And last Thursday, at New York University, his Vice-President, Joseph Biden, faced a student-packed auditorium and rehashed Teddy Roosevelt's famous dictum: "Walk softly and carry a big stick".
In some student plans the auditorium was on the building's lower floors, while on others it was high up.
An arrest affidavit says Chavez tried to convince other students to help him lure students into the auditorium, chain the doors shut and start shooting.
So yesterday, students packed the auditorium to hear the answer to the succinct question by Jason Clark, the student body president, about the trial: "What went wrong?" As he had previously, Mr. Johnson attributed the verdict largely to the judge's legal instructions to the jury, and to the jurors themselves.
Lubow and Keever put down their coffee and joined the other students in an auditorium.
But when the students inside the auditorium turned around to look at the doors, what they saw was "PULL".
On the Poet Laureate's arrival on stage, huge cheers from 2,100 students sweep the auditorium, along with a wolf-whistle from a gallant on the balcony.
Some of the hundreds of parents, teachers and students in the auditorium questioned the criteria the city used in making the decisions.
University students packed an auditorium in Boulder to hear Gary Johnson, a former New Mexico governor who ran for president on the Libertarian ticket, argue for legalisation.
But he clearly relished the opportunity to take his case directly to 150 students in an auditorium at the University of Michigan and to a youthful nationwide television audience.
