President Wippman’s Writings & Remarks

With great sadness and a heavy heart, I write to inform you that Life Trustee Elizabeth McCormack died this morning. She lived 98 full and influential years and was most recently on campus in March for the quarterly meeting of the Board of Trustees.

I am writing with the sad news that Life Trustee Drew Days ’63 died Sunday at the age of 79. Drew was one of Hamilton’s most accomplished public servants. He was a prominent civil rights attorney who became U.S. solicitor general in the Clinton Administration and is one of the alumni for whom the Days-Massolo Center is named.

Like many of you, I spent much of last night anxiously watching the election returns. This has been the most contentious election in my lifetime, and it has exposed deep rifts in American society. The anxiety we have felt in the weeks and months leading up to election day is compounded by the uncertainty we now face as we wait for the final outcome. I sympathize with the dismay and apprehension many in our community are experiencing.

With Thanksgiving just a month away, I wanted to share with you our plans for the spring. Our experience with in-person instruction thus far proves that, despite the pandemic, we can bring our community together safely and accomplish our educational goals, while enjoying on-campus activities and each other’s company. Our success owes much to your cooperation with our health and safety protocols, and I appreciate the flexibility and resiliency you have shown.

I want to thank all of you for the extraordinary work you have done to reopen Hamilton in August and to keep the College operating safely and effectively this fall.

I am writing to make you aware of several disturbing events that took place early Sunday morning. A large group of students gathered at the Babbitt Pavilion and on Minor Field, putting at risk the health and safety of everyone in the Hamilton community, and then ran away when confronted by three Campus Safety officers. Even more troubling, one or more students chose to throw a full beer can and a bottle at the responding officers. We are reviewing body cam footage in an effort to identify those responsible. There is no excuse for violence directed at any member of our community, and it will not be tolerated. Please contact Campus Safety if you have any information that can assist in investigating these incidents.

This week, Oct. 5-9, is National Voter Education Week, so it seems an appropriate time to send a reminder about the importance of voting.

I am writing to provide the campus with a summary of the quarterly Board of Trustees meeting that was held over Zoom on Friday, Oct. 2. The meeting was shorter than usual because of the Zoom format.

The presidents of the New York Six Liberal Arts Consortium member institutions have issued a statement opposing the changes to visa regulations for international students and visiting scholars which have been proposed by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The proposed regulations would end the practice of issuing visas for the duration of a student’s academic studies or a scholar’s academic appointment and institute a fixed-term visa.

Since students returned to campus for the fall semester, we have had two deplorable incidents of hateful slurs shouted from cars by non-Hamilton community members passing through our campus. These incidents were reported to Campus Safety and the local police, and in both instances, suspects were quickly identified and investigations are underway.