Hillary Clinton’s SUNY Purchase Visit As Told By Students And Alumni

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton ruffled some feathers with SUNY Purchase students last week when she made a campaign stop at the college’s performing arts center in Westchester County, N.Y. And this week, it’s still got students and alumni talking after a group of protesters heckled her speech.

According to The Journal News, Clinton was speaking to a room of around 500 supporters when the students marched through the room chanting “she wins, we lose.” She wasted no time addressing them.

“The Bernie people came to say that. We’re very sorry you’re leaving,” said Clinton. “As they’re leaving, I want to say I have earned nine million votes this election. I have one million more votes than Donald Trump, and I have two and a half million more votes than Bernie Sanders.”

Even before the event occurred, SUNY Purchase’s Facebook page was loaded with comments both praising and condemning Hillary Clinton’s visit. Further, the school had to clarify that the Clinton campaign had rented the space and that the school was not organizing the event.

“We welcome the opportunity to host this event,” said Thomas Schwarz, SUNY Purchase’s president, in a statement. “It’s a valuable educational opportunity for our students to see part of the election process up close and we hope it will encourage them to further engage and to vote.”

David Weber, a journalism senior at SUNY Purchase, had the opportunity to photograph and cover the event with a handful of student reporters for the college’s newspaper The PurchasePhoenix.

“We started working on the story at 7 a.m. and we met by the clock to talk about communication and who was going to cover what,” said Weber.

He continued, “We had to leave our cameras inside the venue by the stand in the back to be searched by a dog. We were then put through regular security which included both a pat down and one of those wand radar things.”

Despite the rigorous security, Weber nonetheless enjoyed the experience and even congratulated his fellow reporters in a Facebook post. He described it as “an incredible experience.”

Meanwhile, many Purchase students took to Twitter and Facebook to applaud the actions of the student protesters, and one even wanted to get the hashtag #shewinswelose trending.

walked out of the hillary clinton rally at suny purchase. #shewinswelose let's get this trending!

— alyssa hanna, no capitals ever (@alyssawaking) March 31, 2016

Konrad Wainwright, one of the students who protested, referred to Hillary Clinton’s presence as a feeling of “overwhelming powerlessness.” In an op-ed for the website Medium, Wainwright said that he and the students were met with a huge applause, which he likened to soldiers coming home from war.

“I was not at this rally as a Bernie Sanders supporter: I was there because I staunchly oppose Hillary Clinton,” said Wainwright, who felt their protest was successful because Clinton had to acknowledge the students.

Wainwright continued, “I do not want a colonialist, imperialist war criminal as my president.”

However, not everyone was happy with the heckling Hillary Clinton received, including some alumni.

Purchase alum Angelica Piña, who graduated in May 2015 with a philosophy degree, was appalled by the behavior and shocked that people have applauded it.

“Basically I am more than anything embarrassed by the Purchase students’ behavior,” said Piña. “We are a school that prides itself on thinking wide open but when we don’t agree with something that logo goes out the window, we don’t respect others.”

Piña felt that Hillary Clinton deserved more respect and that any protesting should have been limited to outside the venue.

“To me it was sad to see the behavior of my former peers and now the media portrays us as rude and in such a negative light, but that’s not Purchase, that’s not the Purchase we know,” said Piña. “Now this is something that administration has to address on behalf of those disruptive students.”

Jessie Lee Pauli, an alum, who graduated with a degree in journalism in May 2015, thought the protesters were “atrocious” and had a few suggestions for what they could have done instead.

“They could’ve done a plethora of things to make it known they were against her,” said Pauli. “Ask her challenging questions. Not attend at all. Go to the Bernie rally.”

Pauli also feels the incident is not a good representation of how Purchase really is.

“They’re better off at a Trump rally with that behavior,” said Pauli.

[Photo by Andrew Renneisen/Getty Images]