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After years of overlooking notable black performances, the Academy Awards finally seem to have given black performers the credit they deserve. For the first time since 1972, blacks earned three nominations in the lead acting categories: best actor nominations for Denzel Washington in "Training Day," Will Smith in "Ali," and a best actress nomination for Halle Berry in "Monster's Ball." These nominations represent a welcome change, to be sure, but the Academy Awards still have a long way to go before breaking the color line. This year's nominations, alas, continued Oscar's tradition of ghettoizing black performers in stereotyped roles.

Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, the highest ranking woman in the history of U.S. government, met with about 50 Hamilton students prior to her public lecture March 6 and gave her views on U.S. foreign policy and hot spots around the world.

More than 250 people, including College President Eugene M. Tobin and many members of the Board of Trustees, participated in the fourth annual Alternative Spring Break Auction Friday evening, March 1, in Commons Dining Hall.

The Hamilton College Board of Trustees unanimously elected real estate entrepreneur Stuart L. Scott of Chicago, Ill., as its next chairman and investor Chester A. Siuda of New Vernon, N.J., as its next vice chairman.

In "Recalling Timbuctoo, A Slice of Black History, The New York Times highlights a plan by Gerrit Smith, an 1818 Hamilton graduate and a wealthy landowner at the time, to give away land to black families so that blacks could "acquire the means to vote."

Comedian, actor and activist Henry Holden will offer a free public lecture on Tuesday, Feb. 26, at 8 p.m. in the Hamilton College Chapel. Holden, who contracted polio at age four and walks with the aid of crutches, will discuss "The Misconceptions Continue: How the Media Represent People with Disabilities."

Hamilton Professor of Government Cheng Li is one of this nation’s foremost experts on China, especially Chinese leadership. The author of China’s Leaders: The New Generation, Li is frequently called on by U.S. government officials and media representatives to offer an informed perspective on who will succeed Jiang Zemin later this year at the 16th Communist Party Congress. When he gets to China, President Bush is expected to meet with Hu Jintao, the person Professor Li says is the frontrunner to succeed Jiang.

The New York Times, in its Feb. 15 edition, featured two new Florida law schools set to open this fall. Both schools, according to the Times article, were established "at universities with high minority enrollments, in an effort to bring more blacks and Hispanics into legal careers without using affirmative action."

When U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and the United Nations received the Nobel Peace Prize on December 10th in Oslo, Hamilton recalled one of its own. Elihu Root, a member of the Class of 1864, received the prestigious honor in 1912. Root served his country as Secretary of War, Secretary of State and U.S. Senator and was for decades a leading figure in American public life. His family was long associated with the College, for both his father, Oren "Cube" Root, and his older brother, Oren "Square" Root, had taught mathematics at Hamilton during the 19th century. Elihu was born on the Hamilton campus in Buttrick Hall, which now houses the President’s Office, and he grew up in the family homestead (now the Anderson-Connell Alumni Center). In later life, he spent considerable time at his summer home, which now houses the Admission Office and is on the National Register of Historic Places. As chair of the Hamilton Board of Trustees for several decades until his death in 1937 at age 92, he looked after the welfare of the College with singular devotion.

Hamilton, behind the running of Chris Weeden '02, won its final football game of the season, 22-13, over Bates. In women's cross country, Maggie Hanson '02 won the NCAA regional qualifier and Jen Cammarano '03 finished third, leading Hamilton to a second place finish in the regional meet and an automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Championship Saturday in Illinois. Visit http://www.eliteracingsystems.com/ncaa_xc/2001_ncaa.html for complete results.