October, Oren initially declined to meet with leaders of J Street, a liberal pro-Israel lobbying group, and stated that its views "endangered" Israel before agreeing to meet with representatives of the group on April 15.

Jeremy Sherer '10, founder of J Street U at Brandeis, wrote in an e-mail to the Justice that while he did not necessarily agree with Oren or how the ambassador conducted himself concerning J Street, he will "be attending Commencement as a graduating senior, not as the President of J Street U Brandeis."

As of last night, 192 students had joined a Facebook group against Oren as commencement speaker, and 132 students had joined a group formed in favor of Oren's speaking. In addition, 26 students joined a group stating that the division the two groups demonstrated was enough reason for him not to speak. Also, 95 students signed an online petition against Oren's speaking, while 71 signed an online petition begun later in support of his presence at commencement.

Brandeis attracted criticism for commencement honorees previously in 2006 when it invited playwright Tony Kushner, who had expressed negative sentiments about Israel, and Jordanian Prince Hassan bin Talal.

"Frankly, I'm astonished by the fact that people think that they know what the political views of Dr. Oren are. . If they would [read his work] they would actually learn what a great scholar he is." Reinharz stated.

"I'm surprised that people who are so intent on promoting free speech would be reluctant to a point of view that may or may not be different from theirs," he said. "I think it's important for the community to hear about this subject that is of great interest. ... There's not a day that passes by that Israel and the Middle East are not featured in the news in some form or another."

He said he hoped that "people at Brandeis have learned ... to argue only after they have heard what the person has had to say, not in advance."

Clarification: The article originally suggested that the reason Brandeis received criticism for honoring both Tony Kushner and Jordanian Prince Hassan bin Talal in 2006 was their expression of negative sentiments about Israel. In reality, only the criticism of Kushner was directly related to his negative sentiments about Israel, and the article has been modified to more accurately portray this fact.

Correction: The article originally misspelled the surname of a student. It is Mariel Gruszko, not Gruszco.