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The results are in – Hamilton's first Cram & Scram made a difference. The recycling effort, launched at the end of the spring semester, collected recyclable/reusable items from residence halls. Everything from couches and microwaves to clothing and unopened food were collected. Rather than throwing the items away and sending them to the county landfill, the Recycling Task Force sorted them for reuse. Bottom line? This year, waste sent to landfill was reduced by 40 tons or about 28 percent. 

Nearly 300 students registered to vote and completed absentee ballot requests on Tuesday, Aug. 26, as a result of the efforts of Hamilton Engage 08. Two local television stations, NBC-affiliate WKTV and all news cable station News10Now, have reported on the group's success in registering students.

Hamilton College students and employees have a new tool to reduce their carbon footprint.  The College has teamed with Lucid Design Group of Oakland, Calif., to develop an interactive Web site that displays energy usage for buildings in real-time. The system also stores data so that, over time, energy-use comparisons can be made to previous days, months and years. 

After the year 489, early Christianity split into the Western, Catholic branch based in Rome and what is known as the Church of the East, rooted in the land east of the Euphrates. In 635, Alopen brought Christian teaching to Chang-An, the Chinese capital during that time. The Church of the East enjoyed a period of rapid development until around 845, but after the decline of the Tang Dynasty, Christianity completely disappeared on the Central Plain for almost 400 years, only remaining in Northwest China among some Uigur and Mongol tribes. However, during the Yuan Dynasty, beginning in 1271, the southeastern city of Quan-Zhou in Chinese Fujian Province suddenly became a center of the Church of the East overnight. This phenomenon begs the question: Where did these churches come from?

Members of Hamilton's class of 2012 blanketed Oneida County on Aug. 27, as the first Hamilton Serves! volunteer orientation effort was launched. Students spent four hours volunteering at non-profit agencies around the Mohawk Valley, including United Cerebral Palsy in Utica, the Humane Society of Rome, Spring Farm Cares in Clinton and Crouse Community Center in Morrisville.

Assistant Professor of Government Sharon Rivera and Janet Simons, instructional technology specialist, published an article titled "Engaging Students through Extended Simulations" in the Journal of Political Science Education (vol. 4, issue 3). They discuss a simulation that Rivera developed with Simons for her introductory comparative politics course with the support of a Class of 1966 Career Development Award.

Assistant Professor of Chemistry Nicole L. Snyder and coworkers recently published a manuscript in the Journal of Organic Chemistry titled "Stereoselectivity in the Epoxidation of Carbohydrate-Based Oxepines." The article appears in the most recent edition of the journal, and describes the reactivity of several unsaturated seven member rings that resemble carbohydrates. These unusual molecules, called carbohydrate-based oxepines, are currently employed to access septanose carbohydrates, a class of unnatural carbohydrates that are targeted for their potential to serve as structure-function probes and as functional components in pharmaceutical reagents.

Today members of the class of 2012 gathered at the historic Kirkland Cottage to sign the College Register symbolizing their matriculation at Hamilton.  This tradition, established in 1975, represents the beginning of their college career and their membership in the Hamilton community.

One summer of chasing lizards wasn't enough for William Caffry '09 (Lyme, N.H.). Caffry spent three weeks in Oregon last summer researching the escape tactics of Uta stansburiana, or side-blotched lizards, and this year he returned to the project, which is run by Lafayette College professor Peter Zani. Caffry spent five weeks during the summer observing a population near Hines, Ore., as well as monitoring two other populations, one in Oregon and one in Utah. His work is supported by Hamilton's Jeffrey Fund Science Internship, supporting full-time off-campus internships in the sciences at any organization that offers unpaid experiential opportunities.

Dean of Faculty Joseph Urgo announced the appointment of new faculty for the 2008-2009 academic year, including five tenure-track appointments, 31 visiting professors and instructors, and seven lecturers and teaching fellows. Following are new tenure-track appointments: