Editor, Daily Nexus,

Hillary Clinton came to Santa Barbara with a goal in mind; she wanted to hold a personalized town hall meeting focusing on the students at UCSB. We, as the California campaign director and Santa Barbara co-chair for the Hillary campaign had 48 hours to put the event together, and could find only one suitable venue with a capacity of 1,000. As students waited in line for hours, their numbers grew. Although we were pleased that so many wanted to see Hillary, we regret the resulting confusion and apologize to anyone who was not able to get through the doors. Hillary says she will try her best to return to the campus in a larger venue to make amends for what happened.

The students who were able to get inside witnessed a powerful and inspirational speech by Sen. Clinton, who spoke for an hour without notes. She asked the students to envision our country 25 years from now when there would be a better quality of life, a sense of wellness, an education system with individualized instruction, no financial hurdles to entering college and teachers who would be our most respected citizens and paid accordingly.

As president, she pledged to partner with Congress in alleviating a recession, providing clean energy and green collar jobs, enacting a universal health care bill, beginning to remove troops from Iraq in her first 60 days and rebuilding common ground with foreign countries.

“How can students make a difference now?” someone asked.

“Becoming part of the energy and global warming revolution would make the biggest difference,” said Hillary.

We want to thank Chancellor Henry T. Yang and all his staff for making Sen. Hillary Clinton’s visit to UCSB possible.

— Hillary Clinton California Campaign Director Ace Smith and Santa Barbara Co-Chair Susan Rose.