CLINTON — Hamilton College President Joan Hinde Stewart has a lot of work to tackle over the next 18 months. Stewart, who announced her plans the first week of December, will retire on June 30, 2016, but doesn’t plan to coast through her last year and a half on the job.
High on her list of priorities is nurturing the college’s need-blind admission policy. In 2010, the college adopted the policy, meaning it considers applicants on their academic and other merits, not their ability to pay. Hamilton College then finds a way to make it work financially for the student.
“We’re very proud of that,” Stewart says. For the 2014-15 academic year, tuition is $47,820 with an additional $12,150 for room and board. About half of the college’s students receive financial aid, with the average financial-aid package (comprised of scholarships, student loans, and work-study jobs) totaling about $40,900.
Hamilton College’s financial-aid budget totals $34 million, and Stewart says one of her main focuses over the next 18 months will be to work to raise funds to continue to meet the financial needs of students.
“We’re proud of the steps we have made to increase accessibility to the college,” Stewart says. That doesn’t mean it isn’t still a competitive process. Hamilton College accepted just 26 percent of applicants into the class of 2018, and 85 percent of its 1,850 students are ranked in the top 10 percent of their high-school class.
Another highlight Stewart takes pride in is the increasing role of the college’s career center, which has expanded the scope of how it helps prepare students for careers after college.
“I think it should be a national model,” Stewart says of Hamilton College’s career center, which assists with traditional activities such as résumé writing, and also teaches students how to network, helps arrange internship opportunities, and provides career and job-search role models.
Under Stewart’s leadership, the college has also added new academic programs and hired new faculty members; invested nearly $250 million in new and renovated science, social science, studio and performing arts, student activities, and fitness and recreation facilities; completed two successful capital campaigns; and implemented a strategic plan to advance the values of education for self-direction, a self-governing community, thoughtful dialog and debate, and engagement for the world, Hamilton College says.
“I’ve had the privilege of working with wonderful colleagues,” Stewart says. She feels secure in the college’s standing to move on and let another person take the reins at this point. She announced her plans to retire to the college as soon as she was sure of them, wanting to give Hamilton officials ample time to find her replacement. While no action has been taken yet, Stewart expects the search for Hamilton College’s next president will be a national search.
Stewart began her tenure as the college’s first female president on July 1, 2003. Prior to joining Hamilton College, she was a faculty member at North Carolina State University from 1973 to 1999. While there, Stewart was chair of the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures from 1985 to 1997. She also served as assistant dean for research and graduate programs for the College of Humanities and Social Sciences. Stewart is a 1965 graduate of St. Joseph’s College in Brooklyn and received her Ph.D. from Yale University in 1970.
Stewart’s area of study is 18th century French literature and she plans to continue reading, writing, and researching in her retirement. She has kept up a research program throughout her time as Hamilton’s president. “I’ll be able to do that with renewed vigor,” Stewart adds. Her hope is to remain active and useful in the higher-education field in retirement.
Stewart and her husband, Philip, have not yet decided if they will stay in New York or return to North Carolina, where they have a home. The couple has two grown children.
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