When former president Bill Clinton visited Allegheny College on April 19 for a campaign stop in support of his wife, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton, it was more than an important rally before this year’s historic Pennsylvania primary election.
It was also our first real test of the Soapbox Alliance.
Not only did the Soapbox’s core premise that college campuses should be places open to civic discourse, especially during intense political campaigns prove sound, but President Clinton directly endorsed the alliance in his opening remarks.
Two Allegheny students, former CPP student fellow Afua Serwaah Osei and sophomore Sam Rigotti, were first to address the crowd, which was made up of Clinton, Obama and McCain supporters.
In November 2007, Allegheny founded the Soapbox Alliance, a coalition of institutions working together to end the practice of holding closed campaign events in campus facilities. Each member either already has an open-event policy or has pledged to work toward the goal of establishing an open-event policy by September 1, 2008. More information about the College’s open-event policy and the Soapbox Alliance can be found at www.soapboxalliance.org.
Allegheny College has invited all of the candidates in the 2008 presidential election to visit campus.
Remarks:
Afua Osei
Sam Rigotti
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