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Hamilton College's Arthur Levitt Public Affairs Center has received an AmeriCorps VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America) grant to hire two Hamilton graduates who will engage in two community outreach programs in Utica for the next year. Both VISTA workers will assist with projects focused on increasing the number of Hamilton students working in the community through service-learning courses, federal work-study programs and as volunteers.

In May 2004, Phase I of the Science Center construction was "97 percent finished" according to assistant director of construction Bill Huggins. Two months later, professors moved into their new offices, and summer science research students were busy at work in the new laboratories, bringing Phase I to an unofficial close. With the first half of the Science Center construction finished, what is next for the $56 million dollar project? The answer: deconstruction.

Within the last few years, social spaces have become a hot topic at Hamilton among students and faculty. Chris Takacs '05 is helping to settle this on-campus debate by looking at social spaces through history as a Levitt fellow. The overall goal of Takacs' project, titled "The Architecture of Democracy: Key Structural Elements of Successful Public Spaces," is to develop a better understanding of how public spaces are designated to successfully accommodate a range of social and physical interaction.

Christie Bell Vilsack K '72, who spoke at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, was interviewed by Kathleen McGrory '05 for an article in the Utica Observer-Dispatch. Vilsack said although initially she wasn't sure if she was up for the challenge, her Kirkland education readied her for her role at the convention. "I was a member of the charter class of Kirkland College," she said. "I knew that if I could stand up and help shape a college, then I could certainly address the delegates." In her speech Vilsack criticized President Bush for "pulling the funding" on the No Child Left Behind program. A former teacher, Vilsack is now an advocate for literacy and education.

Jonathan Rick '05, editorial intern at Time magazine, published the article "They're Hired - As Authors," in Time (August 2, 2004).  The article contains information about the books related to Donald Trump’s TV show, The Apprentice.

Ann Owen, associate professor of economics and former economist for the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, was interviewed for United Press International article "Analysis: Kerry and the U.S. economy." Owen said the most significant part of John Kerry's economic proposals is his plan to reduce the deficit.

John Emerson '75 is among Californians mentioned in former president Bill Clinton's book My Life. Emerson, chief deputy to James Hahn when Hahn was city attorney of L.A., became Clinton's point person ensuring his economic development initiatives and other programs succeeded in California. Clinton wrote of Emerson: "He was so unrelenting in doing so that he became known around the White House as the Secretary of California." Emerson is president, personal investment management, at Capital Group Companies in Los Angeles.

Michael Gruen ‘06 (Englewood, NJ) has always been an avid gamer. So when given the opportunity to combine his love for computer technology with his academic studies, Gruen took full advantage. 

Philip Klinkner, the James S. Sherman Associate Professor of Government, was a guest on the Ben Merens' Show that aired on Wisconsin Public Radio on Tuesday, July 27.  Klinkner discussed what kind of bounce the Kerry-Edwards ticket would get from the Democratic National Convention.

Andrew Conway '04 presented a paper at the North American Association for Computational Social and Organizational Science (NAACSOS) Conference, held June 27-29 in Pittsburgh. Conway, the only undergraduate invited to present at the conference, gave a paper titled "Collapsing the al-Qaeda Network." It was based upon his senior honors thesis for government, an interdisciplinary approach to assessing terrorist networks and creating policies to combat them. Conway's idea was to view terrorist networks like computer networks and attack terrorists in equivalent ways.