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A View from College HillPerspectivesby President Joan Stewart One of the first pleasures of my return to campus at the end of a semester's research sabbatical in Durham, N.C., was riding in the Village of Clinton's annual Fourth of July parade. The weather was cool and breezy, and residents turned out in large numbers. We waved to them, and they to us from curbs, lawns and porches along our path. But when my husband called that evening to ask how the parade was, I had to say that I hadn't really seen it. I had seen the interior of the Hamilton flatbed truck in which I rode with several Hamilton students (one, from Scandinavia, was especially stirred by this American tradition) and the 8-year-old son of my chief of staff (who discussed with his mother the meaning of Independence Day). I had seen two Oneida County sheriffs who preceded us on horseback, and the Hamilton dean of faculty following us on his Vespa, handsomely bedecked for the occasion. But, except for a glimpse of the parade line when I got an angle on it as it rounded a corner, I had seen little of the scores of other floats, vehicles and marchers whose passage apparently delighted the onlookers. Perhaps the experience can be considered a metaphor. In the hustle and bustle of administration and management, one can lose sight of the broader scene, or perceive it mainly from a succession of discrete angles. In a sense, it was easier to grasp all that Hamilton is and does, and to understand all that it must be and do, by stepping back a bit. My six months away afforded me a view of College Hill that intersects with and sharpens my usual view from College Hill. My sabbatical agenda had to do principally with advancing my research on 18th-century France. But our 21st-century College was never far from my thoughts. My inquiries into how and why people read and wrote in the 18th century reminded me often of the reasons for our emphasis on oral and written communication, and every word I read in the national and higher education press was for me implicitly linked to Hamilton. Changes that higher education faces include not only a dramatically more difficult economic environment, but also demographic changes and changes in the ways people communicate and construct relationships. Our College is well situated to respond to a changing world. Her people are dedicated, hardworking and sagacious. From Durham, I followed the difficult budget deliberations and the opportunity analyses carried out by our outstanding senior staff and Board of Trustees. I savored the accomplishments of our students (nine national fellowships and scholarships, one NCAA Outdoor Track Athlete of the Year and an All-American Scholar). And I admired the successes of our admission team (indicators of academic quality for the Class of 2013 — our most diverse ever — are at a record high) and development team (during a two-week period this spring, we received two $1 million gifts for financial aid). Watching it all from a distance gave me a strong sense of the wholeness of the College, of the way financial aid, scholarship, academic rigor, information technology, athletics and philanthropy fit together to ensure our accessibility, affordability and the undiminished relevance of select higher education to 21st-century citizenship. During my semester away, I made several trips on behalf of the College and traveled to the Hill a few times, most notably for Commencement. Never did I see more clearly how and why she is loved by all of us who become a part of her, and never did I appreciate better her stately and ceremonial beauty and warmth. I write this from my office in Buttrick, as we prepare to welcome the Hamilton Class of 2013. I am proud of what we have already done, more appreciative than ever of all I have seen — and determined that we will energetically engage the changes in the world we serve. It was instructive and gratifying to be an onlooker from the South for a few months, appreciating, assessing and analyzing, but it's good to be back in the parade. |
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