Bill Clinton to visit KU campus next month to accept Dole Leadership Prize

Former President Bill Clinton left, and former Senator Bob Dole address a crowd at Allen Fieldhouse, May 21, 2004. Clinton delivered the inaugural speech in the Dole Lecture Series to about 12,000 people in Allen Fieldhouse.

Former U.S. President Bill Clinton is the winner of the 2015 Dole Leadership Prize, bestowed annually by the Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics at Kansas University.

Clinton is scheduled to come to campus to accept the award at 1 p.m. Nov. 23 at the Lied Center. The day’s program also will be broadcast live online at doleinstitute.org.

Dole Institute director Bill Lacy said several of Clinton’s traits made him a worthy recipient of the prize.

“President Clinton’s presidency included strong leadership and bipartisanship,” Lacy said, in a news release from KU. “Much of his work as president — including his balancing of the budget and efforts to reach across the aisle — mirrors the mission of the Dole Institute and the values of Senator Dole.”

KU Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little said, in the news release, that hearing directly from the former president would be “a special experience for our students and a special moment for our university.”

In this file photo from May 21, 2004, former President Bill Clinton, right, delivers the inaugural speech in the Dole Lecture Series to about 12,000 people in Allen Fieldhouse as former Sen. Bob Dole looks on.

The Nov. 23 event is free and open to the public, though a limited number of tickets are available.

Tickets will be available beginning 11 a.m. Nov. 9 through the Lied Center box office, 1600 Stewart Drive. Individuals must claim their tickets in person at the box office, and tickets are limited to two per person. They are reserved seating.

For KU students, a total of 500 tickets will be reserved through the Student Union Activities office and will be available at 9 a.m. Nov. 9.

Students must present a valid KU ID and claim their tickets in person at the Kansas Union Welcome Center, on level four of the Kansas Union, 1301 Jayhawk Blvd. Student tickets are limited to one per person.

Former U.S. Sen. Bob Dole of Kansas, for whom the award is named, said in KU’s news release that he was proud that Clinton would be honored.

“I speak with the president now and then, and we have become friends over the years,” Dole said. “I know the event will attract many students and people from across the Midwest. If I could be there, we could have a lively debate.”

Dole was on hand to personally introduce Clinton when the former president spoke at KU in 2004. Clinton came to KU to deliver the inaugural speech in the Dole Lecture Series to about 12,000 people in Allen Fieldhouse.

Clinton, the 42nd U.S. president, led the country from 1993 to 2001.

After leaving the White House, Clinton established the Clinton Foundation, which works to improve global health, increase opportunity for girls and women, reduce childhood obesity and preventable diseases, create economic opportunity and growth and help communities address the effects of climate change, according to its website.

Clinton also has served as the top United Nations envoy for the Indian Ocean tsunami recovery effort and as the U.N. Special Envoy to Haiti.

Clinton’s wife, Hillary Clinton, is the Democratic front-runner in the campaign to become the next president of the United States.

The Dole Leadership Prize is awarded to honor an individual or group whose public service leadership inspires others.

Previous winners have included Nelson Mandela, the Wounded Warrior Project, former Ukrainian president Viktor Yushchenko and former President George H.W. Bush.