In some ways, teaching excellence is being continually redefined
at Hamilton, but the broad liberal arts ideal — the conviction that
teaching is less the conveyance of a specific body of knowledge than it is the modeling of intellectual activity and behavior — can be traced to the College's first moments. On Dec. 3, 1812, Azel Backus, Hamilton's first president, made a declaration in his Inaugural Discourse that would not be out of place today:
Let it never be imagined then that the sole object of education is to make youth acquainted with languages, sciences and arts…. An attention to order and the early formation of habits of industry and investigation, I venture to assert, are of more importance than mere knowledge.
One hundred and twenty-six years later, another Hamilton president, William Harold Cowley, used his own 1938 inaugural address and a subsequent article in The Journal of Higher Education to trace a long educational and cultural struggle between the forces of "intellectualism" and "holoism." The former philosophy, he charged, decreed that "education is intellectual training alone." It bred student alienation and academic tunnel vision. The latter philosophy — Cowley's and Hamilton's — held that "the purpose of the college is the training of the whole student," including but not limited to "intellectual excellence." Cowley's was an eloquent defense of the liberal arts tradition at the residential college, deeply dependent on faculty members who were "not only thorough scholars in their specialties" but also were "broadly educated" and
"highly skilled teachers."
Even Cowley conceded that this balance was a demanding ideal,
however, and the exponential growth of knowledge and subdivision of disciplines in the 70 years since has done little to make the liberal arts faculty's mission any easier. Jean D'Costa, the Leavenworth Professor of English emerita who retired in 1998 after nearly two decades on the Hill, says a key moment of transition came in the early 1980s, when pressure increased on faculty members to publish more regularly and new teachers were hired in part on that basis. "It was part of a great academic sea change," D'Costa says. "But it was much more noticeable at small colleges such as Hamilton."
A further impetus for change came at about the same time, with the 1978 merger of Hamilton and Kirkland College, which had in its decade of existence pioneered a number of academic trends—sometimes in conjunction with Hamilton, sometimes on its own—that are now considered crucial to Hamilton's academic identity: small, informal, discussion-based classes; an across-the-curriculum approach to writing; a focus on interdisciplinary coursework; and a strong, interactive student-teacher bond.
"There is no question that the Hamilton of today is a marvelous
meld of the Kirkland and Hamilton that I knew in the mid-'70s,"
Charter Trustee Susan Skerritt K'77 told students and faculty at last
spring's Class & Charter Day. "… If the two colleges had not merged, Hamilton would not be as strong an institution as it is now."
Today, Hamilton faculty members are accomplished teachers
who also are asked to do substantial research and scholarship. "There is a balance between teaching and scholarship," D'Costa says, "and I think on the whole that Hamilton has managed to find a balance point." The classroom part of the equation remains clear: "Teaching at Hamilton is the sine qua non," Yao says. "You can't not be a good teacher here." And Leslie North, the coordinator of health professions advising and the Summer Science Research Program, tells prospective students that there are "three good reasons to come to Hamilton: the faculty, the faculty, the faculty."
The research component of the job can be more problematic. It's
crucial for professional advancement and tenure, so many professors reserve one day a week for their own work; others devote summers to it. One best-of-both-worlds approach is to tackle projects that can be incorporated into one's teaching. "It is a win-win scenario for me and students," says Julio Videras, assistant professor of economics, "because I am better able to communicate my enthusiasm if I am teaching material that I find exciting." Sally Cockburn, associate professor of mathematics, agrees. "One summer I mentored a student in mathematical philosophy," she recalls. "We looked at the question of why math works so well in the real world when it was devised in our heads…. I learned an awful lot about the subject,my student learned an awful lot about the subject, and I'm incorporating all that I learned into my seminar for next fall."
On the other hand, Cockburn and others point out that in many
disciplines, even the top undergraduates don't yet have the training to take part in peer-reviewed research. "The ideal at a place like this is doing research work with students that leads to joint faculty-student publication," says Associate Professor John Bartle, chair of the Department of German and Russian Languages and Literatures, who also directs the Russian Studies Program and the English for Speakers of Other Languages Program. "Of course, there are more opportunities to do that in some fields than in others. Perhaps we in the humanities should be a little more creative in doing that, but it is a challenge."
Ultimately, most professors make a virtue of necessity when it comes to striking a professional balance. "Your research helps your teaching, but we all know that if you're going to have to grade papers, you're not going to read that latest article or revise that latest draft of the article that you're writing," says Doug Ambrose, associate professor of history. "And that's what you have to do."
It's a worthwhile trade, most say, because the resources, the learning environment and the institutional support on the Hill continue to embody the best of the liberal arts tradition. "What is clear about Hamilton as an institution,"Videras says, "is that it relies on the extraordinary commitment and loyalty of alumni and employees. This commitment and loyalty create a great and sobering sense of responsibility to the institution that motivates everyone to do well, to do better."
