The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation of Menlo Park, Calif., has awarded Hamilton College $150,000 over three years as part of the foundation's Pluralism and Unity program.
The grant will support a new curricular initiative for discussing issues of diversity, difference and social justice in and out of the classroom. Hamilton will provide at least $157,000 toward the project, which will be led by Margaret Bundy Scott Professor of Comparative Literature Nancy S. Rabinowitz.
"This program promises to have a tremendous impact on our campus community," said Hamilton President Eugene M. Tobin. "It will help us move toward greater inclusion, acceptance and understanding, which continue to be among the college's top priorities."
Tobin said the grant will fund an annual summer institute for 12 faculty members to develop curricular and co-curricular programs. Facilitated by outside experts, the Hewlett Summer Pluralism & Unity Institutes will prepare faculty members to teach interdisciplinary seminars by offering an immersion experience built around lectures, discussions, workshops and cultural events.
Hamilton expects each institute to yield a cluster of interactive, small-enrollment courses designed to increase students' familiarity with and respect for varying cultural traditions and to foster meaningful discussions of difference, equality and community. These courses, serving between 200 and 250 students annually, will be intellectually rigorous, emphasizing critical thinking, writing and public presentations.
After three years, Hamilton's goal is that 36 professors, representing nearly one-fifth of the faculty, will have participated in an institute and taken steps to incorporate its themes into their teaching.
"The timing for this new program is ideal, because it coincides with the implementation of our new general education curriculum," Tobin said. "Rather than having a single cultural diversity requirement, which was the case with our former curriculum, Hamilton students are now more likely to encounter issues of difference throughout the curriculum. We think this approach is more thorough and will be much more effective in preparing our students for the world they will encounter upon graduation."
Hamilton College is a highly selective, residential liberal arts college of 1,700 students located on a 1,300-acre hilltop campus in Central New York. The college is known for the rigor of its academic programs, especially its emphasis on oral and written communication.
