Accepted Proposals

14. What if Hamilton College created a fund to support off-campus short field courses and field research opportunities for students?

May 16, 2025

The collaboration led by: Aaron Strong

With collaborators: Cat Beck; Hannah Lau; Nicolas Roberts; Mike McCormick; Heather Kropp; Emily Baker; Kris Kusnerik; Justin Clark; Maddie Carrera

Some of the most amazing opportunities for Hamilton students take place off-campus: conducting research in Kenya, Australia, and Alaska or taking short off-campus courses in the Arizona Desert, Ireland, or the Canary Islands. And yet these opportunities are quite limited. There are no dedicated sources of support for faculty to run off-campus short courses taught; existing student research funding mechanisms generally only support on-campus research projects. To help expand our ability to offer immersive experiential research and education, Hamilton should create a dedicated fund to support (logistically and financially) both off-campus experiential short courses and off-campus research with faculty.

The proposal was submitted for TRANSFORMATIONAL funding (no maximum) and was ranked medium with respect to the other proposals based upon the evaluation rubric.

The committee applauds the proposers for:

• Creative approach to enhancing students’ experiences beyond the classroom
• Recognizing the value of experiential research

The points that the committee recommends the proposers need to continue to develop include:

• Collaborating with Advancement to explore possibilities for endowment 
• Review of programs at other institutions
• Ensuring equity so that some academic departments do not benefit disproportionately

From the committee’s perspective, the next phase of this project would include:

• Travel funds to explore other programs and further idea development
• Exploring further collaboration, including non-field work opportunities
• Developing a more specific budget proposal

The committee recommends funding the next phase of this proposal for $5,000 to move this idea forward for further aspirational design and development.