Condoleezza Rice talks Ukraine conflict, U.S. polarization and NCAA in Notre Dame visit

SOUTH BEND — Russian President Vladimir Putin's aspirations to expand control in eastern Europe came as no surprise to former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. But the former secretary of state said that she, like many others, was surprised to see the Russian president take action two months ago by launching an invasion of Ukraine.

"I knew that he had this aspiration for the restoration of the Russian Empire … and it's hard for us to understand, because we thought people stopped thinking that way 100 years ago," Rice said in a wide-ranging talk Thursday with Notre Dame President John Jenkins.

Rice, a former Notre Dame trustee and 1975 alumna, touched on foreign policy, American polarization and the changing rules for compensating collegiate athletes in the afternoon talk at Notre Dame's Mendoza College of Business.

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The former secretary — who now leads a conservative think tank, the Hoover Institution, at Stanford University — said she believes Putin miscalculated the strength of his own military, the will of Ukrainians to defend their democracy and how western countries would respond to the invasion.

"The real question is, how long can (Ukrainian President Volodymyr) Zelenskyy watch the wanton execution of his people without trying to strike the deal?" Rice said. "That is really what it comes to. But, from the point of view of the international community, it is better if Putin loses."

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She responded to a question from the audience about America's own deepening political divide, saying, "if you can't have a common purpose, then democracies don't hold together very well."

She called for a return to engaging in discussion of differing viewpoints without judgement.

"It's very hard, with social media in particular, where you say something and the next minute you know, you're being doxxed or you're being canceled because you said something that was offensive to someone," Rice said. "I do tell all of my students, you actually don't have a constitutional right not to be offended."

The former secretary, a member of Stanford University's faculty, reflected on her own time at Notre Dame, where she earned her master's degree just years after the university opened its undergraduate programs to women.

"This is a place that always has its values at the center and too many of our great institutions are afraid to talk about values anymore for fear of offending somebody," Rice said. "None of us is helped by being silent about our values and pretending they aren't important."

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Though the avid college sports and former College Football Playoff selection committee member did not speak on news this week about NCAA President Mark Emmert's decision to step down next year, she did offer a few opinions on athletes' new ability to cash in on compensation for their name, image and likeness.

"I'm worried, because there seems to be a devaluing of the central proposition of intercollegiate athletics, which is that you are an outstanding athlete, but you really want a college education," Rice said. She added, "It's the Wild West, and I think there are all kinds of abuses of it taking place, but they're not abuses because they're no rules."

Rice, who served with Jenkins on a 14-member Commission on College Basketball in 2017, said she saw the changes coming years ago. Some have criticized this year's rollout of name, image and likeness compensation for a lack of uniform rules across states, leaving it largely up to individual schools to police the new activity.

Rice advocated for a collegiate sports experience that places academic and athletic experiences at the forefront ahead of monetary exploitation.

"We said in 2017 to the NCAA … if a student is in the music department and wants to make a music video and sell the music video, they can do that," Rice said. "So let athletes have that same possibility, but let's put some guardrails around it."

Email South Bend Tribune education reporter Carley Lanich at clanich@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter: @carleylanich.

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Condoleezza Rice talks war in Ukraine, NCAA sports in Notre Dame visit