When Hampshire College announced last month it would close at the end of its next fall semester amid financial headwinds, students from the past and present lamented the end of a radical experiment: a higher education pedagogy that eschewed traditional grading metrics and rigidly defined areas of study, opting instead to allow students to more freely explore their interests and the relationships between art, science, history, politics and more.
Now, a group of Hampshire College alumni want to keep the experiment going, even if the college itself ceases to be.
The campaign is called Hampshire Next. The goal? Raise $10 million by May 16 to dissuade the Hampshire Board of Trustees from publicly selling the campus to pay down their debt. It's a tremendous long shot, and the people involved agree.
Dani Slabaugh went to Hampshire College from 2005 to 2009, and is a volunteer with the funding effort. They called the campaign a 'hail Mary,' but said it's all worth it for an institution that deeply impacted the lives of so many students.
"This is sacred land," Slabaugh said. "This is a really, really special place that has changed us and transformed us, and we want to preserve that, and to be able to continue to steward Hampshire's mission."
Hampshire Next is not about resurrecting Hampshire College as it once was, organizers say. Instead, the money raised is supposed to show the Board of Trustees that there is serious capital in support of Hampshire's mission, and open the door for a future institution dedicated to the same principles of radically unstructured education.
"The mission is to be able to re-imagine higher ed for this particular moment in our history and in our trajectory as a nation," Slabaugh explained. "When we think about environmental issues, when we think about our political context, our economic conditions, the rise of AI and how things are really reshaping how we learn and how we live together."
The campaign has long-term goals of raising $21 million to completely pay down Hampshire's outstanding debt — the $10 million May deadline is to present a viable alternative to the Board and stop a public sale. Slabaugh says alumni don't want to see the land that Hampshire once sat on to become a commercial development.
"I really think there's a lot of economic benefit to keeping the campus active and moving, and really in line with what community wants to see there," Slabaugh said.
Organizers are not oblivious to the harsh deadline they're operating under — they ostensibly need to garner $1 million a day to stay on track with their goal. Slabaugh suggests that even if they can't hit the $10 million mark, the money they do raise could help Hampshire workers who are losing their jobs with the school's closure. The campaign's website links to a fundraising campaign for those workers.
"I'm hopeful that this is a way to prove that, even if we're not able to raise 21 million, that we're able to absolutely support the severance of workers and faculty who have been laid off without severance," Slabaugh stressed. "We may be able to advocate to save a lot of the existing jobs if we're able to purchase the campus or buy out its debt."
The Hampshire Board of Trustees is looking to sell the campus at an expedited pace, according to President Jennifer Chrisler. The school has retained a broker to help facilitate the sale.
