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Hamilton students are now pursuing their studies on all seven continents. On Oct. 10, Chief Scientist Eugene Domack, the J. W. Johnson Family Professorship of Environmental Studies, began an 18-day cruise to Antarctica along with two Hamilton students and two alumni. Students are writing blog updates about their trip each day.

Using examples from today’s political landscape, Professor of Government P. Gary Wyckoff examined elements of critical thinking in an essay titled “What Exactly Is Critical Thinking,” published by InsideHigherEd in its Oct. 11 edition. “As I prepared for the start of classes this fall, I tried to pinpoint the critical thinking skills I really want my students to learn,” wrote Wyckoff.  “And as I listened to public debates on everything from tax policy to Obamacare, five essential thinking skills seemed to be missing, again and again.”

In a Religious Dispatches essay, “‘Cult’ Cinema Comes of Age,” Visiting Associate Professor of Religious Studies S. Brent Plate examined recent films that focus on cults including The Master, the latest in the group. In the Oct. 7 article, Plate described The Master as “emblematic of a new, more nuanced treatment of cults in the movies,” and “more or less … the story of L. Ron Hubbard and the birth of Scientology.”

Tonight Hamilton students will participate with students from six universities across the country in a live, pilot polling project during the presidential debate. Via a new smart phone application, more than a hundred students will be able to “register their in-the-moment reactions to what candidates are saying during a debate, using button taps (e.g. Agree and Disagree), and answering pre- and post-debate survey questions (e.g. partisanship, issue priorities, demographics),” according to the developer’s website.

Director Tracy Adler and her staff are in the process of putting the finishing touches on The Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art in preparation for the official opening celebration. On Thursday, Oct. 4, the festivities will begin.

The Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art will be featured on the locally produced, weekly television show Mohawk Valley Living on Sunday, Sept. 30, at 7:30 a.m. and 11 p.m. on WFXV (Channel 6 on Time Warner Cable) and will be rebroadcast next Sunday at 8:00 a.m. and 11:30 p.m. The segment can be viewed on the show's site at approximately 10:10.

Ann Owen, the Henry Platt Bristol Professor of Economics, spoke with The Christian Science Monitor for an article titled “Time to refinance your mortgage? Rates hit historic lows” published on Sept. 27. She discussed the current inflation rate as it relates to fixed-rate loan rates and how increased housing and mortgage demand might change borrowing rates. She also addressed the possible effect of Federal Reserve actions.

Preparation for the opening of the Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art was the focus of a WKTV news report on Sept. 20. Museum director Tracy Adler described the open design of the museum and the opportunity it offers students and visitors to see the processes involved in receiving and preparing art. Its two-story glass cases as well as expansive gallery space also allow viewers to see much more of the museum’s collection.

Assistant Professor of Anthropology Nathan Goodale and his work with students and other faculty in the Slocan Valley of British Columbia, Canada, were featured in The Chronicle of Higher Education in its Sept 17 issue. “Archaeologists Uncover Markers of an ‘Extinct’ Ancient Tribe on Contested Land” provided an overview of the work that Goodale has been pursuing in the last decade excavating the land of the Sinixt people to document the archaeology of First Nations in the valley.

Hamilton Board of Trustees chairman and former Procter & Gamble CEO A.G. Lafley ’69 and Samuel J. Palmisano, former IBM CEO, were featured as corporate leaders with liberal arts degrees in a Chronicle of Higher Education article titled “Skills Gap? Employers and Colleges Point Fingers at Each Other.”