Clinton Addresses a Key Constituency at the University of Miami

Hillary Rodham Clinton fielded questions from college students in Miami on Wednesday evening, and in the process positioned herself as sympathetic to a younger generation’s concerns about the country and its political leaders.

In a wide-ranging talk at the University of Miami, Mrs. Clinton talked about tolerance and inclusion. “I hope your generation will be a true participation generation,” she said. “I hope you will find ways that the barriers that too often divide us are torn down once and for all.”

She also weighed in on the legislation in Arizona that would have allowed businesses to deny service to gays and lesbians. “Thankfully, the governor of Arizona has vetoed the discriminatory piece of legislation that had passed,” Mrs. Clinton said to applause.

Sounding at times as if she were still secretary of state, Mrs. Clinton discussed the crisis in Syria and called for the removal of the Assad regime’s chemical weapons stockpiles. “This is an issue I’ve certainly spent a lot of time working on and worrying about both when I was in the government and in the time since,” she said.

The students, many of them Latino, also questioned Mrs. Clinton about the violence in Venezuela. “We tried to engage President Chávez,” Mrs. Clinton said of former President Hugo Chávez and referring to her tenure at the State Department. But she said the United States had made no headway in its relationship with Venezuela, despite what she said were the Obama administration’s best efforts with Mr. Chávez â€" who died a year ago â€" and his successor, President Nicolas Máduro.

On the domestic front, Mrs. Clinton defended the Affordable Care Act, warning that young people who think they are invincible need health insurance. If all Americans are covered, she added, insurance costs would come down.

Mrs. Clinton used the talk to praise the Millennial Generation â€" generally defined as those born from the early 1980s to the early 2000s. The voters of that generation would be crucial to Mrs. Clinton if she decides to run for president in 2016.

“If you look at what’s happening in our country today, it’s clear that the so-called Millennials are really representative of a generous and active generation,” she said.

At the end of the event, the university’s president, Donna Shalala, a longtime Clinton friend who was secretary of health and human services in the Clinton administration, coyly tried to discern Mrs. Clinton’s 2016 plans. She asked if the former first lady would reveal the meaning of “TBD” in her personal Twitter description. Mrs. Clinton replied: “I’d really like to, but I have no characters left.”