I found Hampshire College in a book called “Colleges That Change Lives.” I chose it because they wouldn’t make me take calculus, and there were no frats, and although the main buildings were utilitarian rather than elegant, the campus was beautiful.
I chose it because I loved learning, and I wanted to learn what I wanted to learn — not jump through the hoops of more required classes. I wanted to study history and literature and art. Hampshire let me do that, working closely with brilliant and caring faculty. For my final thesis project (Div III), I wrote a 115-page paper titled “They Knew and Acted: International Volunteers in the Spanish Civil War,” focusing on one poet, one journalist, and one photographer. I studied in Madrid, and did original research on primary sources in the Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives in New York.
Meanwhile, my fellow students worked with our dedicated faculty, studying dendrochronology, pregnancy and nutrition, biofilms on desert rocks. They wrote/directed/acted in plays, built bicycles from scratch, worked on the farm; they traveled to Cuba and Berlin, and took buses to the other four colleges to take an even wider variety of classes. No one was doing anything they weren’t interested in; everyone was interested and interesting.
If there was a TV show about the college, the tagline could be, “There’s one at every high school, and they all came here.” Everyone was different; everyone was doing something different. In the dining hall, no one compared homework because no one was doing the same work; instead, you might catch a performance from a cappella group The Crazy Pitches, or see a production of Hedwig and the Angry Inch.
We explored the area and supported local businesses, like Atkins, Flayvors, Antonio’s Pizza, Raven Used Books, and the Bookmill (“Books you don’t need in a place you can’t find” was truer then, before ubiquitous GPS). Hampshire students even started some local businesses that are now institutions, like the Black Sheep Deli in Amherst and Herrell’s in Northampton. Hampshire College brought so many creative, inventive people to the Valley, and so many of us stayed.
Hampshire made me scrappy and persistent. Less shy, more brave. Any time I needed something, I guessed which office to call or visit, and they usually sent me to a different one, and then another and another until finally I was talking to someone who could help. And someone always helped.
Hampshire’s interdisciplinary approach attracts nonconformists and fosters critical thinkers. It’s a model of project-based learning in higher education, and it has served us well. Over and over since the news of the college closing, I’ve heard alumni say, “Hampshire made me who I am. I would not be who I am without Hampshire.” Over the past few weeks, as I’ve (re)connected with alums living all over the world and from every decade, I feel a sense of community. We are artists, activists, educators, lawyers, filmmakers, musicians, librarians, comedians, entrepreneurs, and many PhDs. (You don’t need letter grades on your transcript to get into grad school.)
Alumni and Amherst residents alike are concerned for our neighbors: The Yiddish Book Center, the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art, the Hitchcock Center for the Environment, the Early Learning Center, and the Hampshire College Farm. They have all been a part of the Hampshire community, as well; some will weather the change, but for others, the future looks bleaker.
My 10-year-old daughter has attended Kids, Art, and Nature and Farm & Garden camps every summer since kindergarten; barring a miracle, this summer will be her last at “Camp Hamp,” and Hampshire College won’t be an option for her come senior year of high school. Unless… well, Hampshire people are scrappy and persistent, and even now we’re raising money for what comes next, because Non Satis Scire is our motto: “To know is not enough.” We have to act.
Let this be a bend in the path, and not the end of the road. Alumni started Hampshire Next (https://hampshirenext.org/) and have already raised over $1 million in pledges from over 750 supporters for a restricted gift to resolve the college’s debt, and maintain the campus and community into its next phase — because Hampshire isn’t a place you move on from and forget. There’s truly no other place like it. It’s a haven, a launchpad, and a part of the Five College community. We’re working to save the home we love — for the past, the present, and the future.
Jenny Arch, Hampshire College F’03 and Simmons University MLIS 2012, lives in Amherst.