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  Each year, three candidates are nominated by the Alumni Council for four-year terms as Alumni Trustees. In addition, alumni may become petition candidates by obtaining signatures from approximately 0.1% or 25 of our more than 18,000 alumni. If no nominations by petition are received, a mail ballot election is not required. This year, there are five candidates for three Alumni Trustee terms beginning on July 1 – three candidates nominated by the Alumni Council and two candidates nominated by petition.   Nominated by the Alumni Council: George D. Baker, Jr. ‘74 Nancy Roob ‘87 Torrence D. Moore ‘92   Nominated by Petition: Peter D. Brown ‘73 Ben S. Wu ‘73   Ballots will be mailed in February to Kirkland alumnae and Hamilton alumni. The mailing will include biographical information and personal statements from each candidate. The three candidates with the highest number of votes will be elected to fill the three vacancies for Alumni Trustee.     Candidates may use the HOLAC message board to discuss their candidacies. Election procedures developed by the Executive Committee of the Alumni Council may be found at the link at the end of this article.   The Alumni Association sincerely thanks the three alumni trustees who will retire on June 30. They are Stuart J. Hamilton ’73, Mathew M. McKenna ’72, and Julie A. North ’84. Their four years of volunteer service will be recognized by the Association at the Annual Meeting held on Saturday, June 2 at Reunions ’07.   I urge you to participate in the election. Please cast your ballot when the time comes.   Sincerely, Jon Hysell ‘72 Secretary to the Alumni Association Director of Alumni Relations      

Alexander Hamilton, according to many scholars, would have turned 250 years old on Thursday, January 11, 2007.  The academic debate over Hamilton’s actual birth year did not deter the more than 1,000 alumni, parents and friends of Hamilton College from celebrating his bi-sesquicentennial anniversary at regional alumni association events around the world. Beginning on Saturday, January 6 in Richmond, VA and continuing through Sunday, January 14, in Westchester County, NY, 27 parties were held.  Many of these featured birthday cakes, some with elaborate reproductions of Hamilton’s likeness.  Contests were held to determine who knew the most about the life and work of our College’s namesake and all the Hamilton family universally enjoyed honoring the memory of a great statesman, philosopher, economist, military leader and trustee of our most extraordinary College. 

Nine Hamilton students and one Hamilton alumnus spent three-and-a-half weeks of Christmas break in Eastern Guatemala for an independent study service-learning experience with the Guatemalan Project (G.P), a community development organization in the poor rural community of El Triunfo. The trip was spearheaded by Meghan Stringer '07 who learned about the service opportunity through her brother and Hamilton alumnus Matt Stringer '03.

Professor of Religious Studies Heidi Ravven gave an invited paper, "How Jewish Philosophy Could Help Standard Philosophical Ethics Out of its Dead End," at the American Philosophical Association in late December in Washington, D.C. Ravven's paper was part of a panel on Ethics and Jewish Philosophy, organized by the Academy for Jewish Philosophy.

Hamilton College has received a record number of applications for admission to the Class of 2011.  Applications have been received from 4,951 prospective students, a 16 percent increase over last year’s final number, and 350 more than the college’s previous record of 4,601 set in 2001.

Monk Rowe, the Joe Williams Director of the Hamilton College Jazz Archive, presented a film program at the International Association of Jazz Educators Conference in New York City in January. The concert documentary, "Joe Williams: A Portrait in Song," was screened for an enthusiastic audience on Saturday, Jan. 13. The late Joe Williams H'89, was filmed in concert with the Count Basie Orchestra in Wellin Hall in September, 1996. Co-presenting with Rowe was the noted jazz film maker, Burrill Crohn, the director of "A Portrait in Song." Norman Simmons, Joe Williams' pianist/music director, and John Levy, Joe's longtime manager, were in attendance. While in New York, Rowe also conducted an interview with author James Lincoln Collier '50.

Tori Schacht '08 conducted an interview with young British author Zadie Smith for "The Oxford Compass," while studying abroad for the 2006-07 academic year. Schacht is an English major currently spending the year studying at Mansfield College, Oxford University. Schacht met Smith at a reception after she gave a talk. The interview will be published in The Oxford Compass, a student-run literary Web site that's associated with the Oxford Student Publications Ltd. Zadie Smith has written three novels and a non-fiction book about writing, Fail Better (2006). In 2002-03 she was in the U.S. as a Radcliffe Fellow at Harvard University.

Professor of Chinese Hong Gang Jin published an article on Syntactic Complexity and Second Language Writing in the Journal of Chinese Language Teachers Association a refereed journal in the field of teaching Chinese as a second/foreign language. “Syntactic Complexity in Second Language Writings: A Case of Chinese as a Foreign Language (CFL),” appears in Vol. 42:1, pp. 27-52.

Dean of Faculty Joseph Urgo has announced the appointment of Professor of Geosciences Eugene Domack to the J. W. Johnson Family Professor of Environmental Studies in Environmental Studies. The newly endowed chair, established this year by Hamilton alumnus and charter trustee Joel W. Johnson '65 and his wife Elizabeth B. Johnson with a $2.5 million gift, is the largest endowed professorship in the college's history. Income from the endowment will support the chairholder's compensation, benefits and a research program involving undergraduates.

The Hamilton College Classical Connections series opens its spring season on Friday, Jan. 19, with a performance by the male a cappella group Cantus 8 p.m. The performance will take place at Wellin Hall in the Schambach Center for Music and the Performing Arts.