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Some of the world's most inspired and provocative thinkers, writers, artists, business people, teachers, and leaders are gathered at the third annual Aspen Ideas Festival in Aspen, Colorado from July 2 to July 8. Hamilton’s William R. Kenan Professor of Government Cheng Li, one of the featured festival speakers in the global dynamics track, is joined by more than 250 other speakers who include President Bill Clinton, Madeleine Albright, David Gergen, Walter Isaacson, General Colin Powell, U.S. Senator Arlen Specter, U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings, Jim Lehrer and Karl Rove. Speakers are divided into four program tracks: global dynamics, arts and culture, American experience and media and community.

Hamilton's Director of Outdoor Leadership Andrew Jillings finished first in the single male kayak division and sixth overall in the 2007 Yukon River Quest, the world's longest annual canoe and kayak race. Based on results posted on the official race Web site last updated today at 3:45 EDT on Saturday, June 30, Jillings reached Dawson City behind one tandem kayak and four voyageur canoes, each with six to eight rowers. He had never participated in a kayak race before clinching the single male kayak title.

More than 150 nationally elected college professors and administrators are gathering on Hamilton's campus for the Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR) 29th annual business meeting. The event, which began on June 20 and ends on June 24, brings together representatives in the sciences and social sciences who work to foster research participation as a central part of effective undergraduate education. There are a record-breaking number of attendees at this year's meeting.

“My job is to take students out into places that are beyond their normal bounds. If I'm going to do this, I should be doing it myself," explains Hamilton Director of Outdoor Leadership Andrew Jillings about his decision to enter the ninth Yukon River Quest.  "The trips I take them on shouldn't be a stretch for me - that would be irresponsible. So I chose to go to the Yukon to feel the same 'stretch' that my students do, only for me, the stretch is necessarily longer,” The race is the longest annual canoe and kayak race in the world.

Hamilton’s Emerson Gallery will host two exhibitions this summer selected from the permanent collection. Opening Thursday, June 21, and continuing through Sunday, September 9, “Photographs by Silvia Saunders” and “The Beinecke Collection – Prints, Watercolors and Drawings of the Lesser Antilles” will be on display.

The life of 1st Lt. Michael Cleary, a graduate of the class of 2003 killed in Iraq, was remembered by his sister Erin Flanagan '91 on NBC's Today Show on Thursday, June 7. The Today Show interview came about following a question Flanagan posed during CNN's Republican presidential debate in New Hampshire on Tuesday, June 5. As a member of the audience, she asked U.S. Senator John McCain to explain his Iraq exit strategy. In posing her question, she talked about her brother and his death.

Cheng Li, William R. Kenan Professor of Government and Brookings Institution Fellow, gave a presentation on the leadership of China and the upcoming 17th Party Congress on June 6, in Washington D.C. at the board meeting of the U.S.-China Business Council. Attending members included Citibank CEO William Rhodes, New York Life International CEO Joseph Gilmour, former U.S. Trade Representative Carla Hill and William Cohen, former U.S. Secretary of Defense.

Associate Professor of Economics Paul Hagstrom was a participant in the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research’s Policy Forum, “Can Upstate Cities Save Themselves?,” held on Wednesday, June 6, in Albany. Hagstrom. a participant in a panel discussion with professors from Cornell and University of Buffalo and a senior economist from the Federal Reserve, has done extensive research on the economic impact of refugees in central New York. Other participants included the mayor of Rochester, the president of the Congress for the New Urbanism and the upstate chair of the Empire State Development Corp.

Former presidential candidate Tom Vilsack '72 and his wife Christie Vilsack K'72, the 2007 reunion keynote speakers, addressed a large and receptive audience in the college's Chapel on Friday, June 1. The couple described their journey in politics as a family and the processes and decisions involved in being considered for a spot as a vice presidential candidate and then in running as a presidential candidate. They are also the parents of two sons, Jess, a 2000 Hamilton graduate, and Douglas.

Speculating on America's obsession with movie box-office weekend returns, Hamilton anthropology professor Douglas Raybeck suggested that it is our means of diverting attention from threatening world events over which we have no control. In "Behind America's box-office obsession" in the Christian Science Monitor on Friday, June 1, Raybeck said "We display an increasing ability to take the trivial very seriously, in no small part because the trivial is understandable and non-threatening."