DePauw preparing for Friday visit by President Clinton

On Friday, doors to the DePauw University Lilly Center will open to students at 1 p.m. and the alumni, faculty, staff and the general public at 1:30 p.m. for the Ubben Lecture by President Bill Clinton.

The event will take place in Neal Fieldhouse, located within the Lilly Physical Education and Recreation Center, with the speech beginning at 3 p.m.

President Clinton, founder of the William J. Clinton Foundation and the 42nd president of the United States of America, will give the keynote speech titled "Embracing Our Common Humanity."

As with all Ubben Lectures, the speech is presented free of admission charge.

"We hope to configure the venue to provide as many as 5,000 seats, so there should be plenty of room, but I encourage people to get to the venue early to ensure they're able to be part of this historic day," Ken Owen, executive director of media relations at DePauw and coordinator of the Ubben Lecture Series, said.

Students will enter through the entrance on the east side of the Lilly Center, and will need a valid DePauw ID to gain admission through those doors.

Other visitors will enter through the north side of the building.

Attendees should be prepared for security checks. Bags, backpacks, purses, cameras, cell phones, signs and key chains with mace or pepper spray attachments will not be permitted in the Lilly Center.

If needed, overflow seating will be available across the street in Kresge Auditorium of the Green Center for the Performing Arts, where the program will be shown via a closed circuit video transmission.

Clinton's visit will mark the 25th anniversary of the Ubben Series, which was established in 1986 through an endowment set up by 1958 DePauw graduates Timothy and Sharon (Williams) Ubben. The programs are fully underwritten by the Ubben Fund.

Previous guests of the Ubben Lecture Series at DPU have included Mikhail Gorbachev, Tony Blair, Elie Wiesel, Margaret Thatcher, Gen. Colin Powell, Shimon Peres, Jesse Jackson and Peyton Manning. The visitors have included eight Nobel laureates (six of them won the Nobel Peace Prize).

President Clinton will become the first former U.S. president to deliver an Ubben Lecture.

Vernon Jordan, a longtime friend and adviser to President Clinton as well as a 1957 graduate of DePauw, will introduce the former president.