Pride : Famous Visitors

Political and social leaders, world-class athletes and musical performers have spent time at IUPUI educating, entertaining, reaching out as well-wishers for children at Riley Hospital and more. A sample of past campus visitors:

Political visits

On March 26, 2008, actor Sean Astin and Chelsea Clinton, daughter of 2008 presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton, attended a Town Hall Meeting at the new Campus Center to discuss Hillary Clinton's candidacy.

• Watch IUPUI's The Spot episode on Clinton's visit.
• Watch the entire Town Hall Meeting with Clinton and Astin.

Medical Visits

Reggie Miller, Lance Armstrong, and Dr. Lawrence Einhorn

In 1996, world-class cyclist Lance Armstrong sought treatment for testicular cancer from pioneering oncologist Lawrence Einhorn at the Indiana University Cancer Center. His recovery has been phenomenal; he won the Tour de France each year from 1999 to 2005, more than anyone ever has.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt visits children at Riley Hospital for Children.

Two U.S. presidents have visited the IUPUI campus, in both instances to honor the tradition of excellence offered by Riley Hospital for Children. The first to appear was President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who came to campus in the 1930s.

The second was President Richard M. Nixon, who visited University Hospital in February 1974. Julie Eisenhower, while visiting Indianapolis, was admitted to the hospital for surgery to stop internal bleeding from an ovarian cyst. Pat Nixon and David Eisenhower flew to Indianapolis to be with her. President Nixon and Tricia Nixon Cox flew into Indianapolis to join the rest of the family when Julie left the hospital on February 18.

Supreme Court Justices

Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy (left) and law school Dean Norman Lefstein at the Lawrence W. Inlow Hall dedication in 2001.

Lawrence W. Inlow Hall not only gave the IU School of Law-Indianapolis an extraordinary new home, it attracted some high-profile visitors in its inaugural year: Supreme Court Justices Anthony Kennedy and Sandra Day O'Connor. Kennedy was the keynote speaker when the school dedicated Inlow Hall in September of 2001, while O'Connor gave the first annual James P. White Lecture on Legal Education the following April.

Supreme Court Justic Ruth Bader Ginsburg visited IUPUI in 2007.

In 2007, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg delivered the James P. White Lecture on Legal Education. For more, see the School of Law's page on Ginsburg's visit.

Justice Samuel Alito also visited IUPUI in 2007.

Nobel Peace Prize winners

The most recent Nobel Prize winners to visit Indianapolis as part of IUPUI programs are Oscar Arias Sanchez and Betty Williams.

Betty Williams, the 1976 Nobel Peace Prize recipient, was one of the featured speakers at the 2003 Spirit & Place Festival, an Indianapolis tradition supervised by IUPUI's The Polis Center. She was one of the participants in the festival's signature event, the public conversation.

Oscar Arias Sanchez, the former president of Costa Rica and the 1987 Nobel Peace Laureate, was a guest lecturer at IUPUI in 2002. Known as a champion for human development, democracy and demilitarization, Arias discussed "Global Justice and Health in the 21st Century." His appearance was cosponsored by the IUPUI Women's Studies Program, the IUPUI Center on Southeast Asia and the School of Liberal Arts.

World-class Athletes

The RCA Tennis Championships are held at IUPUI each summer.

IUPUI has played a key role in making Indianapolis the "Amateur Sports Capital of the World" with its world-class athletic facilities. That has made the campus a point of destination for many of the best athletes in the world, including tennis stars Andre Aggassi and Steffi Graf, swimmers Michael Phelps and Greg Louganis, and track stars Florence Griffith-Joyner and Carl Lewis.
» More athletes

Celebrities

Dr. Stephen Jay, chair of the Public Health Department, presented U2's Bono with a certificate of appreciation during an HIV/AIDS awareness meeting in December 2002.

Rock star Bono of the fabled group U2 was one of the featured speakers at a 2002 HIV/AIDS awareness meeting at the IU Department of Public Health, housed at the Regenstrief Health Center.

Bono, actress Ashley Judd and comedian Chris Tucker were part of a group that visited Indianapolis to promote HIV/AIDS awareness. About 1,000 community leaders and others interested in the global AIDS crisis attended the event at the Madame Walker Theatre.

Two of the world's most famous musical stars, Elton John and Indiana native Michael Jackson, were among the most renowned people to befriend teenager Ryan White, the Kokomo youngster whose infection with AIDS and subsequent treatment on the IUPUI campus made international headlines in the late 1980s.

Other celebs visited patients at campus hospitals, including entertainers Dick Clark, Roy Rogers, Dale Evans, and Gene Autry; and athletes George McGinnis and Carl Lewis.