Super Woke Hampshire College Continues to Face Serious Budget Deficits

Super Woke Hampshire College Continues to Face Serious Budget Deficits

For anyone who doesn’t remember, Hampshire College was actually in danger of closing several years ago. It doesn’t look like they’ve solved their problems yet.

The College Fix reports:

College that openly celebrates progressive ideology continues to face big budget woes

A private Massachusetts liberal arts college which openly touts its embrace of progressive concepts continues to grapple with big budget deficits.

The budget woes have not stopped campus leaders from funding programs advancing LGBTQ and DEI concepts amid laying off employees and slashing departments.

Hampshire College, which made headlines years ago when it took down the U.S. flag to promote multiculturalism and more recently offered Florida students wanting to flee from Gov. Ron DeSantis streamlined enrollment, is currently laying off 9 percent of its staff to close a budget shortfall.

The college was founded in the 1970s as an alternative to traditional higher education models with a focus on student-driven learning as well as social justice and inclusion.

But in the last decade or so, it’s struggled to make ends meet.

The recent decision eliminated 29 staff positions and will save $2.7 million annually, while senior leaders took a 13 percent pay cut, and a few departments are being consolidated, MassLive reported.

The move follows ongoing enrollment struggles, employee benefits reductions, and five years of budget deficits since not accepting an incoming class in 2019.

The university did not accept an incoming class that year because it was unable to prove it could afford to graduate a new class of students to its accreditors, the university states on its website.

In particular, administrators could not, “through verifiable internal and external evidence,” prove “its financial capacity to graduate its entering class,” its president stated at the time.

Despite the longterm budget woes, campus leaders have continued to emphasize left-leaning programs and curricula over more traditional studies.

“Since the rocky year of 2019, Hampshire has undergone a major curriculum transformation, replacing traditional majors and departments with curricula focused on addressing pressing global issues such as climate change and racism,” Higher Ed Dive reported in July.

In recent months, Hampshire College has also touted its efforts to study and promote topics such as Drag and Environmental Justice, Disrupting and Dismantling White Supremacy, and Inclusive Weightlifting.

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