ANN ARBOR— Former President Bill Clinton will deliver the spring 2007 commencement address at the University of Michigan, President Mary Sue Coleman announced today (Thursday).

” President Clinton is a thoughtful and captivating speaker with tremendous insight into the global challenges of our time. We are looking forward to his visit and his message to our graduates,” Coleman said. ” We are thrilled that the Class of 2007 will conclude its time at the University with a commencement address from such a prominent world leader.”

The ceremony will be held April 28, 2007 in Michigan Stadium. The University awards degrees to about 3,500 undergraduate students at spring commencement, before an audience of more than 40,000.

Since leaving office, President Clinton established the William J. Clinton Foundation to confront some of the most pressing challenges of the 21st century at home and abroad. The Clinton HIV/AIDS Initiative, a project of the Clinton Foundation, has expanded access to dramatically cheaper antiretroviral drugs to more than 500,000 people in 62 developing countries. The Foundation is also focused on curbing climate change around the world and addressing the childhood obesity epidemic in the United States. The Clinton Global Initiative, an international conference designed to inspire action, has facilitated more than $10 billion in pledges to finance innovative solutions to a wide array of global issues.

Clinton was elected the 42nd President of the United States in 1992, and won reelection in 1996. During his presidency the nation experienced the longest period of economic growth in its history. Welfare reform, tax relief for working families, the North American Free Trade Agreement and elimination of the federal deficit were among the many hallmarks of his administration.

Clinton served as governor of Arkansas, attorney general of Arkansas and as chairman of the National Governors’ Association and the Democratic Leadership Council. He graduated from Georgetown University, studied at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar, and earned a law degree from Yale University.

Clinton and his wife, U.S. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, have visited the U-M campus on prior occasions. Then-First Lady Clinton delivered the commencement address and received an Honorary Doctor of Laws Degree, May 1, 1993. The couple visited the campus and greeted more than 13,000 students and community residents outside the Rackham Building, in October 1992, and on April 28, 1998, Sen. Clinton spoke before an audience of 4,000 at closing ceremonies in Hill Auditorium for U-M’s Year of Humanities and Arts.

NOTE: The University is receiving inquiries from the public about how they may attend or view President Clinton’s address. U-M will be formulating arrangements closer to the time of the event, and will post the logistics to the University Web site as a separate press release when the information is definite.