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This past fall semester, seven Hamilton students participated in the Government 202 quarter-credit service learning course titled “Immigrants and Refugees in the U.S.” taught by former Levitt Center Associate Director for Community Research Judith Owens-Manley. The course met once a week to discuss refugee resettlement experiences, policies and procedures, especially those specifically related to local Utica’s large refugee population.

The Hamilton Association for Volunteering, Outreach and Charity (HAVOC) helped bring a lot of holiday happiness to some local children. The organization sponsored a holiday mitten tree, bearing gift requests from children with a need. HAVOC director Laurel Emurian ’11 reported that 99 mittens were taken with wishes fulfilled. The children’s gift requests came through the House of the Good Shepherd, Johnson Park Center, Upstate Cerebral Palsy and Hospice.

Happy holidays from the Hamilton College community.

Professor of French Martine Guyot-Bender recently received a Camargo Foundation Fellowship for spring 2010 to work on a book on film documentaries. She will be spending her sabbatical leave at the Camargo Foundation, in Cassis, France, researching the link between the (stern) subjects of social French documentary and aesthetic choices, with an emphasis on ISKRA, an underground French film producing company started by Chris Marker in 1967. The Camargo Foundation was created by independent filmmaker Jerome Hill.

Hamilton College employees demonstrated their generosity with record-breaking total pledges to the Community Outreach Campaign. In 2009’s tough economy, 126 employees have pledged $60,075. That total includes $6,139 for the United Way as well as $11,430 in reported direct charitable contributions. Last year the campaign raised $51,217 and in 2007-08 the grand total was $45,342.

Sujitha Amalanayagam ’10 co-authored an article published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (12/09). The article is titled “Epinephrine treatments is infrequent and biphasic reactions are rare in food-induced reactions during oral food challenges in children.” Among the other co-authors is Hugh A. Sampson ’71, chief of the Division of Allergy & Immunology in the Department of Pediatrics, director of the Jaffe Food Allergy Institute, and dean of Translational Biomedical Science at The Mount Sinai Medical Center.

The Hamilton community’s sensitivity to its impact on the environment is reflected in several awards recently granted to the College by two national organizations. The College has been awarded LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Gold certification, established by the U.S. Green Building Council and verified by the Green Building Certification Institute (GBCI), for the renovated 40-year-old Kirner-Johnson (KJ) Building.

Eight students from the Recycling Task Force and the Cram & Scram crews collected reused items and food during exam week in the mini-scram campaign. About 90 pounds of food, clothing, bedding, shoes and coats, small appliances and furniture were donated. The food will be added to that being collected at the Physical Plant for the Clark's Mills Food Pantry. The appliances and furniture are headed to the Utica Salvation Army, along with the reuse sneakers from the Fitness Center and the Athletic department.

Visiting Associate Professor of Religious Studies S. Brent Rodriguez-Plate recently gave a public lecture at the Indianapolis Museum of Art. The topic was "Blasphemous Art," which stemmed from Plate's 2006 book Blasphemy: Art That Offends. From Danish cartoons to a chocolate Jesus, from a crucifix submerged in urine to Madonna's musical performances, the visual arts have provoked outrage, censorship, and even violence.

A paper by Professor of Physics Ann Silversmith and former Hamilton students Nguyen T.T. Nguyen '08 and Dan Campbell '08, has been published in the December 2009 issue of the Journal of Luminescence. The article, "Fluorescence yield in rare earth doped sol-gel silicate glasses," was also co-authored by Carlos Ortiz '08 and Dan Boye of Davidson College and Kurt Hoffman of Whitman College.