Mississippi College Prepares for Clinton Visit (To Deliver Commencement Address May 18)

Tuscaloosa News ^ | May 13, 2003 | Barbara Powell, AP

[mountaineer]

Tucked behind a Target store on 500 acres of shaded grounds, little Tougaloo College has survived for 134 years in a relatively obscure corner of academia.

While beloved by its 800-member student body and a hardcore group of dedicated alumni, Tougaloo has struggled with declining enrollment and a chronic funding shortage.

But Tougaloo President Beverly Hogan and other backers of the school are hoping a commencement address from former President Bill Clinton on Sunday and a Democratic presidential debate sponsored by the Congressional Black Caucus will bring the troubled campus some positive attention.

Clinton, one of the world's most sought-after speakers and arguably the highest paid, isn't charging Tougaloo a fee. While Hogan is grateful and honored by the gesture, she said she wants more.

"I'm hoping that Tougaloo College becomes part of the things he thinks about," said Hogan, who met Clinton when he was governor of Arkansas and she directed Mississippi's Office of Federal State Programs. "I won't let him forget Tougaloo."

Though it produces doctors, lawyers and teachers, Tougaloo never attracted the enrollment, money or prestige afforded such other black institutions as Howard University - which has an endowment of more than $300 million and more than 10,000 students.

But Hogan, herself a Tougaloo alumna, and the chairman of Tougaloo's board of trustees, Leroy Walker Jr., believe a visit from a former president confers a seal of approval and a status from which Tougaloo can benefit.

"For a small black college, this will do volumes from the standpoint of public relations," said Walker, who owns 21 franchised McDonald's restaurants. "We are proud that President Clinton hasn't forgotten that these are the kinds of institutions that make a difference to regular people."

C.J. Lawrence, a graduating senior and student government association president who expects to meet the former president on Sunday, said Tougaloo students can relate to Clinton because he was in office in the 1990s.

"I was one election away from being able to vote for him," the 22-year-old said. "He's a president of our lifetime. We got to see him grow just as we grew."

Tougaloo is no stranger to high-profile visitors. Last year's commencement speaker was former Clinton adviser Vernon Jordan, a powerful Washington lawyer who drew a record crowd of 5,000. This year, Tougaloo sent out more than 10,000 graduation invitations.

The school will set out 7,000 chairs on the campus green. But since the ceremony is open to the public as well as alumni, school officials are bracing for thousands more to attend.

Workers have planted shrubs along the route Clinton may take when he arrives Sunday, and they plan to put up large banners welcoming him. Even Hogan's on-campus house has received a landscaping makeover.

"You see how it is right now - it's calm and quiet," Tougaloo spokesman Chip Washington said as he walked across the campus last week. "But picture how it's going to be on May 18. Mass hysteria."

U.S. Rep. Bennie G. Thompson, a Tougaloo alumnus who helped bring the Aug. 13 Democratic debate to the campus, said all the attention also could help turn the struggling college around.

"This is Tougaloo's time to shine, no doubt about it," he said.

[steve-b]

Mississippi College Prepares for Clinton Visit

They're handing out pepper sprays and billy clubs to the coeds even as we speak.

[steve-b]

He reminded students how their world had changed since they entered Syracuse as freshmen in 1999. Not just in negative ways, such as the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, but also in positive ways, such as

...Clowntoon leaving office.

[steve-b]

I read the headline and almost croaked. Mississippi College is a Baptist college in Clinton, Miss. If they were inviting Clinton to speak, I figured we were now in an alternate universe and ready for Doomsday.

Clowntoon could be the herald of the Antichrist, kind of like the Silver Surfer and Galactus.

[stboz]

I was about to say, "First MCI and now Klink....gag a maggot."

I am so glad it's not MC. (For those who don't know, MCI's former center of the universe is right across I-20 from Mississippi College.)

Tougaloo can have him...after all, he's the first Black president.

[lawdude]

Will they provide a "Police Acedemy" type happy face in the podium?

[mountaineer]

Former President Bill Clinton has been popular among African Americans in Mississippi, and his appearance Sunday is expected to give a boost to one of the state's historically black colleges.

People are drawn to his charisma and his work on the economy, but others are turned off by the scandal involving White House intern Monica Lewinsky, said Mike Espy, a former Clinton administration agriculture secretary. "He is a polarizing figure in many cases. There are some who like him, some who don't."

Espy said Clinton charges $250,000 for domestic speaking engagements, and $350,000 or more for those outside the country. The fact that he waived his fee for Tougaloo College says "a lot about Tougaloo and Tougaloo's reputation and his regard for the institution," said Espy.

Clinton, the school's commencement speaker, is scheduled to arrive Sunday morning between 9:15 a.m. and 9:30 a.m. and will leave to attend another speaking engagement outside Mississippi around 1 p.m., the school said.

Tougaloo President Beverly Hogan, a Clinton friend, invited him to speak.

The visit is not expected to affect the Democratic vote in elections this year.

"It is not a political visit. it is simply to recognize the great significance of Tougaloo College to our state and our region. That's the motivation behind his coming here," said William Winter, a friend and fellow Democrat who served as Mississippi governor the same time Clinton served as governor of Arkansas. Winter also served on Clinton's advisory board on race relations.

Mississippi Democratic Party Chairman Rickey Cole said he tried to schedule a reception with Clinton following the commencement, but was told the former president had already committed to another event.

Cole said Clinton is trying to limit his political fund-raising activities because he is focusing on raising money for his library-museum complex in Arkansas. "We wanted to make use of his visit while he was here because we would have been foolish to not and try to capitalize on it," he said.

Mississippi Republican Party Chairman Jim Herring said Clinton is not held in high regard by most Mississippians, and he hoped the visit would make voters realize what a Democrat really is, he said.

"It will remind people that anybody who runs with a 'D' by their name (is) wedded to Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton and Ted Kennedy and people of that type," he said.

But Chip Washington, a school spokesman, said Tougaloo has been flooded by calls from people wanting to know details of the visit.

"I can tell you that since the announcement was made that President Clinton was going to be our commencement speaker, the excitement level has grown to a level that I didn't expect," he said. "It's a tremendous coup for the school."

Washington said the school expects 7,000 people to attend, which would be the largest crowd the school has seen. Last year, Tougaloo booked Vernon Jordan, a prominent Washington lawyer-lobbyist and civil rights activist who is also a friend of Clinton. He drew about 5,000 people.

State Sen. Barbara Blackmon, Clinton and others will receive an honorary degree from the school, he said.

Clinton, a two-term president who ran against Bob Dole in 1996, trounced his Republican opponent in Mississippi counties with large black populations, including Bolivar, Claiborne, Jefferson and Adams. Dole ultimately took 49.2 of the state's vote, to Clinton's 44.2 percent.

In 1992, Clinton garnered 40.8 percent of the vote in Mississippi, to the first George Bush's 50 percent.

"He's extremely popular ... among those people who are vulnerable, the disenfranchised, the traditional groups that have been left out," said Aaron Shirley, a Jackson pediatrician who joined Clinton's health-care task force in 1993.

"He identifies with them in a way that's really special. He conveys his concern in a way that is really touching."

http://www.clarionledger.com/news/0305/16/m08.html

[bourbon]

"It is not a political visit.",

Sure, it's not. (wink, wink). 10 bucks says he finds the time to criticize GW Bush in his "non-political" speech.

BTW, thanks for the update on this thread.