Hillary Hypocrisy Talks About Student Debt, Hits UNLV Foundation For $225K Speaking Fee

The UNLV student body protested the large fee especially at a time when the school's tuition was increasing by almost 20%

10.14.2014 

News

 Jeff Dunetz 

256

178

Despite objections from a student body which faces the burden of 17% tuition hikes during the next four years, probable Democratic Party presidential nominee Hillary Clinton spoke to the UNLV foundation Monday night drawing a speaking fee of $225,000. Ironically, in her speech, she opined that more needs to be done to assure young people can achieve their dreams and free students from debt.

Ms Clinton delivered her remarks to a crowd of about 900 people gathered in a Bellagio resort ballroom for the annual UNLV Foundation dinner benefiting the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

Local reporter Venise Toussaint pointed out the Clinton hypocrisy during a Tuesday morning report about the event:

Well, Kim and Dana, this is Hillary Clinton’s third trip to Las Vegas so far this year and every time the big question is, will she or won't she run for president? She was asked to last night and she really did not have an answer, not yet at least, fueling a lot of the speculation about her presidential bid. But to help her make that decision and sway her back toward the White House, she received a clever gift: some running shoes from Brian Greenspun, the owner of the Las Vegas Sun. Now Hillary Clinton addressed more than a dozen issues in her hour-long speech, from education and energy to foreign policy and Russian President Vladimir Putin. But her appearance at the dinner was also marred with some controversy.  As she spoke about the rising cost of college tuition and student loan debt, she also accepted a hefty speaking fee of $225,000. Now that’s the majority of the $235,000 that the UNLV foundation collected from donors at that dinner.​

As TruthRevolt previously reported, the UNLV student body protested the large fee, especially at a time when the school's tuition was increasing by almost 20%:

At UNLV, where officials have agreed to raise tuition by 17 percent over the next four years, student government leaders wrote a letter to Clinton last week asking her to return the planned $225,000 fee to the university. If she does not, they say, they intend to protest her visit.

“The students are outraged about this,” said Elias Benjelloun, UNLV’s student body president. “When you see reckless spending, it just belittles the sacrifices students are consistently asked to make. I’m not an accountant or economist, so I can’t put a price tag on how much we should be paying her, but I think she should come for free.”

Clinton’s spokesman, Nick Merrill, declined to comment on the UNLV students’ request.

http://www.truthrevolt.org/news/hillary-hypocrisy-talks-about-student-debt-hits-unlv-foundation-225k-speaking-fee