Hamilton College

For other colleges with the same name, see Hamilton College (disambiguation).

Hamilton College

File:Hamilton College seal.jpg
Motto	Γνῶθι Σεαυτόν (Know Thyself)
Type	Private coeducational
Established	1793 as Hamilton-Oneida Academy, 1812 as Hamilton College
Endowment	$701.67 million
President	Joan Hinde Stewart
Academic staff	219
Undergraduates	1,812
Address	198 College Hill Road , Clinton , NY , USA
Campus	Rural
Annual Fees	$51,760 (2010–2011)
Colors	Buff   and Blue
Nickname	Continentals Hamiltonians
Affiliations	NESCAC, MAISA
Website	hamilton.edu

Hamilton College is a private, highly selective liberal arts college located in Clinton, New York, United States. The school was founded in 1793, chartered as Hamilton College in 1812, and has been coeducational since 1978, when it merged with Kirkland College.

Hamilton is sometimes referred to as the "College on the Hill", owing to its location on top of College Hill, just outside of downtown Clinton. Hamilton College is one of the "Little Ivies," and is considered one of the nation's most prestigious liberal arts colleges. The 2010 U.S. News and World Report ranked Hamilton 18th in the nation among National Liberal Arts Colleges.

History

Hamilton began in 1793 as the Hamilton-Oneida Academy, a K-12 school, and was chartered as Hamilton College in 1812, making it the third oldest college established in New York, after Columbia and Union. Samuel Kirkland founded the College as part of his missions work with the Oneida tribe. The college is named for Alexander Hamilton, who was a member of the first Board of Trustees of the Hamilton-Oneida Academy (though he never set foot on campus). It was in fact Baron von Steuben, acting as Hamilton's surrogate, who laid the college's cornerstone.

In 1978, the all-male Hamilton College merged with the all-female Kirkland College, which had been located adjacent to and founded by Hamilton; the primary public reason for the merger was Kirkland's imminent insolvency. It took nearly 7 years to fully complete the merger; female students were given the option of receiving a Kirkland diploma instead of a Hamilton diploma until 1979. Several former Kirkland faculty members teaching at Hamilton still fondly remember being part of a very different academic community prior to the merger.

Since the 1970s, Hamilton has been a member of the New England Small College Athletic Conference (or the NESCAC) (despite technically being located outside of New England). This conference also includes Amherst, Bates, Bowdoin, Colby, Connecticut College, Middlebury, Trinity, Tufts, Wesleyan, and Williams. Rivalries with many of these schools, Middlebury in particular, predate the establishment of the conference.

Today, the original Hamilton campus is referred to by students and some school literature as the "light side" or "north side" of the campus. Formerly, the original side of campus was referred to as the "Stryker Campus" after its former president, Melancthon Woolsey Stryker (or incorrectly "Striker Campus"). On the other side of College Hill Road, the original Kirkland campus is referred to affectionately as the "dark side" or as the "south side."

Hamilton College president Joan Stewart and a small group of faculty members celebrated the establishment of the Alexander Hamilton Center, an effort to promote the study of America's first treasury secretary with lectures and conferences, but the affiliation broke down over opposition from both the trustees and the overwhelming majority of faculty. The center, renamed the Alexander Hamilton Institute, is now independent and occupies the building formerly used as the Alexander Hamilton Inn in Clinton, New York.

Campus

During the summer of 2006, the school completed a 56 million dollar science building. The art department has separate studios for each of the studio arts taught, most of which are in the midst a 37.5 million dollar renovation project. Hamilton's athletic facilities include an ice rink, swimming pool, several athletics fields, a golf course, a three-story climbing wall, and a 10 Court Squash Center.

Carol Woodhouse Wellin Performance Hall

The 700 seat hall hosts the College Orchestra conducted by Heather Buchman, Choir, Jazz Band, Oratorio Society, and Faculty Dance Concerts as well as guest artists from around the globe.

The Sage Rink

Hamilton College’s Sage Rink is America's second oldest indoor collegiate hockey rink after Northeastern University's Matthews Arena. It was financed by the widow of industrialist Russell Sage, whose name graces a number of Central New York college edifices, including Russell Sage College. In addition to Continental mens and women's teams, youth hockey, high school teams, adult amateur efforts and the famous Clinton Comets, who dominated the semi-professional Eastern Hockey League in the 1960s and early 1970s, have played at the Sage Rink. It was renovated in 1993, when it received better lighting, ice-making equipment, and structural enhancements. The rink houses the college's Men's and Women's varsity hockey teams, intramural ice hockey, physical education classes, and local youth hockey games.

Bristol Swimming Pool

Completed in 1988, the pool was christened by a Guinness Book of World Records setting event in April 1989 when the world's longest swim relay was completed in the Bristol pool.

Steuben Field

Home to the Hamilton College football team, Steuben Field was founded in 1897, and is one of the ten oldest collegiate football fields in the United States. In Summer 2009, the field received a renovation that included the installation of FieldTurf and a new scoreboard. The field is now home to Men's and Women's Lacrosse as recently as the 2010 spring season.

Litchfield Observatory

IAU code 789, from which C. H. F. Peters discovered some 48 asteroids. The observatory burned down but is currently marked on campus by its telescope mount outside of the Suida Admissions and Financial Aid House. The current observatory, a quarter of a mile from campus, is powered by solar energy and is open for student use. The existing observatory, located 100 feet from College Hill Road, was built with rock from the same quarry as the original building.

Hamilton College Chapel

The college's chapel is a historically protected landmark and is the only three story chapel still standing in America. The chapel is topped by a signature quill pen weather vane, which represents Hamilton College's long standing commitment to producing graduates with exceptional writing and communication abilities.

Kirkland Cottage

The cottage was the original residence of Samuel Kirkland when he began his missionary work to the Oneida that resulted in the founding of the Hamilton-Oneida Academy. The cottage itself is completely original, although it was moved from its original location on Kirkland's property (known today as Harding Farm) to its current place on the main quadrangle of the Hamilton Side. The cottage is currently used for matriculation ceremonies.

Birthplace of Elihu Root

This house originally belonged to the Root family and was the birthplace of Secretary of State Elihu Root. The house has since been renamed Buttrick Hall. Originally built in 1812 as the student dining hall, in 1834 it became the home of Horatio Buttrick, then superintendent of the Buildings and Grounds Department as well as registrar. Through Oren Root’s marriage to a daughter of Horatio Buttrick, the building became the birthplace of Elihu Root, U.S. secretary of state and recipient of the 1912 Nobel Peace Prize. The house currently serves as office space for the President of the College and the Dean of Faculty.

Elihu Root House

The Elihu Root House originally belonged to Elihu Root and served as his summer home. Formerly the home of the Office of Admission, it as of September 2009 is home to the Dean of Students Office, the Registrar, and the department of Residential Life.

Academics

Hamilton currently offers the Bachelor of Arts degree in any of over 50 areas of concentration. Additionally, Hamilton students may study abroad. The College runs programs in China, France, and Spain, as well as programs closer to home in New York City and Washington, DC. Hamilton is well known for its "open" curriculum, for which there are no distributional requirements; students have nearly total freedom over their course selection. Hamilton College, Brown University and Smith College are institutions with such a policy. The college has a tradition of adherence to an academic honor code. Every student matriculating at Hamilton must sign a pledge to observe the Honor Code, and many examinations are not proctored. Hamilton has been part of the SAT optional movement for undergraduate admission since 2002.

Hamilton gives applicants different ways to meet the Standardized Testing Requirements including a choice of SAT I, ACT and combination of three SAT IIs. For the Class of 2014, of those who had high schools that ranked, 80% of the students were in the top ten percent of their class. Among those who submitted SAT I scores (majority), the average was 1410 for combined reading and math, and 710 for the writing section.

In 2011, U.S. News & World Report ranked Hamilton the 18th best national liberal arts college in the United States. Hamilton is ranked as a "more selective" school by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and as "most selective" by US News.

In April 2011, Hamilton was listed as the 2nd best college out of 10 in America for writers (after Emory, but before Johns Hopkins, MIT and NYU) by USA Today/CollegeDegree.com.

Also for 2010–2011, Kiplinger ranked Hamilton 9th, in terms of "Best Value among Liberal Arts Colleges in the US", which factored academic quality, cost and financial aid measures. Hamilton is ranked 6th in a similar measure by U.S. News & World Report.

Princeton Review's 2011 "Best 373 Colleges" Guide (based on student surveys) gave Hamilton high ratings of 97 and 97 (out of 100) for academics and selectivity respectively and made the list of few colleges that provided the "best classroom experience". The Review, along with USA Today, also lists Hamilton as one of 2009's Top 50 Private Colleges for Best Value.

Hamilton is highlighted in two books: as one of "The Hidden Ivies: 50 Top Colleges from Amherst to Williams That Rival the Ivy League" as well as one of the "Hidden Ivies: Thirty Colleges of Excellence".

Student life and traditions

The current Hamilton College campus consists of the original Hamilton College campus and the neighboring former campus of Kirkland College. In addition, there are three large wooded areas on the campus, the Root glen, Rogers glen, and the Kirkland glen.

In the mid-1990s, the administration enacted a policy requiring all underclassmen to live in college housing (resulting in the closure of all fraternity houses and the Emerson Literary Society's house), and created social spaces for student use, improved funding for on-campus events, and pursued several other social life changes. This process caused a great deal of controversy — mostly surrounding the decision to preclude fraternities from exercising any use of their houses. As a result, the majority of fraternities felt they had no choice but to sell their houses to the college, though some fraternities refused to sell their houses until well into the next decade. As the college purchased the houses, it has carried out extensive renovations. Since the discussion, a few fraternities and sororities have had their charters revoked or suspended for extreme behavior (causing additional controversy among the students and alumni).

Housing

Nearly all students live in college-owned dorms. There are a variety of styles of residence halls, including former fraternity houses, suites, apartment style housing, and more traditional dormitory style housing. Hamilton currently offers a cooperative living option to students, as well as substance-free and quiet housing. All residence halls are co-ed, though some have single-sex floors. In October 2010, the College adopted a gender-neutral housing policy, wherein students of any biological sex, gender identity or expression may room together in rooms designated for two or more students.

Societies

There are currently eleven fraternities, seven sororities, and one co-ed society active on the Hamilton College campus. Greek organizations still maintain a significant (but not overwhelming) social presence, despite being non-residential since 1995. These fraternities include two of the "Union Triad" : Delta Phi and Sigma Phi. They consist of Alpha Delta Phi ( founded at Hamilton College ), Chi Psi, Delta Chi, Delta Kappa Epsilon, Delta Phi, Delta Upsilon, Lambda Upsilon Lambda, Psi Upsilon, Sigma Phi, Tau Kappa Epsilon and Theta Delta Chi. The sororities are Alpha Chi Lambda, Alpha Theta Chi, Gamma Xi, Kappa Delta Omega, Kappa Sigma Alpha, Sigma Lambda Upsilon, and Phi Beta Chi.

While all of the fraternities on campus are affiliated with national organizations, only one sorority (Omega Phi Beta) has a national affiliation. The other six sororities are unique to Hamilton.

Lambda Chi Alpha existed at Hamilton until 1958.

Generally, events sponsored by Greek-organizations occur on campus and are open to all students.

Hamilton also has a co-ed, non-Greek social society, the Emerson Literary Society.

Campus media

WHCL-FM: During the academic year, Hamilton students, faculty, and community members produce a variety of music, news, sports, and talk radio programs at FM frequency 88.7 The station is available through most of the Mohawk Valley region and online. It is the only radio station in Clinton.

The Spectator: Hamilton College's primary news publication is published weekly and is freely available in the campus dining halls, mail center, and library. The Spectator covers campus, local, and national news as well as Hamilton sports and campus life. It is older than the New York Times, which is the paper's official slogan.

The Daily Bull: A daily bulletin that caters to campus counterculture and is consequently unintelligible to many. The Daily Bull is noted for being printed on yellow legal size paper, and is distributed on dining hall tables every morning.

The Wag: Hamilton's semi-annual satire magazine, published near the end of every semester. It features written and graphical satire of campus news and life. The Wag has also produced short feature films about the "Hamilton experience" in the past.

The Duel Observer: Founded by Tom Keane '03 and David Schwartz '02, The Duel Observer is a weekly humor and satire publication that adopts the format of a parody newspaper (e.g. the Onion). The name "Duel Observer" is a reference to the duel between Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton which resulted in Hamilton's death.

HamPoll: Hamilton's Polling organization regularly surveys students and faculty. Recent surveys have asked about relationship dynamics, evaluations of academic departments, recycling habits, as well as political and social affiliations.

The Continental: A student-run magazine published a few times a semester. The magazine features fashion advice, party photos, and articles on a variety of subjects.

Red Weather: Hamilton's literary magazine, dedicated to promoting the literary arts on campus by printing a variety of student-authored poetry and fiction, published twice a year.

The Green Apple: Named for one of the symbols of Kirkland College, this publication is printed on green legal-sized paper and features short stories, poetry, and op-eds.

Dexter: The only independently funded publication on campus, it is known for offering a contrarian perspective of campus affairs.

Traditions

Class and Charter Day: On the last day of spring term classes, all afternoon classes are canceled for a campus wide picnic and party. Additionally, a ceremony is held during which students, faculty, and other members of the Hamilton community are recognized for their academic, leadership, and community-development accomplishments. During the ceremony, chosen students are also inducted into Hamilton's three prestigious honor societies: Doers and Thinkers (13 rising sophomores), Was Los (6 rising juniors), and Pentagon (5 rising seniors). Class and Charter Day is also the biggest party day of the year at Hamilton. The popular "G-Road" party which took place on this day became so infamous for underage drinking and over-indulgence that the college chose to ban the party for Class and Charter Day '09.

Citrus Bowl: The Citrus Bowl is the first mens home hockey game of the season. Traditionally the game was called the Orange Bowl, and upon the first Hamilton-scored goal, oranges that students had smuggled into the rink were thrown onto the ice at the visiting goalie. This often resulted in a delay-of-game penalty against Hamilton while the ice was cleaned. In recent years, the orange throwing has been banned by the College administration and by NESCAC officials, but the event is still well attended. Orange T-shirts commemorating the event have been distributed in recent years.

FebFest: Rooted in the long standing tradition of the winter carnival at Hamilton, FebFest is a relatively recent revival at Hamilton. A week-long combination of performances, parties, free food, fireworks, and various other events, FebFest intends to keep student morale high during the winter. Over the years, bands ranging from the Steve Miller Band to Ghostface Killah have performed as a part of festivities.

May Day Music Festival: Started in 2004, May Day is an outdoor music festival sponsored by several on-campus organizations including the Hamilton College Independent Music Fund, WHCL, and the Hamilton College Campus Activities Board. Past performers have included: Citizen Cope, The New Pornographers, The Pharcyde, Dead Meadow, Tim Reynolds, Chromeo, Jennifer Gentle, Rainer Maria, Ted Leo, The Unicorns, J-Live, Catch-22 and Sleater-Kinney. It should be noted that the name "May Day" has no association with other May Day events and activities elsewhere in the world. Rather, the name simply refers to the fact that the festival is staged in early May or late April.

HamTrek: Started in 2004, HamTrek is an annual sprint-triathlon consisting of a 525-yard swim, 9-mile bike ride, and 3.1-mile run. Participants can compete individually, in unisex teams of 3, or co-ed teams of 3. Prizes are awarded to the winners of the different competing groups. Also, many athletic coaches now require their teams to compete. HamTrek takes place on Class and Charter day.

Athletics

Hamilton is a NCAA Division III school and has been a member of the New England Small College Athletic Conference since 1971. The college sports teams are known as the Hamilton Continentals. Hamilton sponsors 28 sports, including: Baseball (M), Basketball (M&W), Crew (M&W), Cross Country (M&W), Field Hockey (W), Football (M), Golf (M), Ice Hockey (M&W), Lacrosse (M&W), Outdoor and Indoor Track & Field (M&W), Soccer (M&W), Softball (W), Squash (M&W), Swimming & Diving (M&W), Tennis (M&W), Volleyball (W).

Before the 1993-94 academic year, Hamilton's sports teams could not participate in any national postseason tournaments. The rule was changed that year, allowing Hamilton to participate in Division III tournaments in various sports. On May 18, 2008, Hamilton won its first NCAA championship, when its women's lacrosse team defeated Franklin & Marshall 13-6 in the finals of the NCAA tournament.

About 30% of Hamilton's student body participate in its athletic programs. In addition to varsity sports, Hamilton sponsors several club sports and intramural activities each year. Club sports include alpine skiing, curling, equestrianism, figure skating, men's rugby, women's rugby, tae kwon do, ultimate frisbee, and women's golf. In 2008 the men's rugby team was fourth place in the national Division III tournament. Hamilton has had a streaking team since 2002.

Hamilton's mascot is a Continental, a soldier in America's Continental Army of the Revolutionary War. The college's colors are buff and blue, the colors of the Continental Army's uniforms. The college's eponym, Alexander Hamilton, played a central role in the Continental Army as General George Washington's Chief of Staff. At many sporting events, Hamilton is represented by the Al-Ham (an abbreviation of Alexander Hamilton) pig. The pig, large, anthropomorphic, and dressed in a Hamilton basketball jersey and a Continental soldier's tricorn hat, was introduced in the early 2000s in an attempt to positively boost school spirit and interest in Hamilton's athletics program.

Rocking Chair Classic

Since 1980, the annual football game between Hamilton and Middlebury has been designated the Rocking Chair Classic. The winning team keeps the Mac-Jack Rocking Chair for the following year. The rivalry has been rather one-sided lately: Middlebury has won the last 14 matches.

Demographics

Hamilton typically enrolls about 1775 students. Fifty percent are male, and fifty percent are female. The middle 50% of SAT scores for students at Hamilton is 1350 to 1500. About 60% of students came from public schools, and 40% from private schools, and students come from 49 U.S. states and 45 countries. Of the applicants who applied to be in the Class of 2014, 29% were accepted. In one year it was recorded that 5% of Hamilton students were described as international, 5% as African-American, 1% as Native American, 8% as Asian/Pacific Islander, 4% Hispanic, 70% White, and 8% where their ethnic background the study did not know.

Controversies

In 2002, the then-President Eugene Tobin resigned after admitting that he had failed to give proper attribution to quoted material in speeches. Efforts to bring Ward Churchill to speak on campus were controversial. also controversial was the 2004 decision to hire former political radical and ex-convict Sue Rosenberg - who spent 16 years in Federal prison for possession of explosives and weapons and was implicated, but never even indicted, in the 1981 Brinks robbery. There was also a complaint by Professor Robert Paquette over an independent student group bringing an actress and former porn-star as a speaker. Professor Paquette was also involved in a later controversy, being one of the leaders in the failed attempt to create the Alexander Hamilton Center on campus.

There was controversy over the fact that in September 2010 as part of orientation first-year men had to attend a presentation of "She Fears You", a program at which, some believed, they would be pressed to acknowledge their personal complicity in a "rape culture" on Hamilton's campus and to change their "rape-supportive" beliefs and attitudes. First-year men were informed via e-mail that attendance was required and that they needed to bring their ID cards, although many did not attend as rumor spread that students did not have to check in. After the event, the College newspaper The Spectator described the event as follows: "In spite of a few dissenters, many students still found the new orientation program both insightful and effective.".

College songs

• Carissima
• We Never Will Forget Thee, the fight song of Hamilton College, often performed by the Hamilton College Buffers, an all-male student a cappella group. The Hamilton College Football team also sings a slightly modified version of this song upon winning a football game.

Alumni and Faculty

Main article: List of Hamilton College people

Notable Hamilton alumni include US Secretary of State Elihu Root (1864), US Vice President James S. Sherman (1878), Poet Ezra Pound (1905), jurist and diplomat Philip Jessup (1919), psychologist B. F. Skinner (1926), Nobel Prize Winner Paul Greengard (1948), civil rights leader Bob Moses, playwright Richard Nelson (1971), US Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack (1972), composer Jay Reise(1972), Pulitzer-Prize winning composer Melinda Wagner, actor Tony Goldwyn (1982), novelist Kamila Shamsie, novelist Peter Cameron, novelist Terry Brooks, actor Grayson McCouch (1991), and actor and writer for The Office Paul Lieberstein (1989), as well as others.

Notable faculty have included intellectuals and philosophers such as Leo Strauss; writers such as Natalie Babbitt, Alex Haley, and poet Howard Nemerov; composers such as Jay Reise; and diplomats and politicians such as Edward S. Walker, Jack F. Matlock, Jr., and Bernie Sanders.

External links

• Official website
• US News and World Report Guide Entry