| Did You Know? | |
- Hampshire is a member of the Five College Consortium (www.fivecolleges.edu), which includes Amherst College, Mount Holyoke College, Smith College, and the University of Massachusetts - Amherst (UMass). Students are free to enroll in any of approximately 5,000 courses and use the facilities (like the libraries) at these colleges.
- Hampshire's academics are divided into five areas: Cognitive Science (CS), Humanities, Arts, & Cultural Studies (HACU), Interdisciplinary Arts (IA), Natural Science (NS), and Social Science (SS).
- The academic program is based on three divisions. Division I (two to three semesters) is based on eight courses and/or independent projects with five distribution requirements in each of the College's schools of thought. Division II (three to four semesters) is based on a specified set of questions and goals detailed in an academic contract that the student writes and includes a wide range of learning activities in addition to community service and a multiple cultural perspectives requirement, both intended to push students to learn beyond the classroom and dominant cultural constructs. Division III (two to three semesters) yields a broad range of projects, including student films, video games, scientific studies, art installations, research papers, novellas, and poetry.
- Hampshire students run the Experimental Program in Education and Community (EPEC), a student initiative founded in 1995, which coordinates student-led courses and workshops that count towards a student's academic program, exemplifying students' commitment to alternative education and independent work. Visit epec.hampshire.edu for more information.
- Hampshire does not use the tenure system and instead relies on professor reviews, based in part on evaluations from students and the evaluation by their peers. Hampshire students run STAR Peer Resource Center, an academic center where students can go for advice and assistance from older students. STAR offers Hampshire-specific tip sheets, sample portfolios, and more. STAR is located in the Dakin Living Room building. Two of the most notable programs based at Hampshire are the Civil Liberties and Public Policies Program (CLPP, clpp.hampshire.edu) and the Five College Peace & World Security Studies Program (PAWSS, pawss.hampshire.edu). CLPP promotes reproductive rights education and activism through its activities, including an annual reproductive rights and social justice conference. PAWSS organizes workshops, courses, lectures, conferences, and publications in the name of the academic community's search for global peace, justice, and security.
- Hampshire is integrating its own Wiki platform. The goal of this project is to digitize Hampshire. When it is complete, there will be a 3D "walkable" map of Hampshire, in addition to information about everything you ever wanted to know about Hampshire. You can access it at www.hampedia.org. If you are an accepted student, you can edit your page using your preliminary account.
- One of the most common images associated with Hampshire is the Hampshire Tree, the image that adorns many Hampshire items in the school store. Hampshire's first president's teenage son designed this logo, inspired by a breadfruit tree, and the tree graphic is still used for the College's seal. The new logo is a negative space "H" formed by four blocks representing the other four colleges.
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