Hamilton College

Hamilton College is a private liberal arts college located in Clinton, New York. It is sometimes referred to as the 'School on the Hill', due to the school's location on top of College Hill, just outside of downtown Clinton. Hamilton College was ranked as the 15th best Liberal Arts College in the U.S. by U.S. News & World Report in 2006{{an|1}}.

Campus Life

Starting in the mid 1990s, the administration and the trustees have tried to work together to improve life on the campus. They required all students to live in college housing (which caused the closure of all of the fraternity houses), created social spaces for student use, improved funding for on-campus events, and pursued several other changes. This process caused a great deal of controversy—mostly surrounding the decision to preclude fraternities from exercising any use of their houses. As a result, the majority of fraternities felt they had no choice but to sell their houses to the college. As the college purchased the houses they have carried out extensive renovations. Since the discussion a few fraternities and sororities have had their charters revoked for extreme behavior (causing additional controversy among the students and alumni).

Related Topics:
1990s - Fraternities and sororities

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Housing

Nearly all students now live in college-owned dorms. There are a variety of styles of residence halls, including former fraternity houses, suites, apartment style housing, and more traditional dormitory style housing. Fraternity members do continue to live near one another in the dorms, most students feel this leads to higher dorm damage in the areas fraternities live.

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On campus events

The changes have allowed the student community to increase the number and types of activities available on campus. The college has also provided significant funding for student activities through student-run organizations. College-sponsored student-run groups routinely bring music, movies, plays, and other performers to the college.

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Annual Events and Traditions

Class and Charter Day: On the last day of spring term classes every year all classes after noon are cancelled for a campus wide picnic and party. Addintionally a ceremony is held during which students, faculty, and other members of the Hamilton community are recognized for thier academic, leadership, and community development accomplishments. Class and Charter Day is also known as the biggest party day of the year at Hamilton.

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FebFest: Rooted in the long standing tradition of the winter carnival at Hamilton, FebFest is a relatively recent development at Hamilton. A weeklong combination of performances, parties, and various other events, FebFest intends to keep student morale high during the winter.

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MayDay: Started in 2004 MayDay is an outdoor music festival sponsored by several oncampus organizations including:

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• The Hamilton College Independent Music Fund
• WHCL 88.7
• The Hamilton College Campus Activities Board

Past performers have included: The Pharcyde, Dead Meadow, Tim Reynolds, The Virginia Coaltion, Jennifer Gentle, Rainer Maria, Ted Leo, The Unicorns, J-Live and Sleater-Kinney.

Related Topics:
The Pharcyde - Dead Meadow - Tim Reynolds - The Virginia Coaltion - Jennifer Gentle - Rainer Maria - Ted Leo - The Unicorns - J-Live - Sleater-Kinney

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Fraternities Active at Hamilton

• Delta Kappa Epsilon
• Theta Delta Chi
• Alpha Delta Phi
• Delta Phi
• Psi Upsilon
• Delta Upsilon
• Chi Psi
• Tau Kappa Epsilon
• Sigma Phi

Former fraternity houses used as dormitories

• Samuel Eells Hall (Alpha Delta Phi house)
• Mildred Ferguson Hall (Delta Upsilon house)
• Woollcott Hall (Theta Delta Chi house)
• Skenandoa Hall (Psi Upsilon house)
• Sidney Wertimer Hall (Delta Kappa Epsilon house)

Former fraternity houses with other uses

• Spenser Hall (Chi Psi house; administrative offices and social functions)
• Sigma Phi house (currently abandoned; to become the Admissions Office)

Diversity

Like most small colleges in the United States, Hamilton struggles to achieve diversity, particularly when it comes to race. The college has an aggressive Affirmative Action program to try to attract African American students.

Related Topics:
Affirmative Action - African American

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See Statistics for more information.

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