Kirkland College
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Kirkland College was a small, private liberal arts women's college located in Clinton, New York from 1968 to 1978.
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[edit] History
Planning for Kirkland began during the 1962-1963 academic year, with assistance from then-Hamilton College president Robert W. McEwen.[1] It was named after Samuel Kirkland, the founder of Hamilton. Since Hamilton was a men's college prior to 1978, the idea was to make Kirkland its female counterpart. However, two factors led to a more innovative and experimental nature at Kirkland: first, the introduction of current views of undergraduate education on the part of Millicent C. McIntosh, former President of Barnard College, and second, the mandate to "start from scratch" without regard to the more traditional patterns at Hamilton, a mandate embraced by Kirkland's president, Samuel F. Babbitt.
Kirkland opened in 1968 on its own campus located adjacent to Hamilton College. The Kirkland faculty and students operated in a more diverse and transparent community than had been the norm at Hamilton, and there were many differences that led to small and large conflicts between the two institutions. Meantime, the economic climate (which had been very positive during the planning stages for Kirkland) began to deteriorate. As a result, the debt service accruing to build Kirkland's entirely new campus, exerted a tremendous burden on its finances. It was forced to turn to Hamilton for relief. In 1977, Hamilton refused such relief, and the two colleges were merged under protest into a single, coeducation Hamilton in [[1978].
[edit] Today
The name of the college lives on at Hamilton in the form of the Kirkland Project for the Study of Gender, Society and Culture, as well as the Kirkland Alumnae Prize Scholarship that is offered annually to an upperclass female student by the Kirkland College Class of 1974.[2] A recent book by Kirkland's former president, gives an intimate history of the college. [3] The Hamilton College Bookstore sells various Kirkland merchandise.[4]
[edit] Notable Kirkland people
One notable student to study at Kirkland was Christie Vilsack, the current First Lady of Iowa.
Esther Barazzone, a former Kirkland faculty member, is now president of Chatham College in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.[5] Roz Chast, cartoonist for The New Yorker, is a Kirkland alumna.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
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