Ex-Defense Secretary Speaking at Graduation

By Matthew Rupel

Santa Clara is bringing out the big guns for this year's commencement ceremony - former Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta.

The accomplished alumnus - whose resume includes director of the Office of Civil Rights, White House chief of staff and director of the CIA, among other political offices -- was last on campus two-and-a-half years ago when he spoke as a guest in the President's Speaker Series.

Panetta and his wife, Sylvia, will both be awarded honorary degrees at the ceremony on June 15.

"We are delighted to welcome Leon Panetta back to the campus that launched him on his stellar career to the top echelons of public service," said President Michael Engh, S.J., in a press release.

Panetta and his wife established the Panetta Institute for Public Policy, based at California State University, Monterey Bay. The institute is a nonpartisan, not-for-profit study center seeking to attract thoughtful men and women to lives of public service and prepare them for the policy challenges of the future.

"Sylvia and I are honored to be recognized by Santa Clara University. Santa Clara has a special place in our hearts. It's where we first met; it is where I learned many of the core values that have guided me from the earliest days of my career," said Panetta in a press release from the university.

The 1960 political science major and 1963 law school graduate made headlines earlier this year when he announced that the military would open combat roles to women. Over the course of his career, Panetta is credited with enforcing civil rights laws over the objections of President Nixon and southern lawmakers; helping balance and bring to surplus the federal budgets in 1993 and 1994; writing legislation securing Medicare and Medicaid coverage for hospice care for the terminally ill; and spearheading measures to protect the California coast.

Contact Matthew Rupel at mrupel@scu.edu or call (408) 554-4849.