History
The College opened to students in 1970. Its history dates to the immediate aftermath of World War II. The first The New College Plan was drafted in 1958 by the presidents of the then-Four Colleges, and was revised several times after planning for the College began in the 1960s. Many original ideas for non-traditional arrangements for the College's curriculum, campus, and life were discarded along the way. Many new ideas generated during the planning process were not described in the original documents.
For several years immediately after its founding in the early 1970s, Hampshire College was among the most selective undergraduate programs in the United States. Its admissions selectivity declined thereafter, but the school's number of applications increased in the late 1990s, allowing for greater admissions selectivity since then. The college's rate of admissions is now comparable to that of many other small liberal arts colleges.
The school has struggled with financial difficulties since its founding. At some points, the administration seriously considered ceasing operations or merging into the University of Massachusetts Amherst. In recent years, the school is on more solid financial footing, though without a sizable endowment. Its financial stability is often credited to the fundraising efforts of its most recent past presidents, Adele Simmons and Gregory S. Prince, Jr.. The College has also distinguished itself recently with a draft for a "sustainable campus plan" and a "cultural village" through which organizations not directly affiliated with the school are located on its campus. The cultural village includes the National Yiddish Book Center and the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art.
On April 1, 2004, president Gregory Prince announced he would retire at the end of the 2004-05 academic year. On April 5, 2005, the Board of Trustees named Ralph Hexter, formerly a dean at University of California, Berkeley's College of Letters and Science, as the college's next president, effective August 1, 2005. Hexter was inaugurated on October 15, 2005. The appointment made Hampshire one of a small number of colleges and universities in the United States with an openly gay president.
Some of the most important founding documents of Hampshire College are collected in the book The Making of a College (MIT Press, 1967; ISBN 0-262-66005-9). The Making of a College is (as of 2003) out of print but available in electronic form from the Hampshire College Archives
On August 23, 2012, the school announced the establishment of a scholarship fund dedicated to helping illegal immigrants get degrees. It would give more than $25,000 each year to help an illegal immigrant pay for the $43,000-plus tuition.
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