Writings & Remarks

Designing our future together

May 9, 2025

Tags Public Statements

Dear Hamilton Faculty and Staff:

As we close out the 2024-25 academic year, it is a time of uncertainty in the world. This is also a time for Hamilton to lead. The world needs more from us and “aspirational design” is the process we will use to determine our future vision and direction.

We are designing together, as opposed to developing a standard strategic plan. A strategic plan organizes resources around known needs and priorities. An aspirational design explores the unknown and identifies opportunities, resources, and configurations that are still to be discovered. Bruce Mau, a globally distinguished designer and our upcoming commencement speaker, has said that “design speculation, as opposed to strategic planning, creates a way of asking questions that we may never think to ask. And a way for our community to tell us things they would never have imagined sharing.”

We are designing the institution intentionally to match our aspirations. We're not limited by our current configuration. Aspirational design is transformative, not because it necessarily moves the college in a different direction, but because it embraces what is possible when you design from your core strengths and values.  Mau notes, “the community might feel a certain greatness is beyond them or that they’re not ready. But in this process we can say, ‘let’s get there by doing number three and number four; and then build the platform to get to number five,’ — and that’s the sense of aspiration.”

The What If initiative is a way of auditioning some of those big, bold, aspirational ideas. We had close to 500 What If provocations from faculty, staff, students and alumni, resulting in 51 submitted proposals. Many of those proposals will be funded; others we might ask for revision; others will be folded into the larger design process; and still others will be taken up by senior staff to be advanced as part of ongoing institutional renewal. The What If committee worked tirelessly over the past six months designing the initiative, holding workshops and reviewing proposals. Please extend our collective appreciation for their work.

Over the next nine months, we will hold eight full-day design charrettes with 18 to 22 participants, including representatives of our faculty, staff, students, college leadership and members of the Board and outside experts. During each charrette we will audition bold ideas; testing those ideas against each other, thinking about capacity, and considering the core strengths of the college and our unique identity and differentiation.

Some of the design themes include Democracy and Imagination, Master Communicator, Innovation and Entrepreneurship (the art and science of advancing ideas), Hamilton for Life and Hamilton Futures (the Hamilton experience as a student and beyond), Creative Campus and What If, Open Curriculum 2.0, Technology and Authentic Intelligence, and Practicing the Liberal Arts, which involves building robust relationships for future success and impact. 

We will have a “meta” charrette this coming Monday, May 12, 2025, which will be an opportunity for 40 members of our community to learn about design charrettes and how to facilitate the process. Additional design charrettes will take place in the fall and a community design effort will engage all of you in giving feedback and building off of the ideas generated in the charrettes. This community design work will culminate in Spring 2026 when the Board of Trustees will review our best ideas and weigh in on what makes sense for Hamilton and what will allow us to lead boldly into the future. And then we’re off to the races towards our next campaign. This article provides an interesting take on the relationship between design and liberal arts. 

Congratulations to our 2025 graduates and to everyone who gave them wind and wings while they were here. This is always a moment to reflect on what it means to do good work in the world. Good luck with the final push and I look forward to designing Hamilton’s future with all of you. Wishing everyone a great summer!

Onward,

Steven