For the second time in less than 10 years, the New England Commission of Higher Education is requiring Hampshire College to show cause why its accreditation should not be withdrawn.
The commission announced its decision Tuesday, listing several reasons including that Hampshire College has not successfully sustained its enrollment.
The small school's population dropped by nearly 100 students from the Fall semester in 2024 to the start of school in 2025.
Hampshire College President Jennifer Chrisler has been leading the college for less than a year. At the time she began in 2025 as interim president, the college had budgeted as if it had 1,000 students.
School began this year with 747 students, according to NECHE.
In response to the commission’s decision, Chrisler said, “throughout Hampshire’s history, leadership has worked productively with our accreditors to plan for, provide, and assess our distinctive, student-driven educational model. I look forward to working with NECHE to ensure the success of our sustainability plan and preserve the remarkable experience of our students, a group of iconoclastic, bold, and creative people who believe passionately in making our motto, 'To Know Is Not Enough,' a reality.”
The action NECHE announced this week is also based on Hampshire College's declining unrestricted endowment, which NECHE described as being used to support operations.
Hampshire College was first accredited by NECHE in 1974 (the commission accredits 218 degree-granting institutions and one system in the U.S. and internationally),
A few years of struggle
In 2019, Hampshire College laid off 9 percent of its staff. Enrollment goals then were not being met, and the college also made a decision to to accept fewer students.
That spring, NECHE announced it would require Hampshire to show why it should not be placed on probation or have its accreditation withdrawn.
Back then, the organization said it was concerned about the college's leadership turnover and its finances as it relies on student tuition for a significant amount of its funding.
Then the pandemic hit.
Still, several Hampshire College true believers, boosters, alum and strategists say this unique campus can continue to educate students into the future.
Among them is Ken Rosenthal, a Hampshire College founder and the college's first treasurer. He was also the interim president in 2019.
"Hampshire College is alive and well," Rosenthal wrote, defending the school, after a January 28, 2026 in the Amherst College newspaper said, based on the college's public fiscal audit , it is at risk of closure if it could not refinance its current debt.
"Its annual auditors report, which suggested a deficit ... tells only part of the story of Hampshire’s progress and the challenges it faces as a very young institution," Rosenthal wrote.
Every college faces financial challenges Rosenthal said, even Amherst College with its substantial endowment, where he graduated from in 1960.
"But Amherst [College] has at least one financial asset that Hampshire will acquire only with the passage of time: alumni who die and remember their college in their wills. Hampshire’s very oldest alums are just now in their early 70s, and, to date, its alumni deaths and bequests have been few compared to what its four parent institutions receive each year, " Rosenthal said.
Give it time and that will change, he said, adding that after his death , quite a while from now he hoped, "both Amherst and Hampshire will benefit."
Rosenthal's support of Hampshire's success was echoed yesterday by its board.
“Hampshire’s ongoing financial viability is the board’s top priority," said Jose Fuentes, the chair of Hampshire College’s Board of Trustees.
Fuentes said the board will focus on refinancing the Hampshire's debt, "working to continue fundraising efforts, realizing land development, and supporting the work to increase enrollment."
One of the Five Colleges
In western Massachusetts, Hampshire County, is home to five schools, Hampshire, Amherst, Mount Holyoke and Smith Colleges and the University of Massachusetts Amherst; they comprise the Five College Consortium.
Among the benefits of working together, students are able to take classes intercampus.
"Five Colleges serves as a fulcrum that leverages the collective power of our constituencies to accomplish common goals," it says on its webpage.
Some would like to see it do more for Hampshire College.
"Hampshire should more fully leverage its membership in the Five College Consortium," Warren Gorlick wrote in a January 27, 2026 opinion piece for Masslive.
"The Consortium is perhaps Hampshire’s most significant advantage over other small liberal arts colleges, allowing its students to register for over 7,000 courses at a major public university and three other top-tier colleges," he wrote.
Further opportunities exist said Gorlick who is a Hampshire College alum, former trustee and former economist within the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of International Affairs.
"Juniors and seniors from partner schools could live on Hampshire’s campus while remaining degree candidates at their home institutions. Such arrangements would fill vacant housing, enhance campus vitality and deepen collaboration," Gorlick wrote.
