5 things you need to know about Joe Biden ahead of his visit to SU
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Joe Biden will speak at Syracuse University Thursday to talk about sexual assault on college campuses. Biden last spoke at SU in 2009 for commencement.
Vice President and Syracuse University College of Law alumnus Joe Biden will speak at SU in the Goldstein Auditorium in the Schine Student Center on Thursday. His speech, which will focus on the prevention of sexual assault on college campuses, is a part of the White House “It’s On Us” initiative.
Here are five things you need to know about Biden’s connection to Syracuse ahead of his visit.
- This isn’t the first time Biden has spoken at SU.
Biden delivered SU’s commencement address in 2009, a year after he was elected as vice president in 2008. Biden’s late son, Beau, also an alumnus of the College of Law, spoke at SU when he delivered the commencement address for the law school in 2011. Beau died of brain cancer earlier this year at the age of 46.
- Biden visited the city of Syracuse last year.
Biden campaigned for Democrat Dan Maffei at Syracuse Hancock International Airport during the 2014 24th district congressional election. Maffei, the incumbent, lost to Republican John Katko by 20 points.
- Biden admitted to plagiarizing a law review article he wrote while he was a student at the College of Law.
In the midst of his 1987 campaign for president, Biden— then a senator from Delaware — admitted he copied five pages from another published law review article with no attribution during his first year at the College of Law. To defend himself, Biden told The New York Times he did nothing “malevolent” and simply did not understand the rules of attribution. Biden withdrew from the presidential race soon after the scandal broke.
- Biden finished near the bottom of his law school class.
Biden finished 76th out of 85 students in his graduating class at the College of Law, according to The Los Angeles Times.
- Biden married his late wife, Nelia Hunter, while they were students at SU.
Biden and Hunter dated and eventually got married while they both attended SU. The couple lived together on 608 Stinard Ave., which is about three miles from campus, until Biden finished law school in 1968. The couple moved to Delaware after living in Syracuse. Hunter and the couple’s one-year-old daughter, Naomi, were killed in a car accident on Dec. 18, 1972, just after Biden was elected to the U.S. Senate.
Published on November 9, 2015 at 11:22 pm
Contact Rachel: rsandler@syr.edu
