Hampshire College Bugs Me, and I Love It

The worst and best of Hampshire College, as it sets to close this year

Photo copyright Hampshire College

I entered Hampshire College at age 23, having attended another school for a few years and working for a while. One of the first events I encountered on campus was a student movement to demand that the school’s board of trustees divest from any business involved with apartheid South Africa.

I did not oppose this movement, but I considered it of questionable importance. Would pulling money out of South Africa really help the downtrodden Black citizens there? Maybe, maybe not. What about the poor Black workers who lost their jobs as a result of the divestments?

I, on the other hand, had participated in “real” movements that mattered. While in high school, I had marched against the Vietnam War and attended a Black Panther rally. Those were clear-cut causes. I had already been there and done that. I was older and wiser than the 19- and 20-year olds who barricaded themselves in the college president’s office and prevented the administration from entering the building.

Except for one thing…

The Hampshire youngsters were right. Within ten years more than 150 other colleges and universities divested from South Africa. Many U.S. cities and states did the same. The U.S. federal government put restrictions on its dealings with South Africa. Hampshire was first. Nelson Mandela later said that international divestment was a major reason the racist South African government gave way to majority rule.

I learned something. We need young students to look at the world in a new way. Hampshire students were ahead of the curve in the 1970s. They looked far away into another continent and saw something that I, at age 23, was too old and smug to see clearly. As unkempt and annoying as they are, we need more Hampshire students who are concerned about topics other than mid-term grades, sorority rushes, and tech bro jobs on Wall Street.