{"id":220259,"date":"2024-10-24T06:40:36","date_gmt":"2024-10-24T10:40:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=220259"},"modified":"2024-10-25T12:34:25","modified_gmt":"2024-10-25T16:34:25","slug":"uconn-firsts-first-visit-from-a-us-president","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2024\/10\/uconn-firsts-first-visit-from-a-us-president\/","title":{"rendered":"UConn Firsts: First Visit from a US President"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n<div class=\"wp-block-group has-global-padding is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\r\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\r\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis: 20%;\">\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"146\" class=\"wp-image-218299 img-responsive lazyload\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 150px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 150\/146;width: 150px;\" data-src=\"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2028\/09\/uconnfirsts-1024x999.png\" alt=\"UConn Firsts\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2028\/09\/uconnfirsts-1024x999.png 1024w, https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2028\/09\/uconnfirsts-300x293.png 300w, https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2028\/09\/uconnfirsts-768x749.png 768w, https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2028\/09\/uconnfirsts-1536x1499.png 1536w, https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2028\/09\/uconnfirsts-2048x1998.png 2048w, https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2028\/09\/uconnfirsts-430x420.png 430w, https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2028\/09\/uconnfirsts-682x665.png 682w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" \/><\/figure>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis: 80%;\">\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Gerald Ford had been out of the White House for nearly 10 years when he spoke to a packed Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts on Sept. 23, 1986, but that occasion was nonetheless the first visit to UConn by someone who had served as President of the United States. Ford, a Michigan congressman who became vice president after the resignation of Spiro Agnew in 1973, would become the country&#8217;s 38th president the following year, after Richard Nixon&#8217;s resignation. At UConn, Ford addressed issues of the day &#8211; the Soviet Union, the apartheid regime in South Africa, the federal budget &#8211; and joked about his &#8220;Saturday Night Live&#8221; portrayal as a clumsy oaf. \u201cI knew I was a fairly decent athlete, and most of those critics were much less capable,\u201d said Ford, a star linebacker on two national champion University of Michigan football teams in the 1930s. \u201cI enjoy a good laugh.\u201d Subsequent presidential visits included Bill Clinton in 1991, for the dedication of the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center; George H.W. Bush in 1997, as commencement speaker; and Joe Biden in 2021, for the rededication of what is now the Dodd Center for Human Rights.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignfull size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"98\" class=\"wp-image-218295 img-responsive lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2028\/09\/grid-1024x98.png\" alt=\"decorative abstract grid pattern\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2028\/09\/grid-1024x98.png 1024w, https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2028\/09\/grid-300x29.png 300w, https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2028\/09\/grid-768x73.png 768w, https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2028\/09\/grid-1536x147.png 1536w, https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2028\/09\/grid-2048x196.png 2048w, https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2028\/09\/grid-630x60.png 630w, https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2028\/09\/grid-1300x124.png 1300w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 1024px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 1024\/98;\" \/><\/figure>\r\n<\/div>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Gerald Ford visited campus on Sept. 23, 1986<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":68,"featured_media":220260,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2235,2633,2227],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[1902],"class_list":["post-220259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-today-homepage","category-firsts","category-uconn-edu-homepage"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-21 12:54:27","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/68"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=220259"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220259\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":220454,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220259\/revisions\/220454"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/220260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=220259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=220259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=220259"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=220259"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=220259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}