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The Goldfarb Center welcomes a retired senator and Maine’s current governor to campus to discuss leadership and change

Retired Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy, who will deliver the inaugural Peter Hart Lecture in Politics and Policy Oct. 16.
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By Bob Keyes
October 14, 2024

Over the next two weeks, Colby will welcome to campus two policymakers with nearly 100 years of combined public service.

At 6 p.m. Oct. 16, retired Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy will deliver the inaugural Peter Hart Lecture in Politics and Policy. A week later, at 6 p.m. Oct. 23, Maine Gov. Janet Mills, LL.D. ’24 will come to campus as part of the In the News weekly speaker series hosted by the Goldfarb Center for Public Affairs. Advance registration is encouraged for both events. 

The center’s wildly popular Q&A series focuses on policy, politics, and the press, and guests include politicians, journalists, and leading public affairs experts, who represent a range of viewpoints and perspectives.

Leahy will speak in Studio 1 of the Gordon Center for Performing and Creative Arts. Hosted by the Goldfarb Center and sponsored by the Peter Hart Lecture in Politics and Policy, Leahy will discuss his nearly 50-year career in the U.S. Senate, including the changes he has experienced during that time and some of what happened behind closed doors in the U.S. Capitol.

“He’s been an active player in American politics for many years, and he has an incredible perspective,” said Alison Beyea, executive director of the Goldfarb Center. “He is someone who has watched this country go through many election cycles and many changes in terms of how the electorate feels about issues and the parties. How is he making sense of this moment?”

His talk is titled “Inside the Senate: Patrick Leahy’s Journey through Change.” Joseph Reisert, the Harriet S. Wiswell and George C. Wiswell Jr. Professor of American Constitutional Law and chair of the Government Department, will lead the Q&A with government major Dev Purohit ’25.

Leahy represented Vermont in the U.S. Senate from 1975 to 2023 and was the third-longest serving member of the U.S. Congress. He chaired several important committees, including the Senate Appropriations and Judiciary committees. His signature legislation is the Leahy Law, which forbids the United States from funding foreign military units that violate human rights, and he presided over Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial.

Hart established the lecture series to bring renowned speakers to campus. A trustee emeritus, Hart ’64, LL.D. ’84 founded the public opinion research firm Peter D. Hart Associates, which has been at the cutting edge of change in the field of public opinion for the past quarter century, and worked as a pollster for NBC News and the Wall Street Journal. In addition, he represented more than 40 U.S. senators and 30 governors and conducted public policy and cultural issues analysis for clients such as the Smithsonian Institution and the Kennedy Center.

The National Journal named him to its list of 150 national leaders who shape federal government policy. In 2019 he marked his 45th year as a Woodrow Wilson Visiting Fellow, and in 2013 he was a visiting fellow at Harvard Kennedy School.

In addition to the honorary degree, Colby has honored Hart with the Distinguished Alumnus Award and a Colby Brick Award. He served on the Board of Visitors, chaired the Technology Visiting Committee, and served on the Board of Trustees for two terms, becoming a trustee emeritus in 1999.

Leadership during moments of change

Governor Mills will address students and the Colby community at 6 p.m. Oct. 23 in the Page Commons Room in Cotter Union as part of the In the News series. Colby President David A. Greene will moderate the discussion. Niamh Lacey ’25, a philosophy and history double major and co-president of the Student Government Association, will serve as student moderator.

The conversation will focus on governing during partisan times and the character of leadership during moments of change, Beyea said.

Maine Governor Janet Mills speaking at Colby’s 2024 Baccalaureate. Mills will return to campus Oct. 23 to participate in the Goldfarb Center’s In the News series. (Photo by Ashley L. Conti)

“Gov. Mills also has a long career in public service, and we’re looking forward to hearing what she has to say about being an executive in a highly partisan time. How do you govern? What does leadership look like in this moment?” Beyea said.

Mills, who received an honorary degree from Colby this spring, became Maine’s first woman governor in 2019, winning more votes than any other governor in state history. She was re-elected in 2022. She began public service as an assistant attorney general in the 1970s and was later elected district attorney, the first woman elected DA in New England. In 2002, she was elected to the Maine House of Representatives. She served as attorney general from 2009 to 2011 and again from 2013 until she was elected governor. Mills has strong ties to Colby—both of her parents graduated from the College, and she studied at Colby before traveling west.

“We’re thrilled to have two phenomenal public servants coming to Colby in back-to-back weeks to have conversations with our students, to hear what students care about, and to reflect on their careers in public service,” Beyea said.

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