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“Today marks the official start of Hamilton’s 205th year, but it also marks the start of your first year—and mine,” proclaimed President David Wippman in his remarks at the College’s Convocation ceremony on Wednesday, Aug. 24. Interim Dean of Faculty Margaret Gentry also spoke and welcomed new students and faculty.

A revamped SAT, a new college-application platform, financial aid, endowment spending and issues related to recruitment and retention were among the topics addressed during a recent media roundtable attended by Vice President of Admission and Financial Aid Monica Inzer.  One of the immediate results of the session was an article that appeared on Aug. 3 on The Atlantic site titled “The Pitfalls of Free Tuition” in which Inzer was quoted extensively.

Director of Opportunity Programs and Interim Director of Diversity and Inclusion Phyllis Breland ’80 presented a webinar titled “Routine for Learning” on July 15. The presentation was part of the NYGEAR UP summer webinar series presented by The Commission on Independent Colleges and Universities (CICU) in New York.

Symbols in the Wilderness: Early Masonic Survivals in Upstate New York, co-authored by Director of Special Collections Christian Goodwillie, began with a chance glance at a building as he drove to Cooperstown, N.Y. Intrigued by the structure, Western Star Lodge and now the Bridgewater Masonic Lodge, he became even more interested in the art work it once housed. Thus Goodwillie’s exploration of Masonic symbols – expressed in paintings, murals, textiles and graphics – began.  

A spring meeting with Everson Hull, St. Kitts and Nevis’ Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the Organization of American States, and Hamilton students planning a service trip to Nevis resulted in yet another meeting and alliance between Alexander Hamilton’s birthplace and the college. During the March visit Hull met with Christian Goodwillie, director and curator of Special Collections and Archives, to review documents from Hamilton’s Beinecke Lesser Antilles Collection related to Nevis.

In celebration of the 50th reunion of Hamilton’s Class of 1966, student library and information technology research fellows have worked with the college’s research & instructional design team to create a personalized multimedia yearbook containing oral histories, a timeline of archival materials, a music playlist generator and other features for the Class of 1966. For those class members who have not yet participated in the digital yearbook program, there will be a booth on the first floor of the library Friday afternoon in which they can make a recording.

Tracy Adler, director of the Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art, led an interview with photographer and artist Paul Clemence at the opening of Architecture Biennale 2016 in Venice, Italy, on May 28. She and Clemence were also members of a panel on “Living Timeline: Experience Creators in Art & Architecture.”

With a well-known commencement speaker who holds controversial views, Hamilton may have anticipated a bit more national media attention to the event than in past years. What was not expected was additional focus on the dean of faculty.

Christian Goodwillie, director and curator of Special Collections and Archives in Burke Library, recently published “Baseball, Beards, Bands, and the Babes: Michigan’s House of David Religious Community” in Ephemera Journal, the quarterly publication of the Ephemera Society of America.

President Joan Stewart opened Hamilton’s 32nd employee service recognition luncheon on May 16 in Commons Dining Hall with a word of thanks to all employees. “It’s you who make this Hamilton...I can’t thank you enough.”