President Jenn Chrisler stated in an announcement that “The College no longer has the resources to sustain full operations and meet our regulatory responsibilities. We want to assure you that Hampshire’s board made its decision only after exploring every possible alternative.”Well, not “every possible alternative.”The college was founded to advance a progressive agenda and pedagogy, including a shift to narrative evaluations rather than grades. It has been one of the most woke colleges in the nation.
In my book, “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage,” I write about how this generation of faculty and administrators has destroyed higher education by prioritizing political and social agendas, purging the faculty ranks of conservatives and libertarians, and creating a culture of viewpoint intolerance.
Schools like Hampshire College wrote off half of the country and offered indoctrination over education. Students were offered little more than woke credentials with few marketable skills or demonstrated abilities with their degrees. By removing the “anxiety” of grades and rigorous academic standards, the college became a comfort zone rather than a learning zone.
As reported by sites like The College Fix, the faculty heralded its woke agenda on climate change and combating racism.
The New York Times article mentions little of Hampshire’s woke agenda and curriculum, noting that many colleges have been closing. It is the same shrug that one sees in higher education.Surveys show that public confidence in higher education is at a record low.The school slogan, “To Know Is Not Enough,” captured that institutional purpose. Yet, it was also not enough to know that your college was failing to get you to reexamine your culture and curriculum. The problem with the academic echo chamber is that many professors would rather their institutions fail than abandon their agenda and bias.
University professors, if anything, are doubling down with the selection of a far-left activist by the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) and a continuation of their biased faculty hiring practices.
Many families are unwilling to be the captive audience of an institution that maintains an orthodoxy taught almost exclusively by liberal faculty.
I take no joy in the failure of schools like Hampshire College. It is a tragedy of the academic culture that has taken hold of higher education.