For more information about Residential Education, visit the department Web page.
For more information about campus clubs and organizations, visit the Office of Student Affairs.
For more information about spiritual life, visit the Office of Religious Life Web site.
For more information about community engagement, visit the Center for Community Engagement and Service-Learning Web site.
For more information about athletics, visit Hobart Athletics or William Smith Athletics.
For more information about club sports, visit the intramurals page.
For more information about the wellness program, visit Recreation and Wellness.
If you'd like to pick up a printed and bound 8 1/2 x 11 copy of the 2008-2010 Catalogue, limited copies will be available in the Provost's Office and the Office of the Registrar, as well as the Hobart Deans Office and the William Smith Deans Office, starting Monday, September 8.
The 2006-2008 catalogue is still available online as a PDF. To browse it, click here.
If you have questions or comments about the new online catalogue, please send us your feedback.
Life at Hobart and William Smith Colleges is that of community. A select student enrollment, drawn from many areas and backgrounds, and a distinguished faculty produce an atmosphere conducive to individual effort and achievement. In co-curricular, as in academic matters, students play a major role in their own governance. From helping to enforce their own residence regulations and guidelines for student conduct, to overseeing many co-curricular programs, students are involved in shaping the campus lifestyle. Many campus committees encourage student membership, and two students—one senior from each college—are voting members of the Colleges’ Board of Trustees.
Hobart and William Smith Colleges are residential colleges. The Colleges seek to provide students with a comfortable and attractive living environment, designed to support the Colleges’ mission while fostering the development of interpersonal skills, moral reasoning, sense of self, well-being, and a strong commitment to the community.
Campus Housing
A variety of single-college and mixed college residences, including theme houses, cooperatives, townhouses and traditional residence halls, are available. Theme houses, of which there are more than a dozen, include a community service house, a leadership house for each College, a vegetarian house, a writers’ house, a substance free house, a gender equity house, and more.
All students are required to live in college residences. Housing for first-year students is based on first-year seminar assignments. After the first year, students select their own housing assignments by participating in the housing process conducted during spring semester.
Fraternity Housing
Some upperclass Hobart students choose to live in one of five fraternity houses. There are no sororities at William Smith.
Off-Campus Housing
The limited number of seniors (approximately 70) granted permission to live off-campus are responsible for locating their own living. The Colleges place an emphasis on citizenship and helping students gain an understanding of the responsibilities of residential community living. Students who abuse this responsibility may lose the privilege of their off-campus status.
Meal Plans
All students except co-op, fraternity and a few small house residents, are required to participate in a full meal plan, (Geneva, Seneca or Finger Lakes plan). The dining service offers a varied menu, selected to accommodate regular, vegetarian, and special diets. Participating students may take their meals in Saga Hall in the Scandling Center. Students in selected small houses have a choice of one of the full meal plans or the Partial plan (115 meals/semester). Students living in fraternities, at O'Dells Pond or in off-campus housing have two additional board options: a 45 meal/semester plan, or a 90 meal/semester plan.
Hobart College and William Smith College have separate student governments, each with its own jurisdictions and powers. Together, they fund clubs and maintain several joint committees.
Every enrolled student is a member of student government (Hobart Student Government or William Smith Congress). Voting members are elected within residence halls. Students who live off campus elect representatives as well. The executive board is elected at large by the student body.
The governments have three major functions: coordinating the advisory roles performed by students on trustee, faculty, and administrative committees; legislating the uses of student activities monies; and representing and voicing the views of students about campus issues. Through their representatives to trustee, faculty, and administrative committees, the governments exert and shape student influence at nearly every level of decision-making within the institution. The governments are represented by several standing committees such as Academic Affairs, Room Selection, Social Affairs, and Finance.
Art
An art gallery at Houghton House provides an excellent space for six or seven art exhibitions each year. These exhibitions include works by artists with international reputations as well as by young artists early in their careers. Studio classes regularly visit and discuss these exhibitions. Students enrolled in ART 440 The Art Museum organize an exhibition as a class project. At the end of every year, an exhibition of student art work is displayed.
A formal opening marks the start of each exhibition. Openings are generally held on a Friday night, and include a reception for the artist. These are important social and cultural occasions open to the campus and Geneva community.
Independent studio work is encouraged. Access to studios is available to students not enrolled in classes if permission is obtained from an art department faculty member. There is also a model scheduled one night a week at the Carriage House, in an informal program open to any member of the campus who wishes to pursue her or his own visual interests by drawing and painting directly from the human form.
Dance
Opportunities abound for students interested in studying dance technique, performing in student or faculty led ensembles, participating in guest artist master classes, or attending any of the faculty, student, or guest artist dance concert performances. The Dance Department offers a variety of courses in dance technique each term, as well as dance theory courses such as dance composition, dance history, and improvisation. In addition to ballet, jazz, and modern dance technique courses, the department sponsors master classes and courses by guest faculty members in African Dance, Argentine Tango, and Indian Dance. Students may elect to major or minor in Dance or enroll in Dance technique or theory electives. Students who concentrate in Dance undertake a program of study that fulfills the requirements for either a disciplinary or an interdisciplinary major in dance.
The Department of Dance has four full-time faculty members, additional adjunct faculty, an accompanist, and a technical director/lighting designer. The facilities include a dance studio and a gymnasium-theatre in Winn Seeley. Dance Ensemble, the department’s performance company, is showcased annually in the Spring Faculty Dance Concert. Other performance events throughout the year include informal studio showcases, a Senior Choreographers Concert, and the student-run Koshare Dance Collective Concert. Koshare produces a dance concert each fall that includes many dance styles and techniques: it’s not unusual to find hip-hop, Salsa, jazz, ballet, Broadway, modern, tap and world dance traditions represented at the Koshare concert.
Recent guest artist/visiting dance company teaching and performing residencies have included Susan Marshall & Company from NY; Ananya Dance Theater from Minneapolis, MN, and master classes with Garth Fagan Dance (Rochester,NY) and Philadanco (Philadelphia,PA). Annually the department selects students to participate in the American College Dance Festival Association Conference; at ACDF students have the opportunity to take classes and perform choreography for national adjudicators.
In addition to Dance Department affiliated programs, dance at the Colleges can be found in student created clubs such as the Hipnotiques (hip-hop/step) and the Tango club. Students of all abilities and interests are encouraged to discover dance at Hobart and William Smith Colleges.
Music
Students have many opportunities to take private music lessons and to participate in musical ensembles.
Private music lessons are available through the department of music for each of the following: (trumpet, horn, baritone/euphonium, or tuba), drums (set or rudimentary), guitar (classical or jazz/rock), keyboard (piano, organ, or jazz), strings (violin, viola, cello, or double bass), voice and woodwinds (flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, or saxophone, or jazz saxophone).
As of 2008-09 the per-semester fee for 14 half-hour weekly lessons is $280. Students may take hour-long weekly lessons if they prefer, or half-hour lessons on two separate instruments. In such cases, the per-semester fee is $560 ($280 x 2).
Half-hour music lessons through the department of music earn 1/2 credit per semester (or a full credit for students taking for an hour). To register formally for private music instruction, both the student and teacher must fill out and sign the “private music lesson registration form” at the first lesson in the new semester. The private teachers have these forms (office of the registrar does not).
It is recommended that students reserve early a lesson time slot with the appropriate teacher. Lesson sign-up sheets are located on the “private instruction” bulletin board in the department of music (Williams Hall, 2nd floor).
Guitar students also have the option of taking class guitar at a per-semester cost of $170 for 14 one-hour classes. The sign-up sheet for class guitar is also located on the “private instruction” bulletin board in the music department (Williams Hall, 2nd floor).
For instrumentalists, participation in one or more of the following ensembles is possible: Brass Ensemble, Guitar Ensemble, Jazz Ensemble, String Ensemble, Woodwind Ensemble, Chorale and Community Chorus.
There is no fee for ensemble membership. Membership in each departmental ensemble is by audition. Participation in each departmental ensemble earns 1/2 credit per semester. To register formally for an ensemble, students must schedule an appointment with the appropriate director shown above.
The music department also hosts a number of guest artist performances on campus each year. In addition, HWS students are admitted for free to all concerts in the local “Geneva Concerts” series at the nearby Smith Opera House. The Syracuse Symphony and Rochester Philharmonic Orchestras, as well as a wide range of other guest artists, present concerts each year through this concert series. Finally, student clubs are encouraged to organize regional outings to performing arts events in Rochester, Ithaca, and Syracuse.
Theatre
The active theatre program at the Colleges provides students with a solid foundation in the art, craft, and theory of theatre by offering students experiences which are both performance-oriented and theoretically based.
The core of the interdisciplinary academic program includes a basic curriculum in theatre skills and dramatic literature, as well as opportunities for students to take part in faculty-directed mainstage productions. Courses in acting and playwriting are complemented by courses on world drama and theatre history.
Recent productions, such as Arabian Nights, The Phoenician Women, and The Empire Builders, attest to the dual emphasis on the best in contemporary and classical drama. Courses offered by the program constitute a substantive basis for graduate study and professional training or an elective facet of the Colleges’ arts and humanities program.
The Phoenix Players, a student-managed organization, present a variety of work acted, designed, and directed by students. Recent productions include one-act plays by David Mamet, Christopher Hampton, and student playwrights. Both Phoenix Players’ and faculty-directed productions take place in the Blanchard Howard Bartlett Theatre located in Coxe Hall, as well as in other less formal venues around campus.
Visiting Speakers and Performers
Although academic departments and programs and administrative offices play an important role in providing a wide variety of cultural offerings, many campus events are initiated, funded, and organized by students. Many clubs and organizations sponsor a varied program of speakers and performers. Recent visitors to campus have included Wangari Maathai, Rodney Jones, Cantor David S. Wisnia, Jim Hightower, David Gergen and Helen Thomas.
Student Organizations
There are a variety of campus clubs and organizations financed by student activities fees through the Hobart Student Government and William Smith Congress. Club activities vary somewhat from year to year in response to student interests. Students with a shared interest may seek formal recognition and financial support for a new club or organization by petitioning their student governments.
Student Media
At the Colleges, several groups give the campus specialized news and feature coverage and provide students with a training ground for careers in communications.
The Herald is the oldest continuously published newspaper in Geneva and is published once a week throughout the school year. Staffed entirely by students, The Herald offers experience in photography, journalism, desktop publishing, and business.
Echo and Pine is the yearbook, published annually.
Thel is the annual student literary magazine, featuring student poetry, prose, photography and art.
WEOS-FM, the Colleges’ 4,000-watt campus radio station, is a member of National Public Radio, and offers a comprehensive broadcast schedule of public affairs, sports, information and entertainment programs. Staffed by student and community volunteers, WEOS broadcasts around the clock to the Colleges’ community and the Finger Lakes region, airing both locally produced programs and those of Public Radio International and the BBC.
Social Facilities
A variety of social areas are available for community use. The Cellar, located in the basement of Coxe Hall, combines a pub and coffeehouse. Frequent weekend entertainment is provided. In addition, The Barn provides space for both large and small gatherings. The Café and the Creedon and Wasey Rooms in the Scandling Center serve as gathering places for students and members of the faculty.
Fraternities
There are five fraternities at Hobart with national affiliation: Sigma Chi, Chi Phi, Kappa Alpha, Delta Chi, and Kappa Sigma.
The Religious Life Office located in St. John’s Chapel serves the campus as a center for spiritual life and pastoral care.
St. John’s Chapel offers weekly and special programs of hospitality, service, fellowship, education, reflection, study and worship.
The Chaplain and the director of our Hillel program serve as on-campus pastors, teachers, counselors, and resource persons. Students seek them out to talk over personal or family crises, relationship problems, questions of belief and practice, adjustment issues, faith and politics, sexuality and many other topics.
Weekly worship and prayer services offered by campus groups may include Episcopal, Jewish, Roman Catholic, Evangelical Christian, Buddhist, Quaker and Muslim traditions.
St. John’s Chapel and Hobart College have historic and continuing ties with the Episcopal Church. The Chaplain, who serves all members of the Colleges’ community regardless of religious affiliation, is an Episcopal priest. The Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Rochester serves on the Board of Trustees. Episcopal Eucharist is offered weekly.
The clergy of the Roman Catholic Community of Geneva work in association with the Religious Life Office to serve the Roman Catholic students. In addition to saying weekly Masses in the Chapel, the clergy hold weekly office hours.
The Religious Life Office provides students with information on programs and services offered at Geneva area houses of worship through their Web site.
Hobart and William Smith Colleges are committed to the idea that civic engagement plays a central role in fostering students’ personal and social development and is a vital component in a liberal arts education. Through public service, students’ assumptions are challenged, their perspectives broadened, their voices strengthened, and they learn to become active, engaged citizens. The Center for Community Engagement and Service-Learning is at the heart of this enterprise. The Center stands for learning through service that produces students who are civically engaged and graduates who are active, global citizens. It does this by providing the opportunities that help students build the skills necessary for active citizenship. Staff from the Colleges were instrumental in the formation of the New York Campus Compact, an organization of college and university presidents committed to public service and civic engagement on their campuses. The Colleges’ commitment to service was recognized with inclusion as one of 81 colleges in the Princeton Review’s inaugural edition of Colleges With a Conscience and has been named to the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll with Distinction in 2006 and 2007.
Through HWS Compass, students are encouraged to explore the many facets of service to society. A three tiered program, Compass provides experiences in Community Service, Civic Engagement, and Civic Leadership that chart the course to a life of Engaged Citizenship. Students are connected with service and engagement opportunities on-campus, in the area surrounding Geneva, outside the local region and even internationally. These experiences are meant to help students develop citizenship skills such as leadership, self-awareness, and recognizing societal needs while making a material change that will help meet identified community needs. A major component of these experiences is academic and co-curricular service-learning, linking the service activity to intentional reflection that clearly places the service in a larger context, whether that is with classroom content or experiencing firsthand the response to Hurricane Katrina.
Service-learning classes and the Public Service Minor offer students an experiential component within academic courses. Through meaningful reflection activity, students relate their service experience to the course content, thereby enriching their classroom learning. Incoming first-year students participate in a service-learning project as part of Orientation by reading a chapter of Bill Shore’s The Cathedral Within, going into the community to work with an agency, and then discussing how that experience relates to the reading and their future at the Colleges and beyond. Each incoming class chooses a cause or issue to work on during its 4 years on campus with the “What Do You Stand For?” program.
In addition, the Center, located in Trinity Hall, works with students individually to identify opportunities for ongoing community involvement and oversees the America Reads program, which mobilizes over 100 HWS tutors each year to work in local elementary schools and Head Start programs as part of their college work-study position. The Colleges also sponsor Alternative Spring Break trips each year. In previous years, students have spent a week working with children in a North Carolina school, helping with environmental projects at a state park in Virginia, and assisting residents of the New Orleans area in Hurricane Katrina recovery efforts.
Many groups on campus direct their efforts toward community engagement. Geneva Heroes, an 8-week community service and leadership corps for approximately 20 eighth graders, is created, staffed and run by HWS students. A campus chapter of Habitat for Humanity assists area affiliates with home building and often sponsors its own spring trip. Students coordinate a variety of service projects on campus and at various community agencies. This includes the annual Holiday Project through the Community Action Partnership agency that provides gifts for 15 area families. Two months a year volunteers from the Colleges prepare and serve the Thursday meals at the local soup kitchen. HWS Votes! is the continuing campus voter registration and education program.
In April 1994, a group of HWS students, faculty, and staff joined with many local community members to organize “Celebrate Service…Celebrate Geneva…Day of Service,” a day of community service that mobilized more than 500 volunteers to provide community service at approximately 50 sites across Geneva. Now an annual event, Day of Service continues to organize campus and community volunteers working at a number of agencies.
A number of these initiatives are coordinated by students in the Bonner Leader program. These experienced students work for up to 10 hours a week to facilitate campus and community engagement activities. Athletic teams through “HWS Athletes for Geneva’s Youth”, Residential Education, and fraternities, and a Service Club Council work with the CCESL to support various local community and national agencies, including the Boys and Girls Clubs, United Way, YMCA, Big Brother/Big Sisters, Rotary Club programs and the Geneva Food Pantry, through ongoing partnerships and volunteer fund-raising efforts, such as the Charity Ball.
Students interested in living with others committed to service may apply to live in Community Service House, a theme house in which residents work weekly at various local agencies and develop larger, house-wide projects.
Whatever major or career a student chooses to pursue the programs of the Center for Community Engagement and Service-Learning, through its Compass program, can help to point them toward a life of engaged citizenship.
Hobart
Hobart athletics seeks to afford experience in intercollegiate sports to as many men as possible. Annually, about one-third of the Hobart student body participates in intercollegiate athletics. Many participate on more than one team. While student student-athletes are encouraged to strive to fulfill their athletic potential, emphasis is placed on achieving a healthy balance between their scholastic and athletic endeavors. The broad-based program receives excellent support in the areas of equipment, facilities, staff, and sports medicine.
Under the supervision of the Department of Athletics, Hobart fields intercollegiate teams in basketball, cross country, football, golf, ice hockey, lacrosse, rowing, sailing, soccer, squash, and tennis. Hobart is a member of Division III of the National Collegiate Athletic Association and competes in this division in all sports except lacrosse. Since 1995, the Hobart lacrosse team has competed at the Division I level.
Since 1980, Hobart College has won 18 national championships, three Eastern College Athletic Conference regional titles, and 16 conference championships.
William Smith
The Department of Athletics, Physical Education and Recreation has as its foundation an educational philosophy that emphasizes the importance of the medium of movement as a learning vehicle for individual growth and development. Recognizing that students learn in a variety of ways and through a variety of experiences, the department provides a wide range of activity courses and a comprehensive intercollegiate athletics program. Certain activity courses are offered for credit, others are offered for no credit. Students may select from team sports, individual sports, fitness, wellness, and aquatics classes. Included in the offerings are soccer, lacrosse, tennis, skating, squash, skiing, swimming, scuba diving, weight training, conditioning, aerobics, and more.
Designated as a Division III institution, William Smith engages in varsity competition in the following sports: basketball, crew, cross country, field hockey, golf, lacrosse, soccer, swimming and diving, tennis, sailing, and squash. Soccer provides opportunities at the junior varsity level as well.
William Smith is a member of the Liberty League, MAISA, NCAA, and ECAC.
Through their membership in the William Smith Athletic Advisory Council, student-athletes play a significant role in the operations of the athletics department. They select a board of team representatives who work closely with the athletics director, providing input in policy development.
Recreation and Intramurals
The Colleges provide an extensive recreation and intramural sports program for those who enjoy sports activities but don’t necessarily wish to compete on the intercollegiate level. This enables each student to choose the activities that best satisfy his or her needs. Walleyball, touch football, basketball, volleyball, soccer, softball, and a host of other team and individual sports are available.
Physical Education Classes
The Colleges also offer a wide variety of physical education classes (some are credit-bearing courses) designed to develop skills in activities that can be performed throughout one’s life. These classes, which range from scuba diving to ice skating, are instructed by staff members who have significant experience and expertise in that related activity.
Club Sports
Club sports include alpine ski, baseball, basketball, bodybuilding, cycling, equestrian, fencing, field hockey, Frisbee, floor hockey, ice hockey, lacrosse, Nordic ski, paintball, rugby, ski racing and track and field. These sports are organized under the Office of Student Activities and do not carry varsity or intercollegiate status.
Outdoor Recreation Program (ORAP)
ORAP provides both structured and unstructured recreational opportunities for outdoor enthusiasts in the Hobart and William Smith Colleges community. In addition, a concerted effort is made to introduce novices to a variety of outdoor activities.
This program sponsors a combination of courses, clinics, and outings throughout the school year. Examples of instructional courses and clinics which may be offered are: hiking and backpacking, kayaking, ice climbing, nordic skiing, spelunking, and ice skating.
Dates and times of programs are publicized and a fee is charged to cover equipment and administrative costs. A resource center and an equipment rental system also provide individuals with the means to coordinate their own outings.
The Wellness Program
As an extension of the physical education program, the wellness program emphasizes the interrelationships between nutrition, stress management, fitness, and mental and physical well-being. More information about the program can be obtained by contacting the director of the Sport and Recreation Center.
