 The building was also the site of a major 1985 student strike and barricade to demand university divestment from South Africa, which was under the apartheid system at the time, as well as ethnic studies classes at the university.Most recently, Hamilton Hall has undergone extensive renovations in order to restore many of its historic details.The building houses many of the classes of Columbia College's famous Core Curriculum, and it is apparently a tradition of the teachers of the Core class Contemporary Civilization to watch students filing into the building for exams from the roof of nearby Butler Library.