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The Antarctic Peninsula is undergoing greater warming than almost anywhere on Earth and the Peninsula's Larsen Ice Shelf, the third largest ice shelf in Antarctica, has experienced catastrophic decay since the mid 1990s.  Hamilton College geology professor Eugene Domack has been awarded $851,941 from the National Science Foundation Office of Polar Programs for a collaborative research project to study the Paleohistory of the Larsen Ice Shelf.

Verena Blechinger-Talcott, assistant professor of government, presented "Can You Hear Me Now? Internet and Democracy in East Asia and Western Europe," at the Kirkland Project Brown Bag series, on March 31.

Applications for registration for the Clinton Early Learning Center (formerly the Clinton Child Care Center) must be submitted no later than April 1 for the 2004-2005 year.  Please contact the Center at ext. 4176 or visit http://my.hamilton.edu/childcare/ for more information.

Hamilton students who went away to sunny, hot resorts for Spring Break had nothing on the employees in the Registrar's office. The industrious group created their own beach, complete with umbrella, shovels and pails and dressed the part with sunglasses and Hawaiian shirts. Top (L to R): Judith May, student services assistant; Diane Brady, staff assistant; Regina Johnson,office assistant; Ann Burns, staff assistant for advising. Bottom:  Marc David, assistant dean of students for multicultural affairs; Kay Klossner, staff assistant for student records;  Evelyn Pasciak Hennessey, transcript secretary; and Karen  Prentice-Duprey, staff assistant.

Elevators are strange places.  I've realized this increasingly during my last few months in the city, as I take an elevator a minimum of five times a day.  I consider myself something of an elevator expert and therefore feel qualified to expound upon the strange behaviors that occur during these awkward rides.

Thursday evening we traveled to Avery Fisher Hall for a New York Philharmonic concert. Third year New York conductor Lorin Maazel led the orchestra through two symphonies, one by Franz Schubert and the second from Anton Bruckner. I enjoyed Bruckner’s Symphony No. 7 in E major which stressed four Wagner Tubas. The piece employed about a dozen brass instruments, which made for a powerful experience. The piece was divided into four segments, where the conductor would pause briefly in transition. The finale was dramatic and intense. The trip to Avery Fisher Hall was a memorable experience and a great welcome back to the city after Spring Break. I strongly recommend the New York Philharmonic.

And so New York City begins to thaw. The days are getting longer and warmer, and even more people are taking to the streets. The ferry that takes the tourists to the Statue of Lberty has been even more packed, the top deck covered entirely. The popular running routes can look like races, as it seems that everyone has come out to finally start getting in shape. You can almost feel a change, as if everyone has a bit of a spring in his or her step.

Prior to living in New York City, I had always been surrounded by open spaces in the form of land or water. At home in Connecticut and at Hamilton I have surrounded by vast skies, and have had a sense of freedom that accompanies these open spaces. Upon arriving in New York City, I instantly felt smothered and contained; yet I had difficulty accounting for these feelings because when I take a moment to look up at the sky or find the horizon at one end of Manhattan, it is the same sky that I see standing in my front yard at home, and the same horizon I see looking off the Hill at Hamilton. However, something is different. The sky in New York City is so much smaller and the horizon so much narrower.

As many of you know, MTV plays a huge role in ROCK THE VOTE, which encourages young people to vote in the presidential election. This week MTV had Ed Gillespie, chairman of the Republican National Committee, speak on TRL. Since I intern for the GOP Convention, a bunch of us went up to Times Square to support the President and the party.

I could not have gotten any further away from New York City when I participated in Alernative Spring Break, a program of community service. I traveled from NYC, where I had become accustomed to riding on a crowded subway, indulging in gourmet food products, and seeing the latest trends in fashion and design, to Pipestem, West Virginia (population 40), where the roads were made of dirt and stone, the only heating for our log cabin was a woodstove, and entertainment consisted of “Ray Orange Nutter’s” washboard and spoons