AMHERST — Hampshire College alumni are calling on President Miriam “Mim” Nelson and the college’s board of trustees to reverse the Feb. 1 decision to not enroll a first-year class this fall.
With the initial round of layoffs of faculty and staff slated to begin Tuesday, necessitated by the smaller college enrollment, about 75 people, including faculty, students and community members, gathered for a teach-in at the lecture hall at Franklin Patterson Hall Friday afternoon to build an action plan for confronting the looming changes.
But even with what they argue are statistics and facts on their side, those who once attended the college, who have organized under the name Save Hampshire, acknowledge they are facing a daunting task.
“We are trying to rally and we’re being scoffed at,” said Suzanne Perkins, a professor at the University of Michigan, who is both a Hampshire graduate and the parent of a current student.
Handling much of the research for the new group, Perkins said the rationale for the decision to not enroll a freshman class, and the decision to seek a strategic partner to sustain the college over the long term, came even though there are no new state laws or regulations affecting Hampshire, and that the college’s situation is not identical to what led to the closing of Mount Ida College.
Though the 1,191 students enrolled in 2018 was a dip from the 1,390 attending five years earlier, the lower number is similar to the college’s enrollment in the 1980s, she said.
“We’ve had a much lower population prior to this,” Perkins said. “It’s a little dishonest to show just the decline.”
Perkins cited the college’s 2014 decision to no longer look at SAT scores for admitting students, which she called “a moral stance worth taking,” even though this removed Hampshire from the U.S. News and World Report college rankings, and caused the college to enter a period of adjustment in how it recruits.
Perkins also contends that the $52 million endowment is fine for an institution its age, with many of its alumni still living and thus not bequeathing large sums. “It’s a very strong endowment for a school that’s less than 50 years old,” Perkins said.
Meanwhile, a fundraising effort led by Steve Aronstein of Northampton seeks to raise $10 million to avoid layoffs, as well as to sustain the college for at least two years.
“The focus is on saving the college and getting it back on track,” Aronstein said.
An earlier fundraiser took in $250,000 in two days, even without reaching out to potentially wealthy donors and alumni. “It’s our opinion we can raise the money we need to raise,” Aronstein said.
Nelson and the trustees made the decision not to enroll a new first-year class as part of a process in which the college announced in mid-January that it would be seeking a partner.
While no one affiliated with the college spoke during the teach-in, representatives from the news office handed out three-page facts sheets explaining that Nelson and the trustees “have taken key steps to ensure that the college will be financially sustainable in the future by seeking a long-term partnership that will allow Hampshire to preserve its groundbreaking educational model.”
Warren Goldstein of Newton called on those in attendance to find out how each of the 29 trustees voted and why, and to try to change their minds on not having a full first-year class.
“I think we can do it, but it won’t be easy,” Goldstein said.
A letter was also circulated by Michael Strmiska, a professor at the State University of New York’s Orange campus, that would go to Nelson and the trustees to admit that new fall 2019 class.
Sebastian Ward, a fourth year Hampshire student and member of the Hampshire Rise Up Coalition that continues to stage a sit-in, said students will use the information from the Save Hampshire teach-in as they continue to meet with Nelson and put pressure on her to change the decision.
“From what I heard, I think maybe there’s new directions we might want to go,” Ward said.
Greeting those who entered the auditorium was a large banner reading “Massive staff layoffs when our budget is balanced is unjust, unethical & unnecessary.”
Among those from the community who attended the teach-in was Beth Girshman of Conway, who previously worked at the college and worries that its loss would be felt throughout the Pioneer Valley.
“Hampshire is a vital part of the region’s culture,” Girshman sad
Perkins said alumni planned to meet with current students at the Kern Center to provide them more options for the college’s future, before an evening solidarity event with faculty and staff.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.
