UPDATED: Nov. 6, 2015 at 5:47 p.m.

Vice President Joe Biden will visit Syracuse University next Thursday to speak about sexual assault prevention on college campuses.

Biden, an alumnus of SU’s College of Law, will visit campus as part of a four-stop college tour to promote the White House’s “It’s On Us” public awareness campaign, which is aimed at raising awareness about and preventing sexual assault on college campuses. Biden will speak in the Goldstein Auditorium in the Schine Student Center. The exact time for when he will speak will be announced early next week, according to an SU News release. Tickets will be on a first-come, first-served basis, according to the release.

“Syracuse University has been working hard to raise awareness about and to put an end to sexual and relationship violence,” Chancellor Kent Syverud said in the release. “All of this hard work will be nationally recognized next week when Vice President Biden, who has been one of the nation’s leading advocates for this cause, visits our campus.”

Biden will be speaking about sexual assault prevention at three other college campuses next week, including the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland; Clemson University in South Carolina; and Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia, the White House said Friday.

The move also comes after SU junior Samantha Skaller was selected as one of the 17 members of the national “It’s On Us” Student Advisory Committee.

“Our community has been working tirelessly to raise awareness and put an end to sexual assault and relationship violence once and for all,” Skaller said in the SU News release. “I am confident that is why Vice President Biden has selected our campus for one of his visits.”

Biden will not be the first politician to speak about sexual assault prevention at the university. New York state Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul visited SU in September to discuss Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s “Enough is Enough” legislation, which provides a statewide definition of affirmative consent and defines consent as “a clear, unambiguous and voluntary agreement between the participants to engage in specific sexual activity.”

U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) also visited the university in March to promote a bill that would make colleges and universities more accountable to sexual assault survivors on campus.

Biden announced in October that he would not run for president of the U.S.

Published on November 6, 2015 at 4:06 pm

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