Chancellor Robert Jones personally invites Obama to campus
Students pose with an Obama cutout at the letter writing event on Jan. 31 where students wrote letters to persuade the former president to speak at this year’s commencement.
March 9, 2017
Chancellor Robert Jones has reached out to former U.S. President Barack Obama to invite him to the University’s 2017 Commencement Ceremony.
“We have invited President Obama several times,” said Robin Kaler, University spokeswoman. “This year, students got involved to offer additional encouragement for him to accept the invitation.”
On Monday, the group of University students responsible for the Obama 2017 Commencement Speech movement sent an official video invitation.
The University-produced video shows several students expressing their appreciation for the former president and conveying their desire to have him speak at the graduation ceremony on May 13.
Alex Villanueva, student body vice president, and Mark Schaer, press secretary for the Illinois Student Government, have helped organize and guide the campaign.
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They have a campaign on social media platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter, and they have started a Change.org petition.
So far, the group’s petition to invite Obama has collected nearly 3,000 signatures. On Facebook, the video has around 95,000 views.
The campaign to bring Obama to campus has included a push for students to send letters directly to the former president.
“We have also written physical letters to a contact of ours who is close to Obama and can hand deliver them,” said Villanueva in an email. “Lastly, we hope that this video will make its rounds to him and people close to him.”
In a text message exchange, Schaer said they are hopeful because past universities that invited Obama to speak at their commencement ceremonies sometimes didn’t receive confirmation until April.
“The university has been very supportive, and the chancellor has actually invited Obama personally,” said Schaer.
