The idea for Hampshire College originated in 1958 when the presidents of Amherst, Mount Holyoke, Smith Colleges, and the University of Massachusetts Amherst appointed a committee to examine the assumptions and practices of liberal arts education. Their report, "The New College Plan", advocated many of the features that have since been realized in the Hampshire curriculum: inviting students to self-design their program of studies; training students to be able to educate themselves through their l...
