October 31, 2014
Ashoka U recently recognized Hamilton as one of 29 changemaker campuses. For students’ work in Utica and the surrounding area, Hamilton joined colleges such as Duke, Cornell and Brown as leaders in social innovation. Similar to the economic diversity ranking I wrote about earlier this year, this ranking allows us to ask a few questions about Hamilton’s social innovation: What is it? and Does Hamilton have social innovation?
Ashoka’s selection for changemaker campuses is a three-step process. The first phase is a “360 Campus Scan.” In this step, schools submit themselves for an “empowering experience and structured process to assess the changemaking ecosystem at an institution.” Next, Ashoka U makes a campus visit for “interviews with senior leaders” to gather information for their selection panel. Finally, two campus representatives speak in front of a selection panel who decide whether or not to award the institution.
This rigorous three-step process shows that they do a great job of vetting their schools. The elite group of just 29 schools adds to their selectivity. Therefore, Hamilton’s standing as a changemaker campus deserves some recognition. The work done as part of HAVOC Make a Difference days, Hamilton Serves and several bake sales and clothing drives that happen throughout the year is certainly being noticed on a national stage.
Is Hamilton actually making a difference in Utica? Once a major manufacturing town of the northeastern Rust Belt, Utica has lost a lot of its economic prowess in the past twenty or so years. While this statistic is a bit dated, Utica posted 35 percent of residents below the poverty level in 2009. That statistic looks worse when juxtaposed against the 18 percent of residents of New York State below the poverty line. However, Robert Palmieri, who became mayor in 2011, is looking to move the city forward from the private sector.
Utica and the surrounding areas need the help that Hamilton tries to provide. With support for local schools in terms of study buddies or mentoring programs such as Sidekicks, Hamilton is helping the community from the youth generation up to supporting food banks and shelters to help the locals put food on the table. With the number of community service organizations on campus, Hamilton’s involvement with the upstate New York community is certainly making an impact.
Social innovation is a rather vague description of what Ashoka is looking for, but if it means helping the greater community improve, Hamilton certainly has it. The school’s community service efforts are well organized and exhibited by almost every club, organization, or sports team on campus.
While Hamilton could always improve their efforts to help the community, organizations such as HAVOC are doing a great job serving the greater area and getting Hamilton students to look outside of the small college bubble. With nearly every Hamilton student helping out at least once a semester, Hamilton’s participation rate is high and Ashoka’s recognition should help student to stop and look at what we’re doing for the community. Hopefully, they will recognize the efforts going on campus and look to increase their roles to help Hamilton live up to this distinction.
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