“Hampshire College was an audacious idea long before it opened as a new liberal arts college in 1970. Both its educational and financial ideas represented a sharp break from traditional higher education. Rich Alpert captures the excitement and uncertainty of building a new institution. He examines the creativity, tenacity, and chutzpah that were required to raise the funds, build a campus, recruit and retain students, develop a curriculum and much more. Written fifty-five years after its opening, this volume gives us some perspective on how it all happened. It recognizes the extraordinary achievements without overlooking the difficulties that plague a small liberal arts college with a very limited endowment.” — Penina Glazer was a founding member of Hampshire College, Dean of Faculty from 1976 to 1983 as well as Vice President for Academic Affairs from 1987 to 1996.
“This is a very readable report of the early days of Hampshire College, by one who was there. Hampshire was created by four other colleges to be an experimenting institution, a higher education innovator. Its place in academic history is important, and Rich Alpert tells its story very well.” — Kenneth Rosenthal was at Hampshire College for ten years, from 1966 to 1976. He served as the College’s first treasurer from 1970 to 1975.
Richard Tice Alpert was born in Elmira, New York and graduated summa cum laude from Hobart College in Geneva, New York and earned his Ph.D. in Government at Harvard University. He has had a varied career including serving as a dean at Hampshire College in its early years, Executive Vice President of a strategic planning consulting firm, senior manager at an educational testing company, and the owner of Diversity Resources, a publishing company focusing on multicultural and diversity issues. He was the founding Vice President and Treasurer of the National Yiddish Book Center and is currently retired and President of Sinai Temple in Springfield, MA. and lives in Longmeadow, Massachusetts. He is the author of several articles and a memoir, Living Life Backwards, and a family history, The Family Tice: Luck, Choice, and Courage.
