HWS News
29 December 2023 • Athletics • Faculty • Service Outstanding Highlights from 2023
At the start of the new year, we reflect on some of the many accolades and achievements of 2023.
Faculty Excellence Recognized
For the seventh year in a row, HWS faculty were ranked among the best in the nation, according to the Princeton Review. The annual rankings include HWS on the “Professors Get High Marks” list, based on student reports of their experiences. Faculty also appeared in dozens of publications and media outlets over the course of the year, including Time magazine, The Wall Street Journal, MSN, Los Angeles Review of Books, Foreign Affairs, Voice of America, Newsweek, National Public Radio, BBC Radio and Inside Higher Ed.
Adams Intercultural Center Opens
This year, generations of alumni returned to campus, joining students, faculty, staff and Geneva neighbors to celebrate the opening of the newly renovated and expanded Adams Intercultural Center (AIC), named in honor of the Rev. Alger Adams ’32, D.D. ’83, Hobart College’s first Black graduate. Thanks to a leadership gift from Board Chair Craig R. Stine ’81, P’17 and Kathy Hay Stine P’17, the AIC includes social spaces, offices, a computer lab, and multipurpose room.
Best Career Services
Confirming what we have long known, HWS appeared on Princeton Review’s top-25 “Best Career Services” list, as well as the list of “Colleges That Create Futures,” which includes 50 schools that “empower students to discover practical applications for their talents and interests through experiences that complement their classes and coursework.”
A Banner Year for the Statesmen and Herons
Hobart hockey captured its first National Championship, scoring a heart-stopping 3-2 overtime victory against Adrian in the title game. In its inaugural season, the William Smith alpine skiing team finished third at the USCSA National Championships and, two months later, William Smith lacrosse carried an undefeated record into the national semifinals, securing the Liberty League regular season and tournament championships along the way, and finished the season ranked No. 3 in the country. The winning ways continued into fall, as William Smith soccer, William Smith field hockey and Hobart soccer all won Liberty League Tournament titles on the same day. All of that winning resulted in scores of awards for the Herons and Statesmen, including 14 All-Americans.
Spark!
HWS extended Orientation into a weeklong program, designed to create meaningful opportunities for students to get to know one another, campus and their new Finger Lakes home. A cornerstone of the extended Orientation program were Spark! projects, designed to introduce students to HWS’ intellectual community. With a small peer cohort and led by faculty and staff, students completed a two-day immersion into a topic of local interest, ranging from public art and the LGBTQ movement, to fly-fishing and ecology, to outdoor education and community development.
New Academic Programs
In 2023, we launched a new major in Management and Entrepreneurship and new minors in Aquatic Science, Bodies, Disability, and Justice, Critical Museum Studies, Data Analytics, Italian Studies and Music Administration and Entrepreneurship. HWS also created a new Department of Gender, Sexuality, and Intersectional Justice, the Institute for Global Studies and the Public Health Program.
Countdown to the Total Solar Eclipse
Led by Associate Professor of Physics Leslie Hebb, the campus launched a Year of the Sun program, gearing up for the total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024. Fortuitously, Geneva, N.Y. is in the narrow path of totality. This rare and spectacular event has not been visible from Geneva since 1806, 16 years before the founding of Hobart College.
Dialogue Across Difference
In the weeks following the horrific terrorist attack in Israel and the devastating violence in Gaza, faculty and staff held open sessions to share their expertise and provide the campus community with insight regarding the unfolding situation. It was a topic of discussion at the Stern Family Forum, which featured New York Times opinion writer Frank Bruni and communications strategist and pollster Lee Carter, who also explored today’s divided political culture — and how to move beyond it. The President’s Forum featured former U.S. Representatives John J. Faso (R-NY) and Dan Glickman (D-KS) in a wide-ranging conversation about domestic and foreign policy. Former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch and former head of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis Narayana Kocherlakota discussed key diplomatic and economic issues in events sponsored by James F. Anderton IV ’65. The award-winning theatre troupe Breaking Ice staged two performances to foster productive dialogue around issues of diversity, equity and belonging.
Celebrating Service
From Morocco to Geneva, N.Y., HWS’ commitment to service in 2023 celebrated another successful year. Five students from the Class of 2023 were accepted to the Peace Corps to serve in Guatemala, Morocco, North Macedonia and Paraguay. In Geneva, three students joined AmeriCorps, contributing to community-identified projects. For the seventh year in a row, HWS is among the top five U.S. liberal arts institutions recognized for service, according to Washington Monthly’s annual rankings. Student Trustee and Co-President of HWS Votes Samari Brown ’24 was named to the All In Campus Democracy Challenge Honor Roll for her work to increase voter engagement and turnout.
Support for the Future
Thanks to the engagement of the HWS community, 2023 was a spectacular fundraising year. New gifts and commitments totaled nearly $36 million during the 2022-23 fiscal year, the second-best fundraising year in HWS history. The total includes a $5.5 million gift from Honorary Trustee Katherine D. Elliott ’66, L.H.D. ’08 and Richard S. Abramson for scholarships and the Annual Fund and a $5 million gift from Kevin Stein ’88 and his family in support of a state-of-the-art building that will be the hub of scientific education at Hobart and William Smith.
Global Perspectives
In addition to students studying in faculty-led abroad programs around the world, HWS faculty and students earned significant national and international scholarships and awards including: Fulbrights in Taiwan and Germany; a Fulbright-Hays Group Project in Georgia, a Princeton in Asia Fellowship in Mongolia; an ASIANetwork grant to Tokyo; the Technos International in Tokyo, Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarships in Costa Rica, Germany, Italy, New Zealand, Indonesia and South Korea; and the World Universities Debating Championship in Madrid, Spain.
