First lady Hillary Clinton speaks to the Class of 1993.
HAIL! TO THE CHIEF
Presidential Visits to the University of Michigan
Hillary Rodham Clinton
In 1993, nearly 50,000 people became the first Michigan Stadium crowd to hear a first lady give the U-M commencement address.
Hillary Rodham Clinton used her address to promote a national health care plan. “At the root of our economic and human challenge lies the fact that although we are the richest country in the world, we spend more money and take care of fewer people than many countries that are not as rich as we when it comes to health care,” she said during the May 1 ceremony.
The first lady also spoke to a packed Hill Auditorium on April 28, 1998, when she gave a keynote address to conclude the U-M’s Year of Humanities and the Arts. “It is essential that we continue to celebrate the arts and humanities, and you are showing us, here at this university, how to do it,” she said.
On Jan. 17, 1996, Clinton visited C.S. Mott Children’s and Women’s Hospital to promote her book, It Takes a Village: And Other Lessons Children Teach Us. All book proceeds were directed to children’s hospitals, with Mott Hospital receiving $7,200 from sales during her visit.
Sources: The New York Times; The University Record; The Michigan Daily
Photo: U-M News and Information Services records, Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan