President Wippman’s Writings & Remarks

Since my statement on May 30, I have heard your reactions to recent community posts. I have also heard your demands for the College to do more. I want to express my deep regret for the pain inflicted on an already hurting community. My initial communication and the two posts did not state unequivocally that Black Lives Matter, contained language many found insufficient or confusing and, most importantly, did not identify any action steps. I know that Hamilton must do better – and we will.

In recent days, I have watched with grief and dismay the news from my hometown, Minneapolis. Despite its progressive history and the civil rights advocacy of leaders like former vice presidents Hubert Humphrey and Walter Mondale, Minneapolis has continued to be plagued by racism and police violence. The video of George Floyd’s death is shocking, but, alas, also unsurprising, given the country’s failure to address systemic racism and inequality.

On Sunday, we will celebrate our seniors’ successful completion of their Hamilton education. We take great pride in their accomplishments and in the strength and resilience they and all members of our community have shown in managing the challenges of a semester unlike any other.

Yesterday, the U.S. Department of Education issued updated Title IX regulations, set to take effect on August 14, 2020. The regulations and accompanying Department guidance are lengthy — over 2,000 pages — and will require careful review. Hamilton remains committed to ensuring that Title IX complaints are handled as fairly, sensitively, and expeditiously as possible.

For more than two centuries, Hamilton’s Commencement has been one of the most meaningful and significant traditions in the life of our College. Despite the extraordinary circumstances in which we find ourselves, that longstanding ritual will continue. I am writing on behalf of the Board of Trustees, our esteemed faculty, and the valued members of our staff to invite you and members of your family to join us online on Sunday, May 24, at 10:30 a.m. ET to celebrate your graduation from Hamilton College.

We have entered a new phase in our response to the COVID-19 pandemic. For the past six weeks, most of our efforts have centered on responding to the emergency immediately before us. With all the energy, talent, and dedication we have come to expect from our community, we shuttered our campus, moved to remote instruction, shifted our student support services and engagement activities online, reinvented our admission and fundraising processes, and answered countless queries from all corners of our community.

As the weather warms and the semester nears its end, all of us are starting to feel keenly the constraints of life in the shadow of a pandemic. Many of you have written to ask whether we can resume on-campus instruction this fall. The short answer is that it is too soon to know.

A little over a month ago, I announced that we would transition to remote instruction. I am grateful to all of you for the speed, skill, and care with which you have adapted to this extraordinary shift in our work. Four primary goals have guided our response over these past few weeks: protect the health and safety of our employees and the students who remain on campus; prepare and deliver remote instruction to enable seniors to graduate on time and all other students to make appropriate progress toward their degree; preserve our facilities and grounds; and bring in next-year’s first-year class.

In her message to the faculty on Monday, Suzanne Keen noted that we are all in the same boat, or in any event, the same flotilla, rowing for shore together. Seldom have we rowed harder — or better. In just a few weeks, we have helped students return home, sometimes under the most challenging of circumstances; adapted courses designed for small, face-to-face classes to the unfamiliar world of remote instruction; ramped up technology support; cared for the students who remain on campus; reinvented how we recruit new students; found new ways to stay engaged with our alumni; and sorted out how to maintain our facilities and grounds with just a handful of staff working on campus. We have done all that, and more, and we have done it with the dedication, creativity, and single-minded focus on the welfare of our students that make Hamilton such a special place. For that, all of you have my deepest appreciation.

Today the College was informed that an employee has tested positive for COVID-19. We are working with the Oneida County Health Department per its guidelines to trace the individual’s contacts with any faculty, staff, or students. Fortunately, those contacts were very limited, and we have already reached out directly to anyone who falls into the close contact category. In addition, Facilities Management, guided by OSHA standards, has been conducting enhanced cleaning protocols in all facilities that could be affected, and will continue to follow those standards.