A few hours before the excitement of Commencement, administrators and a group of University Fellows shared a light breakfast with Tom Brokaw, the semi-retired but still widely revered NBC newsman. The multipurpose room in the Gosman Sports and Convocation Center, an otherwise drab space off the main arena, was abuzz. The University's senior staff and benefactors had their pictures taken with the 65-year-old former NBC Nightly News anchorman and asked for his take on worldly affairs.After sharing bagels and fruit salad with University President Jehuda Reinharz, communications director Lorna Miles Whalen and some of the Fellows, Brokaw approached the podium in the center of the room to deliver a brief speech.

Brokaw, who recieved an honorary degree at the commencement ceremony later in the day, elicited laughs as he introduced himself as "quintessential, emblematic, South Dakota goyim." But, he added, his experiences with Jewish friends in Los Angeles and New York, where he has spent much of his career with NBC, were valuable ones that led him to feel like an "assimilated Jew."

The beginning of his speech focused on the state of international affairs. Brokaw is currently working on three documentaries for NBC News, one of which will focus on the war against terrorism. He recently visited Afghanistan, and said he will be traveling to Iran this week. While he told the breakfast crowd that military action is an important part of combating terrorism, there is much cultural and diplomatic work to be done, too.

"There is a real threat out there," he said, his baritone, Great Plains-accented voice keeping everyone attentive.

Then Brokaw switched to the subject for which he is most famous for covering-the group of Americans he calls the "Greatest Generation."

Reprising the story of citizens who grew up in the Great Depression then fought in World War II, Brokaw said his "crusade" has been imparting the "lesson of the Greatest Generation."

That lesson, he said, is for people to "re-enlist as citizens," particularly with technology playing an increasingly dominant role in modern society.

"We can wire the world, but it will do us little good if we short circuit our souls," he concluded.

Brokaw then took a few questions, including a query about the future of television news. Crediting the increasing popularity of cable television and the Internet as news sources, he said network news remains an important format, but needs to become "much more synergistic." He also discussed the sudden turnover of network news anchors. In the last six months, all of the "big three""evening news anchors-Brokaw, CBS's Dan Rather and ABC's Peter Jennings-have left the airwaves. Though he did not explicitly acknowledge it, Brokaw's departure was the only smooth transition. Rather retired from the CBS Evening News in March following a controversy over forged documents about President Bush's military record and Jennings is on hiatus from his post at ABC while he undergoes treatment for lung cancer.