Friday, March 16, 2007
Getting a former vice president to speak on campus is much easier when a student at the University is related to him.
Lauren Leonard, Plymouth, Minn., sophomore, is the great-niece of Walter Mondale, who was President Jimmy Carter’s vice president.
Mondale will speak April 12 at the Dole Institute of Politics. The Institute announced this week three upcoming programs, including the Mondale lecture.
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He’s really all about family, so that’s what motivated him to come here
-Lauren Leonard, Plymouth, Minn., sophomore
Although she visited Mondale from time to time during family get-togethers, Leonard said she had never seen her “Uncle Fritz” speak in person.
“He spoke on CNN a month or two ago about Dick Cheney not doing a good job, so I’ve seen him on TV,” she said.
Former Senator Howard Baker will speak on April 22 at the Lied Center and will be awarded the Dole Leadership Prize. Baker will be followed on May 2 by General Richard Myers, who will give the Dole Lecture at the Institute.
Bill Lacy, Dole Institute Director, said the Mondale and Myers lectures will be ticketed events at the Institute, but a number of student tickets have been set aside. Tickets are free and available today for the Mondale lecture and April 13 for the Myers lecture.
Lacy said three such high-profile American speakers have never lectured at the Institute within such a short period of time of each other.
Leonard said Mondale was asked to speak at other campuses near his home state of Minnesota, but she said he denied a lot of those opportunities.
“He’s really all about family, so that’s what motivated him to come here,” she said.
Leonard contacted the Institute after former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright spoke there last year. Leonard told the Institute she might be able to get Mondale to speak on campus.
Steven Jacques, director of programming and communications at the Institute, worked on Mondale’s White House staff. He said he had been trying to bring in Mondale since he started at the Institute in June.
Coincidentally, Albright met with Mondale after her visit. She told Mondale that she had a great experience at the Institute, Jacques said.
“She recommended that he accept the invitation,” he said.
As the great-niece of the former vice president, Leonard said she could e-mail Mondale directly and she would also be his taxi when he arrived. That doesn’t mean she’s ever received any special recognition because of her relation.
“I don’t have his last name so people don’t know unless I say something,” Leonard said.
She said bringing in Mondale was a tough, two-month process of e-mailing and scheduling, but that it should be worth the work.
“Not a lot of people from our generation know who he is, but I hope his credentials will be enough to bring people out,” Leonard said.
Kansan staff writer Tyler Harbert can be contacted at tharbert@kansan.com.
— Edited by Will McCullough
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