Hampshire College

Dear Friends:

Welcome back to Hampshire for 2007-2008. It's been a beautiful summer here, with rare exception not excessively hot, and already there are nights with a chill in the air that lingers in the early mornings, a feeling to which my whole being responds with one thought: time to go back to school!

I've learned so much in the two years since I came to the Pioneer Valley and am eager to continue learning and teaching, interacting with every member of our community, and working with them to build Hampshire's future. I have come to understand the spirit of broad possibility that prevails at the college. It is up to us to define our future and make it a reality in synchrony with the other forces also working to shape our world.

There will be a great deal of talk about the future this year and, if I have any say in it, forever after at Hampshire, since it is into the future that we hurtle, some of us further than others. As our revisioning process widens and deepens, and as "Making of the College 2.1" replaces "Making of the College 2.0," I hope to persuade you that we need to focus on that future in ever more tangible and intentional ways. As at many institutions, sustainability will be among the key themes, but I want us at Hampshire to think about sustainability across the spectrum. Certainly, environmental sustainability, but what about the sustainability of human institutions? Clearly, "sustainable" is not a synonym for "unchanging." It seems to me that the challenge of the twenty-first century will be to understand, adapt to, and if possible guide changes in multiple interactive sectors across a globe that is already one. What would optimization look like? How could we as responsible global citizens decide? How best to act when certainty is unattainable? No wonder some of the oldest thought practices of the humanities are needed - ethics, hermeneutics, logic - alongside sciences both natural and cognitive.

If you guess that as I write this letter, I'm deeply engaged in other growing document files on my laptop, among them "The Making of the College 2.1" and my remarks at Convocation on September 6 (where I hope to see you all), you are right.

Change is a constant feature of Hampshire, as at all colleges and universities. Last May we bade 315 graduating students farewell. Right now we are welcoming a remarkable class of incoming students to our community. At 450, the entering class is again among the larger Hampshire has admitted and at the same time among the most selective. And even as the percentage of returning students continues to move upwards slowly, our enrollment planning work has paid off and this year, no student will be in a hotel on Route 9 or a dorm at a fellow Five-College institution.

Focusing again on the "07F"-ers, the numbers of international students and students of color are up 50% and 20%, respectively, over last year, though I would like to see the absolute numbers to climb yet higher in coming years. Student demographics comprise but one aspect of diversity. Working with me on the many planes of that realm, in the spirit of my memorandum to the community of May 19,  is Professor Jaime Dávila, whom I have appointed as the Special Presidential Assistant for Diversity and Multicultural Education. The path of discovery we undertake with his assistance will challenge and inspire us.

Issues of diversity and intercultural understanding will have a more prominent role in our orientation for incoming students than ever before. And speaking of orientation, for the first time ever, there is a parallel family orientation for new students. We are all delighted at the amazing response of the parents of incoming students to participating in programs organized for them. Roughly 400 have registered! This is very exciting.

Administration is, I suppose, inevitably less thrilling, but change happens on that front as well. Earlier this week I notified the community that Chief Advancement Officer Holly Hendrix will take on the role of Senior Philanthropic Advisor for the final months of 2007 as Clay Ballantine moves into the role of Chief Advancement Officer, effective September 1. And after passing muster with a hard-working committee, three finalists for the position of Vice President of Administration and Finance/Treasurer have visited the campus. I look forward to being able to announce a new Vice President before very long. She or he will have a lot to do both in managing the campus and its regular functions as well as helping us plan for our future, a future that will include, thanks to increasing support from alumni, parents, and friends, new and updated facilities. The first groundbreaking, for the expansion and upgrade of the Jerome Liebling Center for Film, Photography and Video, will take place on October 13, in the context of our Family, Alumni, & Friends Weekend. Stand by for much more information on that event to come, which will also feature a celebration of twenty years of James Baldwin Scholars.

Even as we break ground on one project and work with all constituencies to think through the planning and funding of comparable or larger projects - think student center, think a green residence that would let us eventually retire some of the oldest mods, among others - there are a myriad small improvements that will strike your eyes (unless, of course, they escape them). Over the summer a number of more modest projects have been executed that address issues of safety, health, accessibility, or otherwise respond to community requests. Let me just point to some modifications that have been made as a result of a spring 2007 campus facilities planning process in which the Campus Planning Committee, the Board of Trustees' Committee on Buildings, Grounds and Environmental Sustainability, Natural Science faculty, and student leaders of SafeCom and New Leaf were all involved.

Let me start with a perennially sensitive topic: yes, we have done some pruning and trimming of trees, and even removed a few selected specimens that, due to shallow roots or proximity to buildings, posed threats to structures and, in some instances, individuals. We created a walking path from the bus stop to the walkway leading to Health Services so that students and visitors will no longer have to walk in the street. We are experimenting with a new, more environmentally friendly surface on this path, so be sure to give us feedback as the snows of winter and muds of spring arrive! We have done significant work on parts of Greenwich, improving accessibility for wheelchairs and replacing worn or degraded door and window frames with "greener" models.

Additional changes include preparing the tented area between the Merrill and Dakin offices to be a more flexible gathering space (with a fixed roof, electricity, and lighting) and new signage both for road traffic and for directing people to assembly places during an emergency. Only some of you will see the improvements to a number of classrooms in multiple buildings on campus or the renovations to bathrooms and flooring in some of the residences.

Welcome back! I hope you will feel that over the summer we've taken good care of our campus. I know you will not be shy in telling us what still needs to be done. Know that we rely on, indeed thrive on your input. We must build our future, and we should never forget that it can begin with the replacement of a light or a lowly bathroom fixture. We are all caretakers of each others' welfare - the replacement of a broken light or a lowly bathroom fixture is also an aspect of good citizenship at Hampshire.

Sincerely,



Ralph J. Hexter
President

P.S. Speaking of lights, at 15 Middle Street Manfred and I have now replaced all the incandescent bulbs we could with compact fluorescent bulbs.