Democracy, Populism, & Domestic Politics, United States Joe Biden’s longtime ties to Penn

Perry World House features in a Penn Today retrospective of Joe Biden's connections with the University of Pennsylvania, ahead of his inauguration as the 46th President of the United States.

For 10 years, Nick McAndrew made Penn his home. He graduated medical school, finished residency, and simultaneously completed a fellowship and a master’s degree. In his final year at the University before he headed back to his hometown, McAndrew promised himself that he’d “soak up every last bit of Penn” that he could.

So when he got word that Joe Biden, then a Benjamin Franklin Presidential Practice Professor, would visit campus in March 2018 for a special discussion with President Amy Gutmann, he knew he couldn’t miss it. Little did he know the effect the experience would have, still, years later...

In recent years, Biden headlined important campus events including three David and Lyn Silfen University Forums. Biden also was a force behind happenings such as the Penn Biden Leaders Dialogues, which in 2018, as part of the Perry World House Global Order Colloquium, featured Rt. Hon. Sir Nick Clegg, the former deputy prime minister of the United Kingdom, and in 2017 featured Felipe Calderón, the former president of Mexico...

Michael Horowitz, director of Perry World House, remembers when Biden stepped “off the cuff” into a class that was meeting in Perry World House, where he was attending an event reception. The students were discussing American military intervention in the Bosnian War in the mid-1990s, something Biden had a unique, personal—and passionate—account of.

“He spent 20 or 30 minutes with the class,” Horowitz recalls. “It just shows how generous he was with his time and how excited he was to engage with students.”

Read more in Penn Today >>