And if Gorbachev Can’t, They’ll Take Cosby

Graduating Stanford seniors have for years enjoyed hearty and stirring commencement speeches from a gaggle of assorted Nobel Prize winners, distinguished politicians and other learned persons of note.

Last June, for example, New York Gov. Mario Cuomo was the speaker.

But the current crop of Stanford students have set their sights somewhat higher than usual. And much farther east.

Next spring, they want Mikhail Gorbachev.

More than 200 students have signed petitions urging the administration to invite the new Soviet leader to address the graduating class as a gesture to international understanding and world peace.

“A gesture of this kind will display the university’s commitment to the peaceful coexistence of the United States and the Soviet Union on all frontiers,” said Mark Fleischauer, one of the students circulating the petitions.

“Even though we don’t know how realistic it is that Gorbachev would actually come,” he told the campus newspaper, Stanford Daily, “we believe the university should send a message that it recognizes the possibility of improved relations between the two countries, and is willing to promote them.”

Soviet officials in Washington said they are flattered by the idea, but withheld any official comment until the idea is formally proposed in writing to Gorbachev in Moscow.

“It would be a pleasure for him to receive this invitation from the students of Stanford University,” said embassy spokesman Boris Malakhov, who stressed that he was only speaking for himself and not the Soviet government.

Malakhov, however, was not optimistic about the prospects for Gorbachev to fit such an address into his schedule.

“I don’t think it’s too much feasible idea because Mr. Gorbachev would have to come to the United States,” he said, “and he is busy now traveling within the Soviet Union, meeting with the people there.”

Since honorary invitations usually are not made, Stanford spokesman Robert Beyers said university administrators will carefully consider a proposed speaker’s ability to actually come to Stanford before making a choice.

Other factors usually considered, he said, are a potential speaker’s appeal to students (there are about 6,500 undergraduates at Stanford) and speaking ability.

Gorbachev seemingly qualifies on the first count. More than 200 students have already signed petitions naming him their first choice; comedian Bill Cosby is second. Gorbachev’s speaking ability is perhaps more problematic. The Soviet leader is believed to speak little or no English--presumably his speech would be translated--but his demeanor and style on recent trips to France and Great Britain impressed many Westerners.

Acceptance Doubted

Still, Stanford scholars familiar with the Soviet Union doubt the Soviet leader will accept.

Time also is a concern, said Marlene Wine, a special assistant to university President Donald Kennedy.

“I don’t think we’d get an answer for a very long time, and that could put us in a difficult position if we had to ask someone else,” she said.

Despite this, she added, university officials have not ruled out asking Gorbachev to speak. She said Kennedy, who ultimately makes the decision, “will try to accommodate students’ wishes.”

A commencement panel composed of students, faculty and administrators is expected to forward its recommendations to Kennedy by Dec. 1, Wine said.