Hillary Clinton returned to her alma mater, Wellesley College, on Saturday to celebrate the opening of a new research and study center bearing her name, more than half a century after she graduated and embarked on the path that would make her most famous. graduate.
She was met, as always, by Wellesley faculty, students and alumni who see her as a rock star, a kind of campus deity who forever elevated the status of this small liberal arts college west of Boston.
But as Mrs. Clinton moderated a panel on “democracy at a crossroads” at the new center’s inaugural summit, a group of student protesters outside chanted and held up signs opposing her presence, an angry display of the more critical way many in latest generation of Wellesley women see her legacy.
Near the end of the panel, a student inside the event stood up and began shouting, accusing Mrs. Clinton of indifference to violence against Palestinians.
“We’re having a conversation,” Mrs. Clinton told the woman, who was being escorted out of the room by college staff members. “I am very glad to meet you after this event and to speak with you.”
Protesters who gathered on campus Friday and Saturday to show their disdain for Mrs. Clinton, a former first lady, U.S. senator, secretary of state and Democratic presidential nominee, declined to speak to reporters or identify the group. or the groups behind the protests. “Don’t talk to the cops, don’t talk to the press,” a protest leader with a bullhorn reminded them.
As she moved through her polarizing, high-profile career, Mrs. Clinton, 76, often found herself the target of protests. At Columbia University, where she began teaching a course called “Inside the Situation Room” last fall, protesters gathered outside her first lectures to register their objections to some of her past actions as secretary of state.
But Wellesley has long been a safe space to return to her roots and find reliable support. He spoke at the college’s commencement in May 2017, six months after losing the presidency to Donald J. Trump, delivering a speech that addressed his “assault on truth and reason” without mentioning him by name — and one in which he also reassured her heartbroken at her alma mater that he was “doing well” even though “things didn’t quite work out as I planned.”
The overall reception on Saturday was decidedly more mixed. The signs raised at the protests appeared to echo Mrs. Clinton’s statements in recent months that she opposed a cease-fire agreement in the Israel-Hamas war. “Hillary for women unless they’re Palestinian,” read one. “Hillary, Hillary, you’re a liar. we demand a ceasefire,” protesters chanted as summit participants filed into Diana Chapman Walsh Alumnae Hall. Most of the protesters wore medical masks to partially hide their faces. several were dressed in the black and white kaffiyehs that have become symbolic of the pro-Palestinian movement.
After Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, Mrs. Clinton spoke out against the proposed cease-fire, arguing that it could empower Hamas and fuel more violence, a position at odds with the liberal wing of her party. He has stressed in recent television appearances that a ceasefire was already in place last October until Hamas violated it, and said those calling for a new ceasefire do not understand Hamas or the region’s history.
Those remarks alienated many current students at Wellesley, whose views have shifted to the left since the college rallied behind Mrs. Clinton’s run for president eight years ago, said Lawrence Rosenwald, a retired English professor who taught there from 1980 to 2022.
Mr. Rosenwald recalled taking part in a campus protest against Mrs. Clinton 20 years ago, when she was a senator from New York and had voted to invade Iraq. Even in that moment of division, she said, the institution’s deep pride in her was palpable.
“It was a strange kind of protest, with a lot of affection mixed with opposition,” he said. “Both were genuine.”
On campus Saturday, several students who did not attend Clinton’s summit, or protested it, expressed their appreciation for the protesters’ vocal criticism.
“Just because it’s a well-known alum doesn’t mean we have to keep it perfect,” said Maura Whalen, 18, a freshman from New Jersey.
Wellesley, like other campuses across the country, has seen painful tensions in the wake of the Israel-Hamas war. When some Wellesley faculty members asked the college’s president, Paula A. Johnson, to state publicly last year that criticism of Israel was not anti-Semitism, she refused, citing the danger that “anti-Israel and anti-Zionist speech” could to create a hostile environment. for Jewish students.
Some Jewish students had already complained about a campus email, sent by student assistants in a dorm, that said there should be “no room, no consideration, and no support for Zionism” at Wellesley. The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights opened an anti-Semitism investigation at Wellesley in November, one of dozens of similar investigations launched by the administration since the war began.
But despite all the turmoil, some faculty members are concerned that they haven’t seen more student protests. A professor who in February helped launch a Wellesley Faculty for Justice chapter in Palestine told the student newspaper The Wellesley News one reason for creating the group was to help students feel safer speaking out.
On Saturday, the empowerment strategy appeared to be working, as dozens of students braved the raw April morning, with scattered showers and temperatures in the 30s, to gather outside the summit. Anticipating that some protesters might attend the event, college staff members handed out yellow flyers to those seated, warning them that “yelling, shouting and other disruptive behavior is not permitted” and that they could be charged with honor code violations.
Ironically, their target, Mrs. Clinton, had been respected by many of her classmates at Wellesley for speaking out boldly against an establishment politician of her day, U.S. Senator Edward W. Brooke, after the commencement address at their graduation in 1969. .
The first senior to deliver a commencement address in Wellesley history, junior Hillary Rodham, a political science major, was so troubled by the senator’s emphasis on moderate goals and his concern about protest as “counterproductive disruption” that she started her own speech with a blunt critique of it — shocking some listeners but receiving a standing ovation from her class.
“We are not yet in positions of leadership and power, but we have that necessary element of criticism and constructive protest,” he said.
At Wellesley, which enrolls about 2,500 students, the new Hillary Rodham Clinton Center for Citizenship, Leadership and Democracy will advance its first ideals, focused on preparing “the next generation of civic leaders and change-makers.” It will host faculty research across disciplines, a “citizen action workshop” for students, and an annual spring summit to address critical global issues.
Participants at the inaugural summit included Leymah Gbowee, Liberian peace activist and 2011 Nobel Peace Prize laureate. Chelsea Miller, co-founder of Freedom March NYC; and Marie Yovanovitch, former US ambassador to Ukraine. More than 400 people attended in person. Another 200 have joined a live stream.
Mrs. Clinton, seated in a plush white armchair on a stage bathed in lavender light, expressed concern at the summit about the recent backsliding in women’s rights around the world after a period of steady progress. “It felt like an upward trajectory,” he said, “and then these forces started to rise up and push back.”
Kayla Brand, 22, a senior at Wellesley, said she was excited to hear from Mrs. Clinton and grateful for her long advocacy for the rights of women, children and the LGBTQ community. She said she was saddened by the protests and felt the energy spent shouting at Mrs. Clinton could be channeled into more productive work.
“I appreciate her legacy, and I think she’s helped a lot of people on this campus,” said Ms. Bradt, a computer science major from California. “And I also hope for peace in the region, both for the Israelis and the Palestinians.”
Patricia Berman and Tracy Gleason, the faculty co-directors of the new Clinton Center, said it was difficult to see student protesters grappling with global pain and violence. But they also saw the protests as a thread of the tough conversation they hope to foster.
“Our goal is for students to use their voices, but also to open their hearts and minds to other perspectives,” Ms. Gleason said.
Mr. Rosenwald, the longtime teacher, said he believed the students’ pride in Mrs. Clinton endures, even if it is more complicated than in a simpler past.
“Wellesley students are activists,” she said. “They also understand how hard it is for women to get where they are.”
Sarah Mervos, Vimal Patel and Maya Shwayder contributed reporting.
