Additional Seating Available for Vice President Biden’s Address May 2

Vice President Joe Biden

Additional seating is now available for Vice President Joe Biden’s address at Lafayette, scheduled for 7 p.m. Wednesday, May 2, in Kirby Sports Center. Tickets may be ordered free of charge online at www.goleopardstickets.com.

All tickets will be held for pickup at the Athletic Ticket Office in Kirby Sports Center, 700 West Pierce St. On Monday and Tuesday of this week, the ticket office will be open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. On Wednesday, Kirby Sports Center will close at noon. The ticket office will be open from 10 a.m. to noon. Tickets also may be picked up at a Will Call location near the sports center beginning 5 p.m. Wednesday.

The doors will open for the event at 5 p.m. Guests are asked to arrive between 5 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. and should expect airport-like security. Bags, signs, and glass bottles will not be permitted. Parking will be restricted on both sides of Hamilton Street between Parsons Street and Pierce Street It will also be restricted on Pierce from Hamilton to Dietrich Road.

Biden’s address, “Charting Our Economic Destiny: The Pursuit of American Innovation,” is the College’s Lives of Liberty Lecture for 2011-12. The address will be televised live in the Lehigh Valley and beyond (New York City, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Boston, and Chicago) by RCN TV Network. It will also be available for viewing online via streaming broadcast at this location: http://www.goleopards.com/biden/.

The Lives of Liberty Lecture series features accomplished individuals whose lives embody the ideals of the Marquis de Lafayette in the world today. It was inaugurated in 2007-08, during the College’s yearlong celebration of the 250th anniversary of the Marquis’ birth. Previous speakers include David McCullough, Ron Chernow, Salman Rushdie, Simon Schama, and Gloria Steinem.

This is the second address by a major world figure at Lafayette this academic year. In October, Mikhail Gorbachev, former president of the Soviet Union, delivered a lecture celebrating the creation of the Oechsle Center for Global Education. Building on Lafayette’s strengths, the center will provide a dynamic, collaborative learning environment that is interdisciplinary in its orientation and innovative in its approach to learning and to global citizenship and service, enabling the College to globalize the curriculum and add a global perspective to the educational experience of every student.

Joseph R. Biden Jr. was born Nov. 20, 1942, in Scranton, Pa. He graduated from the University of Delaware and Syracuse Law School and, at age 29, became one of the youngest people ever elected to the U.S. Senate. As a senator from Delaware for 36 years, Biden established himself as a leader on some of our nation’s most important domestic and international challenges. As chairman or ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee for 17 years, he was widely recognized for his work on criminal justice issues, including the landmark 1994 Crime Bill and the Violence Against Women Act. He was at the forefront of issues and legislation related to terrorism, weapons of mass destruction, post-Cold War Europe, the Middle East, and Southwest Asia.

As the 47th vice president of the United States, Biden has continued his leadership on important issues facing the nation, helping to rebuild the economy and lay the foundation for a sustainable economic future. He continues to draw on his vast foreign policy experience, advising President Obama on a multitude of international issues and representing the U.S. to many regions of the world.

The government and law department is sponsoring a faculty and student panel presentation focusing on Biden’s role as vice president, his foreign policy positions, and his service to the Democratic Party. It will be held 7 p.m. today in Kirby Hall of Civil Rights room 104. Read more about the panel

Alan Hoffman ’88 serves as Biden’s deputy chief of staff. Read an article about his role at the White House