Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will join the faculty of Columbia University.
The elite school said in a Thursday announcement that Clinton will work on a “variety of major initiatives” with the university and begin engaging with students in the next school year. She will serve as a professor of practice at Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs, as well as a presidential fellow at Columbia World Projects.
“I have had the great pleasure of knowing Hillary personally for three decades, since her early days as First Lady of the United States,” Columbia President Lee Bollinger remarked in a message to the school. “Given her extraordinary talents and capacities together with her singular life experiences, Hillary Clinton is unique, and, most importantly, exceptional in what she can bring to the University’s missions of research and teaching, along with public service and engagement for the public good.”
Clinton previously served as first lady alongside her husband, former President Bill Clinton, before representing the state of New York in the Senate and leading former President Barack Obama’s State Department. She mounted two unsuccessful presidential campaigns in 2008 and 2016, succumbing on the latter occasion to dark horse candidate Donald Trump.
“I am honored to join Columbia University, and the School of International and Public Affairs and Columbia World Projects,” Clinton said. “Columbia’s commitment to educating the next generation of U.S. and global policy leaders, translating insights into impact, and helping to address some of the world’s most pressing challenges resonates personally with me. I look forward to contributing to these efforts.”
Before her ascension to the Ivy League, Clinton made headlines recently for “Gutsy,” a series she hosted for Apple TV alongside her daughter, Chelsea Clinton. Among other guests on the show was Megan Thee Stallion, who collaborated on the vulgar song “WAP” with fellow artist Cardi B. Clinton revealed during the episode that she “admired the audacity and the kind of agency” exhibited by the rappers in their controversial tune.
Some have posited that Clinton may mount a third shot for the Oval Office should President Joe Biden refrain from running for a second term. Dick Morris, a former adviser to Bill Clinton, recently speculated that she could position herself as a “moderate candidate.”
Clinton’s new role at Columbia University is one of several offers prominent Democrats have received from academia in recent years. Biden served as Benjamin Franklin Presidential Practice Professor at the University of Pennsylvania ahead of his bid for the White House. The commander-in-chief said last year that he served as a “full professor” at the school even though he never taught classes; a report from the Philadelphia Inquirer revealed that Biden was nevertheless paid $371,159 in 2017 and $540,484 in 2018 and 2019.
More recently, former Lt. Colonel Alexander Vindman, one of the main impeachment witnesses against former President Donald Trump, received a visiting fellowship from the University of Pennsylvania’s Perry World House in the fall of 2020. Former Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-TX) held a teaching position at Texas State University in the spring of 2021, while minister and activist Al Sharpton served as a “distinguished guest lecturer” at Tennessee State University.