FAYETTEVILLE, AR. — The Honorable William Jefferson Clinton, 42nd President of the United States, will be the main speaker at a ceremony dedicating a commissioned sculpture of former University of Arkansas president and U.S. Senator J. William Fulbright. The dedication of the seven-foot bronze sculpture of Fulbright created by artist Gretta Bader will be the highlight of a celebration honoring the 50th anniversary of the German-American Fulbright Educational Exchange Program. The public and campus community are invited to attend.

The dedication ceremony, scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Monday, October 21, will be held in the walkway between Old Main and Vol Walker Hall on the University of Arkansas campus. Other dignitaries scheduled to speak include UA Chancellor John White, Ambassador Wolfgang Ischinger from the Federal Republic of Germany, poet Miller Williams, Fulbright College Interim Dean Donald Bobbitt, Harriet Fulbright, Associated Student Government President Stephanie Gosnell, and John McCloy and Bettina Adenauer, descendants of the original signers who established the Fulbright program in Germany.

"Many of our world’s finest leaders, educators, and artists from more than 150 nations have benefited from the Fulbright Program," said former President Clinton. "As we move into the 21st century, we recognize that the program Senator J. William Fulbright created is more important than ever, and his vision of mutual understanding among nations is every bit as powerful."

During the mid-1960s, Clinton worked in Fulbright’s Washington office for two years while attending Georgetown University.

Chancellor White will welcome Clinton and other dignitaries to campus for the dedication and for a symposium on "German-American Relations" that will be held at 9:30 that morning at the Continuing Education Auditorium. Featured speakers will include Ambassador Wolfgang Ischinger, Dr. Steve Mueller, former president of Johns Hopkins, and Dr. Werner Meissner, former president of the University of Frankfurt.

This year, both Germany and Japan are celebrating the 50th anniversary of the establishment of their Fulbright Commissions, with the German government being the second largest contributor worldwide to the Fulbright Program, after the United States.

"Since returning to this campus, I have been proud to be the chancellor of a university that is home to the Fulbright legacy," said White. "Fulbright left a brilliant heritage, one we continue to build on today through international studies and study abroad programs."

The celebration is being sponsored by the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences and the University of Arkansas, in conjunction with the UA European Studies Program, the American Institute for Contemporary German Studies at Johns Hopkins University, the German-American Fulbright Commission, and the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board.

"Fulbright understood, with what seems now a startling simplicity, that education could fulfill its deepest promise," said Interim Dean Don Bobbitt. "He knew that it could free our imaginations to understand other cultures and to see the world as others see it."

J. William Fulbright was born April 9, 1905, in Sumner, Mo. In 1906, he and his family moved to Fayetteville, where they owned several businesses, among them the local paper, the Fayetteville Daily Democrat, later to become the Northwest Arkansas Times. After graduating from the University of Arkansas with a degree in history, Fulbright won a Rhodes Scholarship in 1925 and left for Oxford, where he graduated with a high second in modern history.

Fulbright served as UA President from 1939 to 1941. In 1942 he was elected to Congress, where he would spend the next 30 years, 15 of them as Chair of the Foreign Relations Committee. He was the only Senator to vote against funding Joseph McCarthy’s now infamous investigating committee, and he introduced legislation that led to the Fulbright Scholarship Program and the formation of both the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the United Nations.

The UA Board of Trustees approved a resolution naming the College of Arts and Sciences after Fulbright on November 20, 1981.

When presenting the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Senator Fulbright on May 5, 1993, President Clinton said, "He has never been one to waste time and energy cursing the darkness; he is far too busy seeking and finding lamps to be lit."

Fulbright died at his Washington home on February 9, 1995. On October 24, 1998, the University of Arkansas and the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences dedicated the Fulbright Peace Fountain in honor of his legacy.

Following is an event schedule:

October 21, 9 a.m. - 10:30 a.m. Symposium on "German - American Relations." Continuing Education Auditorium, 2 East Center Street, Room 204. The public is invited. Panelists will include

. Jackson Janes, moderator, Executive Director of the American Institute for Contemporary German Studies at Johns Hopkins University, member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and former director of the European Office of the German Marshall Fund of the United States

. Rüdiger Löwe, editor and producer of political TV discussion shows and book review programs at Bayerischer Rundfunk (Bavarian Television)

. Wolfgang Ischinger, Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany to the United States of America

. Bettina Adenauer, attorney, General Counsel of the Deutsche Lufthansa AG in Frankfurt and granddaughter of Konrad Adenauer, former Chancellor of the West German Republic

. John McCloy, chair of Mondial Ltd., an information technology firm, general partner at Pembroke Capital, and son of former U.S. High Commissioner John McCloy, who signed the German-American Fulbright Agreement in 1952

. Dr. William Bader, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs at the United States Information Agency and a member of the first class of Fulbright Fellows sent to Germany in 1953

. Hoyt Purvis, director of the International Relations Program at the University of Arkansas and former chair of Fulbright Scholarship Board

. Tracy Murray, the Phillips Petroleum Company Distinguished Chair of International Economics and Business in Walton College at the University of Arkansas, professor of economics at Toulouse Business School in France, and consultant to the United Nations

. Dr. Steven Mueller, President Emeritus of Johns Hopkins University and current Fellow of the Foreign Policy Institute at Johns Hopkins

. Dr. Werner Meissner, President Emeritus of the Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universitat in Frankfurt, where he was a tenured professor in economics

. Fulbright Scholars Stephanie Ricker, University of Arkansas, Holly Ewell, Baylor University, and Nadine Brecht, Vanderbilt University

 

1:30-2:45 p.m. Dedication of Fulbright Sculpture. Open to the public.

2:45 - 4:30. Reception in the Student Union Ballroom. Open to the public.

MEDIA NOTE: Call time for the media will be 1 p.m. A riser will be available for the dedication ceremony. Press packets will contain biographies of the speakers. A lunch at 11:15 at the Janelle Y. Hembree Alumni House is open to the press as well. The lunch will feature keynote speaker General Wesley Clark, military analyst for CNN and former Supreme Allied Commander of Europe, and a screening of an original video titled "Fulbright: Man of Vision" by award winning filmmakers Rubicon Productions, on the life and works of Senator Fulbright.