Opinion
Wippman: the students' president
By Cesar Renero '17
September 1, 2016
Tags opinion
This week, our editor-in-chief interviewed David Wippman, the new President of Hamilton College. The interview reflected not only the general direction President Wippman hopes to take during his tenure but also his character. It is perhaps timely to scrutinize his comments, so that we may ponder and suggest solutions in regards to the various challenges facing the Hamilton community.
During his interview, Wippman routinely stressed that his priority is to get to know the college through an individualized approach. This already sets him apart from his predecessor, who was regarded by many students as distant and difficult to approach. “I almost never saw her on campus, although I did see her once at an alumni event” commented Andrew Fletcher ’17. During a time when the country is rocked by racial and social divisionism and Hamilton is introducing a diversity requirement, a communicative president is essential to increase multiculturalism and strengthen the bonds of respect and understanding within the Hamilton community.
Also in regards to diversity, Wippman lauded Hamilton’s need-blind policy, a hallmark of immediate past President Joan Hinde Stewart’s tenure, but stressed that there is still much to be done. In an Aug. 25 e-mail, President Wippman recognized the widespread “political polarization” happening beyond the Hill and promised to have dialogues throughout the year to discuss these events. In the interview, he mentioned working with Director of Opportunity Programs, Phyllis Breland, to increase the number of programs that focus on diversity and inclusion. The process of hiring new faculty will include diversity as an “important consideration in the search of progress,” as Wippman indicated in his Spectator interview. We can thus hope to increase the diversity of the faculty and expand the number of perspectives offered to students. These proposals not only respond to years of student demands regarding diversity, but they also help us to determine the tone the Wippman presidency will have regarding multiculturalism and diversity inclusion.
Wippman characterized residential liberal-arts colleges as the gold standard in higher education, and recognized the incredible upward trajectory Hamilton has had in recent years regarding academic quality. Immediate past President Stewart oversaw both the construction and the expansion of some of the biggest buildings on campus, endowing Hamilton with the infrastructure that is crucial to achieve academic excellence. President Wippman was reticent on giving an immediate answer on what he will do to continue this momentum, preferring a meditative approach. Once he has gathered enough information, we may expect him to focus on curricular and faculty issues. Having already provided answers to pressing diversity questions, it would be a natural step to reexamine the fundamentals of higher education and to reevaluate the factors and variables impacting the interaction between students and faculty, both in and out of the classroom.
The interview also helped shed light on President’s Wippman’s views regarding sexual assault at Hamilton College. He emphasized that “one incident of sexual assault is one too many” and promised to increase the visibility of our current policy and support systems. While we cannot yet expect to have concrete policy proposals regarding sexual abuse, he should make an effort to reach out to clubs, sports teams and student societies, all of which could help increase the breadth and impact of Hamilton’s support system to prevent sexual assault. It is also imperative for students to seek out the President to provide him with information and advice on how to best tackle the problem.
Perhaps it is too early to do a methodical analysis of President Wippman, but this interview did provide an introduction to our new president’s personality and work approach. Wippman has shown himself to be a charismatic and effective communicator, intent on listening to as many people as possible. We need not fear he will be an impulsive decision maker, although we might grow restless because of his pensiveness and meditative attitude. However, the most important thing I learned from this interview is that he will be first and foremost a students’ president. I have seen him almost every day in Commons at lunch, and I think he will go out of his way to talk to us, but that also means we must step out of our comfort zone, go up to him and say “Hi President Wippman! I wanted you to know really concerns me and here’s what I think we can do to help.”