From: Declan McCullagh <declan@pathfinder.com>
To: Tim May <tcmay@got.net>
Message Hash: 84686657bf6e261bde5d8145ab01db0bae98ca552a436e205d4e0523aa0626be
Message ID: <Pine.GSO.3.95.970910161802.21845F-100000@cp.pathfinder.com>
Reply To: <v03102806b03bc470101a@[207.167.93.63]>
UTC Datetime: 1997-09-10 20:41:42 UTC
Raw Date: Thu, 11 Sep 1997 04:41:42 +0800
From: Declan McCullagh <declan@pathfinder.com>
Date: Thu, 11 Sep 1997 04:41:42 +0800
To: Tim May <tcmay@got.net>
Subject: Re: Chelsea Clinton's PGP
In-Reply-To: <v03102806b03bc470101a@[207.167.93.63]>
Message-ID: <Pine.GSO.3.95.970910161802.21845F-100000@cp.pathfinder.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain
STANFORD, Calif. (AP) - When Chelsea Clinton becomes the First
Freshman at Stanford University next week, her proud and wistful parents
will be watching.
And so will reporters and photographers eager to document the
start of her new life 3,000 miles away from home.
Chelsea, accompanied by President Clinton and first lady Hillary
Rodham Clinton, will begin her Stanford career with five days of
orientation starting Sept. 19th.
She'll move into her dorm, meet her roommate and get to know the
sprawling campus 30 miles south of San Francisco before classes start on
Sept. 24th.
The Clintons plan to let reporters follow them about campus on the
first day of orientation with the idea that the press will get enough
pictures and fodder for stories - and then leave Chelsea alone.
"That's the hope," said Marsha Berry, Mrs. Clinton's press
representative.
And once she's settled in, Chelsea will not be hounded by the
student newspaper, the Stanford Daily. Rather, she'll be treated as "a
student, a regular student," not as a celebrity, says the paper's editor,
Carolyn Sleeth.
Chelsea, as the only child of the president, was long protected
from the glare of the press but has recently become something of a public
figure in her own right with increasing public appearances over the past
year. The 17-year-old would-be doctor has received high marks for being
intelligent, poised and personable.
"I've found inspiration in the effortless grace that a girl half
my age has brought to an intimidating challenge," Patti Davis, Ronald
Reagan's daughter, wrote in Harper's Bazaar about Chelsea.
"Whatever it is Chelsea does, she's the best person we've ever
seen doing it," the Unofficial Chelsea Clinton Fan Club declares on its
Web site.
Thousands of people were interested enough in Chelsea to give her
some tongue-in-cheek advice in a survey the Internet company Excite!
recently ran on its Web site.
"It's like the whole country gets to go to college with her - they
get to live vicariously," said Joe Krauss, one of six Stanford grads who
founded the company.
Stanford, determined to guard Chelsea's privacy as it would that
of any other student, isn't saying much about her life at the university.
She'll be just one of its entering 1,660 freshman who ante up nearly
$30,000 in tuition, room and board to study at the campus that sits at the
foot of rolling, oak-studded hills.
But celebrities who've attended other prestigious schools - after
an initial flurry of publicity - have been able to enjoy relatively normal
lives on campus.
Amy Carter, like Chelsea, created a bit of a stir when she visited
campuses before choosing Brown University. John F. Kennedy Jr. also
attended Brown. Both were treated "just like any other private student,"
said university spokeswoman Tracie Sweeney.
"Of course, it was a help that their fathers were not sitting
presidents when they were in school. That took some of the pressure off,"
she said.
Luci Baines Johnson was the last person to go directly from the
White House to college when she decided to attend the University of Texas
in 1966. It was her impending wedding, however, that generated more media
interest.
Brooke Shields' career at Princeton drew some undercover reporters
- people with notebooks and cameras. The actress, her family and the
university made it clear that while on campus she was no longer a
celebrity but a student entitled to privacy.
"I understand there were some number of paparazzi in the very
early days who would try to stake out spots on campus," said Princeton
spokesman Justin Harmon.
"But once offending photographers were escorted off campus and
word got out that we meant to enforce the ground rules ... by and large
folks were quite cooperative," he said.
Chelsea could find the same privacy at Stanford - except for times
when Mom or Dad visit, attracting reporters again to campus, say Harmon
and Sweeney.
But fans of the first daughter have admired her ability to
withstand such pressures so far.
Peter Clipsham, president of the Unofficial Chelsea Clinton Fan
Club, observed that it must be uncomfortable for her to have grown up in
the public eye.
"Still, she seemed to dance through it," the 19-year-old Ottawa,
Canada resident said.
Return to September 1997
Return to “Tim May <tcmay@got.net>”