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December 8, 2006 > News > Dalai Lama to speak at Rice in the spring

Dalai Lama to speak at Rice in the spring

By Risa Gordon | Thresher Editorial Staff

The Dalai Lama has accepted an invitation to speak at Rice May 1, a year and a half after his Sept. 22, 2005 appearance was cancelled due to Hurricane Rita.

The Boniuk Center for the Study and Advancement of Religious Tolerance and the Office of the President extended the invitation, News and Media Relations Director BJ Almond said. The Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, is the spiritual head of Tibetan Buddhism, leader of Tibet in Exile and the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize winner.

Boniuk Center Coordinator Calvin Preece said the Dalai Lama’s visit will improve public visibility for both Rice and the Boniuk Center and help further the center’s mission of religious tolerance and dialogue.

“The [Dalai Lama’s visit] certainly provides an opportunity for the university to reach out to the community in and around Houston,” Preece said. “It also provides an opportunity for students to hear an individual who is certainly accorded a great deal of respect for his promotion of peace and his promotion of religious tolerance.”

Plans for the event, including ticket information, venue and financing, have not been formally discussed, Preece said. The committee hopes to announce the procedures by February, he said.

Preece said he will be on a steering committee that will meet next week to begin planning. The committee also includes Boniuk Center Director Carol Quillen, Boniuk Center Associate Director Jill Caroll, Assistant to the President Mark Davis and representatives from other departments, Preece said.

Since Rice recently prepared for a visit by the Dalai Lama, planners know what areas need improvement. Ticket distribution for community members will need to be modified, Preece said. For the 2005 lecture — which concluded a string of Boniuk presentations — community members from Houston had to go to the Athletic Ticket Office at Autry Court to pick up tickets, and the office was overwhelmed by the number of students that showed up, Preece said. Although ticket distribution for Rice students worked well, the committee will still discuss whether the process can be improved, he said.

“We want to be as fair as we can about ticket distribution,” Preece said. “We want to make sure Rice and Rice-connected people have the opportunity to secure tickets for themselves. We also want to make sure community members are able to do so.”

In September 2005, the Dalai Lama was in the middle of a multi-city U.S. tour, which included a stop in Austin. When the lectures were cancelled, Community and Government Relations Director Greg Marshall said Rice would likely have to wait for another such tour to bring the Dalai Lama to campus. In 2007, the Dalai Lama will teach and lecture in San Francisco April 27-28 and in Madison, Wisc., May 3-4.

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