Penn's campus is preparing for Bob Woodward's appearance at Irvine Auditorium tonight.
The Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist most famous for breaking the Watergate scandal 30 years ago will be addressing a large crowd of students as part of the University Honor Council's third-annual Academic Integrity Week.
UHC Co-Chairwoman Kelly Lynch said Woodward's profession is influenced highly by topics of integrity.
"As the 30th anniversary of Watergate, there are a lot of appropriate reasons for him to come right now," Lynch said. "His profession as a journalist is wrought with all kinds of ethical issues, like protecting your sources."
Lynch said Woodward's history with this issue is unique, referring to 'Deep Throat,' the famous Watergate source.
"Woodward is most known for his relationship with 'Deep Throat,'" Lynch said. "He has said he won't reveal his identity until he dies. You just don't have those kinds of secrets today."
And those secrets will be the focus of Woodward's speech tonight.
The title of his address is "The State of Integrity, 30 Years After Watergate," and UHC members expect it to be framed around the discussion of honesty that is being focused on throughout the week.
Woodward's involvement with the scandal deals with integrity beyond the issues surrounding journalism.
"We're trying to facilitate a dialogue and get people to consider these issues in a thoughtful and serious way," Lynch said. "Surrounding Watergate and the exposure of the administration, there was a lot of public distrust and disappointment that occurred. It was the first time that anything on such a large scale had been exposed."
Woodward will follow in the footsteps of past Integrity Week keynote speakers, such as Erin Brockovich and tobacco industry whistleblower Jeffrey Wigand -- both of whom were involved in the exposure of high-level corruption.
And Lynch says she expects Woodward's talk to experience equal success.
"We're expecting a capacity crowd," Lynch said. "We've distributed all the tickets. We had more than double the amount of people we could accommodate sign up."
One of those people who attempted and failed to receive tickets to the event is Law student Shannon Shah.
"I tried to get tickets," Shah said. "It's exciting that he's here, it's a big name. He's relevant today because the media is always relevant."
But not all students share Shah's sentiments.
"I don't really care that he's here," Wharton freshman Amna Khawar said. "I'm sure he was an accomplished journalist in his time, but because it happened a long time ago I'm not really interested."
Lynch said she thinks most students today still care about the issue.
"Some people were concerned that because this happened 30 years ago he'd be someone more that our parents would know," Lynch said. "But the fact that so many students entered the lottery shows that our students have an awareness that we don't necessarily give them credit for."
Woodward's address is being co-sponsored by the Student Planning Events Committee's Connaissance branch and the Provost's Spotlight Series.
