The Middlebury Campus

Issue date: 1/10/07 Section: News

Media Credit: Courtesy/Public Domain

Former President Bill Clinton will deliver Middlebury's 2007 commencement address on May 27, marking the first address by a modern president to the College. The 42nd President of the United States will receive an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree at the commencement and address an expected crowd of more than 5,000.

"It is a great honor to have President Clinton as the Middlebury College commencement speaker," said President of the College Ronald D. Liebowitz in an official statement released to The Campus. "His dedication to a career in public service and the philanthropic work he has done since leaving public office are an inspiration to college students seeking ways to change and improve both our country and our world."

Clinton will be joined by six other honorary degree recipients - Robert De Cormier, Janet Tiebout Hanson, James Gustave Speth, Marc A. and Dana Lim vanderHeyden and Dr. Huda Y. Zoghbi. College officials are expected to formally announce Clinton's commitment, and the other honorary degree recipients, later this afternoon.

The idea of bringing Clinton to campus was first proposed by the College's Board of Trustees, who secured the commitment with some assistance from a Middlebury alum who had worked for the former President.

Since leaving the Oval Office, Clinton has worked for a range of major national and international causes through the William J. Clinton Foundation HIV/AIDS initiatives and prominent collaborations with former President George H.W. Bush to raise funds for victims of the Indian Ocean Tsunami in 2004 and Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Clinton has also remained in the media spotlight as the nation's potential first First Man, should his wife, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY), enter the 2008 presidential contest. Sen. Hillary Clinton has not committed to attending the commencement with her husband.

Before first running for the presidency, Bill Clinton served as the governor of Arkansas, chairman of the National Governors' Association and had been an attorney general of Arkansas.

Elected president in 1992, and again in 1996, Clinton was the first Democratic president in six decades to win a second term in office. His administrations' accomplishments included a significant economic expansion, major welfare reform, budget surpluses, lower levels of unemployment, poverty and crime and high home ownership and college enrollment rates. While political and personal scandals clouded his later presidency, Clinton largely regained popularity after leaving office.

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