Valerie Jarrett, former Obama adviser, closes Hofstra presidential conference

Valerie Jarrett, former senior adviser to President Barack Obama, closed a three-day Hofstra University conference on the legacy of the 44th president with a candid message: "Hope and change are hard." 

"It's hard work over a sustained period of time. That's how change happens. You're lucky if you get to be there for the final vote. Most people are just the foot soldiers who lay ground for the thunderbolts that happen decades later," Jarrett told an auditorium filled with more than 300 people on Friday. 

Jarrett, 66, now the chief executive officer of The Obama Foundation in Chicago, had the last word in the university's 13th conference of its kind.

“The Barack Obama Presidency: Hope and Change” examined an administration that began with the election of the nation's first Black president in 2008 and included major policy shifts such as implementation of the Affordable Care Act. 

She brought warm, lively anecdotes from personal interactions with the president and first lady, whom she met in 1991 when then-Michelle Robinson applied for a job in the Chicago mayor's office. Though Robinson was offered a position, she said her fiance wasn't quite on board with the plan, Jarrett recalled.

"Who cares who your fiance is and what he thinks?" Jarrett recalled telling her as the audience laughed. 

Jarrett went to dinner with the Obamas soon after and recalled thinking about Barack: "You know, that guy could be mayor of Chicago." 

Instead, he served as president for two terms, from 2009 to 2017. Jarrett's friendship with the Obamas is going on its third decade. 

Hofstra junior Danny DeCrescenzo, 21, an audio and radio major who hosts a morning political talk show on campus, attended all three days of the conference.

"I didn't understand Obama's presidency as it happened. I only understood it in retrospect because I came of age when Trump was in office," said DeCrescenzo, a kindergartner when Obama was elected. 

"I was just curious, because with the dramatic event on [election night 2016], how do we view Obama's legacy through that lens? Obviously, from my perspective as a young person versus somebody else's perspective who's seen multiple presidents in their lives, it's different." 

Another student, Laika Jerome, 19, of Baldwin, asked about gun control legislation. 

"Considering how guns are used today, I was super interested in Valerie Jarrett's thoughts on how [Obama] appealed to Congress back then and what she might recommend to future presidents on how to handle that conversation so they can help create meaningful legislation," said Jerome, who plans to become an attorney. 

The event included presentation of more than 40 scholarly papers and had 25 invited speakers, said Meena Bose, executive dean of Hofstra’s Peter S. Kalikow School of Government and director of the conference.

"This has enriched our understanding of Barack Obama's political rise, presidency and legacy," Bose said. 

The conference, initially planned for 2021, was postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Obama did not appear at Hofstra but other presidents have attended past conferences on their own presidencies. 

Other speakers included former White House chief of staff and U.S. Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew; former White House Director of Legislative Affairs Philip Schiliro; presidential historian Douglas Brinkley; former Rep. Steve Israel, who represented New York's Third Congressional District; former Obama adviser Ben Rhodes; and Tina Tchen, Michelle Obama's chief of staff from 2011 to 2017.