<p>My son has not yet visited Hamilton. One of the attributes of Hamilton which sounds appealing is the emphasis on writing and public speaking. I have found the latter, called rhetoric or oral communications depending on the college or university, an unusual offering for an elite liberal arts college. Bates, Colgate and Davidson offer it but not many others. Then I found this:</p>
<p><a href="https://my.hamilton.edu/Spectator/021209/Editorial/index.html%5B/url%5D">https://my.hamilton.edu/Spectator/021209/Editorial/index.html</a></p>
<p>Is Hamilton really serious about its tradition of emphasizing rhetoric and public speaking? </p>
<p>Perhaps somebody who is really serious about taking this subject (and has a car) could take some courses over at Syracuse which has a rhetoric program.</p>
<p>I just looked in the course catalogue and I found 16 courses in Communication and and 7 courses in Oral Communication. One can major in Communication at Hamilton.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.hamilton.edu/applications/catalogue/archive/catalogue2008.pdf[/url]”>http://www.hamilton.edu/applications/catalogue/archive/catalogue2008.pdf</a></p>
<p>Maybe you still think so, but with that number of courses to take, I don’t think your son would want to leave campus to take communication classes, especially since Syracuse is 45 minutes away.</p>
<p>Thanks for letting me know. It does seem, however, that the courses are infrequently offered and the enrollment is capped at 18 students. Not very large, even for a small college like Hamilton. That was the point of the editorial in the student newspaper.</p>
<p>I will post again later when I have more time, but that editorial created quit a stir in the Communications department. As the author remains anonymous, there was due to be a rebuttal written, if it hasn’t already.</p>
<p>The Communications department, while not the strongest on campus, has produced many excellent students. While classes are capped at a certain number, a Com major can always get into the class; I do not know about non majors though.</p>
<p>I did a little more research and found another editorial in the school newspaper which is quite revealing. </p>
<p>[Hamilton</a> College - Opinion - Q-Lit Quandaries?](<a href=“http://my.hamilton.edu/Spectator/021909/Opinion/Q_Lit_Quandaries.html]Hamilton”>http://my.hamilton.edu/Spectator/021909/Opinion/Q_Lit_Quandaries.html)</p>
<p>First, it says that Hamilton has more course requirements than applicants expect. To me, that’s not a big deal. </p>
<p>Second, Hamilton is thinking of adding a public speaking requirement for all students. I think that would be great and would help distinguish Hamilton from other elite LACs.</p>