After 56 years of serving the Five College community and the Pioneer Valley, Hampshire College announced on April 14, 2026, that it will close at the end of the upcoming fall semester. The idea for the school was born in 1958 when the presidents of Smith, Amherst, Mount Holyoke and UMass Amherst collaborated and developed “The New College Plan” to fill a gap in their liberal arts offerings. When establishing this new institution, they placed a strong emphasis on fostering interdisciplinary learning, closer professor-student mentorships and promoting student-directed learning. The college welcomed its inaugural class in 1970. Since then, it has been an integral part of the Five College Consortium, providing students across the valley with access to its courses and events. Perhaps most importantly, it has graced the community with its students.
For Smith, being a part of the Five College Consortium is a key advertising tactic. The website boasts the rich resources of the consortium, as well as providing students with opportunities to add special certificate programs to their degrees. Many of these programs rely on Hampshire College to fulfill their niche class requirements. Despite Hampshire’s influence on the Smith community and the Pioneer Valley more broadly, little discussion has taken place on campus regarding its closure aside from a casually dropped email noting that current Hampshire underclassmen will be able to transfer to Smith or the other Five College institutions, as well as to Bennington College and Prescott College (two other schools with similar unconventional educational philosophies).
This email was also how Hampshire students found out about the school closing. No all-campus gathering or prior notice was provided for the student body. Ash Dunn ’28, a Hampshire sophomore, commented on the surprising lack of information regarding Hampshire’s financial situation, even after it narrowly avoided closure in 2019 thanks to generous donations from notable alumni, including Ken Burns. “We had no idea how dire the financial situation was,” she said.
Currently, undergraduates who are not yet seniors must transfer to another institution in order to complete their studies. However, even other Five College institutions may not offer comparable degrees that are as interdisciplinary or flexible as those at Hampshire. Dunn said that, after the freedom of Hampshire, “To have to restrict yourself like that is a surprisingly hard feeling.”
Aside from the distress of having to unexpectedly leave their home away from home, Hampshire students also do not receive guaranteed admission to any of the listed institutions, and, since the announcement was made late in the year, underclassmen have had less than a month to complete transfer applications. Spaces at the Five Colleges are limited for students who choose to stay in the area. Amherst has indicated at meetings that they expect to admit only 10 to 20 students from Hampshire. Smith declared that only 60 transfers are accepted annually, and that Hampshire students will not receive any preferential treatment in the admissions process. With a student body of over 600, this leaves many students needing to explore alternative options. The listed institutions will overlook the fact that Hampshire does not offer traditional grades in their review of applications, but this cannot be guaranteed at other institutions students may consider.
Although Hampshire sometimes suffers in Five College jokes, such as being called the forgotten school, full of weirdos or not as academically rigorous as the others, Hampshire has actually achieved its goal of creating a curriculum that prepares students for the next phase of their lives. Hampshire students follow a unique “divisional structure” rather than the traditional academic path.
First-year students complete Division I, where they can explore different courses in various departments before they decide what they want to do for Division II (sophomore and junior year). However, Dunn stated that students have the flexibility to still change their path up until their senior year if their interests shift. Her own research is centered around the archives, and the unconventional structure of the academic program has allowed her to travel with her faculty advisor and visit various college archives across the nation, expanding her project beyond Hampshire. She has been able to do this research as only a sophomore and was hoping to continue it in the next two years of her education. Senior year is when students narrow it down. In the final two semesters, students complete their Division IIIs, which is the equivalent of an honors thesis or a capstone at other institutions.
Kaihla Laurent ’17 brought back a student-run literary magazine for her Division III. Kelly Malone-Wolfsun ’22 created a hybrid science-art project on the impact of forest fires on plant life. Rupert Tawiah Quashie ’22 created tools that combine sign language and technology to help officiate basketball games for deaf players. The moral of the story is that these projects are innovative, pushing beyond academia into real-world applications that allow students to be engaged in the broader community. As a result of this groundbreaking field research, Hampshire is in the top 2% of institutions producing graduates who go on to get Ph.D.s, and has produced graduates that have won MacArthur genius grants, Fulbrights, Critical Language Scholarships and other prestigious fellowships.
Here at Smith, we could take a page out of Hampshire’s book. While Smith has certainly made a name for itself as a prestigious undergraduate institution, we are definitely confined to what is colloquially referred to as the “Smith bubble.” Smith’s rigorous academic environment means that students are often so focused on maintaining high grades that they resort to using ChatGPT to complete their work, or they devote themselves exclusively to academics or Smith-based organizations due to the intense academic rigor instead of seeking out jobs or volunteer opportunities in the wider community. In contrast, Hampshire students receive “narrative assessment” instead of grades. They get detailed reports from each of their instructors about the work completed over the semester, how it applies to the next steps in their careers, and the student’s engagement and performance in the class, teaching them how to improve and providing them with performance reviews they can use in future job applications.
Smith also tends to be an echo chamber of political views and backgrounds. While Hampshire is also a predominantly white institution (PWI) with 30% students of color, they are more diverse than Smith in other ways. They have 23% faculty of color compared to Smith’s estimated 9.8% and 21% first generation students compared to Smith’s 18.6%, showcasing a greater diversity of faculty experiences and varying exposure to academia among the student body. Dunn, who has taken classes at both Hampshire and Smith, believes that these demographics contribute to different community atmospheres. Specifically, she has noticed a greater “space for discussion and growth and dialogue” at Hampshire.
I am not discounting Smith as an institution or denying the immense progress, even in the past few years, that has been made in making it more inclusive and financially accessible to students who might not have had the resources to access higher education. I love Smith and the past four years here have monumentally changed my perspective on the world, introduced me to my most dear friends, given me the opportunity to complete graduate-level research, connected me to jobs and internships and provided all the bells and whistles promised of a liberal arts education.
However, that positive experience was largely shaped by Hampshire, regardless of whether I was aware of that fact during my time here. I have taken classes with previous Hampshire faculty like Professor Loretta Ross. My classes have been infinitely more influential in my education because of the inclusion of Hampshire students. I learn from their writing, their discussion points and the conversations I have with them on the way to the PVTA. I sometimes find myself caught in the net of alienating academic jargon or a limited worldview. However, my Hampshire peers always provide me with feedback that helps me consider how larger global issues intersect with my topic or the perspective of a marginalized group I am lacking in my analysis, or how I can incorporate a more artistic lens into my work. I also began my work in reproductive justice and abortion access at Hampshire through the Collective Power Conference, which has since become a central part of my experience here, and I know I share this experience with many other Smith students, especially Women, Gender & Sexuality (SWAGS) students. The hosting organization, Collective Power, released a statement in solidarity with the Hampshire community. They noted how the program started as a part of Hampshire’s Civil Liberties and Public Policy program, and credited the institution for helping them build the Reproductive Justice movement.
Hampshire has long been a hub of activism and career advancement for all Five College students. Its unconventional class structures allow students to do groundbreaking research as undergraduates. Its flexibility has also allowed it to be more progressive and forward-moving than institutions like Smith and Amherst, which seem to remain eternally bound by tradition. It pioneered groundbreaking programs such as a streamlined admissions process for LGBTQ+ students in Florida seeking to transfer as a result of Gov. Ron DeSantis’s anti-LGBTQ+ agenda in 2023. They have been at the forefront of movements like reproductive justice and queer liberation. Their actions include taking down the American flag in 2016 as a reaction to “the toxic tone of the months-long election and the escalating number of news reports from across the country over recent months and years of hate speech, harassment, and violence against people of color, immigrants, international citizens, and Muslims,” sparking conversations among the student body about the meaning of the flag in the current political moment. Meanwhile, Smith has censored even the use of Black Lives Matter and Palestinian flags as statements of protest or support for various political movements in the past few years.
I admire Smith students’ dedication to advocacy and their ability to organize protests, educational programming, and letters in service of a cause. However, I think we often overlook the importance of local issues and the work needed to address them in our passion for global justice. This is not a criticism of the incredible work done by student organizations such as Smith Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) in addressing large, international crises. Having a global perspective is always valuable. But it’s also important to look out for our neighbors who need our help right here. Hundreds of Hampshire faculty have been laid off without any severance pay. Hundreds of students who have been in our classes, who are our friends, or even our hook-ups, are being forced to transfer in less than a month, and our institution is turning a blind eye to their struggle.
It is hypocritical for us to criticize Smith’s concern for our public image in their refusal to take a stand against the genocide in Gaza or against the NCAA transgender athlete ban, and not hold them accountable for their lack of action in the case of Hampshire. This is just as much a concern of image, but unfortunately, it comes down to preserving Smith’s reputation of pristige, one that many students also share, which I believe is part of the student body’s lack of action.
Smith and the other four colleges have failed to step up and support the Hampshire community during this massive transition. Dunn said, “The other four colleges rely on our professors to learn and now these schools aren’t willing to feel any type of sympathy towards that […] These schools created Hampshire as an experiment, and I guess that experiment is over, but they’re the ones that created us and they need to take responsibility.” I understand that Smith cannot do anything about the fact that they’ve already admitted the majority of the incoming class and closed faculty applications. However, this institution is filled with incredibly intelligent students, faculty and administrators. I have no doubt that they are capable of coming up with a temporary solution to offer Hampshire students, faculty and staff support until they can find jobs or placements at different institutions if desired.
The majority of the 250-person faculty have been notified that they will be laid off as of June 16, 2026. Director of Human Resources Tracy Weir distributed this message to faculty: “Hampshire College will be permanently ceasing its academic operations and all employees at the college will be impacted. The expected date of the first separation will be June 16, 2026. We regret to inform you that your position will be eliminated effective June 16, 2026. As Hampshire College does not maintain a job bumping policy, there are no bumping rights associated with this decision.” This decision comes after a notice distributed to students informing them that only seniors completing their Division IIIs (equivalent to an Honors thesis) will be able to remain on campus for the fall of 2026.
Dunn said Hampshire has since retracted this decision due to the New England Commission for Higher Education (NECHE) informing them this was an inadequate amount of time to allow students to transfer. However, it is unclear what instruction will look like in the fall for non-seniors, and if this change will affect the number of faculty and staff that the institution can keep employed through early 2027.
Many Hampshire faculty have been expressing their distress at having to change their place of work or potentially even leave academia altogether. “Like many students who found themselves at Hampshire, staff and faculty are here because we believe in fighting for the ideals of what Hampshire has always strived for,” said Griffin Leistinger, assistant director of Accessibility Resources and Services. “For many of us, much as for the students, Hampshire was also a refuge, a room the world had little room for.”
Smith has also served as a refuge to people typically rejected by traditional academic spaces. To women who are used to having their voices spoken over in the classroom. To queer people who were unable to experiment with their identities in high school. To trans people who are unable to seek gender affirming care in their home states or countries. To disabled students who can access accommodations through the Accessibility Resource Center (ARC). Smith is far from being a perfect institution for any of these groups, but I have found it to be worlds better than other colleges I have visited or the small town I grew up in. This revolutionary environment is not the result of Smith’s prestige of the institution that we are working so hard to protect, but rather because of the openmindedness and open hearts of the Smith community, including students, faculty and staff. Yet we are not offering Hampshire students and faculty the same acceptance.
In conversing with other Smith students about this issue, I have heard arguments that Hampshire students will not be able to keep up with the academic rigor of our institution or that because of our status as a Historically Women’s College, the student body might not even want to come here. While I respect Hampshire students’ right to decide whether Smith is right for them, I think it’s hypocritical to suggest that Hampshire students are not on our level because of something as trivial as an acceptance rate, and that students won’t fit into our demographics when we preach being an inclusive environment for genderqueer and trans individuals.
For many Hampshire students, Smith may be one of the few safe spaces where they can apply. Dunn stated that applying to other schools that are not nearly as welcoming as ours is extremely jarring for students. “The people I was going to live with next year in a house that I cherish so much will be living in dorms,” she said, noting the cold atmosphere of traditional college dorms in comparison to the communal style living of Hampshire houses. She continued, “They realize if they are in any type of way deviant from the idealized student: cis, white, able-bodied, they won’t be supported or welcomed at these schools,” she said. Hampshire students are also dealing with the grief of losing many of their friends as they go different places. Dunn said the environment has been dreary since the announcement. “It is extremely draining to hang out with your friends that you thought you would be close to for one more year or two more years and that you won’t see them next semester,” she said. It is then all-the-more important for us to help fill in these gaps in their relationships with acceptance into our circles.
We must stand with Hampshire if we want to live up to our values of fighting for the needs of marginalized groups and using our academic privilege for the greater good. We need to demonstrate that we are not the image that older generations and conservative news outlets want to frame us as: performative, naive, and out of touch. Students can help by engaging with the Instagram account @hampshireworkersforjustclosure, donating to the emergency relief fund for Hampshire staff and faculty, and contacting administrators to hold Smith accountable for not supporting Hampshire during this difficult time. When asked how Smith could be more engaged, Dunn replied, “Do not let the perceived authority of these institutions scare you. They are people just like you.” We need to make it clear to the institution that all we are asking is “to take these people in and to give them a chance and to treat them fairly,” she said. It is our responsibility as friends, students, and community members of Hampshire students, staff, and faculty to help support them during this stressful and sad time and try to make their transition into these new spaces a little bit easier. Dunn urged Smith students to recognize that Hampshire is “more than just woods parties.” They are what make the valley and the Five College community such a special place.
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