Vice President and Syracuse University College of Law alumnus Joe Biden will give his fifth speech at the university on Thursday, but he is one of many political figures who have given speeches at SU.

His speech, a component of the White House’s “It’s On Us” initiative, comes five years after he gave a commencement address at SU.

Biden, a ’68 alumnus of the College of law, has given four commencement addresses at SU — three for the College of Law in 1994, 2002 and 2006, and one for SU as a whole. In his 2009 commencement address, Biden shared his memories of attending SU with graduates and expressed gratitude for the experiences he had at that time.

“The loyalty of this university exceeds any institutional loyalty that I have ever encountered in my life, and it’s come at times that were the bleakest in my life, as well as the happiest in my life,” he said.

Biden’s 2009 speech was not the first time a member of the executive branch has spoken at an SU commencement ceremony. Former Vice President Hubert Humphrey was the keynote speaker for the 1965 commencement ceremony.

In 2003, former President Bill Clinton gave a speech in which he shared two hopes for the graduating students: that more of them would personally serve in the Peace Corps, AmeriCorps or tutoring and that all of them would vote and get involved in politics.

Biden’s son, Beau, who died in May from brain cancer, also gave a College of Law commencement address in 2011. Like his father who graduated years before, Beau attended the College of Law and graduated in 1994. Beau served as Attorney General of Delaware from January 2007 to January 2015.

Beau’s speech, titled “The Means Matter,” included quotes from former Justice Louis Brandeis, Winston Churchill and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC).

He told students they had “a responsibility that is desperately needed … at a time of historic challenges for our nation … with the opportunity to make your community, our nation and this world a better place,” according to an SU News release.

On Aug. 5, 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson dedicated Newhouse I alongside Samuel I. Newhouse. Johnson accepted an honorary degree and delivered his famous “Gulf of Tonkin Speech,” in which he spoke on what he called deliberate North Vietnamese attacks against American destroyers in the Gulf.

Here are a few other notable politicians who have spoken at the university:

• 1951: Warren Robinson Austin, Chief Delegate of the U.S. to the United Nations
• 1957: John F. Kennedy, then a U.S. senator. Kennedy was the 35th president of the U.S.
• 1965: Hubert H. Humphrey, U.S. vice president
• 1986: Mario Cuomo, then governor of New York state.
• 1999: Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY)
• 2002: Rudy Giuliani, former mayor of New York City

Published on November 11, 2015 at 11:43 pm

Contact Katelyn: kmfaubel@syr.edu