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As an openly gay Asian American, Kenji Yoshino’s entire life has been a struggle with the concept of assimilation. Yoshino resists the traditional American ideal of the great “melting pot,” because it demands assimilation and detracts from authenticity by encouraging people to conform to a certain American standard. Yoshino, the Chief Justice Earl Warren Professor of Constitutional Law at the NYU School of Law, spoke Thursday evening in the Kennedy Auditorium about prejudices inherent in American culture and Civil Rights legislation, and about his own journey of personal acceptance as an academic scholar.

Hamilton took another step toward environmental sustainability last week, as the College (in conjunction with the Hamilton Environmental Group and food service provider Bon Appétit) implemented a new, campus-wide reusable mug system. Hamilton Environmental Group (HEAG) posters around campus read, “Red is the New Green.” What they refer to are the stacks of brand new red plastic mugs that have replaced the disposable paper cups in Commons and McEwen.

Some Hamilton students got a real taste of the Adirondacks on Feb. 7, as 20 members of Professor Ernest Williams’ Cultural and Natural Histories of the Adirondack Park went on a snowshoe trek to Grass Pond in Old Forge, N.Y.

Does America have an unhealthy obsession with beauty? Darryl Roberts thinks so. Roberts’ documentary, America the Beautiful, imagines the causes and social implications of the unrealistic physical ideals presented for women in the American media. On Feb. 3, Hamilton students had the privilege of attending a screening of America the Beautiful, which was followed by a Q&A session with the filmmaker himself.

Over the past month more than 40 Hamilton students participated in a Wilderness First Aid Certification course offered through the Hamilton Outing Club (HOC) with the outdoor leadership and safety school SOLO, Stonehearth Open Learning Opportunities. HOC offered students the opportunity to take the class, a two-day, 16-hour course, over two weekends in October in the Glen House.

“Racial Barrier Falls in Decisive Victory” read the New York Times front-page headline on Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2008, a day after Barack Obama defeated John McCain to become the 44th president, and first African American president, of the United States. “I hate this title,” exclaimed Melissa Harris-Lacewell, startling a full house in the Science Center Kennedy Auditorium on Nov. 18.

What is experiential education? What, if anything, are the benefits? These questions and others were addressed in an hour-long workshop presented by seven students in the Glen House on Nov. 12.

Overpopulation is inextricably tied to countless environmental issues: Poverty, water shortages, pollution and waste management, famine, and resource consumption. It was this topic, with a focus on family planning and sex education, that was the focus of a discussion on Wednesday in the Kirner-Johnson Red Pit led by Izaak Walton League representative Rebecca Wadler Lase ’00 and Sierra Club representative Cassie Gardener.

A week after an impressive attempt at conquering the Adirondack High Peaks during the annual 46 Peaks Weekend, Hamilton Outing Club (HOC) members have not tired. Over this recent fall break six tenacious students braved icy slopes and sore feet during a four-day assault of some of the highest mountains in New York State.

In Mark Bauerlein’s new book, The Dumbest Generation, he argues that the “Millennials,” those born in the late 1980s and early 1990s, are a generation much less cultured and politically aware than generations that preceded them. In a lecture in front of a standing-room-only crowd in the Science Center Kennedy Auditorium Monday, Bauerlein, a professor of English at Emory University, spoke about the crippling effects that the Digital Age has had on the minds of America’s young people.