Participate
Greetings!
“Open Mike” has been a tradition at Kirkland College events since its inception. We hope this site will act as a virtual microphone for your memories, reflections and opinion.
Anyone is welcome to browse. You can use the Navigation icons, the Search Box, or the drop-down Categories list to see what’s available. Any visitor can submit comments to articles on this site. Pnce your first comment is approved by a moderator, all subsequent comments will appear online immediately.
We encourage Kirkland community members to become contributing Authors, with the ability to post and edit their own stories and audiovisual memorabilia. Here’s how to get started:
1 – Send an email request with your real name (and class year if applicable) to: karchive (at) hamilton.edu. Past faculty, staff and “Kirkletonians” are welcome to contribute.
2 – We will respond with an invitation to create a free account at wordpress.com, our hosting service. (You do not need to create your own blog there, just a free username/password).
3 – We will use the email address you contacted us with to confirm your membership. You’ll get an acknowledgment, so you can then log in and start posting.
We are happy to provide assistance and support to those who are unfamiliar with WordPress (see also Tech Support). When you post an article, we ask that you select a Category from our list (Roots, Leaves, Flowers, or Fruit) to assist other in searching for content. You can also add a “tag” of your own choosing to describe your topic, which will also become searchable.
Any questions? Just click on “comment” below and we’ll respond on this page. Thanks for participating, and we look forward to reading your Kirkland stories.
Jennie, Jo and Judy
Kirkland College 
JJJ – What a wonderful idea – an online, ongoing reunion. I’m looking forward to contributing. My only comment after a very quick look is that the font is really hard on my eyes – some of the letters look like dotted lines. Since most of us are 50+, a different font might make reading a little easier. Or maybe it’s just me????…Isabel ’76
Hmm… can’t have that. Feedback is helpful, and we’ll try to adjust the type.
Hi Isabel:
Thanks for participating honestly. We used the “free” and available fonts but the three of us have agreed to foot the bill to purchase better ones. I hear you about the eye strain!
We are doing this work with no budget, but encourage all to consider a donation of any size to help us continue to make improvements and fund other AMP projects!
Thanks again for your comments.
Thank you for changing the font! It looks wonderful and I can’t wait to read every word!
Isabel
I love what you’ve done! Thank you to the designers and implementers of this website, and I look forward to where it takes us.
Caroline Baum Webber K’73
This site is addictive! I love it!
Just wondering why – if you go “Home”, scroll down and click on “Creative Writing” you get one comment.If you click on Watrous Prizes the “link is broken”.
But if you go to “Creative Writing” from the “Innovative Education” page you get a different comment and the link to Watrous Prizes works. Is it set up so that comments will only show up under the link that they’re posted?
Isabel ’76
Another astute observation, Isabel. I’ll fix that link.
The rest is an artifact of the way I initially set up the navigation. There are two Creative Writing entries with the same text. WordPress makes a distinction between “pages” and “posts” though they can look very similar. I originally put Jo’s Creative Writing article into 5 pages, then discovered that I couldn’t attach them to a category (Flowers). So I re-created the first part as a post, with page links embedded.
Clear as mud? Suffice to say, all articles should be Posts in the future.
Kirkland came out of mud, which turned out well, don’t you think? Thanks to you, Judy and Jo for a for creating such a wonderful way for us to communicate and share our Kirkland stories.
THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU! Judy, Jo and Jennie — This is wonderful, creative, FUN! How long has the Wikipedia page been this comprehensive? Did you write that as well?
Shall we have a place where alumnae can post their most treasured evaluations? They give good insight into the culture of the place! I’ll dig mine out. JPH
Jennifer,
I am looking for my evaluations too. Haven’t found them yet. Are you able to scan one of yours and email it to me? I’ve written the text and just need some examples. Thanks!
Jo
My pleasure, Jennifer, totally. Reading so many positive responses has been hugely gratifying.
Jo is working on an evaluations article, and can be reached at karchive (at) hamilton.edu. I did update the Wikipedia entry, after reading a very slanted version of our history there. Clearly, there’s plenty more to be written ;-}
Jennie – Judy – Jo –
I have all my evaluations – do you want me to scan them and send?
For Valentine’s Day romance, check out the stories of Hamilton – Kirkland weddings (including mine):
https://my.hamilton.edu/alumni/couples/stories.html
Isabel,
It would be great if you could scan one evaluation you really like and send it to karchive@hamilton.edu. I’ll use a few different ones from different years.
And I also enjoyed the Valentine’s Day stories–
Thanks so much!
Jo
Isabel:
Yes, I discovered those Kirkland-Hamilton love stories last week. You’ve been busy!
Jo is handling the evaluations page, so I’ll defer that question to her, but I would think she’d like to have at least a few of your evaluations. Can you also re-send the story of the hooked rug of our seal to our karchive address? Thanks so much for your enthusiasm.
Thanks so much!
Judy
One of my favorite aspects of a Kirkland education was Independent Study. The collaborative aspects of Independent Study nurtured my soul. I learned things by working directly with Professors I couldn’t have learned anywhere else. Doug Raybeck help me learn Indonesian (my parents lived in Jakarta while I was at Kirkland). His PhD research had been in Malaysia, and the two languages are similar. The only problem was when Doug slipped into dialect, I had no idea what he was saying.
I studied the importance of childrens literature with Natalie Babbitt. The odd part was that I never read her books, nor did she suggest that I do so. I think I worked harder and certainly had more fun when I did Independent Study. How many of you did Independent Study?
How many of you liked or disliked it? I still wonder what our Professors thought of it–but assume they enjoyed it or they wouldn’t have been at Kirkland.
My sister-in-law, Meg Charlop was a Kirkland Grad. She was killed while riding her bike in the Bronx on March 17. After graduation, Meg became a community organizer in the Bronx where she spent her entire 30 year career. She and my brother, Richie Powers, have four grown children. There have been a number of stories about her in NYC papers.
Here are links to several of them.
http://www.norwoodnews.org/story/?id=1864
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/18/for-bronx-community-organizer-work-and-life-were-one/?emc=eta1
So I open an email on my Blackberry and I see a photograph of snow covered small branches and at once I recognized it from a Kirkland publication from my days on The Hill. Then I go to the website and see all of the comments, articles, and photographs. Not only that but Liz Horwitt is writing about The Three Sisters which was done in the round at Minor Theatre with yours truly playing the Sisters’ brother. Great memories. Alphonse Sallett teaching a sociology class. The Coffee House with David Bromberg, (who I hear now on XM satellite radio), the menagie on the Hill which is why I have two Labradors. Remember the Sig dogs that roamed the campus. An obit on Olive! It was a time. Your efforts are truly appreciated. I’m a subscriber. Thanks. Matt