Hamilton College has been identified as one of the nation's top colleges for writing, according to a national survey of top college administrators. Only two U.S. colleges and 11 universities received the distinction.
The survey was conducted and published by U.S. News & World Report in its annual "America's Best Colleges" guidebook.
According to U.S. News, the 13 colleges and universities singled out as examples for teaching writing "typically make the writing process a priority at all levels of instruction and across the curriculum. Students are encouraged to produce and refine various forms of writing for different audiences in different disciplines."
In addition to writing, Hamilton was one of only 11 colleges and 28 universities cited for having exemplary programs in undergraduate research/creative projects.
"It is significant that two of the objectives upon which our strategic plan is based have been cited by our academic peers as being exemplary programs among all institutions of higher education," said Hamilton President Joan Hinde Stewart. "We teach students to write well, and we provide opportunities for individualized instruction through research and creative projects. It is gratifying to know that our peers recognize the distinctiveness of a Hamilton education."
Writing and undergraduate research were two of eight programs on which U.S. News surveyed college presidents, chief academic officers and deans of students for examples of "programs that have been shown to enhance student learning." The other categories were internships/co-ops, senior capstone, first-year experiences, learning communities, study abroad and service learning. The magazine said colleges appearing on these lists represent "outstanding examples of academic programs that lead to student success."
Writing
Writing instruction is an integral part of the Hamilton curriculum. Instead of the English department offering one or two courses in composition, nearly all academic departments and programs at Hamilton offer writing-intensive courses, and students must complete three such courses prior to graduation. Therefore, students may fulfill their writing-intensive requirement with courses in, for example, art (e.g., Art and Visual Culture), biology (e.g., Vertebrate Physiology), mathematics (e.g., Linear Algebra) and psychology (e.g., Cognitive Psychology), as well as English and creative writing.
In addition to physical education, the sophomore seminar and the courses needed for one's concentration, the successful completion of three writing-intensive courses represents the only other curricular requirement at Hamilton. The college's faculty voted to discontinue distribution requirements, effective with the class of 2005.
A key component of the college's emphasis on writing is the Nesbitt-Johnston Writing Center, says Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of the Faculty David Paris. According to the college Catalogue, "...the [w]riting [c]enter offers individual writing conferences with peer tutors for students who wish to discuss any writing, at any stage of its development. Writing conferences are sometimes incorporated into the requirements of writing-intensive courses, but many students also request conferences on their own."
In 2002-03, 25 student peer tutors conducted a record 2,542 individual writing conferences. Of that total, 35 percent of the conferences were required by an instructor, 10 percent were suggested, and 55 percent were voluntary. According to writing center director Sharon Williams, the number of students requesting writing sessions with peer tutors is on the rise, and "the increase in voluntary conferences is a measure of student confidence in the writing conference program."
Even more important, said Williams, most Hamilton students use the resources of the writing center during their time at Hamilton. In a recently completed study, Williams found that 84 percent of the members of the class of 2002 had at least one writing conference during their four years at Hamilton, and the number of voluntary conferences increased from 38 percent of the total in the class' freshman year to 66 percent of the total in the class' senior year. The 411 students in the class of 2002 participated in a total of 1,907 peer writing conferences during their four years at Hamilton.
"Writing is a social act, and all writers benefit from reader feedback," said Williams. "Students at all levels of writing ability value our writing conference program and use it regularly."
Student writing tutors are nominated by members of the faculty and undergo an extensive selection process. The position is considered to be one of the most prestigious at the college, according to Williams. The writing center also maintains a Web site of writing resources, develops instructional materials, sponsors workshops for faculty members, and publishes its own style guide, The Essentials of Writing. The center is also engaged in a four-year Mellon Foundation-funded study to assess student writing in a liberal arts setting.
"Writing is very much part of the culture at Hamilton," said Paris. "Part of the reason the writing center is used so extensively by students is that faculty members assign a lot of papers and have high expectations for both the strength of the student's argument and the quality of its presentation."
Paris said Hamilton has a long tradition of teaching students to write well and has invested significantly in the past 10 years to emphasize that point. "Over the past decade, we have put programs in place for faculty development and peer tutoring that are models for sustained and intense attention to writing. It is due to the efforts of our faculty and the writing center that Hamilton has received this recognition."
In addition to Hamilton, colleges cited by U.S. News for exemplary writing programs include Clemson, Cornell, Duke, George Mason, Harvard, Princeton, Washington State and Yale universities; Indiana University-Bloomington; the University of Chicago; the University of Missouri-Columbia; and Millsaps College in Mississippi, the only other liberal arts college on the list.
Among the Hamilton alumni who have distinguished themselves as writers are poet Ezra Pound '05; New York Times drama critic Alexander Woollcott '09, Pulitzer Prize-winning author and journalist Henry Allen '63 (The Washington Post); award-winning playwrights Thomas Meehan '55 (The Producers, Hairspray) and Richard Nelson '72 (James Joyce's The Dead, Madame Melville and Goodnight Children Everywhere); novelists Terry Brooks '66 (The Sword of Shannara, Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace), John Nichols '62 (The Sterile Cuckoo), Peter Cameron '82 (The Weekend, Andorra and The City of Your Final Destination -- a finalist for the 2003 PEN/Faulkner Award) and Kamila Shamsie '94 (In the City by the Sea and Salt and Saffron); and editors Stephanie Abarbanel '73 (Woman's Day), James Willse '67 (Newark Star-Ledger), Stryker McGuire '69 (Newsweek) and Steve Wulf '72 (ESPN Magazine).
Undergraduate Research/Creative Projects
The 39 colleges and universities cited by U.S. News for exemplary programs in undergraduate research/creative projects were selected by college presidents, provosts and deans for their commitment to individualized instruction. "Independently or in small teams, and mentored by a faculty member," U.S. News wrote, "students do intensive and self-directed research or creative work that results in an original scholarly product that can be formally presented on or off campus."
At Hamilton, summer research experiences provide some of the richest opportunities for students and faculty to collaborate on scholarly projects. This collaborative model has been enormously successful in the sciences.
"During the past year," according to Associate Dean of the Faculty Tim Elgren, "over 60 students worked with science faculty members on research projects. Students often present the results of their collaborative work at professional meetings and co-author papers with their faculty mentors. For many of these students, the summer research experience is the hallmark of their undergraduate experience in that it exemplifies the close faculty/student interactions that many students seek and represents their first original scholarly contribution to their discipline."
At Hamilton, as at most colleges and universities, there are more opportunities for undergraduate research in the sciences than in other academic divisions. In fact, Hamilton is the only college among its peers that requires all science concentrators to conduct independent research in a senior project that culminates in a written and oral presentation. In addition, a majority of Hamilton students who earn a science concentration spend at least one summer conducting laboratory research prior to graduation. A new program, unique to Hamilton and funded by the National Science Foundation and the Dreyfus Foundation, provides science research opportunities for students before they enroll as first-year students.
In addition, the college's new $56 million science center is designed to emphasize undergraduate research. The new center, which will nearly double the amount of space devoted to science instruction on the Hamilton campus, will increase the number of classrooms, seminar rooms, computer classrooms, student study spaces and, most importantly, research laboratories for students and faculty. Phase One of the science complex opens next summer; phase two will be ready a year later.
But Hamilton has been deeply committed to expanding these opportunities across all disciplines at the college, says Elgren, who also serves as president-elect of the Council on Undergraduate Research. This past year, he said 30 students were supported in their pursuit of collaborative research outside of the sciences.
"Faculty members from nearly all disciplines at the college have found ways to productively incorporate students into their scholarly pursuits," Elgren said. The college's Emerson Scholars program provides approximately 10 students each summer with $3,000 stipends to conduct research in an area of their choosing, and the top 10-15 students in each entering class are awarded $3,000 stipends to carry out research with a faculty mentor at some point during their four-year tenure at Hamilton.
In addition, all students who receive support for summer collaborative research projects present their work in written and/or oral form during the following academic year. "Cogent communication of research results is one of the many ways in which students are challenged to clearly and concisely articulate the purpose and outcomes of their academic pursuits," Elgren said.
As part of its planning for the next five years, Paris said, "Hamilton will strengthen its position as a national leader for providing academically rigorous work through individualized research projects and instruction. We seek to increase even further the opportunities for our students to engage in research and creative work," Paris said.
