Media availability with Michael Steele to kick off Thursday's Omnibus series

FORT WAYNE, Ind. — Michael Steele, Purdue University Fort Wayne’s next presenter in this year’s Omnibus Speaker Series, will take part in a media availability Thursday at 4 p.m. in the Idea Space on the first floor of Helmke Library. Members of the media are also invited to stay and observe an hour-long session with Steele and Purdue Fort Wayne students that will begin at 4:30 p.m.

Steele’s public lecture titled “The Political Scene According to Steele” will start at 7:30 p.m. in Auer Performance Hall at Rhinehart Music Center. Doors will open at 6:30 p.m. Tickets are still available.

Steele is a witty, engaging, and savvy political observer who made history in 2003 when he was elected lieutenant governor of Maryland, becoming the first African American voted in to state office. He repeated this groundbreaking achievement in 2009 when he became chair of the Republican National Committee. He is currently a senior advisor for the Lincoln Project, a bipartisan coalition built in opposition to Donald Trump.

Steele is a political analyst for MSNBC and has also appeared on Meet the Press, Face the Nation, HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher, and Comedy Central’s The Daily Show. 

Steele is a graduate of the Georgetown Law Center, an Aspen Institute Rodel fellow in Public Leadership, a University of Chicago Institute of Politics fellow, and currently a senior fellow at Brown University’s Institute for International and Public Affairs.

To guarantee a seat for the lecture, tickets should be reserved in advance, either online through the university’s website or at the Schatzlein Box Office in the Rhinehart Music Center lobby. The tickets are free on a first-come, first-served basis. The limit is four per person. A $1.50 convenience charge is assessed per ticket for online orders.

All tickets reserved online will automatically be emailed to patrons and can be printed at their convenience. Digital tickets accessible via smartphone are another option to help avoid standing in line at the box office on the night of the show. Tickets can also be picked up in person beginning one hour before the presentation.

Notes to editors: Every attempt to provide one-on-one interviews with Steele, if desired, will be made. In the event that the number of journalists in attendance makes it impossible to provide adequate time for individual interactions, a traditional news conference will take place. 

In many instances, the questions and answers exchanged between students and Omnibus speakers during the 60-minute classroom experience make for great additional content for your coverage.

Contact Geoff Thomas at [email protected] or 260-437-7657 for additional information.