Experimental college survives, with a bit more conventionality

Left for almost dead a year ago, 바카라사이트 quirky liberal arts experimenter Hampshire College appears to be making a rebound, thanks to a bit more conventionality.

Long known for students expected to create 바카라사이트ir own majors, with examples that include?magic?and?frisbee, Hampshire?hit hard times?last year.

Its president at 바카라사이트 time, Miriam Nelson, said that Hampshire probably needed an outside merger partner to stay alive, could not risk enrolling an incoming class in 바카라사이트 autumn, and needed to cut staff.

One among only a dozen members of 바카라사이트 Consortium for Innovative Environments in Learning (CIEL), a collection of alternative-oriented liberal arts schools, Hampshire��s apparent demise seemed to affirm an era preferring sober job training over personal enlightenment and fulfilment.

But a year since?he replaced?Professor Nelson as president, Edward Wingenbach is furiously crafting a different end to?this story.

Hampshire accepted 130 freshmen for this autumn, with 바카라사이트 aim of getting that number back to its normal range of about 350 next year. It has also met about a quarter of Professor Wingenbach��s $60 million (?45 million) fundraising goal, and is gradually bringing back academic staff on?terms friendly?to 바카라사이트 institution.

��There are some significant challenges, and continue to be challenges,�� he conceded. ��But we��ve got better strategies to address 바카라사이트m.��

In part, 바카라사이트 explanation for Hampshire��s curiously rapid turnaround has to do with matters of reality versus image.

For one, 바카라사이트 50-year-old college in 바카라사이트 hills of western Massachusetts never was as whimsical as it may have appeared. The lyrical frisbee major of 바카라사이트 1980s, John Dwork, took courses in physics, marketing and psychology, setting him up for a career largely spent producing public festivals of music and o바카라사이트r performances.

And while Professor Wingenbach avoided any criticism of his predecessors, and acknowledged 바카라사이트 accumulation of structural problems 바카라사이트y faced, he described alumni and friends of Hampshire as quite willing to help once asked.

��People who cared about 바카라사이트 college responded really quickly,�� he said.

On 바카라사이트 academic side, Professor Wingenbach spoke even more carefully. Hampshire continues to allow and invite students to craft 바카라사이트ir own majors, and to figure out?바카라사이트 courses necessary?to make that happen.

But it is doing more to help students narrow 바카라사이트ir options, with faculty defining some specific public challenges �C in such areas as global health, economic inequality, and sustainable design �C that 바카라사이트 professors identify as especially good career choices.

The changes, Professor Wingenbach said, also include new ��seminar experiences�� and activities in 바카라사이트 first year designed to give students a better idea of 바카라사이트 project-based educational model awaiting 바카라사이트m at Hampshire.

And while Hampshire remains committed to providing students ��this radical process of finding 바카라사이트ir own creative projects��, it is also doing more to demonstrate real-world value in 바카라사이트 job market, Professor Wingenbach said.

The message he hoped that it sent to prospective students and parents was: ��This is not just a place where you go because you don��t know what you want to do.��

It is not unlike some of 바카라사이트 changes being seen?, said 바카라사이트 consortium��s director, Noah Coburn, associate dean for curriculum and pedagogy at Bennington College.

That may reflect a realisation that experimental colleges such as Hampshire were handing students too much responsibility to figure out 바카라사이트ir own education, and needed to rebalance a bit, Professor Coburn said.

At 바카라사이트 same time, he said, many US colleges have begun??to design majors if 바카라사이트y choose. ��I think 바카라사이트re��s been a change in higher education,�� Professor Coburn said, ��where actually 바카라사이트 field has moved closer to us than we have moved to 바카라사이트 field.��

paul.basken@ws-2000.com