__ __ _ _____ _ _ _
| \/ | ___| |_ __ _| ___(_) | |_ ___ _ __
| |\/| |/ _ \ __/ _` | |_ | | | __/ _ \ '__|
| | | | __/ || (_| | _| | | | || __/ |
|_| |_|\___|\__\__,_|_| |_|_|\__\___|_|
community weblog
Hampshire College winding down after 6 decades
Seemingly the latest casualty in the decline of Liberal Arts studies in the US, Hampshire College, of Amherst MA has announced that they're closing up shop due to "no longer having the resources to sustain full operations and meet our regulatory responsibilities." Hampshire was a private, liberal arts school, with some unconventional aspects such as not issuing grades and extensive self directed study. Famous alums include filmmaker Ken Burns, author John Krakauer, actress Lupita Nyong'o and others.
posted by Larry David Syndrome on Apr 14, 2026 at 3:54 PM
---------------------------
i guess now we find out how many hampsters are mefi's own. I'm really sad about this (yep I'm a grad, and in true form, a 4.5yr grad).
posted by kokaku at 3:57 PM
---------------------------
I never attended Hampshire, but I went to UMass, so I'm familiar enough to be sad. Such a shame.
posted by suelac at 4:05 PM
---------------------------
kokaku: "hampsters"
I guess their royalty income declined after the famous dance went into the public domain in 1997.
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 4:06 PM
---------------------------
.
posted by grimmelm at 4:18 PM
---------------------------
According to that Wikipedia page our very own @jessamyn is an alumna!
posted by rossmeissl at 4:19 PM
---------------------------
I had some friends who went to Hampshire and it very much wouldn't have been the place for me but something of value is being lost here, it's a shame.
posted by an octopus IRL at 4:23 PM
---------------------------
From a very quick skim, that information page looks very clear, thoughtful, and transparent. I'm glad they put extensive information for current students, and then faculty, above more abstract questions like "Why is Hampshire College closing?" and "What steps were taken to try to avoid closure?"
I am a fan of MacArthur Foundation grants, so I immediately wondered about Hampsters who might have been recognized by the MacArthurs - I found these folks:
Margaret Wickens Pearce
Peter Cole
Naomi Wallace
Aaron Lansky
Alex Rivera
I am always sad when something that people have loved and nurtured goes away. I know that everything is impermanent, but still - a place that values learning and understanding is so valuable, and I wish everyone who wanted to continue to embrace it would still get to.
But I'm glad it existed, for decades, and I'm glad for all the good experiences people have had there.
Thank you for sharing this, Larry David Syndrome. I'm saddened, but heartened to think of all the people who built what it was, while it was.
posted by kristi at 4:43 PM
---------------------------
While many small schools are in trouble due to demographic and economic changes, I wonder if Hampshire was hit especially hard by the ever worsening job culture. When I graduated most white people with a bachelor's degree, any bachelor's degree, could get some sort of decent white collar job. Now that's less the case which may be pushing teenagers into "practical" fields more than ever.
posted by metasarah at 4:44 PM
---------------------------
I was talking to a friend who went to Dartmouth recently, and she wasn't too pleased at the way they tried to push her into the broker, financial analyst/adviser, high powered consultant sorts of careers she probably would have been extremely good at in my opinion, and now to come home to this news makes me wonder whether they saw a necessity of producing graduates with very high incomes in order to insure their own continued existence.
posted by jamjam at 5:01 PM
---------------------------
I do think that the experimental nature of Hampshire is both why it attracted so many interesting and creative people, and also why it did not attract lots of people from the wealthy donor class who could contribute to its endowment.
posted by DiscourseMarker at 5:05 PM
---------------------------
.
posted by lalochezia at 5:06 PM
---------------------------
And what will happen to the Eric Carle Museum?
posted by Ideefixe at 5:35 PM
---------------------------
I attended in 1982 and 1983 and then transferred. It wasn't the right fit for me, though I took some really cool classes and met some interesting people.
posted by wittgenstein at 5:35 PM
---------------------------
And what will happen to the Eric Carle Museum?
posted by Ideefixe at 8:35 PM on April 14 [+] [⚑]
Hopefully the hungry hungry capitalism won't eat it all up
posted by Larry David Syndrome at 5:46 PM
---------------------------
or the Yiddish Book Center which is also on the campus
posted by kokaku at 6:02 PM
---------------------------
I grew up nearby and in the late 90s early aughts I believe it was the most expensive college in the country? Maybe that was just some townie BS I absorbed or something
posted by youthenrage at 6:07 PM
---------------------------
And what will happen to the Eric Carle Museum?
They're on it - from the Closure Information FAQ:
Will this impact the operations of the Eric Carle Museum, Hitchcock Center, and the National Yiddish Book Center?
All three cultural institutions are independent of Hampshire College and are expected to continue operations. We are working with the leadership of these organizations to assure that any logistical or other issues created by the College's closure are addressed.
posted by kristi at 6:11 PM
---------------------------
I graduated from Hampshire in 2002 and I cannot imagine who I would be today if I hadn't gone there. I met my husband there. 24 years later, most of my closest friends are people I know because I went there. I have the career I have because Hampshire was a place that let me develop a set of skills that have served me very well in my life.
It was such a hard school to graduate from. At my matriculation, a student told us "Look to your left. Now look to your right. Our attrition rate is about 30%. One of the three of you won't graduate from Hampshire. Make sure it isn't you." If you didn't have an internal drive to do the thing you were there to do, you could flounder for years. One of the skills that it developed in me was navigating bureaucracy.
It was such a worthwhile place. Get the smart weird kids together and see what they do.
I think some people are going to declare that the college closing means it was a failure, and it's not true. I don't think that going on forever is what made Hampshire valuable. It was valuable because it gave so many people so many different opportunities to imagine something for their future and then make it real. Just because changing times and financial hardship led to the college closing, that doesn't negate all the work that it did, and the accomplishments of the people who studied and worked there.
I'm glad it was there for me, and I am sad it won't be there for the kids who need it now. A friend of mine's kid was going to tour it on Thursday. It would have been so good for her. I hope that people are able to look at Hampshire and use the lessons from it to form new schools in an alternative model.
.
posted by Adridne at 6:22 PM
---------------------------
okay but seriously we need to start prioritizing having the good places in the world not die i think right now would be a very good time for that to be honest
posted by Dr. You Can't Tip a Buick, PhD at 6:37 PM
---------------------------
I accompanied my oldest kiddo on a college visit there just last year. The minute we walked into the building where the prospective students gathered before the tour and passed a small cafe where several current students were sitting, I told him "I think these are your people, kiddo." And he seemed to agree, with relief, after not quite feeling that way about some other schools we'd visited.
He ultimately chose a different school, but Hampshire was definitely in the running for a little bit.
Very sad to hear this.
.
posted by lord_wolf at 6:49 PM
---------------------------
Is that the one that A Secret History takes place at?
posted by 4th number at 6:54 PM
---------------------------
I think that's Bennington.
posted by an octopus IRL at 6:56 PM
---------------------------
What's doubly sad is that Hampshire did a both very cool and very smart thing three years ago.
Back then, Florida Gov. DeSantis instituted his coup at New College of Florida, replacing the board with a slew of conservative whackjobs and turning the college into a conservative boot camp and third-rate sports training ground.
Hampshire responded by offering guaranteed admission with equal tuition for New College kids who wanted to continue their progressive liberal arts education, and at a school that was also a safe haven for LGBTQ students.
I personally know two students who took them up on it. Both have graduated, and the time frame means probably all the NCF refugees have done so. But at the time I hoped it would give Hampshire a resurgence and at least one such college would survive. This is heartbreaking.
posted by martin q blank at 7:23 PM
---------------------------
Damn, I seriously considered applying to Hampshire, but trying to apply to any American university as (a) an international student (b) from a country where guidance counselors do not exist (c) who was already out of high school for some years and (D) had already started a semester of a Bachelor's but wanted to start over because their original university was the WORST was doing my head in. (I could have maybe figured it out eventually if it has occurred to me to just email them and ask, but then I got accepted into an Australian university pretty much immediately and went there instead.) Such a loss!
posted by creatrixtiara at 8:26 PM
---------------------------
A piece of information I didn't grasp until seeing more reporting on the closure: the current total student body size is only 625 students (apparently half the size it was 25 years ago). That's...I think half the size of the highschool I went to!
I still find this tremendously sad, but seeing that number helps make it feel like something other than total nonsense, at least.
I think I feel the worst for the faculty. That FAQ page is offering them nothing more than access to some generic state-level program "designed to help employees navigate reductions, layoffs, or closures" via "services such as job placement, retraining, and unemployment assistance." That's so bleak. For a lot of them this is just going to be the end of their academic careers, I imagine. Times are so tough.
posted by nobody at 9:01 PM
---------------------------
I never attended Hampshire as a student, but took part in the Hampshire College Summer Studies in Mathematics (HCSSiM). The founder, David Kelly, died a few years ago, but the program was still going strong. It was essentially a summer program for older highschool students interested in abstract math. I'm still friends with one of the other alums from the program.
CTY is foundering, TIP ended with COVID, and now HCSSiM with presumably end with this. I wouldn't put it quite in the same category as CTY (which I attended) or TIP, in that it wasn't geared at "gifted" students, just those with an interest and talent in math.
The program was great but felt like it was fun in a shoestring budget, which given Hampshire, is unsurprising. I've forgotten almost all my advanced math and definitely what was taught there, but what I remember was the joy in mathematics that was present.
.
posted by Hactar at 3:57 AM
---------------------------
.
posted by kozad at 4:15 AM
---------------------------
NYTimes puts ithe closing down to declining enrollment and general financial problems rather than any particular financial disaster.
A multiyear effort to refinance debt, raise funds, pursue land development and increase enrollment failed to produce a viable path to saving the 56-year-old college. ...
Many small schools have struggled to enroll students in places facing population declines, a factor in Hampshire's demise. ... Part of Hampshire College's downfall may also relate to "public discussion in this country about the value of a liberal arts education," Ms. Chrisler said. ...
As students become harder to enroll, he said, troubled schools compete by discounting tuition through increased aid. That reduces overall revenue while costs continue to rise, creating a "doom loop" of financial pressures.
One specific problem Hampshire seems to have is very little endowment. Just $26.5M, or about $40,000 per student. (This is like 1/20th of well funded colleges). That means no investment income from the endowment, also no safety cushion.
At its peak the endowment was $50M. They've known they were in serious trouble for most of a decade.
posted by Nelson at 6:44 AM
---------------------------
Well I thought this sounded much like our famously - or infamously - progressive Midwest experiential learning hub, Antioch in the charmingly quirky village of Yellow Springs, Ohio (a favorite weekend destination for hiking, dining and hanging out among the young) . My ex-Marine father, back in the mid-70's, once told me the only two places of higher education he would not assist my longhaired hippie ass with were Berkeley and Antioch.
And while Antioch was founded in 1850, it hit a similar rough patch and closed in 2008, reopening three years later after a group of alumni formed the Antioch College Continuation Corporation and bought from the university both the physical campus and the right to use the name.
So I pulled up their website and, imagine that, they have both a homepage appeal and an entire page devoted to Hampshire students wishing to continue their education as they'd imagined.
First, a word from us to you.
If you're reading this from Hampshire College right now, you're likely feeling a mix of emotions—anger, grief, exhaustion, uncertainty. You chose Hampshire for a reason. You believed in student-driven education, narrative evaluation, and a community that values justice, creativity, and intellectual risk.
That belief wasn't wrong. And the work you've done at Hampshire matters.
The situation you're facing is deeply unfair. Small, politically radical liberal arts colleges like Hampshire and Antioch have always operated outside the mainstream—and that has never been easy. But right now, the pressure on institutions like yours is acute, and the toll on students like you is real.
We see you. We honor what you've built. And we want to offer a clear, direct path forward.
posted by thecincinnatikid at 7:25 AM
---------------------------
What's doubly sad is that Hampshire did a both very cool and very smart thing three years ago.
Back then, Florida Gov. DeSantis instituted his coup at New College of Florida, replacing the board with a slew of conservative whackjobs and turning the college into a conservative boot camp and third-rate sports training ground.
Hampshire responded by offering guaranteed admission with equal tuition for New College kids who wanted to continue their progressive liberal arts education, and at a school that was also a safe haven for LGBTQ students.
I just learned about this today. The destruction of New College by DeSantis was outrageous. The loss of Hampshire is tragic.
posted by Artifice_Eternity at 9:23 AM
---------------------------
F99 here. Hampshire is a huge part of why I am who I am today and the experiences and dreams I had there still drive me to this day. I am so so sad.
posted by wemayfreeze at 10:02 AM
---------------------------
I have many friends and colleagues who are, or were, students, faculty, or staff at Hampshire. This hits me hard, personally, and I'm trying to support those directly hit.
I and my colleagues in the liberal arts space are nervous. We're taken other hits lately, like Birmingham-Southern College. More expected, especially for the non-elite tier.
a friend who went to Dartmouth recently, and she wasn't too pleased at the way they tried to push her into the broker, financial analyst/adviser, high powered consultant sorts of careers
Very very typical in many Ivies.
the current total student body size is only 625 students
American higher ed has a swarm of colleges which are very small. It's an unusual feature of our academic landscape, and, I think, a special one. I once taught at a Louisiana college which enrolled 850 or so at the time. (Quite a change from the University of Michigan, where I went to school!)
very little endowment.
The clear majority of American colleges and universities are in that position. Only a relative handful have serious endowments.
posted by doctornemo at 11:13 AM
---------------------------
More reporting and discussion:
Higher Ed Dive
Inside Higher Ed
Chronicle of Higher Ed (paywall)
The Advocate
Forward
Amherst Indy
Western Mass News
Daily Hampshire
posted by doctornemo at 11:19 AM
---------------------------
Like Hactar, I'm an alumnus of the Hampshire College Summer Studies in Mathematics program. It was absolutely a formative experience and it's unfortunately going through a lot of hard times right now: first the death of founder/director David Kelly, then (with many other educational enrichment programs), then dealing with the extraordinary cessation of pretty much all government grants* for such things over the past year, and now this. There was a documentary about the program made when Kelly died, but it's looking more and more like it's going to be a memorial for the program as a whole rather than chronicling its founding era, because this is a lot of existential crisis to weather in a short time.
* Obviously not all enrichment support is from government grants; there are a number of private sponsors. But there was always a fair amount of NSF money sloshing around, and its removal makes the whole pool smaller and the fight for what resources remain that much more competitive.
posted by jackbishop at 11:33 AM
---------------------------
This is all about costs. SLACs simply can't absorb 10%-15% annual cost increases continuously, and students can't afford to venture their tuition on a humanities or social sciences degree except at the most selective of schools where it isn't an impediment to recruiting and professionals school admissions.
posted by MattD at 11:35 AM
---------------------------
Sad to hear it. One of my sisters is a grad, and before she ended up at Hampshire she was generally perceived as an academic fuckup — barely graduated from high school after a ton of chaos and switching schools a bunch of times. At Hampshire she really found herself, and ended up becoming extremely academic and even going to grad school. I don't think that would've happened for her at any other institution.
.
posted by BlahLaLa at 12:36 PM
---------------------------
I just read that Antioch College webpage & letter for Hampshire students, and I'm crying. How wonderful.
Spread the word, folks.
(Also, I used to hang out in Yellow Springs after some devilishly tough bike rides through the state park there. Seconding thecincinnatikid -- it's a great little town. )
posted by martin q blank at 12:57 PM
---------------------------
As someone with a similarly "useless" art history degree from Reed College who has nevertheless managed to reach the uppermost stratum of my profession, I can tell you that I wish like hell more senior folks had the critical thinking capabilities of a garden-variety liberal arts graduate.
posted by turbowombat at 2:13 PM
---------------------------
. 87F
posted by Riverine at 2:15 PM
---------------------------
turbowombat: "As someone with a similarly "useless" art history degree from Reed College who has nevertheless managed to reach the uppermost stratum of my profession, I can tell you that I wish like hell more senior folks had the critical thinking capabilities of a garden-variety liberal arts graduate."
Seconded. My "useless" BA in Liberal Arts from St. John's College somehow was enough to get me into fully funded slots at two of the top graduate programs in my (STEM) field and a very successful career teaching exactly the way I love to teach with exactly the student population I love to teach.
Even though the SJC Program is all-required and the Hampshire program was exactly the opposite, we had a lot of students who drifted from one to the other over the years (and to New College and to Antioch and to Reed--hello fellow weirdos!). The loss of New College was a stab through the heart, and this is another one.
posted by hydropsyche at 2:46 PM
---------------------------
F02 here. Didn't stay connected after I graduated, but am still very sad about this news.
posted by chantenay at 2:48 PM
---------------------------
I grew up on the other side of the river from Hampshire but my next door neighbor was faculty there from its early years until her retirement.
I spent a few summers working in a lab there in my teens - one summer I was part of an HHMI group and lived there with the students. It made me very much want to skip high school and go immediately to college. Smart, funny people who liked science. It was wonderful.
Surreal that it won't exist anymore
posted by sciencegeek at 3:34 PM
---------------------------
Even though the SJC Program is all-required and the Hampshire program was exactly the opposite, we had a lot of students who drifted from one to the other over the years (and to New College and to Antioch and to Reed--hello fellow weirdos!). The loss of New College was a stab through the heart, and this is another one.
Yeah, every third person seemed to have spent time at one of the Crunchy League schools when I was at Antioch (let's not leave out Goddard [RIP] and Evergreen! We'll let Oberlin on a conditional basis, but they are a little try hard). You could get an encyclopedic amount of information about alternative culture and just general weirdness by spending a week on one of those campuses.
posted by 99_ at 6:07 PM
---------------------------