Iconic Leftist Hampshire College Permanently Closing at End of the Year

Iconic Leftist Hampshire College Permanently Closing at End of the Year

The trustees of Hampshire College have voted to close the school after the fall semester of 2026. This marks the end of a process that began a few years ago when the school began to face the possibility of such a decision.

Located in central Massachusetts, Hampshire College is a progressive institution that makes other colleges look conservative by comparison. Following Trump’s election as president in 2016, students forced the school to fly the American flag at half-mast, drawing national attention and anger.

Hampshire is also pricey, with annual tuition of nearly $60,000, but despite the high price tag and increased fundraising efforts, the school has seen enrollment decline and finds itself in an unsustainable position.

WWLP News reports:

Hampshire College to close permanently after fall 2026 semester

Hampshire College’s board of trustees voted to permanently close the institution following the Fall 2026 semester. The decision comes after years of financial struggle and unsuccessful efforts to secure the college’s future.

The college has navigated financial challenges since 2019, experiencing declining enrollment, rising costs and an unstable funding environment that affects small, liberal arts colleges. Despite pursuing a financial sustainability plan and raising more than $55 million through its Change in the Making campaign, efforts in enrollment growth, debt refinancing and land development did not yield a viable path forward.

Hampshire College will provide academic, student life and transitional services to currently enrolled students through the end of the fall semester. The college will not admit a new class for Fall 2026 and all deposits from admitted students will be refunded.

Here’s a video report from WBZ News:

This is part of a statement released by the board of trustees and President Jennifer Chrisler:

even years ago, the Hampshire community presented the College with a powerful mandate: to maintain independence and remain true to Hampshire’s deepest-held values. Since then, we have all worked together toward those goals, facing daunting challenges with the ingenuity and resolve that define the best of what happens here. We left no stone unturned, no solution unexplored, and made many sacrifices along the way.

Despite this herculean effort, the financial pressures on the College’s operations have become increasingly complex, compounded by shifting external factors. As President Chrisler has shared regularly with our community and our regulatory agencies, we worked aggressively to increase enrollment, refinance existing debt, and realize new revenue via the sale of a portion of our land. We have long known that addressing these issues is essential to establishing a stable financial foundation, supporting long-term operations, and meeting regulatory requirements. We are faced with the clear, heartbreaking reality that progress on each of these three key factors has fallen far short of what we had hoped.

As a result, the Board of Trustees voted to permanently close Hampshire College following the fall 2026 semester. The rationale behind this painful vote reflects several realities. The College no longer has the resources to sustain full operations and meet our regulatory responsibilities. The inability to substantially grow enrollment would mean extraordinary cuts to our operating budgets to educate the student body we can reasonably anticipate. Additionally, the degree of short-term debt tied to our land assets means that even a favorable sale would not change our long-term financial trajectory given current enrollment.

This closure will get more attention than the closure of other schools.

Hampshire is the Zohran Mamdani of colleges.

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