Student Government Association’s vote to allocate $10,000 to support the “Compassion and Justice Consultation” April 28 through May 1 was more than appropriate 8212; it was a necessary step for SGA to capitalize on a once-in-a-generation opportunity to provide insight and knowledge into the significance of religious practices and belief systems as well as compassion and social justice.

Alice Walker, activist and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of “The Color Purple,” will headline the consultation. Walker turned down an invitation to Harvard for a chance to speak on campus, and the event likely will attract Harvard scholars to the university to engage in the consultation.

Walker was inspired by a meeting with Martin Luther King Jr. while a student at Spelman College to participate in the Civil Rights Movement. Walker was arrested on International Women’s Day in 2003 for crossing a police line during an anti-war protest in support of the women and children of Iraq. Walker also was active with Code Pink and Women for Peace, and as recently as 2009, she traveled to Gaza to participate in the Gaza Freedom March.

Most of the $60,000 honorarium to bring Walker to campus will go to charity, but her presence on campus cannot be measured by dollars and cents. The purple in Walker’s Pulitzer-winning book represents the acknowledgement of the good in life despite pain and suffering; hopefully, Walker can spread that message to our own purple community.

Sports editor Ryne Sulier for the editorial board.