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Working together through uncertainty

March 20, 2025

Tags Public Statements

Dear Hamilton Community:

As you enjoy the break, we wanted to speak to the community about the complex critiques and attacks on higher education and how we are leading the College through the current uncertainty.

Critics of higher education are on the attack with tax proposals, executive orders, and economic sanctions and penalties that threaten freedom of expression, freedom of inquiry, and academic freedom. We will be resolute and unswerving in our defense and protection of those core values that are the lifeblood of Hamilton. We are working on a presidential op-ed that articulates our value and will share that link once it is placed.

Guided by these commitments and values, senior staff will continue to: 

• Share frequent updates at regularly scheduled meetings of faculty, staff, and students; 
• Carefully coordinate with peers around lobbying, messaging, and navigating our legal and political context, including working with the , ,  and participating as members of the Small Liberal Arts Coalition (SLAC); 
• Have regular briefings with our legal team covering the daily moves and countermoves taking place in our policy environment; 
• Develop contingency plans in the areas of federal grants and tax on endowments; 
• Hold one-on-one and small group conversations with those who are concerned, seek clarity or support, have specific challenges or needs, or are particularly vulnerable to some of the policy directives; and
• Communicate with alumni and the broader Hamilton community the current threats facing higher education and the need for a strong defense of what we do. 

This is a human-to-human campus. Our communication and engagement style — whether we are critiquing, advocating, expressing, or sharing — should be done with intimacy and trust, qualities that are made possible by our size and culture. To that end, let us find time for mutual support, care, and connection — with special thought and care for members of the community who have been directly or indirectly targeted, including our trans community, our international students, students and faculty who have engaged in peaceful protest, those whose family life might be disrupted by immigration enforcement actions, those who now face obstacles to their research, and those who feel beleaguered because of their commitment to inclusion and to celebrating the growing pluralism on this campus. Please keep an eye out for an invitation to an all-campus event when we return from spring break. And we will continue to organize opportunities to gather as a community moving forward.

We were encouraged by the demonstrations for science, the humanities, the arts, and the Fulbright program last week. And we see the greatest value in a multiplicity of efforts in protection of our value and values. As you are able, we encourage you to continue to share your views and your voice, join with others, or contact your legislators.  

Many have written with very good suggestions of ways the College can respond and encourage others, including alumni and parents, to engage. And many have shared ways to support those who seek help, whether privately or publicly. Please continue to share ideas with us and with each other. Together we must defend and celebrate this college and the real promise and contribution of higher education more broadly.

With care…and still onward,

Steven and Ngoni