For the second year in a row, Washington University will bring a man of history to serve as the commencement speaker. Rather than a student of history, however, we get someone who actually lived it. Representative and civil rights leader John Lewis of Georgia will be coming to campus for the second time this academic year—this time to speak to the graduating class. The editorial board of Student Life commends the administration on bringing such an influential figure, both historically and currently, to campus.

Last November, Rep. Lewis came to Brown Hall Auditorium to participate in a Q&A following a screening of a new documentary—“Get in the Way”—about his life. The event was part of the St. Louis International Film Festival, and Rep. Lewis’ appearance was the centerpiece of the 10-day festival. Unfortunately, much of the Q&A was focused on appealing to Rep. Lewis’ privileged position within government, and not on questions pertaining to his life and historical contributions.

Bringing Rep. Lewis back to campus gives a larger proportion of the student body the opportunity to hear him speak on pressing issues facing our country and hopefully allows him a second chance to speak motivationally and not simply politically.

Over the past few years, civil rights protests have characterized the city of St. Louis and impacted the Wash. U. campus as a whole. From the racial slur incident in Bear’s Den to the killing of Michael Brown to the events on Mizzou’s campus, the class of 2016 has experienced a large swath of racially motivated conflicts during its tenure. Inviting Rep. Lewis to be the capstone for this class represents incredible forethought on the part of the administration to continue the conversation on a pressing and essential issue.

While Rep. Lewis is indeed a wonderful commencement speaker and admirable choice, our editorial board would like to point out that the administration has failed to bring a female speaker since Wendy Knopp in 2009. Before that, a woman hadn’t given the commencement address since Madeleine Albright in 2003. We understand that scheduling does play a critical role in who the speaker will be, but we encourage the administration to make an increased effort to bring a female or non-male identifying speaker for the class of 2017.

Further, we do not advocate bringing a non-male speaker simply for the sake of diversity, rather we know there are qualified, insightful women and non-male identifying speakers who would have as meaningful of a contribution to the graduating class of a top tier institution. It sends a dismaying message to the national community about our values if we only promote the thoughts and experiences of male public figures.

We would also dissuade the administration from compartmentalizing the types of speakers they bring for the issues they in which they specialize. The past two black speakers that the school brought to speak at commencement have both been known for the their political contributions to civil rights. Only bringing speakers from minority groups to speak on issues of advocacy for those groups sets a dangerous precedent of marginalization.

Overall, we would once more like to commend University administrators for bringing such an outstanding and influential figure to campus, but we remind them to be cognizant of their choices and why they are making those choices moving forward.