I had a cottage in northern Michigan where nearly every store had an array of wooden steering wheels as part of their décor. At first, I chalked this up to an amazing coincidence, but after being there a while, it was clear there was a theme I was simply missing—so I asked. It turns out Henry Ford was in need of wood that was both strong and flexible for the steering wheels of his early cars. The trees needed were found in great supply in this part of Michigan, a two-hour drive from Detroit.
This was the best of all possible worlds. Folks from rural Michigan enjoyed the benefits of the big city economy without changing a single element of their lifestyle, all while the rest of the world got, well, cars. This worked for quite some time, until one fateful night, when fire swept through the steering wheel plant faster than Usain Bolt on a hot asphalt track. With the plant totaled, and changes in production possible by then, production of steering wheels was moved closer to Detroit, altering the economy up north towards tourism.
This somehow came to mind this week, when Hampshire College announced it will be closing this December. Hampshire was created by four other colleges in the Amherst area, designed to meet the needs of students who weren’t quite sure what they wanted to study, who wanted to study something the other four colleges didn’t offer, or who wanted to study more than one thing at a time. With Hampshire, students had a chance to do all three, since each student designed their own program of study, typically including some kind of project or thesis at the end to ensure the academic integrity of the student’s four years of activity.
At the time of its inception, Hampshire was hailed by many as the future of higher education, epitomizing American individualism. These tributes were short lived, as the conservative education mindset of the 80s questioned the societal value of what critics saw as self-absorbed academic engagement, citing the student who earned their degree in Frisbee. The fact this student’s work included exhaustive analysis of the economics of development and market effect of Frisbees notwithstanding, the name of the degree became an object of derision in many educational circles (no pun intended).
Resurgence of the “college should be about job training” mentality in the post-COVID era sent Hampshire into a tailspin, with enrollment bottoming out at 500. Strong efforts to rebound managed to get enrollment to 750, but that was not deemed enough for Hampshire to offer students the quality of education its mission required, leading to this week’s announcement.
To some, Hampshire’s closing just isn’t that big of a deal, the end of an experiment whose ideals were wonderful to think about, but incomplete as an institutional strategy. To others, Hampshire is another indication that learning for the sake of learning is no longer a viable life goal, unless the topic is associated with retirement hobbies like watercolor painting or birdwatching.
Combined with the closure of (ironically) work-college oriented Sterling College, and discussion of reducing general education requirements so all colleges can offer three-year bachelor’s degrees, there is significant discussion if the increasing cost of college is driving its lone purpose to become a work preparation investment that needs to pay off tangible dividends—rather than that and a time for self-reflection and growth.
I bet the guy who studied the economic effects of Frisbees would beg to differ, as would a Liberal Studies major from Reed College.
You know the second guy as Steve Jobs.
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