JFK spoke at AU just eight months after the Cuban missile crisis brought the world to the brink of nuclear war.

On June 10, 1963, President John F. Kennedy gave one of the most consequential speeches of his short tenure—“A Strategy of Peace”—during AU’s 49th commencement at John M. Reeves Athletic Field. Delivered at the height of the Cold War, the 27-minute speech called on the Soviet Union to sign a nuclear test ban treaty. 

A plaque memorializes the spot where Kennedy called for “not merely peace for Americans, but peace for all men and women—not merely peace in our time, but peace for all time.”

Also on Reeves Field, construction is underway on the Alan and Amy Meltzer Center for Athletic Performance, which will feature state-of-the-art competition, practice, and training facilities. Slated for completion in 2026, the center will be AU’s first net-zero building. The cornerstone of the new Student Thriving Complex, the building is named for benefactors Alan Meltzer, CAS/BA ’21, a long-serving trustee, and his wife, Amy Meltzer.