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Join us for lunch on Thursday, Feb. 10 at noon in The Hub, located on the first floor of Bristol Center, for a seminar on planning your retirement plan distributions. This seminar will be presented by Paul Bopp '97, a Financial Advisor with American Express Financial Services, and is open to all employees, but is most appropriate for individuals within 5 to 10 years of retirement. For reservations for you and a guest, please reply to Personnel Services, ext. 4302. Mark your calendars for another financial planning seminar on retirement issues on Thursday, March 3, at noon in The Hub. More details will be coming soon.  

The College, as you know by now, has recently received negative publicity from an invitation issued by the Kirkland Project. Many of you have written saying you feel this situation has damaged the College's reputation and even caused you personal embarrassment. I am deeply sympathetic to your feelings and concerns and am writing to explain what happened and report on the steps we are taking as we look to the future.

A failed transformer caused a power outage on the North Campus Tuesday (Feb. 8) morning resulting in a loss of server capability throughout the Hamilton campus. Although Web servers were restored by mid-day, mail servers remained out of service until early Wednesday morning. Those sending e-mail from off-campus would have had that e-mail held on their mail systems to retry again when our system was brought up. That e-mail will probably not be sent until Wednesday morning. If your system returned a message to you indicating that it could not deliver your e-mail to a Hamilton address, we suggest you send it again. All e-mail services are now functioning properly. We apologize for any inconvenience.

Associate Professor of History Kevin Grant has published A Civilised Savagery, Britain and the New Slaveries in Africa, 1884-1926 (Routledge, 2005). Grant is an historian of the British Empire, with expertise in humanitarian politics.

Hamilton College will continue the revival of an old tradition with a winter carnival, FebFest 2005, from Feb. 12-19 on campus. This year's theme is "Walley Gone Wild," and events will include the 12th annual Chili Cookoff, a skating party, snoccer tournament, igloo building and chocolate tasting. Those wishing to attend should purchase FebFest buttons ($5) which provide entry into events for free or at reduced cost.

"This is one time that Hollywood has understated an event. The collapse of an Antarctic ice shelf can be far more destructive and catastrophic than movies have portrayed," says Hamilton College geology professor Eugene Domack, leader of a research team headed for Antarctica. The group of undergraduate students and professors from five institutions are headed to the continent to continue their investigation of the causes for the collapse of a massive ice sheet, known as Larsen B.  They hope to understand whether such a collapse is unique or part of a cycle that extends over hundreds of thousands of years.

Hamilton College Professor of Economics, Emeritus, Sidney Wertimer, who died on Feb. 1 at the age of 84, was the subject of an editorial in the Utica Observer-Dispatch (2/9/05) titled "Wertimer Left Legacy of Love." The editorial noted: "Wertimer truly was a gentleman and a scholar. He earned his Ph.D in economic history at the London School of Economics, and came to Hamilton in 1952. There he continued to teach and mentor students for the past 52 years. 'He was a professor's professor -- an icon for what a college teacher should be,' said Barrett Seaman, a member of the Hamilton class of 1967 and a charter Hamilton trustee." A memorial service for Professor Wertimer will take place on Thursday, Feb. 10 at 4 p.m. in the College Chapel.  

Hamilton College will sponsor a team in this year's America's Greatest Heart Run and Walk on Saturday, March 5.  Members of the Hamilton community are encouraged to sign up to participate. For more information or a registration form please contact Team Hamilton co-chairs, Linda Michels (lmichels) or Kelly Walton (kwalton) at x4615. 

Assistant Professor of History Chad Williams presented a paper at a conference on Black Masculinities held at the CUNY Graduate Center in New York on February 4. The title of his paper was "African-American Soldiers and Constructions of Black Masculinity during World War I." 

A live concert documentary film, Joe Williams: A Portrait in Song, will be screened on Tuesday, Feb. 8 at 7 p.m. in KJ Aud. In 1996, the Jazz Archive oversaw a live concert filming of  the late jazz/blues singer Joe Williams and the Count Basie Orchestra. The concert took place in Wellin Hall and features archival footage and musician interviews along with the live performance. Williams was one of the country's best-known African American entertainers for more than 30 years and received an honorary degree from Hamilton in 1989. He was a close friend of the late Milt Fillius Jr.,'44 and Life Trustee. This event is part of the special events connected to the current Emerson Gallery photography show "The Music Stand: Jazz As A unifying Social Force." Admission is free and Burrill Crohn, the film's producer will be in attendance to talk about the experience and answer questions.