The Kirkland College Records document the administrative, programmatic, and academic functions of Kirkland College. Formats include meeting minutes, programs, reports, correspondence, and publications.
Researchers accessing the records will gain insight into a liberal arts women's college that existed from in Clinton, New York. Copyright restrictions may apply. Unpublished manuscripts are protected by copyright. Permission to publish, quote, or reproduce must be secured from the repository and the copyright holder. The money came with some strings attached, however. Hamilton would have to raise substantial matching donations throughout the next several years spurring the growth of a professional development office and staff.
These were heady times in higher education circles. Spurred by national prosperity as well as Cold War anxieties of falling behind the Soviets, generous federal subsidies had been flowing to higher education since the s for bricks and mortar, student scholarships and support for faculty research, especially in the sciences. In New York the state legislature increased funding for Regents scholarships while the New York State Dormitory Authority, originally established to finance construction at public universities in the state, extended its activities to include bond issues for construction at private colleges and universities.
Private funding sources such as the Ford Foundation were flush with cash in the booming economy and eager to underwrite exciting innovations in higher education. The proposal was modeled on the Claremont system, a consortium of undergraduate and graduate schools in southern California founded in the s around already-existing Pomona College.
The Long Range Planning Committee envisioned Hamilton playing a comparable role at the center of its own cluster. Students at the coordinate colleges would be able to cross-register for courses at the other campuses. Some of the ideas for coordinate institutions included an engineering school, a medical school and a business school.
