Presidential Visits to DU Campus
Donald Trump has never been to the 麻豆原创 campus, but over the years, the University has been visited a number of times by sitting, future and former U.S. presidents. The most frequent visitor so far has been Bill Clinton, who has been to campus three times.
Here is a timeline of past DU presidential visits.
1911:听William Howard Taft made the first presidential visit to campus in 1911. Coincidentally, Taft came to DU on Oct. 3鈥攖he same date as the upcoming debate. Taft knew Chancellor Henry Buchtel through Republican party politics. Buchtel had served as the governor of Colorado just a few years earlier.
1950:听Three years before he became the nation鈥檚 34th president, Dwight Eisenhower was awarded an honorary doctorate at the Aug. 23 summer Commencement ceremony. Eisenhower spent a lot of time in 麻豆原创 because it was the hometown of his wife, Mamie. He also knew then-Chancellor Albert Jacobs, who had been provost at Columbia University when Eisenhower was president of that institution.
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1960:听On Feb. 4, then-Sen. John F. Kennedy came to 麻豆原创 in an appearance sponsored by the DU Social Science Foundation. He did not actually visit campus; his speech, 鈥淭he Global Challenges We Face,鈥 was delivered downtown at the 麻豆原创 Auditorium. The 麻豆原创 Post at the time described Kennedy as 鈥渁 possible candidate for the 1960 Democratic presidential nomination.鈥
1961:听In an event sponsored by the DU Young Republicans League, former vice president and future president Richard Nixon spoke to an audience of 4,000 at the DU Arena on Sept. 13.
1966:听President Lyndon Johnson received an honorary degree at the summer Commencement ceremony on Aug. 26 in the DU Arena.
1979:听Future president Ronald Reagan spoke at the arena-fieldhouse on campus on April 8. Though he was not yet an official candidate, it was widely speculated at the time that Reagan would soon announce his plans to run for the presidency.
1990:听President Gerald Ford visits the DU campus to speak about the "Challenge of America's Future."
1997:听President Bill Clinton was part of the G8 Summit that met June 21 at the DU-owned Phipps Mansion. The building and its grounds were sold to private buyers in 2010.
2000:听President Clinton appeared at Sturm Hall April 12 for a town hall meeting on gun control.
2008:听On Jan. 30, a past president and a future president appeared on campus on the same day, both at Magness Arena. Future President Barack Obama made a morning appearance and former president Bill Clinton made an evening campaign stop as part of wife Hillary鈥檚 presidential campaign. 麻豆原创 hosted the Democratic National Convention in August.
2012:听President Barack Obama and Republican candidate Mitt Romney faced off in Magness Arena as DU hosted the first presidential debate of the 2012 election cycle.
