Kirkland College was a small, private liberal arts women's college from 1965 to 1978 in Kirkland, New York, United States. It was a female counterpart to Hamilton College, at that time all male, and its campus was adjacent to Hamilton's. It was named for Samuel Kirkland, who founded the Hamilton-Oneida Academy, origin of Hamilton College (and for whom, some felt, Hamilton should have been named). It was not successful financially, so Hamilton absorbed Kirkland on June 30, 1978, has maintained its archives and financial endowment, and supports its alumnae community.

History

thumb|right|The Kirner-Johnson building was built in 1968 as the main building of Kirkland College, and was renovated by Hamilton College in 2009.

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. There were no academic departments. Students did not have set "majors"; rather, each student worked out a program of study. In contrast with Hamilton, most Kirkland professors taught their classes in a highly interactive mode, engaging students in a dialogue, without lectures. A key tenet of the college was that students would be actively engaged in running the institution: at Kirkland, the students participated equally in governing the college. Moreover, at Kirkland, a number of professors lived on campus and participated actively in the lives of students. Kirkland was innovative, experimenting with an approach to undergraduate education that was in distinct contrast to that of Hamilton.

Kirkland was defined by its innovative spirit; Hamilton by its fidelity to tradition. "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." He described the merger of Kirkland and Hamilton as "messy."

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.

Endowment

Upon the dissolution of Kirkland, its endowment was transferred to the Hamilton endowment, with existing restrictions intact, with the understanding that all funds were to be applied "to support women and their needs and interests at Hamilton." One on-going Hamilton program that received early support from the Kirkland Endowment is HAVOC (Hamilton Association for Volunteering, Outreach and Charity).)

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

  • List of current and historical women's universities and colleges in the United States
  • List of defunct colleges and universities in New York

References

Further reading (most recent first)

  • The Kirkland Project for the Study of Gender, Society and Culture
  • Hamilton College
  • Kirkland Alumnae site at Hamilton College
  • Kirkland Interactive Archives