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Join alumni, faculty members, students and friends for Fallcoming '07 which will take place Thursday, Sept. 27 through Sunday, Sept. 30. During Fallcoming we will celebrate our inaugural Multicultural Reunion as well as a full schedule with world-class jazz, panel discussions and athletic contests.

Thump… thump… thump. Hamilton’s College Marshall John H. O’Neill struck the stage of Wellin Hall three times with his ceremonial staff to begin Hamilton’s 196th convocation. Thus began a new year for all the students and faculty on the Hill and the first for the newly matriculated Class of 2011. O’Neill’s call to order was followed by a brief invocation by College Chaplain Jeffrey McArn who appealed to the “Great Teacher” to give students the strength and enthusiasm to embrace the contentions that make the college experience so valuable.

Economics professors Ann Owen and Julio Videras published "Culture and Public Goods: The Case of Religion and the Voluntary Provision of Environmental Quality" in the Journal of Environmental Economics and Management in the September 2007 issue. The paper uses new statistical methods to characterize religious beliefs and concludes that culture does play a role in determining pro-environment behavior. Owen and Videras' research was supported by the Levitt Center's Sustainability Program via a grant from the Blue Moon Fund. Pragyan Pradhan '08 was a research assistant on the project.

A native of Hollywood, Calif., Lyndra Vassar '09 is, like many others in that area, interested in being a part of the entertainment industry. The rising junior is considering a career in entertainment law and decided to get a head start on work experience this summer. After some research, Vassar applied for and received a position as an intern with MTV Network's Press Department.

When Tom Brokaw visited the Hamilton campus, Matt House was a sophomore. The talk had such an effect on its listener that House, now a rising senior, used Brokaw's correlation between military service and political responsibility as a jumping-off point for his senior project. Although he has already begun working on the thesis, House applied for and was granted a Levitt Fellowship to do additional historical research this summer into the decline of the citizen-soldier in modern American.

When Li Qiu '09 was hired by Merrill Lynch this summer, he not only bagged a position as an intern, but he was put in charge of other interns. Qiu worked for the management team of Merrill Lynch's Foreign Office this summer and had duties which ranged from providing support to his Financial Advisor (FA) to organizing intern training and activities.

Literary criticism is a deceptively simple field; it seems easy enough to separate written work into fiction and non-fiction. Rising senior Kathleen Naughton (Cromwell, Conn.), however, challenged this assumption with her research into the autobiography. Naughton, a creative writing and chemistry minor, has always been interested in the resonances of the writer upon his or her subject matter, which she researched this summer.

Today members of the class of 2011 gathered at the historic Kirkland Cottage to sign the College Register symbolizing their matriculation at Hamilton.  This tradition, established in 1975, represents not only the beginning of a college career, but also membership in the Hamilton community.

Visiting Assistant Professor of Sociology Mikaila Mariel Lemonik Arthur presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association held in New York City Aug. 11-14. Her paper was titled "Learning the Nexus: Networks, Neoinstitutionalism, and Diffusion as Explanation for Curricular Change." She is secretary-treasurer of the History of Sociology section of this organization.

Philip Klinkner, associate professor of government and associate dean of students, was quoted in a USA Today article on Wednesday, Aug. 23, titled "Few Dems show for 'Prez on the Rez.'" The article focused on the anticipated absence of top-tier candidates — U.S. Senators Hillary Clinton of New York and Barack Obama of Illinois and former U.S. Senator John Edwards of North Carolina — from Thursday's "Prez on the Rez" debate at the Morongo Band of Mission Indians' reservation in Southern California.