Albright, Albright, Albright

It was Albright on the night when America’s first female U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright spoke to a sold-out Granada audience as part of the popular UCSB Arts & Lectures series.

Albright, 81, who became a U.S. citizen in 1957 after leaving her native Czechoslovakia, served in the White House from 1997 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton, and is currently chair of the Albright Stonebridge Group and professor of international relations at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service in Washington, D.C.

Seven years ago she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama.

More than 600 students who were unable to get tickets to the Granada watched the lecture via simulcast at the Garvan Pavilion on the oceanside campus.

Among the many topics Albright addressed was immigration, a particularly hot subject of late, with her concluding: “We have a policy towards refugees that would make the Statue of Liberty weep!”

Before the talk, which was moderated by my former ABC Network News colleague Jeff Greenfield, a dinner for 60 VIP supporters was hosted in the McCune Founders Room, with guests including Leslie Ridley-Tree, Sara Miller McCune, Tim and Monica Babich, Dan and Meg Burnham, Richard and Annette Caleel, Fred and Linda Gluck, Richard and Lucille Janssen, Chuck and Merryl Zegar, John and Patricia MacFarlane, Paul and Jane Orfalea, Tom and Heather Sturgess, Seth Streeter, Peter and Ellen Johnson, Anne Towbes, Jonathan and Jennifer Blum, and Bruce Heavin and Lynda Weinman.