October 1, 1995

First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton spoke in the Outdoor Theater. Earlier in the day she received the Eleanor Roosevelt Val-Kill Medal at the Hyde Park estate of the former first lady, where she was cited for her humanitarian work. At Vassar, before a crowd of over 6,000—many of them parents of freshmen on campus for Freshmen Parents’ Weekend—Clinton spoke of the progress on humanitarian fronts of the current administration and attacked plans in the Republican Congress to cut student aid, Medicare and Medicaid. After her remarks, she lingered along a rope barrier, shaking hands and speaking with members of the audience.

Clinton was the United States Senator for New York from 2001 until 2009, when she became Secretary of State in the administration of President Barack Obama.