Responding to concerns that many students will have already heard Sen speak--he spoke to undergraduates just last month and lectures regularly at the Business School--Rudenstine said, "The number of students who haven't heard him would be larger than those who had, not to mention the parents, not to mention the alumni. I think he'll be working hard to craft something [meaningful]."

Several students praised the choice of Sen, saying he would add diversity to the list of commencement week speakers.

"I think it's really great that such an important intellectual was chosen. It's a good balance for [Class Day speaker] Conan O' Brien," said Senior Class Marshal Gwen Y. Shen '00.

She added that the senior marshals "just spent all weekend choosing our Class Day speakers and we're very excited about our variety. With the addition of Dr. Sen as the commencement speaker, there is even greater diversity."

Class Marshal Robby S. Schwartz '00 said that the response from other members of the class had also been positive.

"Everybody I've mentioned it to has been upbeat and that's encouraging to me," Schwartz said.

Sameera Fazili '00, who is also a class marshal, said she thought Sen's address would be particularly timely.

"It's great that he deals with the topic of development, given the recent [World Trade Organization] protests and the calls for cancellation of third world debt," she said. "It's not often that we in the United States hear from prominent South Asian intellectuals."