Former President George H.W. Bush is scheduled to appear at the Lied Center on Nov. 16.

The nation’s 41st president will accept the 2008 Dole Leadership Prize from Kansas University’s Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics, the institute announced Wednesday.

Tickets for the event are free and available to the public, with details on availability to be announced later, said Bill Lacy, director of the Dole Institute.

“We’re very excited,” Lacy said. “I think it speaks volumes that we’ve had two former presidents come to the University of Kansas,” referring to former president Bill Clinton, who gave the inaugural Dole Lecture in Allen Fieldhouse in 2004.

Other details, such as the time of the event, are still being worked out as well, Lacy said.

During the event, Bush will sit for an interview with Lacy, after which there will be time for questions from the audience.

Past recipients of the award include former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, former U.S. senators Howard Baker and George McGovern, Polish Solidarity leader Lech Walesa and U.S. Rep. John Lewis. The award comes with a $25,000 prize.

“We’re thrilled to have former President George H.W. Bush come to KU to receive the Dole Leadership Prize,” said KU Chancellor Robert Hemenway in a statement. “He provided leadership as president during a time of great change in the world, witnessing the fall of the Soviet Union and the challenges that followed.”

Lacy said that Bush was chosen for the honor partly because of his years of public service in the U.S. Navy, as a U.S. congressman, director of the Central Intelligence Agency, as vice president of the United States and as president, Lacy said.

“We try to emphasize the importance of public service and being involved politically in your community,” Lacy said. “President Bush 41 has done all these things that we encourage people to aspire to.”