As part of a pre-rally event, the College's chapter of the Student Global AIDS Campaign arranged a Skype session with the Rwandan Minister of Health Agnes Binagwaho, who discussed the need for awareness and education about HIV/AIDS issues.
Matt Kavanaugh, an AIDS and human rights activist visiting campus, emphasized that GOP presidential candidates should prioritize HIV/AIDS research and development.
"There's about a $6 billion gap between what we have and what we need to fight HIV/AIDS, and that's how much money Americans spend on cupcakes each year," Kavanaugh said. "We need to challenge the people today that want to be the next president of the United States to answer which one of them will be the one to end AIDS."
Clad in yellow shirts, the group marched together to the Green while holding signs and chanting "Pay now or pay forever, fight AIDS today," and "We will not give up our fight health care is a human right." Protestors later laid on the stone patio outside the Hopkins Center as students, community members and outside visitors filed into the building to take their seats for the debate.
Members of Occupy Dartmouth, the newly-established Dartmouth chapter of the Occupy Wall Street movement, gathered to protest against the "corporate takeover of the political process," Matt Cloyd '11 said. The event was supported by Students Stand With Staff and other local chapter of Occupy Wall Street.
"We want the people who orchestrated the current financial situation, whether you call it a recession or a depression, to be held responsible," Cloyd said. "The media presence is a good opportunity, but it's important to emphasize that this is a protest at and not against the Republican debate. This issue is beyond partisan politics."
Occupy Wall Street and its Dartmouth chapter represent an effort to "reclaim the American Dream," Nina Rojas '13, who organized the Occupy Dartmouth protest, said.
Despite the hundreds of students and community members chanting and marching on the Green, media outlets have ignored many of the protests organized by Occupy Wall Street affiliates, according to Rojas.
"Last night, 100 protestors were arrested in Boston and people still don't really know about it," she said. "If these GOP candidates want to be the next leader of the country, they need to pay attention to this movement and to American demands."
A separate student group of environmental supporters dressed in green flair called for green energy legislation.
The national attention focused on the GOP debate offered a great opportunity to "target media" with their message about climate change, Annie Mauhs-Pugh '14 said.
"This is a crucial time for us to act on behalf of our health, our economy and our plant," she said. "All of the Republican presidential candidates propose increasing carbon emissions, but this isn't a Republican or Democratic issue, it's a human rights issue."
Standing alone near the center of the Green, Samantha Reckford '13 called upon the "strong, educated women of Dartmouth" to stand up against the "anti-feminist agenda" of Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn.
"I'm here to tell Michele Bachmann that women don't support her and her outdated Victorian nonsense just because she's a woman, because that's not enough," Reckford said in an interview with The Dartmouth. "I don't believe, like she does, that women should submit to men, and I want to hold her accountable for her backwards beliefs. She's running for president but she doesn't believe women are equal to men, which I think is ironic."
Down the street from the Green, East Wheelock Street gained a conspicuous new resident a 20-foot tall inflatable rat standing in front of Chi Heorot fraternity as a protest against recent actions by the National Labor Relations Board, according to Richard Trumpker, a representative from the pro-business issue advocacy group Americans For Job Security, which brought the rat to campus.
"The NLRB has recently ruled it permissible and not intimidating for unions to place inflatable rats like these outside of small businesses that they don't agree with or who haven't unionized," Trumpker said. "We've been taking this rat on the road to point out how absurd that is, and how intimidating this would be."
Protestors used the rat to highlight that the GOP candidates have failed to devote adequate attention to pressing labor issues, Trumpker said.
"None of them have really talked about issues around small businesses, and since that's the heart of our economy, that should really be the focus of this economic debate," he said. Upper Valley residents also flocked to the Green to voice their opinions on various issues. While some arrived in large groups, others came alone but "made friends in the chaos," Libby Vesilint, a New London resident, said. Vesilint traveled to Hanover to protest Republican economic policies, she said.
"The lobby of corporate power in Washington is destroying representative democracy," Vesilint said. "Running two wars on credit without paying for them and giving tax cuts to the rich has ruined our economy."
Searching for a more creative way to draw attention to their cause, a group of senior citizens organized a flash mob to the tune of The Supremes' 1960s hit, "Stop in the Name of Love."
The "love" mentioned in the song and dance routine referred to the "shared love" of Social Security, which currently faces strong federal scrutiny, Manchester resident Ed Dolton said in an interview with The Dartmouth.
"People believe in Social Security, myself included," Dolton said. "This isn't something we're entitled to, it's something we've put into. The candidates need to get that message." Personal struggles and a strong investment in economic issues brought individuals like Kristin Fredrickson, a Canaan, N.H., resident to the College. Fredrickson has been unemployed for two years and has completed 86 unsuccessful job interviews, she said.
"People need to hear our concerns and people need to get back to work," Fredrickson said. "I want the candidates to listen and understand what reality is for unemployed Americans like me."
The media presence also drew various traveling protest campaigns, including several Iowa residents fighting for the continuation of the Clean Air Act, a 1970 act outlining the Environmental Protection Agency's responsibilities, according to Jordan Murphy of Des Moines, Iowa. New Hampshire is the fourth of 10 stops for campaigners who hope to identify senators who could be convinced to vote against the Train Act, a bill under consideration that limits clean air protection, Murphy said.
