Hamilton College will end its Adirondack Program after this fall semester according to an announcement made by Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of Faculty Suzanne Keen.
The college, which is located outside the Adirondack Park in Clinton, NY, suspended the program following its failure to meet its enrollment targets Keen said. “True to its mission, the Adirondack Program has offered students a rigorous interdisciplinary academic experience,” Keen said in the announcement. “I [the Dean of Faculty] have been very impressed with the overall quality of the program, and I appreciate the support of the local partners, the enthusiasm of the faculty members who served in residence, the work of the general director Janelle Schwartz, and the efforts of the Advisory Committee.” » Continue Reading.
Science on Sundays at VIEW in Old Forge is continuing March 3 with “Migration of Monarch butterflies in and beyond New York” with Ernest Williams, co-author of The Stokes Butterfly Book, author of The Nature Handbook: A Guide to Observing the Great Outdoors, as well as other books, journals and numerous articles.
Recently quoted in New Scientist magazine regarding the monarch butterfly migration, the Hamilton College Biology Professor stated that the Monarch butterfly species is not threatened, but rather its migration is endangered. Williams further states that if the climate alters, there are possibilities to consider such as a migratory shift further into Canada during summer or the monarchs may stop before reaching Mexico in the winter. » Continue Reading.
The Adirondack Museum will hold its annual Harvest Festival next Saturday and Sunday, October 3rd and 4th, from 10:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. The Museum offers free admission to year-round residents of the Adirondack Park in the month of October including the Harvest Festival.
As a part of festival the Museum is sponsoring a food drive in support of Warren-Hamilton Community Action. Donations of non-perishable food items will be collected in the lobby of Visitor Center from September 29 through October 6. Circle B Ranch in Chestertown will be providing rustic wagon hay rides through around the museum grounds as wel as pony rides.
Traditional folk music eill be provided by Roy Hurd and Frank Orsini both days at 11:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m.
Other Harvest Festival highlights include cider pressing, a blacksmithing demonstration, barn raising (for young and old), as well as pumpkin painting and crafts inspired by nature. Regional artists and crafters will offer unique handmade items for sale. Kids can enjoy a variety of harvest-themed games and activities.
John Brown has often come down to us as a lone nut, bent on an suicidal mission, but this is far from the truth. Brown was part of a larger movement to free slaves that grew with passage of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 (which required the return of escaped slaves to their masters with all its potential for torture and death at their hands) and the large Underground Railroad movement. It’s little understood that Brown was intimate with northern politicians, industrialists, ministers, and folks from all walks of life, including the leading intellectuals of the era – the Transcendentalists. » Continue Reading.
I recently read that as many or more people are killed crossing at marked crosswalks than jay-walking. It got me thinking about all those jay-walking stings – you know, where the police lay in wait for people to cross the street.
In July more than 100 college presidents took an important step toward backing away from that kind of criminalizing barrage on Americans by suggesting we lower the drinking age to 18. It’s called the Amethyst Initiative and it was begun by John McCardell, the former President of Middlebury College in Vermont. The website says:
These higher education leaders have signed their names to a public statement that the 21 year-old drinking age is not working, and, specifically, that it has created a culture of dangerous binge drinking on their campuses.
The Amethyst Initiative supports informed and unimpeded debate on the 21 year-old drinking age. Amethyst Initiative presidents and chancellors call upon elected officials to weigh all the consequences of current alcohol policies and to invite new ideas on how best to prepare young adults to make responsible decisions about alcohol use.
Those locally who have supported the idea include (1, 2, 3):
Paul Smith’s College President Dr. John Mills
Clinton Community College, Interim President Dr. Frederick Woodward
Clarkson University President Anthony G. Collins
St. Lawrence University President Daniel F. Sullivan
Hamilton College President Joan Hinde Stewart
Plattsburgh State President Dr. John Ettling “feels the idea deserves serious consideration”
Vermont State Colleges Chancellor Robert Clarke and University of Massachusetts System President Jack M. Wilson also signed on.
MADD is, well, mad. They still argue that raising the drinking age in 1984-1988 is what has reduced alcohol related deaths among 16 to 20 year-olds (why 16 and not 18?) some 60 percent since 1990 – though they have risen over the past ten. I’ll bet the cause is more likely the stricter DWI enforcement and penalties – the bottom line is young people need to learn from their elders what responsible drinking is about.
Chicago’s Mayor Daley (son of Richard “the policeman isn’t there to create disorder, the policeman is there to preserve disorder” Daley) is also mad:
You think the president of the university is gonna open a beer hall in his house? Do you think the coach of the baseball team or football team will open it up? They should raise their standards and think that drinking is not part of college life. … Everybody has responsibility on this and drinking at universities isn’t something you should be proud of. … You don’t send your son or daughter to learn how to drink at universities. You send ‘em for an education.
According to the more civilized discussion points in the piece:
More than 40 percent of college students reportedly show at least one symptom of alcohol abuse or dependence. And every year, more than 500,000 full-time students at four year colleges suffer injuries tied in some way to excess drinking.
It is the law’s job to protect innocent people from likely harm to their person or property. It is not the law’s job to protect adults from the risks of their own consensual acts.
In case you still have any doubt that criminalizing drinking will make any real cultural difference, here is an article from the Ticonderoga Sentinel on backsliders in the Schroon Lake Temperance Society in 1884:
C. T. Leland has found an old book giving the facts concerning the organization of the Schroon Lake Temperance Society in the year 1884, and gives the names of all members, business transacted, record of back-sliders, etc.
At the start 185 persons joined, altho we find that beside many names are written the words “withdrawn,” “older,” “drank,” “intoxicated” giving exact dates of each slip-up, while beside one name appears this amusing inscription “Mr. Benthusen,” “drank every time any body asked him,” and below that information some one had added these words, “Who could blame him.”
Who could indeed. Abstinence and enforcement have failed, it’s time for another approach.
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Hamilton College will end its Adirondack Program after this fall semester according to an announcement made by Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of Faculty Suzanne Keen.
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