In 1973, Hampshire Professor Robert Rardin wrote Liberal Corporation or Radical Collective: Two Models for a College, which I believe is a Rosetta Stone for understanding some of the most important dynamics running through Hampshire’s affairs. It turned out to be a touchstone rediscovered by generations of Hampshire students as they embarked on various Hampshire protest movements.
Shaun Trujillo 00F, a Hampshire alum and former Hampshire archivist, noticed a process of anamnesis, or remembering, as successive generations of students enter Hampshire, become part of its culture, and “remember” or rediscover aspects of its past.
I have lived in the area ever since attending Hampshire and have always had social bonds and felt a connection with the college, but became especially active with Hampshire in 2019. I was involved in various parts of the grassroots movement, including serving as an ally to Hamp Rise Up, a coalition of student groups fighting for inclusion and transparency amid the January 2019 bombshell announcement that Hampshire might merge and not accept new students. Some other alums and I provided the students with moral and logistical support, while other stakeholders supported remotely. The Hamp Rise Up students were an amazing and fierce group.
I found out about the protest on Amherst Town Common from Hampshire Workers for a Just Closure. It highlighted the terrible situation of employees being laid off without severance and students without proper transfer options. It’s a heartbreaking situation, and I have included links to community resources at the end of this article. Hampshire professor Gaurav Jashnani told Amherst Indy: “This doesn’t have to be a neoliberal dumpster fire.”
A recent Boston Globe article quoted the head of NECHE, Hampshire’s accreditor, stating that there was a misunderstanding or misinterpretation and that Hampshire had to serve all students who wished to stay through the end of the Fall semester, rather than Hampshire’s previous determination that it would only be for Div. III students. The original announcement by the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education also appeared to indicate that all students would be able to continue through the end of the year. This raises questions as to whether Hampshire misunderstood other guidance from its regulators, leading to a panicked decision to close the college.
I believe this is a situation predicted by Rardin’s article. His vision was for Hampshire as a radical collective, but he saw that Hampshire existed largely in the other direction. There was a tension throughout Hampshire’s history between corporate (legally, Hampshire is a non-profit corporation) and collective (Hampshire has a strong community with deep activist roots and an inborn distaste for hierarchical structures); both are (sometimes invisible) forces that influence people’s perceptions and behaviors. My take is that Hampshire couldn’t become all one or the other extreme, but would have a better chance if there was awareness of these two polarities tugging at every aspect of Hampshire.
I interviewed Marc Alpert, author of Radical Departure, a very readable version of Hampshire history, which confirms for me that this tension stems from the fact that the college was actually planned as a corporation by people who were products of traditional higher education. They had a vision for a radical departure, but they, too, were on this continuum and clearly felt this tension. However, the students and employees attracted to the college were bohemian and focused on various social issues, so the tension began early (hence Rardin’s essay).
Jon Reed 86F told me that: “I believe the tensions Rardin evoked so memorably exist within virtually all of us with an abiding passion for Hampshire. We are at our best when we use one polarity to challenge the other, in a constant state of questioning the relevance of imposed structures, but always with an appreciation that radicalism can consume its uncompromising ideals, and flame out.”
What does this mean for us now? Since 2019, I’ve written over 20 articles about Hampshire, trying to surface a variety of issues for the community that I felt needed to be addressed to help Hampshire survive, from board reform and incorporating the grassroots into Hampshire’s governance to enrollment and fixing Hampshire’s business model. I noticed that Hampshire was reverting to silos, which is why I wrote about the importance of integrated stakeholder groups, board reform, new centers and revenue sources, and transparency around Hampshire’s bonds and attempted land sale.
A high-level higher ed expert recently mentioned to me what they called the problem of toxic positivity in Hampshire’s fundraising. Hampshire downplayed its challenges by repeatedly extending its fundraising deadline and reducing its stated enrollment goals. Risk of closure could have been discussed transparently at Hampshire’s reunion, with breakout sessions on land sales, fundraising, and loan refinancing.
At Guilford College, they got off probation last year through a frank approach with their community: they set a specific dollar amount, a deadline, and a stated goal of keeping their accreditation, and posted it widely, along with weekly newsletters from their president informing the whole community.
Photo: giving.guilford.edu
After the closure announcement, Hampshire has a few paths forward. Alums and others are organizing intense discussions around Hampshire 3.0, focused on land stewardship, and, if we’re lucky, that could include a college as part of a mixed-use development of Hampshire’s campus. There is a burst of energy with over 1000 stakeholders in recently created WhatsApp groups and over 200 in an alum-organized Zoom.
This movement is welcome, I support it, and I understand that students, staff, and faculty had an emergency imposed upon them that they have to focus on. But for alumni, I think they are making a strategic error by focusing almost exclusively on the 3.0 effort, without critically questioning the college’s sudden announcement of closure or exploring emergency options to turn it around. I suggested options in Amherst Indy, which was subsequently covered by the Chronicle of Higher Education. I do realize that the magnitude of a rescue effort would have to be much larger since the college’s closure announcement, and my history of writing about Hampshire shows I am not Pollyannaish about the difficulties, but reopening happened at Antioch and Sweet Briar.
I’ve been helping save college movements since 2019; several of them have been distracted by plans for their college after it closed, rather than an undivided focus on saving it. But there was only one chance to save their college, and it’s always harder to build something after the college closes. Sadly, the efforts to build something afterward rarely work out well, though so far, the Hampshire 3.0 efforts are far more impressive than what I’ve seen elsewhere.
Hampshire’s sudden announcement of closure reflected the corporate extreme Rardin warned us about so many decades ago, and it didn’t give stakeholders a chance to save the college, as was done at Guilford. Just a few weeks ago, the college ran a Zoom strategy session, and over 80 alumni attended to discuss strategy. I promised to attend as an alum, not a journalist, but it’s now common knowledge that the meeting wasn’t tasked with addressing the immediate problems that could prevent Hampshire’s closure, and everyone thought Hampshire would continue fighting through the June NECHE meeting. Prominent stakeholders were writing articles – and stating on Facebook – that Hampshire was not in crisis.
I still hope people at all five colleges will encourage the consortium’s other colleges to invest in Hampshire and new projects. I outline some of the ways this could be done here.
Thanks to the Leapfrog for all your efforts to cover Hampshire news written by students, my articles from an alum perspective, and even a response by one of the college’s founders to one of my articles.
My heart goes out to all of you affected by this situation, and I hope we can keep in touch.
End note:Please share widely: here is a fundraiser link for faculty/staff, along with their petition. Alysha Ras, 22F, created the hub website, an excellent resource that includes photos, an alum help form, a community directory form, and various updates. Current students are now welcome to join Hampshire’s main alumni Facebook group and the one for Local Frogs (Western MA alumni). You can also volunteer to join projects or share ideas at FrogCollabs.org.
Jonathon Podolsky is a Hampshire alum, journalist, member of the Education Writers Association, and a Boardsource Certified Nonprofit Board Consultant. You can find him at www.Podolsky.cc
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