Thanks to President Clinton’s speech on campus Monday, SIUC basked in a spotlight of intense media attention that may have never been matched in the school’s history, University officials said.

Coverage of Clinton’s visit to SIUC was broadcast on all three major network’s nightly newscasts, CNN, C-SPAN and scores of local newscasts. Major newspapers such as the New York Times and theWashington Post also had stories about the visit.

Using Nielsen Media Research television ratings and computations, 59 million people saw SIUC on the big three newscasts alone Monday evening. Millions more saw SIUC on CNN, C-SPAN and area newscasts.

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We’ve had celebrities and Nobel Prize winners, but we’ve never got the sort of coverage we got Monday in the 13 years I’ve been here, Jack Dyer, executive director of University Relations, said.

John Jackson, dean of the College of Liberal Arts, who has been at SIUC for 26 years, said he agreed with Dyer.

I’ve never seen so many (satellite) uplink trucks in this area as I did on Monday, he said. Jackson said new communication technology is partly responsible for the wide coverage SIUC received.

Jackson said a friend told him Washington television stations also gave SIUC positive coverage.

Clinton’s address was also downlinked to 50 college campuses around the nation, according to a press release from the College Democrats of America.

We couldn’t have purchased the kind of publicity we had on Monday, SIUC Chancellor Ted Sanders said.

The coverage of Clinton’s visit was not only widespread, it was also positive, SIUC officials said.

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I don’t see how we could have looked any better than we did, Dyer said. It just goes to show what this institution is capable of when everyone focuses on one goal.