In the last month, several national media outlets – including National Public Radio, National Journal and Inside Higher Ed – have included comments from Hamilton experts in various news stories related to corruption, politics and academe.
In an NPR broadcast intriguingly titled “New Yorkers May Soon Be Able To Buy Kickbacks ... As Souvenirs,” Frank Anechiarico ’71, the Maynard-Knox Professor of Government and Law, discussed the Museum of Political Corruption, an institution “dedicated to the state's scandalous past.” A member of the provisionally chartered museum’s board, Anechiarico expressed hope that the museum would appeal to young visitors. He observed, "When you grow up in this country you start paying taxes. And those taxes are supposed to be used to benefit you in particular ways. And here's how those taxes become actual government services. And here's what can go wrong. And here's what we need to watch out for as citizens." The broadcast was heard on NPR’s All Things Considered program on public radio stations around the country.
National Journal reporter Jack Fitzpatrick explored a possible primary race between Congressman Richard Hanna (R-NY) and GOP State Assemblywoman Claudia Tenney in an article titled “Top Tea Party Target: New York” on Nov. 20. Analyzing the possible contest, Philip Klinkner, the James S. Sherman Professor of Government, said that it would be unlikely that Hanna would have the same kind of financial advantage he had in his last match against Tenney. He ventured that the Democrats would benefit from the possible matchup.
nside Higher Ed addressed Hamilton’s merging of Information Technology Services with the library into a single department in a Dec. 4 article titled “Library Bound.” “With the impact of new technologies on the production and retrieval of knowledge, such a merger seems to me the way of the future,” wrote President Joan Hinde Stewart in an email subsequent to an earlier meeting with the publication’s co-editor. “At Hamilton it was the result of extensive conversation and careful planning.”
According to Vice President for Libraries and Information Technology David Smallen, the new department’s mission is to teach students how to use information and technology to make well-informed decisions later in life – preparing them “for the world in which they’re going to live.” He observed that the new department is also better positioned to support Hamilton’s growing Digital Humanities initiative and its consortium with three other liberal arts colleges to experiment with online education, among other projects that require both library and technology expertise.
“If you merge the organizations, you should do it for strategic purposes, not to save money or just for efficiency,” Smallen commented. Hamilton wasn’t trying to fix an “organizational problem” with the merger, he said, but to find the best way to support the college’s academic programs “in a world in which information and technology are changing in many different ways.”
