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Two former EPA administrators visited College Hill to explore the everyday complexities and impacts of transitioning to renewable energy in this semester’s fourth Common Ground discussion on Nov. 6.

National and regional news organizations regularly interview Hamilton faculty, staff, alumni, and students for their expertise and perspectives on current events, and to feature programs and activities on campus. October’s news highlights ranged from coverage of the role of luck in career success to the interrelationship between art and science.

With their words reverberating through the eaves of the Chapel, the panelists of the semester’s third Common Ground discussion earnestly discussed the realities, complexities, and politics of the clean energy transition in the United States.

In the second installment of Hamilton’s 2023-24 Common Ground series, moderator Michael J. Grygiel ’79, P’23 united legal experts Eric Olson, Hila Keren, and Dale Carpenter for a discussion on the intersection of free speech and LGBTQ+ rights.

Student sightings of Secret Service agents in academic buildings raised excitement across campus and heralded the arrival of this year’s inaugural Common Ground event, as Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack ’72 was one of the featured speakers.

Hamilton alumnus and U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack ’72 and Rep. G.T. Thompson, chairman of the House Committee on Agriculture, will kick off Hamilton’s 2023-24 Common Ground series with a discussion about bipartisanship, agriculture, and climate. The event will take place on Tuesday, Sept. 5, at 7 p.m. in Wellin Hall. Edvige Jean-François ’90, a media consultant and award-winning journalist, will moderate.

This collaboration will connect Hamilton’s Common Ground program and Bipartisan Policy Center’s (BPC) University Partnership Program to encourage civil discourse and bring bipartisanship outside the beltway through robust intellectual exchange. Hamilton is the first liberal arts college to partner with BPC.

As algorithms and online platforms come to define our daily lives, how do we navigate the social responsibilities of platforms and our own online freedoms?  These were questions addressed at the Common Ground panel on March 27. Guest speakers were Shoshana Weissmann, the digital director of the think tank R Street, and David Brody, the managing attorney of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law’s Digital Justice Initiative. Professor of Government Robert Martin moderated the conversation.

“What Does Freedom Mean in Online Speech?,” Hamilton’s next Common Ground presentation, will take place on Monday, March 27, at 7 p.m. in the Fillius Events Barn. The program, which is free and open to the public, features two experts who will examine the issue of online speech from different perspectives.

The Common Ground series returned to Hamilton on February 22 with panelists discussing the question, "Who should set the rules regarding privacy and data? "