On Tuesday, Sept. 3, College President David Wippman announced that the College had received financial support from a donor to create a supplement to the Common Ground program called “Common Ground on the Ground.”

According to Wippman, the new program will seek to “to stimulate discussion of pressing social issues across a wide range of subject areas, including economics, history, literature, the arts, philosophy, law, and politics.”

Common Ground is a Hamilton College series that brings together influential political figures with differing viewpoints to model productive discourse as they engage in discussions about political and social issues. The series has featured the likes of Marc Elias ’90, Condoleezza Rice, Jim Messina, Reince Priebus, and David Axelrod in recent years.

Common Ground on the Ground looks to stimulate conversations and collaboration on the various social issues discussed on campus after Common Ground speakers leave campus and will also allow students to participate in the Common Ground Program more actively than ever before.

“Instead of audience members simply watching two people engage respectfully on difficult issues — as is the case now with the Common Ground speakers program — students will have the chance to participate actively in the types of challenging conversations that are an important part of a liberal arts education,” said Wippman.

Common Ground on the Ground will draw on the entire Hamilton College community for proposals for different speakers and topics. Wippman offered some examples of the types of proposals that might receive funding from the College like student-led media that present varying perspectives, new courses and lectures, and programs that train students to facilitate dialogue between people with differing ideas.

These proposals for the new program would be judged with the following criteria: their potential to create valuable experiences with long term impacts, how topical and important the different issues at hand are, the ways in which different opinions and viewpoints are balanced and included, the number of students involved within the program, and how sustainable and scalable the program is when considered beyond its proposed pilot program.

These broad nature of the criteria is part of the program’s goal to make room for many different possibilities sourced from all areas of campus. As a supplement to the Common Ground program, it seeks to expand the scope of campus discourse and engagement beyond the realm of politics.

Said Wippman: “Common Ground on the Ground is another opportunity for students to learn from the rich diversity of thought and experience on our campus, and these new programs will better prepare our students to engage civilly and constructively no matter what profession they choose after leaving Hamilton.”