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A year ago Professor of French John C. O'Neal learned he had been promoted from "chevalier" (or knight) to "officier" (officer) in the Ordre des Palmes Académiques (Order of Academic Palms), originally founded by Napoleon in 1808 to recognize meritorious achievements in teaching and research. On May 27, an awards ceremony was held at the French Embassy for Cultural Services in New York City to honor O'Neal and three others, each of whom received a medal from the French cultural counselor, Mme Kareen Rispal. In addition to some of O'Neal's family members and friends, several Hamilton community members were on hand for the event including John and Mary O'Neill, Ben and Laurie Madonia, John Lytle and Sarah Ziegler '05.

Village of Clinton Mayor Gill Goering and Town of Kirkland Supervisor Bob Meelan issued a joint proclamation celebrating the women's lacrosse team's national championship. The proclamation was read at the Town Board meeting on Wednesday, May 21, and printed in the following week's Clinton Courier.

Reciprocity, an exhibition featuring members of the studio art faculty paired with current students and recent graduates, will open in the Emerson Gallery on Thursday, June 5, and run through Sunday, August 10. In pairing faculty members and students with whom they have recently worked closely, Reciprocity celebrates the art department and the ways in which teachers and students influence and inspire one another.

A book by Professor of English Margaret Thickstun is applauded in a New Yorker magazine essay "Return to paradise, The enduring relevance of John Milton" by Jonathan Rosen (6/2/08). The essay, which celebrates the 400th anniversary of English poet John Milton's birth, examines the variety of books recently published to mark the occasion. In The New Yorker author Rosen writes, "My favorite of all the recent Milton books, Margaret Olofson Thickstun's Milton's Paradise Lost: Moral Education, points out how occupied with teaching and learning everyone—except Satan—is. (Milton's only real job, before his role as Secretary for Foreign Tongues, was as a teacher and tutor.)"

The winners of the Beverly S. and Eugene M. Tobin Employee Awards were announced at Hamilton's annual employee service recognition luncheon on May 19 at Soper Commons. Carpenter Foreperson Al Webster, Dean of Students Office Assistant Regina Johnson and Art Director Cathy Brown were honored as Tobin winners.  President Joan Hinde Stewart presented the awards following the recognition of employees who had achieved 10, 20 and 30 years of service to the College.   

The Hamilton College Chapter of Sigma Xi, the scientific research society,recently elected 20 students and two alumni to associate membership and three faculty colleagues to full membership. Honorees were initiated and celebrated at a dinner in the atrium of the Science Center. Nominators spoke briefly about their nominees, and everyone enjoyed a broad view of collaborative science. 

Eugene Domack, the J. W. Johnson Family Professor of Environmental Studies, presented an invited talk titled "Collapse of the Larsen Ice Shelf, Antarctica: Climate Forcing, Sediment Record, and Biotic Consequences" to the Geological Survey of Namibia in Windhoek, Namibia, on Tuesday, May 27.

An opinion piece written by Maynard-Knox Professor of Government and Law Frank Anechiarico '71 appeared in the Sunday, May 25, edition of Newsday. "Why strip a person's pension?" addressed the issue of whether or not a former New York schools superintendent who is serving prison time for stealing $2.2 million from the schools, should be receiving a pension from the state.

A seventh edition of The American Class Structure in an Age of Growing Inequality (Pine Forge Press) by Professor of Sociology Dennis Gilbert was published in January, 2008.  In the book Gilbert analyzes trends in income, wealth, earnings, occupation, housing, child rearing, social mobility and politics to reveal a consistent pattern of growing social inequality in the United States since the early 1970s. Why, Gilbert asks, is this happening? His answer rests on factors as varied as globalization and shifting patterns of American family life.

How to evaluate and choose that first job after college with integrity and vision was the focus of U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr.'s remarks to Hamilton College's class of 2008 at its commencement ceremony on Sunday, May 25. Paulson gave the address at Hamilton's 196th commencement, in the Margaret Bundy Scott Field House, where 442 students received bachelor's degrees.