Syracuse University alumnus and former vice president of the United States Joe Biden announced his candidacy for the 2020 presidential election on April 25.

Biden served as a Delaware senator for 36 years before being elected vice president in 2008 alongside former President Barack Obama. He is a graduate of SU’s College of Law.

Biden has publicly visited SU seven times as a senator and as a vice president. He gave several commencement speeches, led a meeting on college access and affordability and spoke about his “It’s On Us” initiatives.

Here is a breakdown of the time Biden has spent at SU:

1965-68

After attending the University of Delaware as an undergraduate student, Biden was accepted into SU’s College of Law in 1965.

Biden graduated from the College of Law in 1968, finishing 76 out of 85 students, The Los Angeles Times reported.

During his 1987 presidential campaign, Biden admitted plagiarizing a law review article in his first year at SU. He told The New York Times in September 1987 that though he had made a “mistake,” he had done nothing “malevolent,” as he just misunderstood the citing requirements. Shortly after the scandal broke, Biden withdrew from the presidential race.

While at SU, Biden dated and married his late wife, Nelia Hunter. They lived together about three miles from main campus on Stinard Avenue before moving to Delaware after Biden’s graduation. Hunter and their 1-year-old daughter, Naomi, died in a car accident in 1972.

Biden gave the commencement address for the College of Law’s 2016 graduation ceremony. Logan Reidsma | File Photo

2006

Biden was the commencement speaker for the College of Law’s graduating Class of 2006. He had spoken twice before at the college commencements in 1994 and 2002.

In his 2006 speech, Biden talked in part about his experiences in life and the ways they taught him to deal with adversity.

“Success is not whether you are knocked down, everyone is,” Biden said, quoting an expression his father would say. “It is measured by how rapidly you get up.”

2009 

Biden visited SU twice in 2009. In May of that year, he gave the commencement speech at SU’s graduation ceremony. He spoke about the major events that were occurring around his 1968 SU graduation — including the Vietnam War and the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. — and how the uncertainty surrounding those events impacted his life and career.

“You know that you can control your destiny even in these difficult times,” Biden said.

In September 2009, Biden again visited the university to lead a Middle Class Task Force meeting, according to an SU News release. The task force was created by the Obama administration to help middle-class, working families by, among other things, improving work and family balance, protecting retirement security and restoring labor standards, according to a White House website.

Biden attended the meeting with then-Chancellor Nancy Cantor and then-SUNY Chancellor Nancy Zimpher, along with other leaders in the education field and the federal government. The meeting was held to discuss issues surrounding college access and affordability.

More than 1,000 Syracuse and SU community members attended the meeting in Goldstein Auditorium, which was open to the public. Syracuse was chosen to hold the meeting partly because of its work done with Say Yes to Education, a community nonprofit focused on improving high school graduation rates and increasing college preparation.

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2015

Biden visited SU in November 2015 to speak about the prevention of sexual assault and relationship violence on college campuses as part of the “It’s On Us” campaign. The campaign was created by Biden and Obama to end sexual assault on college campuses.

As part of the “It’s On Us” national Week of Action, which took place from Nov. 8 to 14 of that year, Biden visited SU and three other colleges. SU is a campus partner of the “It’s On Us” campaign.

During his speech at SU, which was held in Goldstein Auditorium, Biden encouraged men to become involved in the fight against sexual assault and students to hold their universities accountable on issues of sexual assault.

“It is up to all of you to have the gumption to stand up and speak out,” Biden said. “It’s on you, it’s on me, it’s on us.”

After his speech, Biden spent about 10 minutes taking selfies with students and speaking with campus organizations.

Biden visited Syracuse University as part of the “It’s On Us” campaign in 2015. Logan Reidsma | File Photo

2016

In May 2016, Biden gave another commencement address at SU’s College of Law. He talked about his late son, Beau Biden, who died of brain cancer in late May 2015. Beau was a 1994 College of Law graduate, and he delivered the college’s commencement speech in 2011.

During his speech, Biden said the College of Law was there for Beau not only when he had cancer, but also when he first arrived on campus as a student in 1990. Biden and Beau would joke about the snow that came with attending SU, Biden said.

Published on April 29, 2019 at 10:40 pm

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