President

An Invitation to Apply

for the Position of

 

PRESIDENT

Hamilton College

Clinton, New York

 

Hamilton College is a pre-eminent coeducational, residential, liberal arts college that attracts 2,000 students to its historic hilltop campus in the picturesque village of Clinton, New York. Hamilton’s strategic choices have propelled it into the first rank of liberal arts colleges, forging a distinctive and vibrant identity. The College takes seriously its motto, “Know Thyself.” It offers students what few places do: the rare opportunity to become the architects of their intellectual and personal development through an open curriculum. Hamilton asks students to ally their passion with their curiosity and to make learning and creative invention a lifelong pursuit.

Hamilton has nurtured the open curriculum for decades, and it defines the offer of the College. Like its highly regarded peers, Hamilton encourages a strong liberal arts education, but one that responds quickly to individual students, to the world’s changing states of knowledge, and to innovative approaches to teaching and learning. The mission infuses every facet of the College; few other liberal arts colleges have made as profound a commitment. 

The College has created an appealing identity. It is one of the most selective institutions in the country, with an acceptance rate steadily shifting from 30% in 2009 to 26% in 2016, to 11.8% for the Class of 2026. Yield has similarly improved from 35% to 41%.

Access is every bit as important to Hamilton as the quality of the student body. In 2007, Hamilton made a principled decision and eliminated merit scholarships. Three years later, still in the wake of the Great Recession but with extraordinary trustee support, Hamilton went need-blind in its admission decisions. Since that turning point, the College has attracted classes of unprecedented academic ability and talent, seen record applications, increased diversity of all kinds, and improved its retention (95.1%) and six-year graduation rates (92.3%).

The high caliber of Hamilton’s student body has been recognized externally as well. In recent years, Hamilton students have earned highly prestigious awards, including Marshall, Truman, Watson, and Fulbright fellowships. For 19 consecutive years, Hamilton has been named a Fulbright U.S. Student Program top-producing institution.

Over the years, Hamilton has increasingly diversified its student body. Thirty-four percent of Hamilton students are US students of color or international students, up from 22% in 2008-09. For the Class of 2026, 37% are US students of color or international students. Fifty percent of Hamilton students receive financial aid, with the number of Pell-eligible and first-generation students increasing steadily. At the same time and for the same purpose, Hamilton has moved to diversify its faculty. Hamilton faculty members who identify as people of color represented 21% of the faculty in 2020, up from 17% a decade earlier. The percentage of women on Hamilton’s faculty has grown steadily from 44% in 2010 to 51% in 2021. Since 2013, every department hiring a faculty member has appointed a trained “diversity advocate” to its search committee. 

These Hamilton commitments have helped the College attract and retain excellent leaders, faculty, and staff who want to be at an institution that admits and supports the best students. With 198 dedicated faculty, Hamilton also ranks among the top institutions for student-to-faculty ratio at 9-to-1, lowered from 10-to-1 20 years ago. Twenty-eight percent of classes have nine or fewer students, and 72% have 19 or fewer, a reflection of Hamilton’s efforts to respond to student initiative and intensive teaching. Students and alumni speak with deep and genuine affection for Hamilton, particularly their close, meaningful relationships and collaborations with academic advisors and faculty members.

Hamilton’s exceptional faculty members are a community of accomplished and ambitious scholar-teachers who are foundational to Hamilton’s success. They are committed to all aspects of student life, they share their research with students, and they are available to students in and out of the classroom. The constant improvement in Hamilton’s identity and appeal are a direct result of its faculty’s commitment to and engagement with students.

To ensure that Hamilton sustains its financial aid promise, the largest component of Hamilton’s recently completed and most ambitious fundraising campaign, Because Hamilton, was allocated to financial aid endowment. More than $127M of the campaign’s $411M total was for endowed student scholarships. The College’s overall endowment, currently $1.3 billion, up from $540 million at the start of FY10, is often listed among the top 125 of all 3,200 non-profit colleges and universities in the United States. Hamilton’s endowment per student places it even higher.

In 2018, the College adopted a five-year strategic plan, Connected Hamilton. Consistent with Hamilton’s history, it aimed at the hard work the College must do to create an ever more excellent education. It contained ambitious initiatives to create momentum that will play a consequential role over the next decade. Digital Hamilton, a technologically focused update to the curriculum, including the addition of an interdisciplinary concentration in data science, was a priority in the Because Hamilton campaign. Advise, Learn, EXperience (ALEX) provides an individualized and holistic advising network that connects students' academic advising with their co-curricular and extracurricular experiences, helping them take full advantage of the open curriculum.

Hamilton’s trajectory has been remarkable, defined by determined, consistent, and strategic change that has constantly strengthened the institution. A new president will arrive at Hamilton at an opportune moment. The College is excellently positioned with impressive alumni support, significant financial reserves, outstanding enrollment, a committed faculty, a diverse community, and a vivid identity. The College seeks a visionary president who can embrace Hamilton’s ethos, build on its rare accomplishments, and offer an even greater promise to the next generation of Hamilton faculty, staff, and students.

The expected hiring range is $650,000 to $700,000 based on the position’s responsibilities and scope. This role will be based on-site in Clinton, NY.

Hamilton College has retained the national executive search firm Isaacson, Miller to assist in this search. All applications, nominations, and inquiries should be submitted in confidence through the Isaacson, Miller website: https://www.imsearch.com/open-searches/hamilton-college/president

Hamilton College is an Affirmative Action, Equal Opportunity employer and encourages diversity in all areas of the campus community. The community recognizes its collective responsibility to acknowledge its colonial history. Hamilton’s campus is located on the ancestral and traditional lands of the Oneida Nation. The community commits itself to engaging in solidarity with the Oneida Nation and to ensuring that the perspectives and cultures of Indigenous peoples are honored and embraced.

 

 

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