Spring Breakdown Commencement Speaker Every Year
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TERM MUSICAL MAGNUM BASEBALL Prof. Williams makes pitch to bring What’s on the playlist Alex Augustyn ’10 throws first back unique courses in January. at Café Opus career shutout in home opener J See page 5 See page 10 See page 16 Thursday THE SPECTATOR April 1, 2010 Volume L Number 20 General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt to Give Commencement Address by Russ Doubleday ’11 NEWS EDITOR Jeffrey Immelt P’10, chairman and chief executive officer of General Electric Company (GE), will deliver the Commencement address to the Class of 2010 on Sunday, May 23. Immelt has had a tumultuous, but successful stint at GE thus far. His first years were difficult – he took com- mand four days before the 9/11 terrorist attack in 2001, and he led GE through the recession at the turn of the century and the Enron collapse (when the public became increasingly skeptical of CEOs of large corporations). Immelt has now been CEO at GE for over eight years, and financial magazineBarron’s has named him one of the “World’s Best CEOs” three times. He also serves on the board of the New York Federal Reserve Bank. Four individuals, including Immelt, will receive honorary degrees at the Commencement ceremony. Peter Gelb, general manager of the Metropolitan Opera, who is in charge of its current revitalization through high- definition television and satellite radio, Dr. Martin Hirsch ’60, professor of medicine at the Harvard Medical School and a top national physician in the HIV/AIDS fight and PHOTO BY MEGAN BRAATEN ’11 Christie Vilsack K’72, executive director of the Iowa From left to right: Sara Miller ’12, Alex Dao ’12 and Nat Duncan ’12 work on a house with Initiative, a program which aims to lower unintended Habitat for Humanity in Hancock County, Mississippi on their Alternative Spring Break trip. pregnancies in the state and eventually nationwide. Vil- sack’s husband, current U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack ’72, also received an honorary degree in 2001. The Committee on Honorary Degrees searches and ultimately chooses the honorary degree recipients and Spring Breakdown Commencement speaker every year. “The process to identify the speaker is a fairly fluid Alternative spring breakers help build communities across the country while one and begins approximately two years in advance of choir takes Northeastern cities by storm. See pages 8-9 for firsthand accounts. every Commencement,” said Meredith Harper Bon- ham, chief of staff and secretary to the board of trustees. “The committee considers approximately fifty honorary degree candidates before winnowing the list down to a small group of individuals that take into consideration Hamilton Adopts Need-Blind Admission Policy their qualifications, connections to Hamilton, potential availability, and breadth of backgrounds.” The College will covering 100 percent of students’ and then pull the curtain back and Chaired by Susan Skerritt K’77, the 18-person com- demonstrated financial need. look at financial need,” said Inzer. mittee comprised of students, faculty and trustees. Ma- continue to meet 100 “This is a good thing,” said Me- “When we ran out of financial aid, nique Talaia-Murray ’12, Keith Willner ’11 and Caitlyn percent of demonstrated gan Young ’13. “The best students get we ran out of admissions for those Williams ’11 are the student representatives. Geoscience to go to Hamilton regardless of what needing financial aid. We said, ‘This professor David Bailey, Art professor Katharine Kuharic financial need. their financial status is.” is crazy, we’re not admitting kids we and English professor Margaret Thickstun are the pro- The Board of Trustees listed need- want!’” fessors on the Committee. by Emily Gerston ’11 blind admission as a priority in the For the Class of 2012, 7 percent The Commencement ceremony on Sunday, May NEWS WRITER Strategic Plan published in January of the domestic student applicant pool 23, will begin at 10:30 a.m. in the Margaret Bundy Scott 2009, but it was described as a “long- was admitted with consideration of Field House. For the first time in Hamilton’s term goal.” financial need. For the Class of 2013, history, applicants to the College will “We were presenting this idea as this percentage dropped to 3 percent. be selected on an entirely need-blind a fundraising campaign, not for this Inzer attributed the ability to cover basis. The Board of Trustees voted to year,” said Inzer. Instead, the immedi- more financial need in large part due enact the new policy at a meeting on ate goal listed was a reaffirmation of to Hamilton’s elimination of merit March 6. Hamilton’s commitment to meeting scholarships in 2007. She said that as “Hamilton has always been a 100 percent of demonstrated financial students who received merit scholar- school of opportunity,” said Monica need. ships graduate with each class, more Inzer, dean of admission and finan- According to Inzer, it was unclear money becomes available in financial cial aid. “This policy is an extension until recently just how close Hamilton aid each year to students with finan- of that. The goal was not need-blind, was to being need-blind. “In 2007, we cial need. the goal was access. It’s about stu- didn’t know how much it would cost,” Two years into Hamilton’s admis- dents who work hard and deserve to she said. The Admission Office began sion experiment, the Financial Aid be here.” an experiment to track how financial Office determined that it would cost Need-blind admission means that need entered their admissions deci- about $500,000 dollars per year to ad- an applicant’s financial situation will sions by disregarding financial need mit a class on a need-blind basis. “It not factor into an admission decision, until the very last step in the admis- wasn’t until we did the experiment… and thus decisions will be based solely sion process. that I realized we actually are on merit. Fewer than 50 schools in “We’d say, ‘Here’s the class’, and PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY ANDY RICHARDSON ’10 the country are need-blind while still say it’s the best class we can admit, see Need-Blind, page 3 General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt 2 NEWS April 1, 2010 Author Margaret Atwood Talks SA Update Characters and Canadian Pride by Eve Denton ’12 STUDENT ASSEMBLY CORRESPONDENT based on things that people are really able to do with the tech- nology we have or are working New Bicycle Program on Campus? on. Though the self-deprecation Chadd Hippensteel ’10 is working in cooperation with of Canadians was a theme of the the Gilded Bike Program to create a bicycle program on cam- talk, Atwood also showed a sense pus modeled after ones that exist at UC Irvine and in various of pride in her country and its American and European cities. He discussed how the Gilded literature. Bike Program on campus is both costly and disorganized, with When asked what it is like accountability being a large issue. Students who ride the bikes to try to fashion a national liter- down the hill never seem to bring them back up, and bikes ature when American and Brit- are often misplaced or stolen. Hippensteel suggested a pro- ish literature are so dominant in gram similar to Zipcar, where bikes are checked out through Canada, she answered that Ca- the swipe of a Hill Card. Bikes would be given GPS trackers nadian literature has, in recent so that they would never remain lost for long. Students could years, gained a high readership use the bikes while rushing to class or to tour the surrounding and a high international profile. farmland or Root Glen. There is the possibility of eventually She published a book about Ca- adding electric bikes to help students who must come up Col- nadian literature in 1972, which lege Hill Road. Each year, many cars and bikes are brought to she compared to a book on ve- campus that add clutter; Hippensteel believes his plan would nereal disease, for it presented cut down on this clutter and make the bikes more accessible “what kinds there are, where you to all. might get some…” Despite her dry sense of humor and frequent jokes, At- Pre-Law Guidance Concerns wood’s talk had a very serious tone to it as well. What especially The Student Affairs Committee focused largely on the Career Center’s issues and progress throughout the past year. PHOTO BY ANDY RICHARDSON ’10 came through were her environ- Trustees expressed concern that the pre-professional programs, Margaret Atwood speaks in the Chapel on March 4. mental views of the future, also a theme in many of her books. She in particular pre-law, are not as helpful as they could be, espe- emphasized hopeful action, cit- cially in preparing students for the LSAT. It was agreed that by Kerry Q. Coughlin ’11 speculative fiction. ing the race between green tech- targeting sophomores would be helpful so that students would begin to think about future careers early, rather than second NEWS WRITER Atwood indicated she feels nology and a disastrous collapse. a connection to the characters in In regards to hope, Atwood semester of senior year. She may have been the Win- her work. Addressing the ques- said, “Hope is built in, like the ton Tolles Lecturer, but some tion, “Why are there so many arts themselves, an evolved ad- considered Margaret Atwood the cans of sardines in your books?” aptation that gives those who Budget Notes on Construction, Financial Aid “Great Names” substitute. Atwood answered that some have it an edge.” “We need to Professor of English Naomi authors may go through a book have hope,” Atwood said, “For The Buildings and Grounds Committee ran through the Guttman introduced the Canadi- never feeding their characters, after all, where would we be if various costs of construction that will occur over the sum- an novelist and poet as “one of but that she is not one of those the early people did not have mer, including $1.4 million to remove the asbestos in Bundy the greatest living writers,” and people.