News

Leaping up to, catapulting over and exploding through records, the Feb. 29 #LeapForHamilton challenge was a monumentally successful fundraising effort with the support of alumni, students, parents, friends and employees. The challenge, to reach 1,812 gifts, was met at 5:23 p.m., but enthusiasm and generosity continued to mount. By day’s end, 2,868 gifts totaled $900,313, representing 158 percent of the original 1,812 donor goal. This marks a single-day giving record by a factor of more than four and exceeds the total number of gifts in any single month in Hamilton’s history.

In celebration of Leap Day, the college is asking all alumni, friends, parents, staff and students to “take the leap” for Hamilton and support teaching and learning on College Hill. Trustee Aron Ain ’79, P’09,’11 has generously pledged a $100 match to every gift – regardless of size - contributed today as part of the #LeapForHamilton effort. The College hopes to generate 1,812 gifts, the number corresponding with the date of its founding. In its Quick Takes section, InsideHigherEd noted the challenge and presented the college's Leap Day video.

In God's House: The Religious Landscape of Utica, NY, a documentary film by Assistant Professor of Art Robert Knight, was screened on Feb. 22 at Elizabethtown College in Elizabethtown, Pa. While visiting the college, Knight also led classroom discussions about his larger project examining the sustainability of religious communities in Central New York.

Jazz critic, author and broadcast journalist Greg Thomas ’85 returned to campus on Feb. 18 to present  “Albert Murray and the Blues Idiom Worldview.” The event was in celebration of Black History Month and the 100th birthday of author and jazz critic Albert Murray.

Greg Thomas ’85,  principal at G&J Productions, will present a lecture titled “Albert Murray and the Blues Idiom Worldview” on Thursday, Feb. 18, at 4:15 p.m., in the Red Pit, KJ. The lecture is sponsored by the Fillius Jazz Archive and is free and open to the public.

The cover of the Feb. 29 issue of Forbes magazine features a photograph of Legendary CEO, alumnus Thomas Tull ’92, with the headline “Reinventing the Blockbuster,” referencing the publication’s feature article. “Box Office Billionaire: How Legendary’s Thomas Tull Used Comics, China and a Secret Formula to Remake Hollywood” details Tull’s intricate negotiation of his impending sale of Legendary Entertainment.

Professor of Psychology Jen Borton and Katherine Delesalle ’14 presented a poster on Jan. 30 at the annual conference of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP) in San Diego.

Hamilton’s Opportunity Programs staff and students traveled to Albany, N.Y., on Feb. 2  to meet with legislative representatives as part of New York Student Aid Alliance Advocacy Day.  According to CICU, organizer of the event, “…. Advocacy Day is an opportunity... to come together to show support for student aid funding and higher education.”

Ticket information for Great Names speaker American astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson is available now on the Great Names website.

Emmy Award-winning ESPN producer Bryan Jaroch ’97 stopped by his alma mater on his way to up to Syracuse to cover the Jan. 28 Syracuse University vs. Notre Dame basketball game. In a talk hosted by the Career and Life Outcomes Center and Hamilton’s New York Film & Television Student Alliance, Jaroch described his journey from the Hill to ESPN studios, and gave advice to students interested in pursuing similar careers.