Tallulah Hawley ‘25

While I was standing in line for the media check-in at Sunday’s rally for New York Governor Kathy Hochul and President Joe Biden, an NBC reporter (I glanced at the nametag that hung around his neck) physically pushed me aside in order to be the first person allowed behind the cold metal barricades. Calmly, I stepped in line behind him, writing his name down in my notes as a reminder to Google him later.

Two days prior to the event, Interim Dean of Studies, Jody Spooner, sent out an email announcing that Biden and Hochul would be on campus. In the email, Spooner also stated that the school would take on additional security procedures, effectively closing multiple dorms for the span of the entire event with less than two days' notice.

Students living in the dorm buildings nearest the event were given two options: to vacate their rooms for the rest of the afternoon or stay in their rooms without the ability to leave. “Starting at 2 p.m, all residential students living in buildings on the North Lawn who wish to leave their residences will need to do so,” the email said. “Students living on the North Lawn will be allowed to remain in their rooms throughout the day; please note, though, that your ability to leave your room and move around to other areas on campus will be restricted beginning at 4 p.m.”

The heightened feeling of cautiousness and anxiety that arose in the presence of Secret Service members, as opposed to a civilian security staff, was very noticeable.

The first time I met a national politician was when I saw Joe Biden at the Iowa Caucus in January 2020, a mere month before Coronavirus changed the world as we knew it. Indianola, Iowa is a six-hour drive from my hometown of St. Louis, Missouri, and I was packed in a dark blue minivan with ten other students in my AP Government class. The small town and its surrounding wheat fields were banked in almost a foot of snow. I remember getting snowed in at the Andrew Yang Iowa office and some of their millennial staffers, including one wearing jort cut-offs in below-freezing weather, helped us dig our car’s tires out of the snow.

Almost three years later, and this time at the college I attend, I’m seeing Biden again, as the President of the United States rather than one of 27 hopefuls engaged in competition for the Democratic candidacy.

It’s 2:30 PM, and I’ve already been here for an hour, waiting for the bomb-sniffing dogs to make their way through the clumps of camera and recording equipment that lay against a metal barrier on the pavement, ready to be inspected. Thirty minutes later, I’m allowed to enter the South Lawn and I take a seat in the press pen, seated at the table right next to the CNN reporters.

After waiting about two hours to get into an event where the roster of speakers still has not been released to the public, I walk up to the front barricade of the press pit. Students are already sitting on the floor en masse, brewing in their own boredom amidst the ambiguous downtime.

I hear two students, leaned against the ‘red-ticket’ barricaded area for sitting senators and VIPs, in conversation. “This is not raging as hard as promised,” one says, wearing a red, white and blue striped tank top. The other responds, a white ‘Tom DiNapoli for Comptroller’ sticker stuck to their grey The Cure shirt “I thought this was gonna be a party, I don’t really know who these people are.”

By 3:22 PM, the front two sectors of the crowd, separated by a blocky, black stanchion, are barely filled up. People usher in in standardized clumps, standing room only, either comprised of fully Sarah Lawrence students or fully ‘common folk,’ as one of the NBC reporters had referred to those in the general public line.

Several students, who inform me that they are SLC freshmen, are shouting to get water and food every time a new group enters the crowd.

I hear one of the freshmen telling a nearby reporter that they have been waiting in line for four hours, even though when I walked by at 11 AM, the campus was quiet, and no line had formed on Kimball Avenue– even prospective athletes were still being guided on campus tours. Due to the tribulations stemming from the wreck that was last year’s housing process, I have since noticed a lot of exaggerations with SLC-related wait lines, and it subsequently being blamed on administrators.

One of the freshmen, wearing a shirt that says “neolibs are ruining my life” in hand-drawn lettering, tells me that she had been locked out of her Garrison dorm at 1:30, thirty minutes before Spooner’s email stated she would be. She also says that “Secret Service was inside Garrison” when she left her room earlier that afternoon.

Another freshman adds that they were not allowed to sit outside on North Lawn at all, “even outside our dorms.” The student, who lives in Westlands, tells me that they were informed, unsure by whom, that a Secret Service agent would have to accompany them in their bedroom if they decided to stay rather than attend the rally.

A handful of students had written on the backs of the “Hochul/Delgado” campaign signs that were given, proclaiming statements such as “GOTHS FOR BIDEN” and “GIVE US WATER.” Students who were presumably volunteering with the Hochul campaign reprimanded those who had drawn on the signs and collected the ripped-up signs that had already started to litter the floor.

Kathy, a Getty Images photographer who has been standing to my left for the majority of the time, says to me “What is this? Times Square on New Year's Eve? Like what the fuck?” I laugh at her joke, and she continues, saying “Meanwhile, the intelligentsia is inside, feasting on duck.”

As if having heard the photographer’s whispered commentary, a campaign aid orders the crowd left of the stanchion to stand up “or else you’ll get stepped on.”

At 4:25, the program finally begins. The Sarah Lawrence Vocal Ensemble enters to sing a single song, “My Friend Elijah.” A friend of mine in the Vocal Ensemble informed me afterward that they were not allowed to grab water beforehand. I was having the same issue, security would not let my friends pass a cup of water from the walkway into the press pit.

Cristle Collins Judd, the President of SLC, is next to speak. “Sarah Lawrence College is proud to be located in Yonkers,” she proclaims to the crowd, despite its Bronxville Post Office address.

SLC sophomore Katin Sarner, also a member of the Vocal Ensemble, enters the stage and performs a beautiful rendition of the “Star-Spangled Banner,” her bright red lipstick reminiscent of the red stripes in the American flag hanging behind her.

After the event, she tells me “I found out I was going to sing the night before the rally. My first thought was ‘I’m going to sing for President Biden! I’m peaking as a sophomore in college!’ My wonderful voice teacher, Mary Phillips, helped me prepare the next morning, just two hours before the event.”

She continues “I’ve never felt so supported by my friends and peers as I sang in front of hundreds of people, including so many important members of our government. Everyone’s cheers helped me get through the most nerve-racking moment of my life!”

The first politician to speak is Mike Spano, the Mayor of Yonkers. He gives the SLC students a “special thanks,” and instructs them to “take your phones out, take your social medias out” and vote in Tuesday’s election.

During this, a freshman, clutching a Karl Marx book, shouts, either a statement directly meant for Spano or just a plea for attention amidst the large crowd. He turns around to face the opposite direction, grinning, wearing a graphic tee with a picture of Ted Kaczynski, also known as the Unabomber, with a caption underneath it reading ‘Vote by Mail.’ As he is escorted out by a presumed Secret Service agent, he yells to the crowd “Have fun with your child killing!”

After this interruption, I look around to gauge how the surrounding crowd reacts: several students near me tell him to “shut up” in unison and many are glaring in his direction, but the majority just ignore it.

George Latimer, the current County Executive of Westchester County, and Chuck Schumer, Majority Leader of the US Senate, are next up to speak. Latimer encourages the youth present at the rally to vote, saying “I have a lot more yesterdays than I have tomorrows. You have a lot more tomorrow,” while Schumer spends his time talking about fighting the “MAGA Republican war on women.”

“The campus will be under a no-fly zone during the event,” Spooner had written in the aforementioned email. During the dead time between each speaker, I watch a helicopter, which I assume was present for security purposes, loop around the campus, its single flashing green light glares in unison with the bright fluorescent lights against the stage. The speakers are seemingly playing a six-song set on repeat: I hear Taylor Swift’s “Fearless,” Stevie Wonder’s “Signed, Sealed, Delivered,” and Destiny’s Child’s “Say My Name” at least three times that night.

In order of appearance, President of the American Federation of Teachers Randi Weingarten, Majority Leader of New York State Senate Andrea Stewart-Cousins, New York State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli, New York Attorney General Letitia James, US Representative Jamaal Bowman and US Senator Kirsten Gillibrand also gave speeches to the crowd.

Kathy Hochul finally makes her on-stage appearance at 6:05 PM, five hours after people had first started to line up. Hochul is the incumbent gubernatorial candidate for New York, having served as the state’s first female governor since August 2021 after former governor Andrew Cuomo resigned amid sexual harassment allegations.

Like the speakers before her, Hochul also pushes the urgency of the situation, saying "We all need your votes. All I know is one thing– when Democrats turn out to vote in the state of New York, we win. It's that simple. That's all we need to do."

Bringing in the sitting president to a campaign event announced two days in advance of Election Day, coupled with her event on Saturday night bringing in former president Bill Clinton, shows just how close this race for governor truly is.

Hochul also brings up her past coaction with Joe Biden when they visited her hometown of Buffalo after a May 2022 shooting that killed ten people to speak out against the violence.

In addition, she also brings up the various abortion bans that have been put into law across the country. She states that these issues are not up for debate in New York, saying “You know why nothing changed [after these laws were passed]? Because I’m the governor.”

Even Hochul refers to herself as a “warm-up act for the president,” and at 6:35 PM, she finally guides Biden onto the stage. Immediately, the crowd erupts, filled with raised hands, either clutching a yellow Hochul/Delgado sign or holding up their phone to get their daily BeReal.

During his opening remarks, Biden is constantly interrupted. A group of protesters shout “Get out of here!” to which some in the crowd respond “Four more years!” He awkwardly attempts to silence both chants, saying “Well, let Joe talk, okay?”

In response to the talk of banning abortion, one of the scariest realities up on the ticket for many Americans this fall, Biden says “Here’s the bottom line– if Republicans gain control of Congress and pass a nationwide ban on abortion, I will veto it… if they give me two more Democrats in the Senate and we keep control of the House, we’re going to codify Roe v. Wade in January and make it the law of the land.”

Fifteen minutes into the speech that the crowd waited so long for, a large pack of students push around at the back of the barricade, trying to wade their way through the weavings of the crowd toward the exit.

One of the students trying to leave leans against the barricade I’m next to and tells me that the security would not allow her to leave prematurely.

Lastly, Biden makes an appeal to the youth vote and the students present at the speech, saying “You’re the best educated, you’re the least prejudiced, you’re the most engaged, you’re the most involved generation in American history.”

Towards the end of his speech, a student faints, and Biden calmly asks for medical assistance, but it throws him off of his original statement. He assures the crowd, “It’s okay, you got her,” and he gives around two more minutes before he thanks Hochul and the crowd.

As he begins to descend the stage and the music recommences, Emma Floyd ‘25 shouts “Five more years of drilling isn’t compromise!” Though it is mostly inaudible due to the resumed background music, his response according to the official White House transcript says “No more drilling. There is no more drilling. I haven’t formed any new — new drilling.”

“You renewed five more years of offshore drilling not on the Pacific or the Atlantic,” Floyd continues, “but in the Arctic and the Gulf of Mexico.” In response, he responds that that was before he was president.

Afterward, Floyd tells me that that simply is not the case, saying “President Biden came to speak at our school and responded untruthfully to an honest question. By either a means to save face, or by being misinformed about his own administration’s wrongdoing, there was a vow made on his campaign trail to curb the damage being done to our planet and to stop climate change at all costs when he took office.”

She continues, “As members of Gen Z it’s important to hold our leaders and government officials accountable…Like Westchester County Executive George Latimer said we have more days ahead of us than behind us, so we must do whatever we can to ensure that our future is the one we want to live in.”

Being able to stand in the press pen with reporters of distinguished newspapers or corporations as a college sophomore was a very compelling experience. I have reported on multiple court trials and notable school events, but never before on a person as important and impactful to the world as the President of the United States.

Whether the students at Sarah Lawrence College are fans of him and his policy or not, it was a very fascinating (albeit exhausting) experience to have such important political figures on our campus. As Biden said during his speech, Sarah Lawrence is “one of the great liberal arts schools in America” and it was wonderful to see such a great majority of the student body come together to participate.

Hochul Brings DC to SLC: My Diary of the 11/6 Hochul Campaign Event