Like every other news organization, Hamilton’s Communications Office keeps an eye on what stories on our news site readers find most interesting. Here are the top 10 from 2020.
- The most-read story featured Chris Browne ’20, who returned home to Morristown, N.J., and volunteered as an EMT when Hamilton went remote in March. “The average age of the other EMTs in the township is high, so I respond to all the COVID-19 calls. It’s safer for me than anyone else,” Browne said.
- Masks, classes under canopies, weekly COVID testing. A story about how different the fall 2020 semester looked during COVID received the second-most clicks.
- Beloved Professor of History Esther Kanipe lost a long battle with pancreatic cancer in March. Announcement of her passing was met with tributes and remembrances via all forms of social media.
- In the fourth spot, Collective Condemnation of Racist Police Violence shares the names of hundreds of Hamilton students, faculty, and staff who “denounce unwarranted and racially disproportionate police violence and pledge to promote the public good.”
- In A World Forever Changed, alumni and faculty experts weighed in on how COVID-19 was altering their fields.
- Coming in at number six is a story and photos about the renovation to the 70+-year-old Alumni Gymnasium.
- Hamilton honored the Class of 2020 with a virtual commencement, and viewers tuned in to watch the celebration.
- Readers learned in this announcement from President Wippman that Hamilton would shift temporarily to online education in response to the growing pandemic.
- Another photo story about a restoration — this one to the 227-year-old Kirkland Cottage — also engaged readers.
- Rounding out the top 10 is A Pandemic that Changed College Hill, a story about Deacon Lile ’09, who wrote his senior thesis on the Spanish Flu influenza before going on to become a trauma surgeon. Little did he know that his research would be remembered by Hamilton friends who wanted to talk about it in the context of today’s pandemic.
Always popular — and 2020 was no exception — readers wanted to learn about the Hamilton faculty who received tenure this year.
