Dear members of the Hamilton community,
Volume 63, Number 26 of
The Spectator
marks my final issue as Editor-in-Chief of the paper. Amongst the other “lasts” that I will soon experience as a spring-semester senior, this is one of the toughest goodbyes. I have had a wonderful experience working at
The Spectator
. However, it is through our news coverage and investigative efforts that I have learned the severity of certain problems that exist at Hamilton.
When I was a senior in high school, I wasn’t sure where I wanted to go, but I knew that wherever I ended up, I wanted to write for the school newspaper. I still remember opening my virtual acceptance letter from Hamilton, seeing the confetti and getting so excited because my high school and camp friends who had gone to Hamilton before me spoke so highly of it.
However, since being at Hamilton, I have found that the way the school markets itself is far different than its realities.
I am appalled at the way that physical and mental health is treated here. Even before I came to Hamilton, I was wary about the school’s approach to health because of a presentation that my high school held on college life. When we reached the section on mental health, my high school explicitly cited Hamilton as an example of a college that responds poorly to mental health. In particular, they talked about the recent cases of suicide that have happened at this school. At the time, I dismissed that presentation, thinking that the recency and severity of these cases would have scared Hamilton enough into making drastic changes in its health programs.
However, I was wrong. I’ve been lucky, as I’ve only had minor issues with health at Hamilton. First, I was not able to see my therapist frequently, with the demand for therapists at Hamilton making many students (including me) wait two to three weeks for each appointment. Second, despite being on top of my vaccines and being extra careful socially due to the rise in cases on-campus, I recently got COVID-19 for the first time. Even though I had a “mild” strain of the virus, Hamilton should have been more diligent in testing students before and after their return from Spring Break, as COVID-19 is still physically and mentally horrible for anyone who gets it, and that spike in cases put our entire community, especially immunocompromised members, in a risky position. Additionally, there is now a chance that my family will not be able to attend my graduation in person because the spike puts my family, particularly my mom (who is immunocompromised due to her current battle with cancer), at risk of getting COVID-19.
Despite my “luck,” several students have had worse experiences with the Health Center, as
The Spectator
demonstrated in its several articles on the consequences of the center’s low capacity. In lieu of treating all patients, the Health Center will “sort” students by severity: if you are not “sick enough,” you should just stay home and take an Advil; if you are “too sick,” you should go to the hospital. If your mental health is “not too bad,” you should just wait several weeks for a therapist, but if your mental health is “too severe,” you should go to the hospital or just leave school indeterminately. As Julia Dupuis ’21 demonstrated in their Spring 2021 longform investigation article for
The Spectator
, students who try fixing their health themselves risk getting worse, while those who go to the local emergency rooms or hospitals risk maltreatment, harassment and abuse. I am glad that the Health Center is hiring more staff, but with a $1.47 billion endowment, is there really no “wiggle room” to hire a larger variety of staff, improve the Health Center’s resources and programs and/or pay Health Center staff more to incentivize them to stay longer? If there is really no “wiggle room,” then can we change the culture surrounding health at this school? Don’t get me wrong, I love programming such Food Truck Fridays and Goat Yoga, but those activities do not change the fact that many students are stressed, anxious, tired and depressed because this college fosters a culture of competition and overworking so that it can appear rigorous and prestigious amongst its peer institutions.
Besides health, I am also devastated and angered that some members of our community think that they can direct ableist, classist, fatphobic, homophobic, racist, sexist and xenophobic actions and behavior towards their peers.
I am specifically speaking to the cowards that hide behind the anonymity of Jodel and make awful comments that they would not have the bravery to make in person.
I am directly speaking to Rosary Club. You go to websites outside of Hamilton and frame yourself as a victim, yet you abuse the campus-wide listserv as a means of directing hate and prejudice towards groups just because you don’t identify with them? How dare you tell me how to treat my body, when it is not your own? How dare you tell members of the LGBTQIA+ community that they should not marry, when it is not your union? How dare you claim that you believe in the “sanctity” of life while you promote policies and ideologies that endanger the lives of so many?
Most of all, I am speaking to everyone who is complicit in allowing these actions and behaviors to happen, particularly the administration. Yes, you may not have explicitly acted or behaved in these ways. However, when you say you view these actions and behaviors as a problem, but then turn a blind eye to students, faculty, and staff who are victims of and report these problems, and then you fail to do anything concrete to fix them, then what does that mean about Hamilton’s morals and values? Why does Hamilton not do more to condemn on-campus individuals and groups that perpetuate these problematic actions and behaviors, and off-campus groups like the Alexander Hamilton Institute (AHI) and
The Enquiry
that support them? Why do we protect institutions like Greek life that not only have a history of these actions and behaviors, but have a track record of sexual harassment and assault? Why do we not do more to protect students of color, female and nonbinary students, LGBTQIA+ students, disabled students, international multilingual students and any students that represent a marginalized community on campus? Why do we not better protect faculty and staff who are also part of these marginalized communities?
I acknowledge that this letter only scratches the surface. I am frustrated that no matter how many articles
The Spectator
writes, no matter how many emails students send or meetings we have with administrators about these issues, no matter the number of protests and marches the student body has condemning the problems, it seems as if no one listens to us. Just because we are students, that does not mean that our complaints are invalid, or that we are too “immature” to know what we are talking about. Our voices, our complaints, our problems matter. If there’s one thing that I hope readers, especially the administration, gets out of this letter, it is that all of these issues are serious, and we need to take more concrete steps to actually fix them.
Despite these problems, I am incredibly grateful for all of the relationships and positive experiences that I have had at Hamilton. I would like to thank my current and former advisors (Robert Knight, Erica DeBruin, Joseph Mwantuali, Martine Guyot-Bender, Alan Cafruny and Claire Mouflard); the strong and passionate group of girls from the Women’s Club Soccer team; my smart and creative classmates from the Career Center; and of course, all of the talented and thoughtful writers, editors and photographers that I have ever worked with at
The Spectator
. Specifically, I wanted to thank Claire, Cole and Eric for serving as co-editors with me. I enjoyed and learned so much from each and every one of you, and I wish the best of luck to Cole and Eric this fall. Finally, I would like to thank my family and Hamilton friends for supporting and believing in me these past four years. Thank you all so much for bringing joy and purpose to my time at Hamilton.
With care,
Emma Mae