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Catherine Gunther Kodat, a professor of American Studies, has been researching George Balanchine and his influence as part of her larger project on Cold War culture. A former dance critic for The Baltimore Sun and Dance Magazine, Kodat says: Balanchine was the most important ballet choreographer of the 20th century (considering ballet as a distinct genre of dance), and certainly among the most important in Western dance generally. Influential not only for ballet choreographers, but for those working in modern dance as well; both Twyla Tharp and Mark Morris have acknowledged his influence on their own work.

Forty years ago on January 8, 1964, when President Lyndon Johnson declared his historic "war on poverty" nearly 50 million American were living in poverty. In his first State of the Union Address Johnson declared that his administration, "today, here and now, declares unconditional war on poverty in America."  He created a new Office of Economic Opportunity to coordinate social programs for the poor but when he left office in 1969 the war on poverty was far from won.

Hamilton College and Utica College have been jointly awarded a $46,000 three-year grant through the Center for Intergenerational Learning at Temple University to help older immigrants and refugees in the Mohawk Valley become more actively engaged in their community and pursue U.S. citizenship.

Cheng Li, the William R. Kenan Professor of Government, commented on China's foreign policies and domestic challenges for 2004 on BBC Radio World Service. The interview aired Wed., December 31.

Jay Williams, the Walcott-Bartlett Professor of Religious Studies, was quoted in a Westchester, N.Y. Journal News article about how Mount Nebo, home of the Rockland Cemetery, was named.  Originally owned by Eleazar Lord, a prominent Rockland resident and the first president of the New York and Erie Railroad, donated the land in 1847 for the cemetery.  Williams said, "With Lord's knowledge of Moses and his decision to designate a beautiful mountaintop site as a cemetery, the name Mount Nebo would have been highly symbolic for him.  Being buried on Mount Nebo would be 'like dying where Moses died.'"

Carlos Yordan, visiting assistant professor of government, was interviewed for an Associated Press article about the Serbian parliamentary elections. Slobodan Milosevic is among the four indicted war criminals running for parliament. Yordan said, "Many Serbs will vote for the radicals for the same reason that kept Milosevic in power for 10 years -- a sense of 'victimization,' the belief that the outside world does not understand Serbia, and a strong sense of national pride."

Peter Cannavo, assistant professor of government, published a letter-to-the-editor in The New York Times in response to the article, "Lost? Hiding? Your Cellphone Is Keeping Tabs."

Hamilton College President Joan Hinde Stewart has been elected to a three-year term on the National Merit Scholarship Corporation's board of directors.

Philip Klinkner, the James S. Sherman Associate Professor of Government, was interviewed for the Christian Science Monitor article "Swearing swearers and FCC's new rulebook. " Klinkner said, "There was a time when the airwaves were seen as a public trust, when stations were given bandwidth in exchange for a public service.  Now is the FCC going to yank Clear Channel's licenses? Absolutely not."

Philip Klinkner, the James S. Sherman Associate Professor of Government, was quoted in a Los Angeles Times article about presidential candidate Howard Dean's statements regarding the capture of Saddam Hussein.  Klinkner said the capture of Hussein, combined with the recent endorsement of Dean by former Vice President Al Gore, have broadened a "fault line" in the Democratic race.  "The danger for Democrats in painting Dean as a candidate of the left is that they are giving Republicans material to use against him, should he emerge as the party's nominee," Klinkner said.