UALR Symposium to Focus on Insider View of White House

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (Sept. 20, 2002) — Presidential confidant Bruce Lindsey, who up to now has been virtually silent about his Oval Office experiences during the Clinton administration, will headline a UALR seminar Nov. 12 entitled, "Decision-Making at the White House: the President’s Time."

Maggie Williams, former chief of staff for the first lady, and other key managers in the Clinton White House also will participate in the panel discussion and question-and-answer session hosted by the University in cooperation with the Clinton Presidential Foundation. The 4:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. symposium will be held in the Herschel H. Friday Courtroom at UALR’s William H. Bowen School of Law, 1201 McMath Ave.

The symposium will focus on how a president’s time is managed, particularly in times of crisis, and is expected to be the first in a series of UALR- and Clinton Library-sponsored events that study the inner workings of the White House.

UALR Professor Margaret Scranton, who next semester will teach Arkansas’ first scholarly course on the Clinton presidency, will moderate the event.

"The participants on this panel can offer a unique insider's view of the day-to-day -- even minute-by-minute -- management of the chief executive's time," Scranton said. "They’ve seen a schedule go out the window when a crisis hits and a not and hits and a new one devised within a matter of minutes."

Other panel members will include former White House chief of staff Thomas "Mack" McLarty and former White House scheduler Stephanie Streett.

Lindsey — second only to the first lady as the 42^nd president’s closest White House adviser — has been described as the Clinton administration’s "master strategist" on a variety of high-profile issues, including the tobacco settlement negotiations, product liability reform, security law reform, baseball strike settlement discussions, and labor disputes involving UPS and the Teamsters, and Northwest Airlines and the Pilots Association.

Williams, currently chief of staff for Clinton’s Harlem office, is also responsible for policy and program development for the Clinton Foundation. Previously, Williams was the president of Fenton Communications, a marketing and communications firm based in Washington D.C. with offices in New York. She served for six years in the Clinton administration as one of 19 assistants to the president and was chief of staff to former first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, now the junior U.S. senator from New York.

McLarty has a distinguished record of business leadership and public service, including various roles advising three presidents. As Clinton’s chief of staff, McLarty participated in decisions involving the historic 1993 deficit reduction package, the North American Free Trade Agreement, and the Family and Medical Leave law. He later served as the president’s special envoy to the Americas. He currently is a partner with former secretary of state Henry Kissinger in a consulting firm that provides strategic advisory services to US and multinational businesses.

Streett, who directs the day-to-day operations of the Clinton Foundation, was the assistant to the president and director of presidential scheduling during the Clinton administration. She directed all domestic and international travel for the president as well as his daily White House schedule. Prior to coming to the White House, Streett was one of the key campaign schedulers in the 1992 presidential campaign and helped plan the historic Clinton-Gore bus tours across America.

Editor’s Note: Due to limited seating, admission will be by invitation only.