Dear Commons Community,

The New York Times had an op-ed on Thursday painting a worrisome picture of Hampshire College’s financial situation. Written by Jon Krakuer, an alumnus of the school, the article quotes its President Miriam Nelson saying that the college may “be forced to close within the next three or four years.”

Hampshire was founded in 1970 as an idealistic experiment in higher education. There are no majors or grades at Hampshire. Instead, each student is responsible for creating his or her own course of study, and then devising a series of six “exams” that must be passed to graduate. Attaining a bachelor’s degree might require four years of study, or six. Or three, for that matter.

Hampshire was, and remains, too avant-garde for many prospective students, but thousands of kids who took the plunge have been propelled by their experience there into careers in education, medicine, law, business, science and the arts. Two-thirds of the school’s graduates went on to earn advanced degrees. Twenty-five percent have started their own businesses or organizations. Hampshire grads have been honored with Fulbright scholarships, Pulitzer and Hillman prizes; Peabodys, Grammys and Emmys, and at least four Oscars. Alumni include the filmmaker Ken Burns, the actors Lupita Nyong’o and Liev Schreiber, the theoretical physicist Lee Smolin and the economist Heather Boushey.

Regardless the college is facing intense fiscal scrutiny after a routine 10-year reaccreditation review expressed  had “deep concerns about our finances” Dr. Nelson said. Those concerns resulted largely from the college’s dependence on tuition and student fees for 87 percent of its revenue. In response, Hampshire pledged to increase its revenue by significantly increasing the size of the class entering in September 2019. The number of new students who committed to enroll did indeed increase, but not by nearly as much as the school had promised, causing projected revenues to drop by millions of dollars.

With a $54 million endowment and some very wealthy alumni, Hampshire would seem to have the means to weather a temporary shortfall without going under, just as it has survived lean years in the past. But after the abrupt shuttering of several small, underfunded New England colleges recently left their students in the lurch, the regulatory environment changed dramatically for schools like Hampshire. A consumer-protection policy now being formulated by the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education is likely to require private colleges to abide by stringent new financial sustainability rules. According to Dr. Nelson’s interpretation of the proposed policy, Hampshire is legally and ethically required to keep enough cash in the bank to fund the school for four years so that first-year students will have the opportunity to graduate.

If her assumptions are correct, the college, with a $42 million operating budget, needs to set aside at least $168 million before it can enroll the next freshman class. This isn’t likely to happen. Dr. Nelson is adamant that the only way out of this conundrum is to cancel that class and merge Hampshire with a much wealthier “strategic partner.”

This a sad situation but one that higher education will see again and again in the coming decades.

The complete op-ed is below.

Tony

——————————————————————————————————————

 New York Times

A Small New England College Struggles to Survive

Is there still room for unconventional schools like Hampshire College?

By Jon Krakauer

Jan. 31, 2019

Two weeks ago, Hampshire College warned of financial problems that could keep it from enrolling new students next fall. The school’s president, Miriam Nelson, insisted, “We are not planning to shut down.” But speaking as a Hampshire alum, I was not reassured by her words. If anything, her statement only sharpened my alarm.

Hampshire was founded in 1970 as an idealistic experiment in higher education. When I enrolled in 1972, my father got so angry he stopped speaking to me. The campus was situated on 800 acres among bucolic fields and orchards outside Amherst, Mass. The first time I went there, I drove by the entrance without realizing it was a college. I thought I’d gone past a farm. As it turned out, however, there were a few brick and concrete buildings just up the hill, and my classes were lively, challenging and intimate. Creative problem solving was emphasized. Our professors encouraged us to consider the big picture and the long view, and embrace risk as a life strategy. Failing spectacularly in pursuit of an ambitious goal was thought to be salutary, and the shellacking instilled some humility. Whatever success I’ve had is rooted in those lessons. (Though even at Hampshire, one of my final academic projects — a four-week expedition to Alaska to attempt a very difficult peak in Denali National Park — provoked a fierce debate with the dean.)

There are no majors or grades at Hampshire. Instead, each student is responsible for creating his or her own course of study, and then devising a series of six “exams” that must be passed to graduate. Attaining a bachelor’s degree might require four years of study, or six. Or three, for that matter.

Hampshire was, and remains, too avant-garde for many prospective students, but thousands of kids who took the plunge have been propelled by their experience there into careers in education, medicine, law, business, science and the arts. Two-thirds of the school’s graduates went on to earn advanced degrees. Twenty-five percent have started their own businesses or organizations. Hampshire grads have been honored with Fulbright scholarships, Pulitzer and Hillman prizes; Peabodys, Grammys and Emmys, and at least four Oscars. Alumni include the filmmaker Ken Burns, the actors Lupita Nyong’o and Liev Schreiber, the theoretical physicist Lee Smolin and the economist Heather Boushey.

Before Dr. Nelson agreed to take the helm in April 2018, she had spent most of the previous 30 years at Tufts University as a distinguished scientist in health and nutrition, an admired professor and an associate dean. Last May, two weeks after she accepted the job, and 10 weeks before she was to begin her duties as president, she received an urgent phone call from the outgoing Hampshire president, Jonathan Lash. He warned her that the next batch of new students was drastically smaller than anticipated. “When Jonathan told me the numbers,” Dr. Nelson said, “I knew it posed an existential threat to the college.”

Hampshire had just undergone a routine 10-year reaccreditation review. Academically, the school passed the review with flying colors. “But they had deep concerns about our finances,” Dr. Nelson said. Those concerns resulted largely from the college’s dependence on tuition and student fees for 87 percent of its revenue. In response, Hampshire pledged to increase its revenue by significantly increasing the size of the class entering in September 2019. The number of new students who committed to enroll did indeed increase, but not by nearly as much as the school had promised, causing projected revenues to drop by millions of dollars.

With a $54 million endowment and some very wealthy alumni, Hampshire would seem to have the means to weather a temporary shortfall without going under, just as it has survived lean years in the past. But after the abrupt shuttering of several small, underfunded New England colleges recently left their students in the lurch, the regulatory environment changed dramatically for schools like Hampshire. A consumer-protection policy now being formulated by the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education is likely to require private colleges to abide by stringent new financial sustainability rules. According to Dr. Nelson’s interpretation of the proposed policy, Hampshire is legally and ethically required to keep enough cash in the bank to fund the school for four years so that first-year students will have the opportunity to graduate.

If her assumptions are correct, the college, with a $42 million operating budget, needs to set aside at least $168 million before it can enroll the next freshman class. This isn’t likely to happen. Dr. Nelson is adamant that the only way out of this conundrum is to cancel that class and merge Hampshire with a much wealthier “strategic partner.” Otherwise, she told a group of prominent alumni, donors and former administrators this week, Hampshire will be forced to close within the next three or four years.

As she explained it, the demographic changes threatening Hampshire’s future are a serious concern to all but the most well-endowed universities. Increasingly, America’s colleges and universities will be competing more and more fiercely for fewer and fewer applicants from a rapidly shrinking pool of high school graduates. This reality has almost every school with an endowment less than $500 million quaking in its boots right now, she said.

Since November, Dr. Nelson has been having secret discussions with potential partners. Perhaps the best fit is the nearby University of Massachusetts at Amherst, a member of the Five College Consortium that includes Hampshire, Amherst, Smith and Mount Holyoke. Students in the consortium can already take classes and use the resources at any of those schools — an arrangement that has been particularly advantageous to students at Hampshire, with its relatively limited curriculum and small library. But whatever the perceived benefits of a merger, nobody denies it would inflict severe pain. Many of the school’s faculty and staff members would probably lose their jobs.

Within the extended Hampshire community, there is emphatic disagreement with the course Dr. Nelson appears to have set. Kenneth Rosenthal, the college’s official historian and its first treasurer, believes it would be a grave mistake for Hampshire to jump into an asymmetrical partnership out of a panicked reaction to the financial challenges of the moment. And he thinks it would be an even bigger mistake for Hampshire to forgo enrolling new students in September, which would ensure the inevitability of a merger.

Mr. Rosenthal points out that Hampshire owns several hundred acres of valuable land that could be commercially developed. “Half the colleges in the country would love to have this kind of problem,” he said. “Plenty of alumni have put Hampshire in their wills, but because the oldest of them are only 66 or 67 years old, they haven’t started dying yet. That’s problematic in the short term, but not in the long term.”

Be that as it may, it seems foregone that Dr. Nelson will soon announce that no new students will be enrolled at Hampshire for the next academic year. Soon thereafter, she will likely propose some kind of lopsided merger with a securely endowed educational institution.

Hampshire’s iconoclastic educational model is widely admired and deservedly praised. Given what lies ahead, however, it is not at all clear how much of the Hampshire philosophy — to say nothing of the Hampshire soul — will survive.