Vicente Fox: 'Revolution of Hope'
For the third consecutive year, a major speaker will address the
campus and greater community as part of the Robert D. Swanson
Responsible Leadership Speaker Series. This year's keynoters are
Vicente Fox, the former president of Mexico, and his wife, Marta
Sahagun de Fox, who will visit the campus on Sept. 24. Vicente Fox
speaks at 7:30 p.m. in Cappaert Gymnasium.
Just the Facts — Admission is free to Vicente Fox’s public talk.
A charismatic reformer, President Fox succeeded in controlling
inflation and interest rates and in achieving the lowest unemployment
rate in all of Latin America during his tenure from 2000 to 2006. Read more.
Vicente Fox
Who’s Invited — The
speech is open to the Alma community and beyond. In addition to our own
students, faculty and staff, we anticipate area school and college
groups to attend along with individuals from throughout Michigan. Our
venue holds about 2,000, with floor seating for 700 and bleacher
seating for about 1,300. Seating in Cappaert Gymnasium is on a
first-come-first-served basis. The gymnasium was packed for last year’s
Madeleine Albright event. We expect a big crowd again, so come early.
Doors open at 6:30 p.m.
Get Your Questions Ready — President Tracy will serve as speech
moderator. Following Fox’s presentation, Dr. Tracy will ask questions
from the audience. Ushers will have cards available for attendees to
submit written questions for Fox.
Stay Until the End, Please — For security reasons, all are asked to stay in their seats until the end of the question-and-answer session.
Smile, You Might Be on TV — Attendees will notice several
television cameras strategically located in the gymnasium. Delta
College Quality Public Broadcasting is videotaping the event and will
produce a 60-minute television show for national distribution to Public
Television stations. We’ll inform the campus community of the broadcast
dates when they are set. Two years ago, Delta produced an award-winning
broadcast of the Bob Dole/George McGovern presentation that later aired
throughout Michigan.
Student Contact — Prior to the evening’s public talk, both
Vicente and Marta Fox will meet with Center for Responsible Leadership,
Posey Global, Model UN and other students for one-hour
question-and-answer sessions.
Post-speech Book Signing — Fox is expected to sign books for approximately 45 minutes following his presentation. He is the author of Revolution of Hope,
in which he speaks forcefully on global topics like immigration, the
war in Iraq, racism, globalization, the role of the United Nations,
free trade, religion, gender equity, indigenous rights and the moral
imperative to heal the global divide between rich and poor nations.
Quote by Fox — Fox, in a Sept. 11 Detroit News interview, said
Michigan should focus on the high-tech and service industries in light
of the loss of factory jobs: "In the end, Michign factories have to
compete with factories in Mexico and China," he said. "Companies like
General Motors and Ford and Maytag don't have an option. They either
close the doors and fire the workers, or they move where they can gain
economic competitiveness."
Modeling Responsible Leadership — Fox’s talk continues an Alma
College focus on issues related to Latin and South America. “With our
continued emphasis on our neighbors to the South, who is better
positioned than Vicente Fox, the first person since the Mexican
Revolution to break the Revolutionary Party’s control of the
presidency, to address leadership with our students,” says John
Leipzig, director of Alma’s Center for Responsible Leadership.
Posted: Thu, September 11th, 2008 at 10:16AM
