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Former United States President Joe Biden will visit Syracuse University on April 14 to unveil his official portrait, SU announced in a Wednesday release.

The event, held at the College of Law, marks Biden’s first return to campus in 10 years. The former president most recently visited the city of Syracuse in 2024 to celebrate a federal grant toward the Micron Technology project in Clay. Mornings on the Hill reporter Luke Radel first reported the event Tuesday night in an X post.

The university commissioned the oil-on-canvas artwork to be painted by Michael Shane Neal,
whose other pieces hang in the United States Capitol building, Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery and the Pentagon, according to the release. Following the ceremony, Biden’s portrait will be on permanent display in Dineen Hall’s Law Library Reading Room.

“President Biden has never forgotten where his legal career began, and we have never forgotten him,” College of Law Dean Terence Lau wrote in the release. “His portrait in Dineen Hall will remind every student who passes through our doors that a Syracuse Law education doesn’t just open doors. It can change the course of history.”

Biden, a 1968 graduate of the College of Law, has given SU’s commencement speech four times and received the Chancellor’s Medal in 1974. He also earned the university’s highest alumni award, the George Arents Pioneer Medal, in 2005.

The April gathering will celebrate Biden’s “remarkable legacy of leadership, lifelong public service and enduring connection to Syracuse University,” according to an invitation obtained by The Daily Orange.

The event will begin at 1:00pm at the College of Law. The event is invite only, according to the invitation.

Published on February 25, 2026 at 11:15 am