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Scene from a Kirkland reunion.
Scene from a Kirkland reunion.
"One of the things that always blows me away," said Susan Skerritt to those attending the HALT Committee Luncheon in Eells Hall dining room on Feb. 27, "is that students know so little about Kirkland." Skerritt, who had graduated from Kirkland in 1977 (just a couple of years before the Hamilton-Kirkland merger) and had served as president of the Hamilton Alumni Association, glanced around the room at the juniors and seniors present. Then presenting a question, the answer of which would hopefully solve the dilemma, she asked: "What makes Kirkland so distinctive?" 

The Kirkland alumnae discussed the Kirkland experience and its legacy at Hamilton with members of Hamilton Alumni Leadership Training (HALT). HALT was established  in 2003 as a means of creating a senior class leadership structure to introduce seniors to the ways they can stay actively involved in the life of the College after graduation. 

Jennifer Potter Hayes K'73, a studio art major whose senior project still hangs in KJ, got up to take Skerritt's place at the microphone. "Kirkland women were pioneers," Hayes stated. "Why would a bright high school girl add a college to her list that had no reputation, no name recognition?" Hayes was part of Kirkland College's second class. At the time of her decision to enroll, Kirkland had no alumni and no real faculty. There was no course catalogue and no graduation honors. The college was unknown, but it cost as much as it did to attend Hamilton. 

Furthermore, Kirkland was one huge construction site – "a mudpit." In the fall of '68, there was no campus, just an architect's model. Upon Hayes' arrival in the fall of '69, the only buildings that had been constructed were a dining hall, three dorms (Major, Minor, and McIntosh) and a few academic buildings. Appropriately, Hayes and the other women in the charter class each received a dark green hard hat; "the campus was a hard hat zone," Hayes joked.
But if there was seemingly so little offered, then why had these women attended Kirkland? "It was an opportunity to shape something new," Hayes explained, "an opportunity to adventure in a different place, to rebel… to take courses at Hamilton, and to shape your own curriculum." Everything was new, and the women of Kirkland wanted to make the college their own. 

Kirkland also offered a unique, "liberal" kind of learning, the likes of which were radically different than the typical "conservative" Hamilton education. Penny Watras Dana K'78, who is now the chair of the Committee for Kirkland College, elaborated on the difference. For example, professors issued evaluations instead of grades. Academic reports took on the appearance of long, typewritten letters; the only boxes to be checked represented whether the student had passed, failed, had not completed the course, or had not attended the class. And in contrast to the lecture-driven Hamilton classes, Kirkland classes were highly integrative and fostered a great deal of student discussion. However, a good number of students still divided their time between the two campuses. 

Skerritt, returning to the microphone, stated that Kirkland students were expected to form their own government. As such, each government meeting (which was open-mic) consisted of students sitting on the floor of a packed room. It was absolute raucousness, but every voice was heard and "things got done." Skerritt continued: "Hamilton today is a combination of old Kirkland and old Hamilton. It's the best of both worlds." 

Closing out the luncheon, Hayes read a list of things that reminded her of Kirkland. Some mentioned were peasant blouses, waffle ceilings, marijuana smoke, gin and juice, and tie-dye. "Bagpipes, especially," Hayes said. Skerritt and Dana emphatically agreed. 

-- By Alex Pure '12 (son of Jennifer Rich K'75 and Ken Pure)
 

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