WESTWOOD—In March, former Secretary of State and First Lady Hillary Clinton paid a visit to Westwood, lecturing at UCLA’s Royce Hall before engaging in a 40-minute question-answer discussion with the audience.
As Clinton leads-up to a possible 2016 presidential campaign, a Washington Post article revealed the details of a communication between university officials and Clinton’s brass, information obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.
In addition to Clinton’s public appearance price tag of $300,000, the report revealed a request on the behalf of the school to receive a public university discount, a request denied by the politician’s representatives who claimed the amount was a “special university rate.”
The negotiations have come under public scrutiny, as critics have questioned how Clinton’s price tag can be simultaneously paired with an expected campaign centered around reviving a struggling middle class.
The lecture, privately funded by investor and president of Scope Industries Meyer Luskin, was one in a series of lectures presented at the school. Former U.S. President Bill Clinton was the series’ first speaker in 2011.
According to the Luskin Thought Leadership website, the lectures are intended to provide a platform to “share knowledge and expand the dialogue among scholars, leaders in government and business, and the greater Los Angeles community.”
