Our Commitment to Student Life and Academics

Dear Hampshire Students, Parents, and Colleagues,

Following the Board’s decision yesterday that, while Hampshire is searching for a long-term partner, we can only accept those students to whom we had already committed for fall 2019, we sent a letter last night to our 77 accepted students. The letter has raised questions and concerns, so we’re writing to address those.

Our first priority and commitment are to our current students, faculty, and staff, and we apologize the letter caused concern. The details in the letter to accepted students were only intended to suggest possible scenarios, and in fact no decisions have been made yet in changes or reductions to student life or academic services. Our goal is to continue to provide staffing for students related to their student life and residence experience and their academic studies.

In the spirit of consumer protection expected by the state and our accreditors, we had to account to accepted students and their families for the uncertainty we’re facing. We had to reveal that we cannot make certain guarantees while we’re facing an uncertain path forward.  We hope our accepted students will recognize our responsibilities to our state regulators and accreditors in detailing those possible scenarios, and we do hope they will choose to join our community.

In making its decision yesterday to invite our accepted students to enroll, the Board acted on the College’s obligation to those students and to our current students.

Hampshire is going to change and has to change to survive, and that will impact infrastructure, staffing, services, and resources to a certain extent. In the coming months, we intend to care for our students, faculty, and staff as much as we can through these changes and our decisions over how we distribute limited resources. Our major areas of focus will be supporting students through the college’s individualized pedagogy and student life experience while we are measuring evolving needs. Our goal is to be as transparent as possible and acknowledge when and where we don’t have answers.

As a small college, we are used to having to adapt to changes in the availability of faculty to ensure students have advisers, both among Hampshire faculty and those of the Five Colleges. We will work with each student to ensure they have advisers, courses, and learning activities in their field of study and across disciplines.

The Dean of Faculty office and Student Life office are available to students. The directors and staff in our various student centers and student life are here to support you. Admissions, counseling, our PEERS program, and other offices are also working one-on-one with current and prospective students.
We’ve listed contact information for campus resources below. We will be posting dates and times for student meetings in the coming days to offer opportunities for dialogue and support.

For our faculty and staff, there will be inevitable hardship as we move forward. We care deeply for our employees and we are committed to a process where all employees are supported and treated with dignity and respect through transition.

As they wrote last night, our Board, comprised largely of alums and parents, believes in Hampshire. We believe our College holds a special place in higher education, now and into the future.

Sincerely,

Mim Nelson, President

Eva Rueschmann, Dean of Faculty

Gloria Lopez, Dean of Students


Campus Resources for Students, Staff, and Faculty

Current students and parents with questions on residence and student life, contact the Office of the Dean of Students: deanofstudents@hampshire.edu

P.E.E.R.S. (People who are Empowering Empathetic Reliable Supporters)

• Wellness Center PEERS office (2nd Floor Wellness Center, Enfield House), Sunday-Thursday, 6-8pm
• Dakin PEERS office (Dakin House, J Basement), Sunday-Thursday, 4-6pm
• Questions or appointments:  peerchaplains@hampshire.edu

Current students with questions about academics, contact

• Center for Academic Support and Advising 413.559.5498; advising@hampshire.edu
• Office of the Dean of Faculty: dof@hampshire.edu

Website for Hampshire College Visioning Project Information and Updates, which includes stakeholder pages and links to support resources for students, employees, and alums: updates.hampshire.edu.

Office of Admissions: admissions@hampshire.edu

Office of Alumni and Family Relations: alumni@hampshire.edu

Office of Human Resources: Employees with questions about benefits, tuition benefits, unemployment benefits, and similar concerns should contact HR@hampshire.edu, tel 413.559.5605.

Employee Assistance Program: Confidential, free service available to all employees around-the-clock, which provides access to counseling, health, and wellness resources as well as financial consultation and referrals. Tel. 800.828.6025.

President’s Office: president@hampshire.edu

Board of Trustees: trustees@hampshire.edu