By Regan Martin
The Lawrentian tends to focus on students activities and opinions about what is going on within the Lawrence community. In an effort to permeate the Lawrence bubble, this column aims to shed some light on the views within the campus community about a current event outside of Lawrence.
This week, Hillary Clinton announced her candidacy for the 2016 presidential election. Generally, those surveyed thought this was a positive step forward for politics, and no one expressed a particular amount of shock.
“I wasn’t surprised. My mom’s been an advocate of hers for years, so she always remarks on it. I think Hillary has a lot of good points,” said junior Mira Barney. “Something about this time feels right,” added sophomore Audrey Cuthbert. “Last time it was cool, but now just feels like the time she should run.”
“I think it’s a good thing,” junior Lena Bixby agreed, “but I haven’t really read too much about it.”
Sophomore Abedin Rafique was enthusiastic not only about the news, but the way in which the campaign was announced. “I love it. Her campaign video was really good. Last time, her slogan was ‘let’s start a conversation’ and she was sitting on a very expensive couch … but this time, she’s standing in front of an average home asking to be a ‘champion’ … we know she’s working for it, she doesn’t seem as entitled as last time.”
Several students had trepidations about what it will mean for the upcoming elections. “I’m a little bit nervous because I’m not really sure if other democratic candidates would get the opportunity to run,” stated sophomore Margaret Koss. “Because everyone has been making such a big deal about Hillary, no one is going to want to upstage her, I feel like.”
Senior Colin Nevins supported this same sentiment when he asked, “I mean who else is running?” He went on to further express his frustration with the amount of theatrics put into announcements like this. “I don’t care who’s president anymore,” Nevins said. “No one cares about anything but the presidential elections, so they don’t vote for the state legislative elections which actually impact us.”
As the elections draw nearer and more candidates announce their intentions to run, who is running and their merits will no doubt be a popular topic of conversation at Lawrence and around the country.
For now, while there seems to be a measure of excitement or at least a lack of surprise on campus, it is still too early to know what role the election will play on the Lawrence University campus in 2016.