It turns out Hillary Clinton didn’t have to visit a community college in rural Iowa to get students talking about her presidential bid.
Rutgers University is currently featuring a discussion-based course during its spring semester called “A Woman for President?” as reports Campus Reform.
The one-credit class, taught by political science professor Ruth Mandel, is for first-year students only. This semester, the class is composed of mostly female students, unsurprisingly.
According to the university’s website, the course — part of the Byrne seminar program — will also be offered in the spring semester of 2016.
“In 2016, for the first time, a woman may head a major political party’s ticket for the office of President of the United States,” reads the description of next year’s course. “This historic breakthrough will intensify the interest in the national elections, with many people discussing gender whether or not they regard it as a legitimate or relevant campaign issue.”
“A focal point of the seminar will be the life and career of Hillary Rodham Clinton, the sole woman so far with a realistic chance to make the presidential breakthrough, the first woman to be taken seriously as a credible major party nominee,” it continues.
Students enrolled in the course this spring have been taken on a field trip to the Clinton Global Initiative in New York City where they posed with Hillary for photos, according to an article in Rutgers Today.
The class also featured a guest lecture from Karen Kominsky, the director of New Jersey’s 2008 Hillary Clinton for President Campaign.
Professor Mandel said she views the presidency as Clinton’s “destiny,” but admits that “in electoral politics, nothing is inevitable.”
Students also appear to be enthusiastic about the course.
“This seminar made me understand just how important it is for all of us to have a woman as president,” explained student Skyler Bolkin. “It’s so exciting because Hillary Clinton has a much greater chance than any other woman now or in the past.”
While Hillary exists as a “focal point” in the class, it also delves into other topics, such as media coverage of female presidential and vice presidential candidates and Sarah Palin.
