U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton admits to making mistakes, a concern she said often stops U.S. officials from becoming more involved in world affairs because they are too afraid of error.

‘We have to be more willing to take some risk. We can’t sit around and wait 48 hours to respond to a story that is breaking,’ said Clinton during her Monday visit to campus.

Clinton encouraged Syracuse University students to make mistakes rather than do nothing during ‘America and the World,’ a conversation with James Steinberg, dean of the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. Steinberg served as deputy secretary of state to Clinton before coming to Maxwell in July 2011.

Hundreds of hopeful attendees waited hours in a line that stretched across the Quad for the chance to see Clinton. Doors opened at 9:45 a.m. for the noon event at Hendricks Chapel, but by 10 a.m., students were already being turned away. The event was live-streamed on Maxwell’s website.

Clinton spoke on foreign policy and U.S. influence overseas.

As Clinton entered the chapel, she was met with a standing ovation from the audience. She spoke on the United States’ relationship with the world, as well as the country’s government and its citizens.

‘Democracy and human rights are who we are as Americans,’ Clinton said.

She addressed the topic of money spent on foreign aid. Clinton said citizens often incorrectly assume that foreign aid accounts for a large portion of the national budget. However, she said, foreign aid actually takes up very little of the budget.

Clinton said the United States needs to try to understand other cultures rather than strictly trying to impose its own will. The United States must be able to monitor itself before it can negotiate with other countries.

‘If we’re going to judge the rest of the world, we need to judge ourselves,’ Clinton said, adding one of the biggest areas Americans needs to focus on is the environment.

Though Clinton said it is important to convince the rest of the world to work on lowering carbon emissions, especially developing countries, Americans need to make sure they continue progressing through programs such as natural gas hydrofracking.

Clinton then shifted the discussion to American politics and the importance of making basic agreements to fix problems.

Citizens shouldn’t shy away from the political system because of the politics behind it, Clinton said, as politics are a part of everyday life, not just government.

Students who were able to attend the event had to go through a thorough round of security. Security personnel made sure every student, faculty and community member went through metal detectors and had each of their bags searched.

But Meghan Schneider, a sophomore international relations and political science major, said she didn’t mind the hassle of going through security to hear Clinton speak.

‘She’s a huge idol of mine. I can’t believe she’s here,’ Schneider said. ‘I feel it’s really exciting because I aspire to do the same thing she’s doing. She’s a woman who’s done a lot of incredible things in her life that not a lot of people have gotten the opportunity to do.’

Just as she had entered, Clinton left the chapel amid another standing ovation, leaving students impressed.

Amy Snider, president of the SU College Democrats, said the event helped build her experience in the political science field.

‘It’s very important for us to hear from people like her who are actually involved,’ she said. ‘It’s like our school motto says, ‘Scholarship in Action.’ She’s someone that’s actually working in the system, and I think that’s very important because sometimes we become disengaged because we keep hearing things in the news.’

The fact that students had a face-to-face conversation with Clinton was very beneficial, she said, in that students could hear information directly from the source.

Democrats were not the only ones who attended the event. Zach Weiss, president of the SU College Republicans, also came to see Clinton, even though he didn’t necessarily agree with everything she had to say.

‘The one thing I kind of found issue with was her fact-based argument,’ he said. ‘I feel like the facts often end up being quite subjective and can change from person to person.’

But Weiss said he was glad to see a packed house at the event.

‘I think she was great. I’m definitely so glad to see her on our campus,’ Weiss said. ‘I’m also glad to see that students took advantage of the opportunity.’

amfeld01@syr.edu 

Published on April 23, 2012 at 12:00 pm

Contact Andrew: amfeld01@syr.edu