Kirkland College

Planning for Kirkland began during the 1962-1963 academic year through the influence of then-Hamilton College president Robert W. McEwen. It was named for Samuel Kirkland, the founder of Hamilton. Hamilton was a men's college. Kirkland College, a college for women, was envisioned as the first of several institutions which would form a cluster similar to the Claremont Colleges. and opened in 1968 on its own campus, adjacent to Hamilton College. The Kirkland faculty and students operated in a more diverse and transparent community than had been the norm at Hamilton. Students received evaluations rather than grades in their courses. "Many administrators, faculty, and students at Hamilton believed that theirs was the superior institution and dealt with their counterparts at Kirkland as if they were subordinates." into a single, coeducational Hamilton in 1978. The process has been described as a "hostile takeover"; at the end the relationship between the two colleges was "adversarial", "To say there was anger around campus at that time is to considerably understate the depth of feelings at play." A study and consideration in the form of an 'intimate history' by Samuel Fisher Babbitt, Kirkland's only president – Limited Engagement: Kirkland College 1965-1978, An Intimate History of the Rise and Fall of a Coordinate College for Women – provides an in-depth, first-person account of Kirkland's brief existence. In addition to personal records and recollection, Babbitt was able to employ archival materials housed in the Hamilton College and Columbia University libraries.{{cite book Despite its dissolution, Kirkland College, through faculty who remained to teach at Hamilton, and through the active influence of its graduates and former trustees, has had a profound influence on Hamilton, which became coeducational, and broadened its offerings, with far less opposition than it would have before Kirkland. ==Legacy at Hamilton College==

When Kirkland was officially incorporated into and absorbed by Hamilton College in 1978, Hamilton became coed. All Kirkland students were able to continue at the new Hamilton, and most did, but not so faculty. While all Kirkland faculty were offered short-term appointments at Hamilton, Kirkland tenure was not transferred; tenured Kirkland faculty had to pass a tenure review to transfer to Hamilton. The college's art and music departments are located on the Kirkland side of the campus, which has more modern architecture than the original Hamilton.) Memorabilia and traditions The Kirkland Archives, including the papers of President Babbitt, are housed in the Burke Library at Hamilton College. In 2007 a display case, containing a rotating exhibit of items from the Archives, was installed in the lobby of McEwen Hall, near an iconic sculpture, the "rock swing" that dates from Kirkland's early years. The central motif of the Kirkland College seal was an apple tree, and green apples remain a symbol of Kirkland among its alumnae and supporters to this day. During commencement exercises at Hamilton many students and faculty choose to wear a green apple pin on their academic robes to honor Kirkland's legacy. Many graduating seniors also place green apples on the podium prior to receiving their diplomas. The Hamilton College Bookstore sells various Kirkland merchandise, typically available on campus during June reunions. The Kirkland Project In the mid-1990s, a group of Hamilton faculty initiated a project with the intention of working "toward establishing a research center like the Bunting Institute at Harvard and the Pembroke Center at Brown." The Kirkland Project is named in honor of Kirkland College, building on Kirkland's twin legacies of women's education and innovative pedagogy, expanding on them to meet the global challenges that face contemporary male and female students, faculty and staff. ==Notable alumnae and faculty==

• Christie Vilsack, a member of the Kirkland College charter class of 1972, was the First Lady of Iowa. • Joanne Rappaport is Professor of Anthropology at Georgetown University. • Esther Barazzone, a former Kirkland faculty member, was president of Chatham College in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. • Roz Chast, cartoonist for The New Yorker, attended Kirkland College. • Donna O. Kerner, is chairman of Anthropology at Wheaton College (Massachusetts). • Children's author Natalie Babbitt taught at Kirkland. She was married to Pres. Samuel F. Babbitt, and wrote her first works while raising their children in Clinton, NY. • Broadway actress Sandy Faison was a member of the 1972 charter class at Kirkland College. • Patricia Goldsmith is Vice President of Institutional Advancement at Scripps College. • M. Ellen Mitchell, class of 1975, is Professor of Psychology and was Director/Dean for 18 years at Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago • Helen Barolini writer, editor and translator who taught at Kirkland College. • Ashton Applewhite, class of 1974, is a writer and anti-ageism activist. ==See also==

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