AMHERST — As Hampshire College President Miriam “Mim” Nelson begins exploring options for restructuring the college and identifying an institutional partner, college trustees are reaffirming their support for her work.
“With President Nelson’s leadership, we believe that together we will find a strong and sustainable pathway to secure Hampshire College’s future,” reads a letter, signed by 28 trustees, that was sent to the campus community Monday morning.
Nelson “has the full support of the board of trustees as she guides Hampshire College through this time of transformative change. We greatly respect and appreciate her integrity, knowledge, skill, and fortitude as together we work to forge the future for this extraordinary institution we all cherish.”
During a meeting with trustees on Sunday, Nelson reviewed several possible strategic approaches for the college’s future, all of which will be guided by Hampshire’s guiding principles, according to a letter she sent to the campus.
In her own letter, which also went out Monday morning, Nelson describes the approaches being considered as “different kinds of engagement and governance structures with an outside strategic partner. We are also pursuing an approach where Hampshire maintains independence by means of transformative financial support from our community of alums and other long-engaged donors. The board recognizes that, in all cases, we will have to experience significant restructuring, including layoffs and short-term downsizing of the college.”
The college is expected to announce an initial round of layoffs Tuesday.
Nelson writes that she will be convening the Options Committee, made up of members from the campus, drawn from the Crisis Committee and the Visioning Task Force. This will include student Emery Powell, faculty Chris Cianfrani, Thom Long, Joanna Morris and Ashley Smith, staff Sheila Heady, staff trustee Anne Downes, student trustee Daya Mena, Mary McEneany from finance and administration and Eva Rueschmann from academic affairs.
Alumni will also be part of discussions for the college’s future, Nelson writes: “One of the most important constituencies to involve in imagining Hampshire’s future is our community of alums, and we will connect with the Alumni Advisory Group this week on different ways we might do this.”
Trustees wrote that they acknowledge the concerns and questions in the community for Hampshire’s future, and the difficult time for students, faculty, staff and alumni.
They added that the integral values of inclusion, equity, and justice will be preserved, along with the mission “to foster a lifelong passion for learning, inquiry, and ethical citizenship that inspires students to contribute to knowledge, justice, and positive change in the world and, by doing so, to transform higher education.”
Meanwhile, the faculty’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors on Monday issued a list of demands, including that “faculty be fully and actively included, along with other stakeholders (alumni, staff, and students), in any conversations with a prospective strategic partner,” that the decision not to enroll a first-year class in fall 2019 be rescinded and that all administrators’ salaries moving forward have a ceiling of $120,000, effective immediately.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.
