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  Arnold Schwarzenegger

By SUE WUETCHER

Published: September 9, 2010

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has joined the lineup of UB’s 2010-11 Distinguished Speakers Series, visiting UB on Jan. 27 as the Undergraduate Student Choice Speaker.

Schwarzenegger will speak at 8 p.m. in Alumni Arena, North Campus.

Lecture sponsors are Hodgson Russ Attorneys and the undergraduate Student Association.

Nischal Vasant, Student Association president, calls Schwarzenegger “a cultural icon,” noting he has been in the news “for everything from politics to onscreen performances and harbors interesting views on immigration, policy reformsand the United States of America as a whole.”

“Over the past several years, the Student Association has had the privilege to bring to UB current giants such as the Dalai Lama, Vice President Al Gore, Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert and many, many other great minds of our times.” Vasant says.

“Gov. Schwarzenegger embodies a multitude of characteristics and qualities from outside and inside the United States that compelled us to choose him as our Student Choice Speaker. We feel that he embodies everything that we want in a distinguished speaker,” he adds.

The Distinguished Speakers Series, now in its 24th season, will open on Sept. 16 with a left vs. right debate between Arianna Huffington, co-founder and editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post, and Mary Matalin, Republican strategist and CNN contributor. Other speakers are oceanographer Sylvia Earle (Oct. 13), bestselling author Greg Mortenson (Nov. 10), Pulitzer Prize winner Jhumpa Lahiri (March 2), Newark Mayor Cory Booker (March 30) and pioneering genomic researcher J. Craig Venter (April 27).

Discounts for the entire lecture series and for individual lectures are available to UB faculty and staff thanks to lecture sponsors United University Professions and TIAA-CREF. UB undergraduates and GSA-represented graduate students are eligible to receive free tickets to all DSS events. Click here for ticket information.

The 38th governor of California, Schwarzenegger also is known worldwide as a successful bodybuilder and Hollywood action hero, as well as a businessman, philanthropist and politician.

Some of Schwarzenegger’s most notable accomplishments in office include the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006—a bipartisan agreement to combat global warming by reducing California’s greenhouse gas emissions. He also established the Hydrogen Highway and Million Solar Roofs Plan, and the Safe, Clean and Reliable Drinking Water Supply Act of 2010. His Strategic Growth Plan has led to investment in improving the state’s infrastructure, helping to reduce congestion and clean the air.

Born in Austria in 1947, Schwarzenegger at age 20 became the youngest person ever to win the Mr. Universe title. After coming to America, he earned a degree from the University of Wisconsin and became a U.S. citizen in 1983. Three years later, he married broadcast journalist Maria Shriver.

Among his most popular films are “Conan the Barbarian,” “The Terminator” and its sequels “Terminator 2: Judgment Day” and Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines,” as well as the comedies Kindergarten Cop” and “Twins.”

Schwarzenegger was the only actor to be included in both categories of the American Film Institute’s “Hundred Years of Heroes and Villains.”

He has committed his time, energy and personal finances to charitable organizations around the world, in particular the Special Olympics. He was the recipient of the Muhammad Ali Humanitarian Award in 2002.