By Sarah Vick
On Oct. 27, 2016, upwards of 11,000 people gathered inside of LVJM Coliseum for an early voting rally, the same venue in which commencement was held for Salem College C’16 last spring.
Appearing for the first time together on the road to the White House, Michelle Obama and Hillary Clinton chose the city of Winston-Salem in the swing state of North Carolina to make their debut. Several Salem students volunteered with Hillary Clinton’s campaign in order to guarantee their admission into the event, and Salem College Democrats sponsored a shuttle to the Coliseum to ensure all who wanted to attend had the opportunity.
First-year student Chardell Hodges was one of the volunteers at the voting rally. “It was both an amazing and bittersweet experience. Knowing that the current first family will be leaving soon makes me super sad, but I am looking forward to seeing what the future holds for our country. I hope that the issues I care about are addressed in the near future,” says Hodges. “Especially police brutality, LGBTQIA rights, mental health, and the environment.”
Although the crowd was highly racially diverse and overwhelmingly women, Salem College was not mentioned. This was quite surprising considering that Chelsea Clinton visited and spoke at Salem in 2008 when her mother was first running for the presidency.
Hillary Clinton herself attended Wellesley College, a women’s college in Massachusetts, something that would have been great to point out at such a women-centered event on the campaign trail. Wake Forest University and Winston-Salem State University both deservedly received shout-outs, but the only women’s college in town was somehow not on the campaign’s radar.
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