Oprah Winfrey Receives Honorary Doctorate Degree

By Christine Fenno Posted Jun 26th 2011 09:11AM

Call her Dr. Oprah Winfrey! On Friday, the media mogul visited South Africa, where she was given an honorary doctorate degree in education from the University of the Free State.

The talk-show queen, who wrapped the 25th and final season of her legendary daytime series in May, dressed in formal cap and gown for the affair.

Guests in attendance report that she was moved to tears while on stage for the presentation of the honor.

The university of approximately 30,000 students in the central farming town of Bloemfontein rolled out the red carpet, staging a ceremony for one that the Chicago Sun-Times says rivaled the type of pomp and circumstance normally drummed up for a whole graduating class.

The citation that came with her degree says Winfrey has become a true South African. "She did so because she believed that there was important work to be done here, and she wanted to be part of what Nelson Mandela and others had begun."

Winfrey famously opened her South African school for girls in 2007, and weathered a scandal in which a dormitory staffer was accused of sexually assaulting students.

A different scandal plagued the University of the Free State five years ago, when white students were caught humiliating black housekeeping staffers and objecting to integration of the historically white college. Winfrey eventually reached out to Jonathan Jensen, the new rector and first black administrator of the college, whose success in achieving a public reconciliation between the two sides set a tone of forgiveness for the entire student body. Once the TV icon agreed to speak at the school, the school decided to turn her visit into a grand ceremony.

In the auditorium, Winfrey knelt on a padded stool, flashing her red stiletto heels as the doctorate degree was bestowed in front of a jubliant audience of more than 4,000.

"What has happened here at Free State in terms of racial reconciliation, of peace, of harmony, of one heart understanding and opening itself to another heart is nothing short of a miracle," she said. "It is truly what the new South Africa is all about."

Tags: oprah winfrey

Comments

(29)

Sunday 26 June

By The River Rat

Vote down Vote up Report this

JARA, where is Tennessee University?

Wednesday 29 June

By Jara

Frank, what has your education, or lack of education done for you lately? Did it make you a billionare?

When I saw the caption I just knew it had to be from some liberal bastion or a podunk university. I see it was from Podunk University.

Monday 27 June

By japhya

Wow RAT, if you have to ask where Tenn you are really living up to your name.

By pat

she looks as though she's gained about 50 pounds since she was last
on her tv show.

By Karen

Who cares?

By jumpinjohn

She's starting to look like Tracy Morgan!

By wee wee-wee

... and she probably will actually call herself Doctor. what a tool.

By Veronique

Hearty congratulations to Ms. Winfrey! What amazing progress for a previously racist university in South Africa! Oprah Winfrey certainly deserves this honor.

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