Hillary Clinton blasted for uninspiring class at Columbia University, failing to ‘loosen up’

Hillary Clinton’s class on “decision-making” was blasted by a Columbia University student for lacking insights as she said that the former secretary of state was “basically reading passages from her book” and morphed more into a politician as the semester continued. 

“I would have really, really hoped that she would bring in some more unique insights… rather than her almost basically reciting passages from her book word for word during lecture,” current Columbia student Laalitya Acharya, said on TikTok in December. 

Clinton taught a class “Inside the Situation Room” with Columbia’s dean, Keren Yarhi-Milo, during the 2023 fall semester. 

First, the student said that Clinton wasn’t relatable to the students and there was a feeling of disconnect.

“[There was a] kind of the divide between the students and the professors… I’d hoped that over the course of the semester, [Clinton] would start to loosen up a little bit. We’d get to know more about [Clinton] as [an]  individua[l] and really be able to have… a professor/student relationship rather than just having [her] talk at us,” she said. 

“This, however, wasn’t the case, and pretty much for the entire semester, it felt very much like a one-sided speaking engagement where [Clinton and Yarhi-Milo] were just talking at us,” she said. “And that was definitely frustrating because a big part of why we were in the class was to understand more about decision-making, why people made the decisions that they did.”

The student said it felt like the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee became less relatable as the semester continued. 

“Usually whenever you start to… get to know [politicians] more on a personal basis, you start to like them a little bit more because they become more humanized. Over the course of the semester, though, I feel like Hillary Clinton became more of a politician than she was at the end.”

The course description for “Inside the Situation Room” said it would teach students to “think carefully and analytically about how leaders… arrive at their decisions.”

Columbia University didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

“Students will be taught how to analyze and understand the complex interplay between individual psychology, domestic politics, public opinion, bureaucracy, the international environment, and other factors which feed into decisions about foreign policy,” the description continued. 

However, according to Acharya, Clinton didn’t offer students any new insights.

“In addition, Hillary Clinton didn’t really bring up any examples or any instances or insights that she ‘hasn’t already mentioned in her book or in published articles,” the student said. 

“I would have really, really hoped that she would bring in some more unique insights and… more vulnerability and discussion on why she made the decisions that she did, what her insights were, what her thoughts were.”

The student said she believed Clinton could have “been more honest” with the students.

“So while I don’t regret taking the class, I think there are definitely places where she could have been more honest with us because she wasn’t in her role as secretary of state or politician. She was there as a professor to teach, and I wish that she had embraced that role a little bit more,” she said.