All News

On Monday, Dec. 18, Iowa Governor and Hamilton alumnus Tom Vilsack became the first 2008 presidential hopeful to appear on The Daily Show with John Stewart.  Eric Kuhn '09 was the only reporter in the audience. He wrote about the program and a subsequent reporters' conference for the Huffington Post.

The Hamilton College Town-Gown Fund has announced seven grants totaling $35,000 to local educational, public safety and other community organizations in the Town of Kirkland.

Vinny Strully '69, and the New England Center for Children (NECC), where he is executive director, were featured in a segment on CBS Evening News with Katie Couric on Dec. 19. The New England Center for Children, in Southborough, Mass., is a private, nonprofit autism education center dedicated to bringing out human potential and creating productive lives for children with autism. The news clip is related to the bill to finance autism research (Combating Autism Act S. 843) that was signed by President George W. Bush. News reporter Sharyn Alfonsi visited NECC to look deeper into the school designed specifically to educate children diagnosed with autism.

Hamilton College has named Ghiané Jones, a senior from South Holland, Ill., as its first GOLD Scholar.

Vivyan Adair, the Elihu Root Peace Fund Associate Professor of Women's Studies, lectured in December at the University of Washington - Tacoma. Her lecture was in conjunction with an exhibit of "The Missing Story of Ourselves: Poverty and the Promise of Higher Education," an exhibit of 50 photos that examines the lives of poor students who are changing their lives through higher education.

The “Theory and Interpretation of Narrative” series, published by the Ohio State University Press and co-edited by Professor of Comparative Literature Peter J. Rabinowitz and James Phelan, has just announced its 23rd volume, Brian Richardson’s Unnatural Voices: Extreme Narration in Modern and Contemporary Fiction.

John Werner '92, executive director of Citizen Schools in Boston, was honored as one of the 2006 Ten Outstanding Young Leaders (TOYL) awardees by the Boston Jaycees. Citizen Schools is a leading national education initiative that uniquely mobilizes thousands of adult volunteers to help improve student achievement by teaching skill-building apprenticeships after-school.  TOYL honors 10 individuals between the ages of 21 and 40 for their exceptional professional and personal achievements coupled with their unwavering commitment to the Boston community. Nominations are solicited throughout Greater Boston and recipients are selected by a panel of distinguished independent judges, who are often past recipients of the TOYL award. Since 1952 the Jaycees have annually recognized young leaders representing a broad cross section of the Greater Boston community.  The awards were presented at a black-tie gala in September at the Colonnade Hotel in Boston. Tripp Jones '88 received the award in 1999.

Assistant Professor of Economics Julio Videras published a paper "Ethnic Heterogeneity and the Enforcement of Environmental Regulation,"  in the Review of Social Economy, vol. LXIV, No. 4, December 2006 (with Christopher J. Bordoni). The paper, co-authored with former Hamilton student Christopher Bordoni, is the result of a collaboration following a Hamilton College Levitt Center Research Fellowship in 2004.

Internationally renowned jazz clarinetist Kenny Davern, the recipient of an honorary degree from Hamilton in 2000, died Tuesday, Dec. 12. Mr. Davern was a regular visitor to campus each fall, performing during Fallcoming with other jazz legends in an annual concert established by long-time Hamilton trustee and jazz aficionado Milt Fillius '44. Kenny Davern was one of over 250 jazz musicians, arrangers, writers and critics who have been interviewed by Monk Rowe, the Joe Williams Director of the Jazz Archive at Hamilton, about the history and place of jazz in America.

Cheng Li, William R. Kenan Professor of Government, has written an article, “China's Inner-Party Democracy: Toward a System Of ‘One Party, Two Factions’?,” posted on the front page of the Jamestown Foundation Web site. Li writes about two coalitions, the “elitist” and the “populist,” and the ongoing balancing of power between these two groups within the Chinese Communist Party. He describes these developments as an evolving “system of ‘one Party, two factions’.”