In the series “Student Voices,” current students write about the reasons they chose Hampshire and how our educational model works from their perspective.
The rippling effects of Hampshire’s founding mission of “inspiring students to create positive change in the world” can be felt throughout our campus. Our network of dedicated student activists and motivated group leaders inspires me and keeps me working as a leader on campus. I think it is one of the best aspects of our school.
At Hampshire we have an extensive network of support for student organizing. Recognized student groups are supported by Campus Leadership and Activities (CLA), the office that helps students plan events, provides funding, and gives advice on leadership and organizing. Besides the helpful support from CLA, student groups are run and facilitated entirely by students. Signers lead the groups; each group has three, and their job is to maintain the group and sign all the necessary paperwork. Being a signer allows students to practice their leadership skills and also gain CEL-2 (Community Engaged Learning) credit.
With over 100 recognized student groups, to say there’s something for everyone would be an understatement. Groups are sorted into subcategories, including activism, sports, performance, spirituality, and identity, to name a few.
Some notable groups include: Hampster Wheels, a new group co-op this semester that allows students to rent bikes on campus; The Lilith, a feminist literary arts magazine; Decolonizing Indigenous Generations (DIG), an identity group and safe space for indigenous students; and Relaxation Club, which trains students to give great backrubs, who are then available for the Hampshire campus. Members of Shake and Bake cook baked goodies and read and enact Shakespeare plays, and members of the Health Professions Club helps guide students through perusing a career in the healthcare field. These are just a handful, with a hundred others.
Student groups are in their glory at the biannual event Hampfest, where all student groups have the opportunity to recruit new members. CLA provides yummy food and live music, and you can feel the contagious enthusiasm among student group members and leaders. There’s no doubt you’ll see members of Circus Folk Unite! juggling while walking on stilts, or the acapella groups Gin & Tonics or Crazy Pitches singing harmonies.
Yet Hampshire’s strongest student group assets come from the dedicated activist groups, whose missions are to build power among our campus and create change in the world. Some of these groups include Decolonize Media Collective, a student of color organization dedicated to racial justice; Hampshire Food Advocates, a group dedicated to establishing just and sustainable food on campus; Climate Justice League (I am a signer of), which empowers students to take action on climate change locally and nationally; Students Against Mass Incarceration, which educates and takes action on the Prison Industrial Complex … and many more exceptionally committed groups.
Just a couple of weeks ago Decolonize Media Collective helped to host the three founders of the #BlackLivesMatter movement — Patrisse Cullors, Alicia Garza, and Opal Tometi — who spoke in front of hundreds of students and community members. Hampshire was the first school in the country to host these organizers, and their words of power have continued to echo through the campus.
In a week Climate Justice League will volunteer at one of the largest climate movement summits that has happened in the Northeast — the Northeast Climate Organizers Summit (NECOS). Members of the student group have been helping to plan the event and will work with people fighting fossil fuel infrastructure around the region.
As time passes and I grow as a Hampshire student, our motto “To Know is Not Enough,” seems to grow along with me, and rings true in all that I do. To know is never enough — we must act. I am proud that my school not only touts this motto, and also acts upon it.
