Aspirational Design

The College is in the implementation phase of the Aspirational Design process that started in 2025.

Over the course of the 2025-26 academic year, the Hamilton College community took on an ambitious challenge: designing Hamilton's future. Through a College-wide planning effort called Aspirational Design, faculty, staff, students, alumni, and trustees considered what a Hamilton education should look like in the decades ahead.

The result? Specific ideas and initiatives: Co-Labs. Impact Terms. Summer Fellowships. A reimagined residential and social campus. An athletics program that lives up to its own values. A clearer articulation of who we are and what we stand for.

During this academic year, seven implementation groups will be turning these aspirations into a practical, credible, and well-designed reality. We thank the more than 90 faculty, staff, students, and trustees who have agreed to do that work, and the hundreds of participants who helped us get to where we are today.

Strategic Vision Statement

As one of the nation’s oldest colleges, Hamilton will secure its place among the very best liberal arts colleges in the decades ahead. We will make Hamilton accessible to every student with the desire and ability to attend, regardless of means. We will renew the Hill itself, the residence halls, the shared tables, and the fields and rinks where lifelong bonds and connections begin. And we will bring the open curriculum to the world, extending the curricular freedom students already have into work with partners well beyond the classroom, so every Hamiltonian leaves prepared for everything and ready to put ideas to work.

Our Strategic Priorities

Grow the endowment so that Hamilton is a top ten liberal arts college in terms of endowment per student.
Maintain need-blind and grow financial aid to position Hamilton as a national leader in access and affordability alongside the top tier of liberal arts colleges.
Invest in signature residential experiences that compliment Hamilton’s diverse and human-scale approach to housing.
Meaningfully expand the social, dining, and informal gathering spaces available at the heart of campus.
Become a national leader through innovation in collaborative learning and experiential education by ensuring every student has the opportunity to apply their learning beyond the classroom.

Implementation Groups

This working group will examine the residential experience, student community, and the reimagination of our student village — with the goal of producing recommendations that strengthen the living and learning, and social environment for all Hamilton students.

Co-Chairs
Jose Ceniceros, Associate Professor of Mathematics
Mike Klapmeyer, Associate Vice President for Facilities and Planning

Committee Members
Adam Van Wynsberghe, Associate Professor of Chemistry
Andrea Jivanny Hernandez Ramirez ’27
Ariel Adams, Director of Student Activities
Tessa Chefalo, Assistant Dean of Students for Student Engagement
Emily Harrison, Assistant Professor of Theatre
Travis Hill, Dean of Campus Life
Stu Ingis ’93
Liz Keogh ’94
Jen Mendiola, Executive Director of Alumni and Parent Engagement, Events & Promotions
Deidre Pierson, Associate Athletic Director
Ashley Place, Assistant Dean of Students for Community Living
Barry Rivet, Director of Planning & Project Management, ex officio
Lindsay Rotolo ’97
Alex Sacerdote ’94
Bill Schmoker ’89

Hamilton’s student-athletes and coaches are among our most committed community members. This working group will conduct a comprehensive, community-driven examination of our athletics program — honest about where we are, visionary about where we can go, and grounded in the values that define a Hamilton education.

Co-Labs give institutional form to Hamilton's conviction that learning happens across boundaries — linking courses, disciplines, and real-world experiences in coherent clusters. This working group will ensure we get this curricular innovation right, shaping how Hamilton students learn and grow for years to come.

Co-Chairs
Aaron Strong, Director and Associate Professor of Environmental Studies
Chris Willemsen, Administrative Director, Levitt Center

Committee Members
Tracy Adler, the Johnson-Pote Director of the Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art
Rachael Clark, Programming Coordinator, Levitt Center
Peter Coffin ’81, P’14
Kathy Corsi ’82, P’23
Anna Huff, Associate Professor of Digital Arts
Amy James, Director of Community Outreach
Koboul Mansour, Director of the Days-Massolo Multicultural Center
John Nannas, Executive Director of Advancement Information Services and Business Intelligence
Natalie Nannas, Associate Dan of Faculty
Augustus Nappellio ’29
Heather Sullivan, Associate Professor of Government

There are things a student can only learn by leaving the classroom. Impact Terms are two- to three-week intensive experiences, faculty-led and immersive, offered outside the traditional semester and syllabus. This working group will develop the framework to make them a defining feature of a Hamilton education.

Co-Chairs
Ashley Place, Assistant Dean of Students for Community Living
Cat Beck, Associate Professor of Geosciences

Committee Members
Kinho Chan, Dean of Engaged Education
Justin Clark, Associate Professor of Philosophy
Peter Coffin ’81, P’14
Kathy Corsi ’82, P’23
Madeleine La Cotera, Director of Global Learning
Ashley Gorham, Assistant Professor of Government
Kyle Keogh ’94
Melissa Marietta, Executive Director of the Maurice Horowitch Career Center
Lisa McFall, Director of Digital Initiatives, Scholarship, and Collaboration
Sara Rizzo, Senior Philanthropic Officer
Sarah Skoy, Associate Director of Outdoor Leadership

Summer Fellowships are structured experiential placements in which students spend six to ten weeks working within a partner organization — not a traditional internship, but an institutional partnership with shared responsibility for educational integrity. This working group will study current pilots and determine what it would take to bring this program to scale.

Co-Chairs
Joe Shelley, Vice President for Innovation and Information Services
Nathan Goodale, the William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of Anthropology

Committee Members
Rachael Clark, Programming Coordinator, Levitt Center
Peter Coffin ’81, P’14
Kathy Corsi ’82, P’23
Heather Hage ’02
Lisa McFall, Director of Digital Initiatives, Scholarship, and Collaboration
Noelle Niznik, Director of ALEX Advising
Bonike Odegbami, Director of International Student Services
Alex Plakias, Chair and Associate Professor of Philosophy
Tanith Sherman, Associate Director of Housing and Conduct
Abby Taylor, Director of Employer Engagement
Michael Welsh, Associate Professor of Chemistry
Victoria Vargulick, Director of Career Development

Hamilton stands at a significant threshold as we prepare for our next capital campaign. This working group will work with the College communications and marketing team to review research results and contribute input to the updated articulation of Hamilton's story — what we are, what we stand for, and what we're reaching toward — ensuring we are telling it as well as it deserves.

Co-Chairs
Alex List, Associate Professor of Psychology
Marisa Benincasa, Vice President for Communications and Marketing

Committee Members
Rich Bernstein ’80
Jake Browne, Executive Director of Admission
Brianna Burke, Visiting Associate Professor of Environmental Studies
Tina Hall, Associate Dean of Faculty
Stacey Himmelberger, Senior Director of Content Strategy
Edvige Jean-Francoise ’90
Colleen Preuninger, Dean of Spiritual and Religious Life
Kevin Waldron, Director of Visual Communications

Aspirational Design surfaced great ideas for Hamilton: Co-Labs, Impact Terms, Summer Fellowships, enhancements to residential life and athletics, and the reimagination of our social campus. To reach our goals, each will be a serious undertaking requiring us to prioritize and make important choices. Some of what these initiatives need will call for new investment. Much of it will call for reallocating time, attention, and staffing away from work we do today. This working group will help us tell the difference: to understand where current workloads leave room for new commitments and where they do not, what capacity must be built, and what may need to be paused, consolidated, or done differently so that what we take on can be done with integrity.

Co-Chairs
Heather Martinez, Associate Vice President for Finance and Controller
Russell Marcus, the Christian A. Johnson Excellence in Teaching Professor of Philosophy

Committee Members
Kimberly Butler, Associate Vice President for Development
Ryan Carter, Associate Professor of Music
Nicolas de la Riva, Associate Dean for Academic Finance and Resources
Andrea Townsend, Chair and Associate Professor of Biology
Heather Kropp, Associate Professor of Environmental Studies
Jeff Landry, Associate Vice President for Student Affairs
Sharon Madison ’84
Deidre Pierson, Associate Director of Athletics
Zack Schuman, Assistant Director of Community-based Learning
Wei Zhan, Associate Professor of Economics