Kirkland College - History

History

Planning for Kirkland began during the 1962-1963 academic year, with assistance from then-Hamilton College president Robert W. McEwen. It was named after Samuel Kirkland, the founder of Hamilton. Since Hamilton was a men's college, Kirkland College, a college for women, was envisioned as the first of several institutions which would form a cluster similar to the Claremont Colleges. Though that vision was never achieved two factors led to a more innovative and experimental nature at Kirkland: first, the introduction of progressive views of undergraduate education on the part of Millicent C. McIntosh, former President of Barnard College, and second, the mandate to "make a fresh attack on introducing major fields of learning" without being constrained by the more traditional patterns at Hamilton - a mandate embraced by Kirkland's president, Samuel F. Babbitt. The untimely passing of Hamilton President McEwen led to the abandonment of the multiple coordinate colleges plan.

Kirkland opened in 1968 on its own campus located adjacent to Hamilton College. The Kirkland faculty and students operated in a more diverse and transparent community than had been the norm at Hamilton, and there were many differences that led to small and large conflicts between the two institutions. Meantime, the economic climate, which had been very positive during the planning stages for Kirkland, began to deteriorate. As a result, the debt service accruing to build Kirkland's entirely new campus exerted a tremendous burden on its finances. It was forced to turn to Hamilton for relief. In 1977, Hamilton refused such relief, and the two colleges were merged under protest into a single, coeducational Hamilton in 1978.

A recent book (published in 2007) by Samuel Fisher Babbitt, Kirkland's only president, Limited Engagement: Kirkland College 1965-1978, An Intimate History of the Rise and Fall of a Coordinate College for Women, provides an in-depth, first person account of Kirkland's brief existence. In additional to personal records and recollection, Babbitt was able to employ archival material housed in the Hamilton College and Columbia University libraries.