This Saturday, Steven Tepper was officially inaugurated as the 21st president of Hamilton College after a parade of praise from friends and members of the Hamilton community. Throughout the hour-and-a-half ceremony, community leaders from Hamilton’s student government, board of trustees and the village of Clinton gave speeches introducing and welcoming Tepper to Hamilton. Amongst these speeches, a theme of creativity emerged, culminating in Tepper’s announcement of a new presidential initiative to provide funding for “what if” ideas.
The ceremony began with the procession of Hamilton College faculty to “La Mourisque” and “Fanfare from La Peri,” played by the Hamilton College Brass Ensemble. It continued into a Land Acknowledgement from College Marshal Lisa Trivedi and a welcome speech from Chairman of the Board of Trustees David Solomon ʼ84, P’16. After a musical interlude of “Hor che la vaga Aurora” from the Hamilton College Choir, greetings were given by Student Government Alliance Vice President Quentin Messer ʼ26, professor of chemistry Karen Brewer, Co-Chairs of the Staff Assembly Kevin Alexander ʼ13 and Katrina Schell ʼ03, Mayor of Clinton Elizabeth Tantillo, Alumni Association Immediate Past President John Christopher ʼ83 P’14 and Board of Trustees Co-Vice Chair Linda Johnson ʼ80. Each greeting was on behalf of the different groups involved in the Hamilton College community.
Following the greetings, Daniel Bernard Roumain, a composer, performer, professor and friend of Tepper, gave an impassioned speech about the goals of his friend in the Office of the President. He told the audience, “I was speaking with my friend Steven, and he said, ‘Imagine everyone is rowing in the same direction. Who would not want to be on that boat, cutting through the water, the feeling of 11momentum, teamwork and the thrill of seeing the horizon racing towards us. Who would not want to be on that boat.’ And I responded, ‘What if, instead of I have a dream, it was we have a dream.’” Throughout his speech, Roumain emphasized Tepper’s focus on collaboration and asking creative questions.
After receiving an Honorary Degree of Law and another musical interlude of “Canocona Bergamasca” from the Hamilton Brass Ensemble, Tepper took the stage. In the nature of asking ‘what if?’ questions, Tepper asked the audience “How can we deploy the College to become a national laboratory for creativity and democracy?” The “What If?” Initiative aims to make Hamilton College into a leader amongst liberal arts colleges in creativity. Tepper’s goal is to bring creativity from the individual level to the institution level, saying “I’ve observed there are certainly pockets of creativity throughout our sector. There are so many creative people, but our institutions are not creative.”
Tepper went on to describe the type of projects he saw in his “What If?” Initiative. He posited, “Many of you have ideas you’re walking around with for how to make this college a better place. New ways to engage with difficult conversation, new ways to encourage approaches to our democracy, new ways to practice the liberal arts, new ways to engage in technology, new ways to connect art, sustainability and science.”
In a follow-up interview, Tepper told The Spectator, “We’ll bring people together in a festival of exchange, and then we’re going to fund pilots and experiments. And the only real criteria is that you have an idea that’s non-routine that you think will make campus better.”
When asked what the specific boundaries of the initiative were, Tepper told The Spectator, “We’re trying to keep the parameters pretty open.” In an email sent out on Tuesday, Tepper gave an outline of the general goals and parameters of the initiative. From the email, propositions should aim to unite departments that might not normally interact to improve the teaching and learning opportunities and capabilities of Hamilton College.
Propositions can be submitted by any student or employee of Hamilton College. There are three types of proposals that can be submitted for the “What If?” Initiative: Spark, Catalyst and Transformational. Spark propositions are smaller proposals to be designed within one semester and implemented the next. These propositions are given a budget of under $2,000. Catalyst propositions are larger projects which may require expanded community partnerships and are given up to an academic year to develop. These propositions are given a budget of under $10,000. Finally, Transformational propositions are for ideas that will significantly improve the College and have no specific budget cap or time constraint. All funding will come from the Office of President.
Each proposition will be reviewed and granted appropriate funding by an overseeing committee. This committee currently consists of seven members of Hamilton staff and faculty, but according to Tepper, it has room to grow and change as necessary. Propositions require an idea phrased as a “what if?” style question, a three to four sentence pitch, a two to three paragraph summary with intended outcomes, the type of proposition, a draft budget and a list of current collaborators.
However, throughout the course of the investiture ceremony, another theme emerged: protest. In his speech, Roumain said, “No one president can satisfy all the moral and political obligations, obligations layered deep in a dense wall of opinions met by endless avenues of demands and choices and protests and prayer. And President Tepper, I have no doubt, is committed to your education, your success, your future, and will do all that he can every day to make all of your lives just a little bit better than the day before. And for some of you, it will be more than enough, and for others, it will never be enough. This is an albatross that we will all carry at some point in our lives. I have protested with a clenched fist, and then I was exhausted, and I opened my hand to you, and I proclaimed my love for you. My friend Steven changed my life, y’all.”
This spirit of protest manifested itself when David Solomon, CEO of Goldman Sachs and Chair of the Hamilton Board of Trustees, took the stage. At that moment, many student protestors walked out of the ceremony to show their disapproval of the Hamilton endowment. Other students with a role in the ceremony held up signs with the words “Disclose” and “Divest.” After the ceremony ended, protestors stood outside the Bundy Scott Field House, holding up signs and chanting “Disclose. Divest. We will not stop, we will not rest.”
This protest was in line with the protests of last week in response to the execution of Marcellus “Khalifah” Williams and the Israeli bombing of Lebanon. These protests have been organized by Students for Justice in Palestine and aim to pressure the College into disclosing its investments and divesting from fossil fuels and the military industrial complex.
Tepper told The Spectator, “We’re listening and we’re hearing, and they are putting forward a serious issue of moral importance to consider, and we appreciate that they’re doing that in a way that respects each other and respects the campus. I don’t think I could ask for them to express themselves any differently.” This statement echoes previous statements Tepper has made on preserving the free speech of students and listening to what they have to say. When asked if Hamilton would disclose its investments or divest, Tepper said, “There will be a conversation with some members of our trustees about how the endowment works to make sure they understand. We have no plans to divest.”
With Tepper as president, Hamilton will move into a new era. The “What If?” Initiative provides a way for students and employees to create new projects to change the way campus is structured, which in turn could improve the lives of students and employees. However, without plans to divest, some students may be left unsatisfied by the change. As Roumain said, Tepper may not be able to “satisfy all the moral and political obligations.” Despite that, he has already indicated openness to new changes on campus.
