ARTICLE FROM GREENVILLEONLINE.COM:
President George W. Bush will give the commencement speech at Furman University next month, the White House said Thursday.
Only barebones details were available.
Bush will at the 7:30 p.m. ceremony where approximately 650 degrees will be awarded in the 16,000-seat Paladin Stadium on May 31.
Furman spokesman Vince Moore said it would mark the first time that a sitting president has visited the campus in its 182-year history.
South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, a 1983 Furman graduate and the 2002 graduation speaker, played a key role in the arrangements, Moore said.
He said after Sanford inquired about the possibility, university president David Shi “met with the senior class leadership, and they were unanimous in their endorsement of the university issuing a formal invitation to the president.”
Bush’s visit to Greenville falls on the same weekend as the state Republican Party’s convention in Columbia. There was no immediate indication whether Bush would add an appearance there, but state GOP chairman Katon Dawson strongly hinted that plans were in the works for the president to be the keynote speaker at the Saturday morning session.
“We’ll see if we can make it work. We’re moving some times now,” Dawson said.
It would be fitting, he said, because Bush sealed his 2000 nomination with South Carolina’s presidential primary, just as his presidential father did in 1988.
While Bush’s popularity has faltered nationwide amid the war in Iraq and a faltering economy, Dawson said, “He’s still and always will be a beloved figure in South Carolina.”
Bush’s last visit to South Carolina was Nov. 2, when he reviewed Army basic training graduates at Fort Jackson in Columbia and spoke at a private campaign fundraiser for U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, who is up for re-election in 2008.
Furman is one of three graduation speeches Bush will make, White House press secretary Dana Perino told reporters after Bush’s televised speech today on Iraq. The others are Greensburg High School in Kansas and the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs.
The Greensburg trip is scheduled for May 4, exactly a year to the day the town and school were struck by a devastating tornado. Bush will be at the Air Force Academy on May 28.
Moore said information about public access to the commencement wouldn’t be available for several weeks.
Meanwhile, White House and Secret Service advance teams will make detailed studies of the campus and surrounding road network.
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