School Spotlight
Hamilton College
Speech Code Rating
Sexual Misconduct Policy
Speech Code Rating: Yellow
Speech Code Category: Harassment Policies
Last updated: June 4, 2020Sexual harassment is defined as unwelcome action, language, or visual representation of a sexual nature that has the effect of unreasonably interfering with an individual’s work or academic performance or that creates a hostile working, educational, or living environment. … Sexual harassment also includes gend... Read MoreFirst-Year Housing Guide: Building Community
Speech Code Rating: Yellow
Speech Code Category: Policies on Tolerance, Respect, and Civility
Last updated: June 4, 2020We promote an environment that is free from harassment, where differences are celebrated, and independent opinions are supported and respected. However, when these opinions threaten others, we will act swiftly to ensure the safety and well-being of the community. Read MoreStudent Handbook: Code of Student Conduct- Prohibited Conduct
Speech Code Rating: Yellow
Speech Code Category: Harassment Policies
Last updated: June 3, 2020Physical altercation, verbal abuse, threat, intimidation, harassment, coercion and/or other intentional or reckless conduct that is likely to have a substantial adverse effect on, or pose a threat to any person. … Hamilton College reserves the right to suspend for an interim period any student wh... Read MoreStudent Handbook: Appropriate Use of Information Technology Resources
Speech Code Rating: Yellow
Speech Code Category: Internet Usage Policies
Last updated: June 4, 2020The following are examples of violations of information technology resources policies at Hamilton College. … Inappropriate use of electronic mail and Internet access. Initiating or propagating electronic chain letters; inappropriate mass mailing including multiple mailings to newsgroups, mailing lists, or indi... Read MoreDean of Students: Bias Incident and Hate Crimes
Speech Code Rating: Green
Speech Code Category: Policies on Bias and Hate Speech
Last updated: June 4, 2020Please note: The reporting system does not create a new category of prohibited behavior or a new process for members of the Hamilton community to be disciplined or sanctioned. The BIR Team has no authority to discipline any student or member of the faculty or staff. Reported conduct that may be a violation of ... Read MoreStudent Handbook: Code of Student Conduct- Guiding Principles
Speech Code Rating: Green
Speech Code Category: Advertised Commitments to Free Expression
Last updated: June 3, 2020The right to express opinions may not be abridged, provided that public safety and the rights of individuals are not compromised. The College protects and encourages controversy and dissent. Read MoreStudent Handbook: Harassment and Discrimination Policy
Speech Code Rating: Green
Speech Code Category: Harassment Policies
Last updated: June 3, 2020Discriminatory Harassment, including any action, language or visual representation, based on any characteristic protected by law other than gender (as noted above, gender based harassment is covered under the Sexual Misconduct Policy), including race, ethnicity, religion, disability, age, veteran status, that is suf... Read MoreStudent Handbook: Freedom of Expression/Maintenance of Public Order at Hamilton College
Speech Code Rating: Green
Speech Code Category: Advertised Commitments to Free Expression
Last updated: June 3, 2020Free inquiry and free expression are indispensable to the attainment of those goals to which Hamilton College is dedicated. Read More
Hamilton College: Thought Reform of ‘Pro-Rape’ Male Freshmen
September 24, 2010
Hamilton College has failed to explain its actions against freedom of conscience and its suggestion that women at Hamilton College are unsafe because of the campus’ “rape culture.”
Hamilton Students Condemn Theft of Campus Publication
February 20, 2015
Last week, Hamilton College student newspaper The Spectator reported that almost all issues of another Hamilton student publication, Enquiry, were removed en masse from their distribution spots on the private institution’s New York campus. The Spectator hypothesized that the theft was intended to shield readers from an article on “radical feminism” that had already generated… Read more
This Week in the News: Whistleblowing UCLA Professor Still Making Headlines and Hamilton College Wins Muzzle Award
April 15, 2011
UCLA’s gross violation of the rights of Dr. Enstrom, the whisteblowing professor fighting for his job after being told he did not fit his department’s "mission," continued to elicit outrage in the media this week. Debra Saunders of the San Francisco Chronicle published both a column (reprinted in Townhall.com) and a shorter blog post (containing… Read more
Thomas Jefferson Center Awards 2011 ‘Muzzle’ to Hamilton College’s Mandatory ‘Intervention’ for Freshman Males
April 13, 2011
"She Fears You," Hamilton College’s mandatory and coercive orientation program for freshman males last fall, received a 2011 Muzzle Award today from the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression. "She Fears You" is based on the theory that men need a "combined emotional and cognitive intervention" to reform their deeply ingrained rape-supportive… Read more
‘Chapin’s Inferno’ Torches Keith Edwards and Hamilton College
November 8, 2010
Readers of The Torch may remember that in late September, Hamilton College (HC) told all of its first-year male students that they were required to attend "She Fears You," an "intervention" program by Keith Edwards that is designed to make the men acknowledge their personal complicity in a "rape culture" and change their "rape-supportive" beliefs and… Read more
Hamilton College Won’t Talk about ‘She Fears You,’ but Keith Edwards Will
October 14, 2010
More than two weeks have passed since Keith Edwards delivered his "She Fears You" presentation at Hamilton College, yet Hamilton has still not responded to FIRE’s letter requesting that attendance be made voluntary. Nor has Hamilton made any public statement about the event. (The event also wasn’t filmed, so non-attendees will never know exactly what… Read more
Attendance Not Logged at ‘Required’ Hamilton College ‘Rape Culture’ Event, but Fundamental Freedoms Still at Risk
October 1, 2010
Amidst heated debate, Keith Edwards’ "She Fears You" presentation went forward Monday evening at Hamilton College. FIRE argued that this event, which claims to be a "cognitive and emotional intervention" aiming to teach that certain views about masculinity will be "no longer acceptable in any way," should not have been mandatory for freshman males. Two… Read more
Hamilton Requires First-Year Men to Attend Presentation on Campus ‘Rape Culture’; Female Applicants Not Forewarned of Dangers of Attending Hamilton
September 27, 2010
Tonight at 7 p.m., first-year men at Hamilton College will be attending a mandatory presentation of "She Fears You," a program at which they will be pressed to acknowledge their personal complicity in a "rape culture" on Hamilton’s campus and to change their "rape-supportive" beliefs and attitudes. First-year men were informed via e-mail that attendance… Read more
Outside Input Unwanted: A Brief History of Petition Candidacies in University Governance
March 24, 2009
In cases of campus speech restrictions, the path to censorship is paved with seemingly benign intent: see, for instance, bans on "rude, disrespectful behavior," as in the case of Johns Hopkins University (covered extensively yesterday by Samantha). Yet the inherent conflict between free speech and open inquiry on one hand and enforcing "civility" on the… Read more
The Hamilton Insurgency Continues
January 27, 2006
While the American Association of University Women’s extremely misguided sexual harassment report might give you reason to believe otherwise, all the news this week has not been bad. Specifically, FIRE has heard good tidings out of New York State, where fresh trustee elections are going on at Hamilton College. To get some context, check out… Read more
The Hamilton Insurgency: Hopefully Not Over
August 19, 2005
Hamilton College Alumni for Governance Reform, Inside Higher Ed, and Erin O’Connor are all reporting that the insurgent trustee candidates at Hamilton have lost. This is of course bad news, but it’s not necessarily the end of the line. The candidates faced extremely formidable obstacles in communicating their positions to the alumni who were voting,… Read more
The Hamilton Insurgency?
July 28, 2005
During FIRE’s most recent speech code victory, my friend Duncan Currie at the Weekly Standard called Peter Robinson and Todd Zywicki’s free-speech-loving trustee campaign “The Dartmouth Insurgency.” And the more I read about what’s going on at Hamilton College, the more I think the answer to the question David posed here before (“Is Hamilton the… Read more
Is Hamilton the Next Dartmouth?
July 11, 2005
In the last twelve months, New York’s Hamilton College has not exactly covered itself in glory. First, it made national news after it hired Susan Rosenberg, a convicted terrorist, to teach a course entitled “Resistance Memoirs: Writing, Identity, and Change.” Then it became the epicenter of the Ward Churchill controversy when his speech at the… Read more
Is Learning (A)Political?
February 18, 2005
One of our readers sent us the following excerpt from Robert Kimball’s January 31, 2005, post on The New Criterion’s weblog: Colleges and Universities do not exist to promote free speech. They exist to pursue and teach the truth…. This is not a novel idea. But it is one that Hamilton’s president, Joan Hinde Stewart,… Read more
Learning from Malcolm X
February 16, 2005
Maurice Isserman, history professor and chairman of the American Studies program at Hamilton College, wrote an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education last week that I felt really resonated with my post yesterday, and my general thoughts on free speech and transformational human experience over time. The title of his article was “In Ward… Read more
Hamilton Builds a Fence
February 14, 2005
After canceling Ward Churchill’s speaking appearance, Hamilton College has cracked down on the Kirkland Project for the Study of Gender, Society, and Culture, the campus division that not only invited Ward Churchill but also hired a convicted terrorist to teach a writing course entitled “Resistance Memoirs: Writing, Identity, and Change.” According to new guidelines issued… Read more
More on Mob Rule
February 3, 2005
One of the difficulties in persuading angry and indignant people to cease their demands for censorship is that you are frequently countering their concrete grievance with a seemingly abstract hypothetical argument. To someone who is furious at actual speech uttered by a real person, it is often not persuasive to say, “But this kind of… Read more
The ‘Other’ Churchill
February 2, 2005
No, I’m not referring to Winston but to the most famous Churchill since the legendary and heroic British prime minister passed into history — Professor Ward Churchill. After making numerous outrageous comments about the victims of the September 11, 2001, attacks, Professor Churchill has resigned from his position as the Chair of the University of… Read more
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