**** MEDIA ADVISORY ****

MEDIA CONTACT: Kristine M. McGrath
561-297-1168, kmcgrath@fau.edu

FAU Hosts Former Governor and Presidential Candidate Michael Dukakis
Discussion will focus on the U.S. presidency and the Middle East

BOCA RATON, FL (November 30, 2005) - Michael Dukakis, former Governor of Massachusetts and United States presidential candidate, will speak at Florida Atlantic University's Boca Raton campus, in the Barry Friedberg Lifelong Learning Auditorium, on Saturday, December 3 at 2 p.m.

Dukakis's lecture, sponsored by the Florida Society of Middle East Studies (FSMES), will focus on presidential relations with and actions on Mideast issues, the current Mideast peace process and the president's policies toward Israel. Due to the size of the event's venue, the lecture is open only to members of the FSMES and the media.

Dukakis, a three-term former Governor of Massachusetts and 1988 Democratic nominee for president, will also speak to a group of high school students at Saint Andrew's School in Boca Raton.

In 1974, Dukakis was elected Governor of Massachusetts and inherited a record deficit and record high unemployment. Dukakis is credited with digging Massachusetts out of one of its worst financial and economic crises in history. After losing his party's nomination for governor in 1978, Dukakis came back in 1982 and was re-elected to an unprecedented third four-year term in 1986 by one of the largest margins in history. In 1986, his colleagues in the National Governors Association voted him the most effective governor in the nation.

Dukakis won the Democratic nomination for the Presidency in 1988 but was defeated by George Bush. Since leaving office in 1991, Dukakis has been a visiting professor at Northeastern University's political science department and has also taught in the senior executive program for state and local managers at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He has also taught at Florida Atlantic University.

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