HAIL! TO THE CHIEF
Presidential Visits to the University of Michigan
From the White House to the Big House, American presidents have been visiting the University of Michigan for more than 100 years.
Many of the presidential visits can be characterized the way Theodore Roosevelt summed up a daylong campus appearance in 1899: “I have had a corking good time.”
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History was made here, too: John F. Kennedy announced the formation of the Peace Corps on the steps of the Michigan Union in 1960. And Lyndon Baines Johnson first spoke of the “Great Society” in his commencement speech in the spring of 1964.
President Barack Obama joined this distinguished list on May 1, 2010, when he addressed graduates of the Class of 2010 at Spring Commencement.
President Obama is planning a return visit to campus Jan. 27. To learn more about his visit to the Al Glick Field House and how to view the event online, please see: http://vpcomm.umich.edu/pa/key/presidentobama.html
Photos: U-M News and Information Services records, Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan