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The Daily OrangeBiden calls for optimism, change in address to alma mater
By Bethany Bump and Shayna Meliker
Posted: 5/10/09, 3:35 PM EST Section: News
Joe Biden walked across the stage at Syracuse University in 1968, in what was then Archbold Stadium. He stepped into a world burdened by an unpopular war in Vietnam, one in which there was "no light at the end of the tunnel," he said.
Yet four decades ago, when graduating from SU with a law degree, he was optimistic about the future.
On a different stage in the same place 41 years later - and this time surrounded by Secret Service - Biden delivered the commencement address for Syracuse University and the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry in the Carrier Dome, with the same message of optimism during troubled times.
Commencement event organizers said 19,239 people attended the ceremony, more than 5,000 people less than they expected. When former New York City Mayor Rudy Guilliani delivered the commencement address in 2003, he drew 20,000 people. A year later, approximately 22,000 people showed up to hear former President Bill Clinton give the speech.
This was the 155th commencement for SU, and the 112th for ESF. The two schools awarded a total of 5,018 degrees, including 3,165 bachelor's degrees, 1,570 master's degrees and 140 doctoral degrees.
Biden was the first sitting vice president to deliver a commencement address at SU since 1965, when Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey spoke. No sitting president has ever given the SU commencement speech.
In his 27-minute speech, he reminded the graduates that they were facing difficulty in finding jobs, two U.S. wars, a global recession, a planet in peril and "a world in flux." He called this moment in time their inflection point. A point in which Biden said their hands are on a steering wheel, and one slight turn can send their car in a fundamentally different direction.
Three days after Biden walked off that field at his graduation, Robert F. Kennedy, one of his "personal heroes," was shot in a kitchen in Los Angeles. Martin Luther King, Jr. had been assassinated two months prior and the Vietnam War was dragging on. Peaceful antiwar demonstrations began to turn violent.
Yet four decades ago, when graduating from SU with a law degree, he was optimistic about the future.
On a different stage in the same place 41 years later - and this time surrounded by Secret Service - Biden delivered the commencement address for Syracuse University and the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry in the Carrier Dome, with the same message of optimism during troubled times.
Commencement event organizers said 19,239 people attended the ceremony, more than 5,000 people less than they expected. When former New York City Mayor Rudy Guilliani delivered the commencement address in 2003, he drew 20,000 people. A year later, approximately 22,000 people showed up to hear former President Bill Clinton give the speech.
This was the 155th commencement for SU, and the 112th for ESF. The two schools awarded a total of 5,018 degrees, including 3,165 bachelor's degrees, 1,570 master's degrees and 140 doctoral degrees.
Biden was the first sitting vice president to deliver a commencement address at SU since 1965, when Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey spoke. No sitting president has ever given the SU commencement speech.
In his 27-minute speech, he reminded the graduates that they were facing difficulty in finding jobs, two U.S. wars, a global recession, a planet in peril and "a world in flux." He called this moment in time their inflection point. A point in which Biden said their hands are on a steering wheel, and one slight turn can send their car in a fundamentally different direction.
Three days after Biden walked off that field at his graduation, Robert F. Kennedy, one of his "personal heroes," was shot in a kitchen in Los Angeles. Martin Luther King, Jr. had been assassinated two months prior and the Vietnam War was dragging on. Peaceful antiwar demonstrations began to turn violent.
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