Hillary Clinton is still reportedly eyeing a third run for President of the United States, but in the meantime, she’s taken a job as chancellor of Queen’s University Belfast in Northern Ireland.
The university issued a statement announcing Clinton’s appointment on Wednesday, accompanied by a photo of Clinton wearing graduation robes in the school’s colors — red, blue, and pink — ostensibly from when Queens University Belfast gave Clinton an honorary doctorate back in October of 2018.
Fox News reports that the five-year appointment, which began on January 1, 2020, is mostly ceremonial and is unpaid. The school itself tweeted that Clinton will have three primary responsibilities as chancellor: “1. Presiding at degree congregations, 2. Ambassador, 3. Advisor, available to the @QUBVChancellor and senior management as a sounding board and to provide counsel and guidance.”
“I am delighted that Queen’s has chosen Hillary Clinton to be its new Chancellor. Secretary Clinton has made a considerable contribution to Northern Ireland and as an internationally recognised leader will be an incredible advocate for Queen’s and an inspirational role model for the Queen’s community,” the school’s co-chancellor, Stephen Prenter, said in a statement.
The Clintons made several trips to Northern Ireland when Bill was president, hoping to encourage peace among warring religious factions there and an end to the Irish Republican Army’s reign of terror. Those trips, Queens University reports, were instrumental in bringing an end to violence in Northern Ireland (though whatever success was achieved rightly belongs to Bill, not Hillary Clinton).
She will be expected to “‘open doors’ for the University as it seeks to fulfil its mission,” likely meaning that Clinton will be a primary fundraiser for the university and operate as a “bundler,” collecting donations and pledges to fund the school’s research projects.
“It is a great privilege to become the Chancellor of Queen’s University,” Clinton said in a quip provided to the school, “a place I have great fondness for and have grown a strong relationship with over the years. The University is making waves internationally for its research and impact and I am proud to be an ambassador and help grow its reputation for excellence.”
Clinton has been looking for some new employment since losing the 2016 presidential election to Donald Trump and has tried a handful of endeavors, including a book explaining why she lost and a speaking tour with her husband which ended prematurely amid miserable ticket sales. At one point, an evening with the pair of Clintons, who dispensed their wisdom to audiences and recounted heavily sterilized stories from their time in the White House, were going for less than $10 each.
Although there are already more than a dozen competitors for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, Clinton has floated the idea of returning the campaign trail, telling reporters back in November that there are a number of high-profile people pressuring her to get back in the race. At one point, she said that she “never says never,” and several experts have speculated that, if a clear frontrunner does not emerge from the current field of prospects — or the current favorite to challenge Trump, former Vice President Joe Biden doesn’t appear able to get the job done — that Hillary will ride to the rescue.